Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival - Friday

Sorry about the delay in this post, everyone. I was insanely busy last week and tried my best to get this post up, but wasn't able to do so. Now, here we go with my continuation of the Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival saga.

Friday Evening

After settling into the room and sampling beer from our welcome basket, we went out to the tennis courts at 7:30pm for the Meet the Brewers Social. Bell's, Carmody, Fitger's, Lake Superior, Schell's, South Shore, Summit, and Surly were all present, giving out tasty beer. A few of the brewers even brought some special treats, just for the Friday night guests. Because of the purposefully small attendance, it made for a more intimate experience than most beer events and I was able to have a nice conversation with almost every brewer. Here are some of my fond remembrances from that night, in the order they occurred:

Fitger's had two brewers present in Master Brewer Dave Hoops and Head Brewer Frank Kaszuba. I was able to briefly talk to Dave, but I spent much more time conversing with Frank. In fact, I spoke with Frank more than anyone else over the course of the evening. He was very open to discussing his education, brewing techniques, barrel aging, and upcoming recipes. They brought two special beers to share, and both were delicious - Lake Michigan (a wee heavy aged on cherries) and Lake Erie (a Belgian strong golden ale).

I'd never tried a South Shore Brewing product before, but I was really excited to. I had heard good things and was happy to taste the two special beers they brought - Honey Double Maibock and Weizen Eisbock. Both were excellent, and both were strong. I chatted with Master Brewer Bo Belanger, who is definitely passionate about his brews and the Wisconsin beer industry. I was happy to hear that he is using local malt and is working to get local hops into his processes.

My old friend Dale Kleinschmidt, Head Brewer of Lake Superior Brewing, was my next stop. I've had the honor of chatting with him probably around 6 or 7 times now, and I think he's starting to remember my face. I've had most of their beers before, and focused on trying one I hadn't - Windward Wheat. This was a pleasant summer seasonal that is Dale's favorite, but wasn't brewed for the last four years. He gets very sporadic demand for his seasonal beers, so he can't always afford to brew them. That's too bad, because the four I've tried are all great. If you can, ask your local liquor stores to get Lake Superior seasonals. Dale says that is the only way enough demand is generated for him to brew them.

"That smell... What is it? Oh, it's only the bevy of beautiful looking hors d'oeuvres and barbecue surrounding me with mouth watering aromas." That's what my mind was saying. My stomach was saying, "It's time to eat!" So, I grabbed a plate and made my way around to all the different food stations. Nothing bland to be found here. They had wild game, seafood, bacon-wrapped goodies, fondue, chocolate desserts, etc. Wow, it was freakin' fantastic! I've never had food like that at a beer event before...

At many beer events I've attended, Summit has pretty standard fare for beer. They don't typically offer anything special. As a huge fan of our big local craft brewery, I'm sad to admit that I usually don't visit them at these events for just that reason. I feel like I need to be trying new beers, not sipping on the EPA or Great Northern Porter I've had so many times before. However, in Lutsen I was very excited because I got the chance to meet three of the brewers. Two were present on Friday: Eric Blomquist and Nate Siats. If you enjoy the Summit Unchained Series, you might recognize their names. Eric brewed batch 2 (90/- Scottish Style Ale) and Nate brewed batch 5 (Imperial Pumpkin Porter). I spent a good amount of time speaking with each of them and learned a bit about their experiences at Summit. I also was pleasantly surprised to find that they had brought some of the new 25th Anniversary beer with them! It was a great brew that you should definitely seek out when it hits your local liquor stores.

Onto another Minnesota great. Pouring beers for Surly was brewer Spencer Anderson. I walked toward the table as he gave people the liquid deliciousness that is Darkness 2010. That's right, he brought a keg of this highly-sought brew just for this evening. As if the tasty beverage wasn't enough, I also had a pleasant back and forth with him regarding Surly's new brewery and the future of their production. He mentioned the possibility that the old brewery could become the "creative" department; the place where they would continue to think up new recipes and test batches. He also talked of the excitement around the new facility and their real estate hunt.

Bell's might not be local, but it is pretty popular around here. Their regional brewery representative, Jason Gillum, was doing his job well. He brought one of the last two kegs of their Batch 10,000 and people were loving it. Once again, I got my chat on and asked him about the new brewery and their upcoming canned beers. He said no official decision had been made about which flavors will end up in cans, but that didn't stop us from bantering about the possibilities. We both agreed that Two Hearted Ale has to be one of them...

When the time came to leave, I knew that this was just the start. But, what a great start it was!

Next up: Saturday morning