Food and Craft Beer at the State Fair

My family and I made our trip to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday. We walked our loop and sampled food and beverages (including some beer) along the way. As usual, we looked for some old favorites and some new things to try. Here is what we had (don't worry, we share it all):

• Strawberries and Cream (my wife's favorite)
• A jumbo cup of 1919 root beer - Who doesn't like good root beer?
• Pig Ear Fries - From Famous Dave's, these are pig ears sliced really thin, dusted with seasoned flour, and fried 'til their crispy. They are served with a lime chipotle glaze for dipping. They were pretty tasty, but they definitely gave my jaw a workout - chewy stuff.
• Pig Lickers - I guided us to Famous Dave's for the pig ears, but while we were there my wife noticed this item on the menu. It is simply this: chocolate-covered bacon. My wife and daughter enjoyed them, but I wasn't so sure. They're chilled to keep the chocolate from melting and the bacon is soggy and chewy. The salty/sweet flavor combo was decent, but I'm not sure I like cold, soggy bacon. I'm a crispy bacon kind of guy.
• Walleye Chop - This local lager was also served at Famous Dave's. It is brewed by Bank Beer Company, which gives 100% of its profits to the Pheasants Forever Build a Wildlife Area campaign. I was not too impressed by this beer in the moment, but I'll revisit it someday to see if that changes.
• Schell's Octoberfest - My wife and I both had a 20 ounce cup of this staple Minnesota seasonal.
• The Perfect Pickle - Tasty sliced dill pickles battered and deep fried, served with ranch dipping sauce. One of our favorites.
• Scotch Egg - This has been at the fair for years, but I hadn't tried it until now. It's a hard boiled egg on a stick wrapped in sausage, rolled in bread crumbs, and deep fried. They also have a variety of sauces for dipping. Wow, this was tasty. My wife and both my daughters loved it.
• Spam Curds - Spam and cheese, battered and deep fried. We dip them in their ranch sauce. Salty, tasty Minnesota goodness.
• Of course, at the end of our day we went to Sweet Martha's to buy a pail of chocolate chip cookies, then headed over to the All You Can Drink Milk booth. Milk and cookies, cookies and milk; need I say more?

Throughout our journey, I was happy to see a good amount of craft beer at various locations. In Heritage Square, there were 3 Schell's craft labels (along with 2 Grain Belt). At Shanghaied Henri's in the International Bazaar, there were 3 Summit brands and 4 European imports. Then O'Garas had probably the best variety with Guinness, Harp, Smithwicks, Finnegan's, Schell's Oktoberfest, and Summit EPA on tap, while also having Deschutes Mirror Pond, Odell 90 Shilling, and Schell's Hopfenmalz in bottles.

Seeing all this craft beer made me thirsty, but I had to limit myself to 2 brews for the 9 hours we were at the fair. Why? In a word: price. The prices for these session-style craft beers were the exact same throughout the fair. I have a hard time bringing myself to pay $4 for 12 ounces and $6.75 for 20 ounces unless it's some rare specialty high alcohol brew. I mean, I've spent $7 on a 12 ounce bottle of Mephistophele's, but that's some extreme stuff! I know it's the way things are at events like this, but I wish it wasn't. Hot dogs, cheese curds, and soda aren't required to be the exact same price at every booth in the fair, so why is beer? It would never happen, but I'd like to see a little friendly beer price competition by letting the vendors price it the way they see fit. Oh well, I guess some things never change. Let me know what you think about it in the comments.