Saturday Morning
My eyes worked open slowly as some faint light fought past the blinds covering the window. Suddenly, I remembered where I was and my eyelids immediately widened to maximum. I was at a weekend beer event in Lutsen! The previous night's experience was a lot of fun; eating delicious food, drinking tasty brews, and conversing with the brewers and fellow beer geeks. Now, I was eagerly anticipating the next part: the Brewers Bloody Mary Brunch.
The time was around 8:00 am. That meant I had a couple hours before the brunch started at 10. I walked over to the blinds and opened them. What did I see? It was pouring rain and there was a dense fog hiding Eagle Mountain from view; the mountain that looked so awesome from the same window the day before. Not a good sight, as all the events were planned to be outside. I took a quick shower and wandered out to the gift shop, where there was a clear view of the tennis courts (the designated area for all parts of the weekend). The tent from Friday night looked a little different this morning. They had attached walls and fit numerous tables and chairs inside the safe haven. At least I knew we would stay dry for brunch.
After a cup of coffee, we headed down to the tennis courts. The mouth-watering scents of brunch taunted everyone while we waited for the crew to let us in. After a few minutes, they gave the go ahead. We walked into the tent and picked a spot to sit.
In the back corner, there was the bloody mary bar. They offered a choice between regular vodka or a special vodka infused with garlic, peppers, etc. Once the shot was poured, you could add your bloody mary mix and a host of accompaniments, including: meat sticks, pickles, olives, peppers, hard-boiled eggs, celery, and even pickled herring! Sorry to disappoint any of you that might be drooling over that selection, but I don't enjoy bloody marys. Not a fan of tomato juice. However, I did come up with my own quick solution for my morning beverage; I asked for a shot of vodka, skipped the bloody ingredients, and walked over to the juice table for a cup of OJ. With a simple pour and mix: voila, a screwdriver!
Now that I had my drink, it was time to get something to eat. The food. Wow, the food. Everything was set up buffet style, and included all these goodies:
- Apple fritter french toast
- Biscuits and gravy
- Duck sausage frittata
- Green onion and cream cheese scrambled eggs
- Honey smoked bacon
- Potatoes O'Brien
While our table filled up with people eager to devour their meal, conversation started flowing. It started out with simple chatter about the quality of the food and the fun of the past evening. Eventually, Dave Hoops (Master Brewer for Fitger's Brewhouse) sat down with us. Then, beer and barrel-aging became the next topic.
It turned out that the very nice woman sitting across from me was a "barrel broker," for lack of a better term. Her name was Elena Kotowski, and she owns a company called "Barrel Depot." She started out with rain barrels (which is still her main focus on the site), but now offers recycled wine and whiskey barrels as well. She talked of her plans to start carrying 5-gallon barrels for homebrewers. I told her that I (and probably many other homebrewers) would be excited to know if/when she starts to sell them.
After all the barrel talk, Dave started talking about his involvement in the brewpub distribution bill that didn't make it through the Minnesota government this year. Then, Bo Belanger (from South Shore Brewing) sat down and joined in to tell us about the new difficulties in Wisconsin caused by a new law involving distribution. We had a serious discussion about what these laws and bills mean to the industry, and I came away very enlightened. On the lighter side of the chit-chat, I found out that Dave's brother is the head brewer for Town Hall Brewing in Minneapolis. Imagine that! Two brothers end up as the main brewers for two great Minnesota brewpubs!
As we neared the end time for the brunch event, the conversation wound down. We all exchanged business cards and said goodbye. However, it wasn't going to be too long before we saw each other again. In only three hours, the next part of this weekend event would begin: the Hopped Up Caribou Beer Garden. Once again, I couldn't wait...
Next up: Saturday Afternoon
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment