Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival - Saturday Morning

Welcome to part three in the series of posts about my experience at the Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival in Lutsen.

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

And to top it all off, they had a made-to-order omelet station. Now, you may be wondering, "Was the food well prepared?" And my answer would be, "Does a bear defecate in the woods?Umm... I mean, yes!" Yep, I tried it all. I couldn't help it. All of the selections looked so good...

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

Coborn's Tasting - Saturday, July 30th

It's time for the second store tasting of July! Stop in to the Hastings Coborn's Liquor tomorrow to try some tasty brews. There will be 3 beers from Lucky Bucket Brewing (a Nebraska brewery that just recently started distributing to Minnesota), along with 3 others to tantalize your taste buds:

• Big Sky Summer Honey
• Karmeliet Tripel
• Lucky Bucket Certified Evil
• Lucky Bucket IPA
• Lucky Bucket Lager
• Ommegang Witte

Our local weather people are predicting temps around 90° and some ugly humidity. I know you could use a thirst quenching beverage to help you get through the heat. Visit the store and allow me to aid you in finding the perfect brew for that purpose!

I'll be pouring from 2 - 6pm. See you there!

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

Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival - Intro

Last Friday, a buddy and I were cruising north on Highway 61 after passing through Duluth. Seeing Lake Superior in all it's glory along with the beautiful wilderness of the North Shore, I knew it was going to be a good weekend.

When we departed the Twin Cities the temperature was in the 90's (way too hot for me), but it dropped as we went north and was a comfortable 70° just off the big lake. The birch trees were numerous and really stood out it the mix of all the other foliage. Turning left, away from the lake, we approached Eagle Mountain. One more quick turn on the back side of the towering peak and we had reached our destination just outside of Lutsen.

Coming through the main entrance, I noticed the main area of the lodge looked great and had a beautiful window view of the landscape. After checking in, I was looking forward to inspecting the room. I swiped the keycard, waited for the green light, and opened the door. Right then, I knew it was going to be more than a good weekend; it was going to be spectacular. There, sitting on the desk, next to the lamp, was a six-pack containing 6 different tasty craft beers. It was our "welcome basket." We had arrived at the Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival.

When I first read about this new beer fest, I immediately checked into the details. There were 2 attendance options for participating in this event at the Caribou Highlands Lodge:

1. Buy a ticket to just the Saturday afternoon tasting, which is similar to most beer fests, or
2. Pay for the full weekend package.

What's included in the weekend purchase price? Well, let's see here. First, there's your 2 nights in the lodge. Next, your beer "welcome basket." Then of course, there's the 3 beer events (along with all the food and drinks for each one): the Friday evening Meet the Brewers Social, the Saturday morning Bloody Mary Brewers Brunch, and the Saturday afternoon Hopped Up Caribou Beer Garden. I knew immediately that I had to do the whole weekend package. The price? Trust me, it was a great deal.

In my next few posts, I'm going to break down the progression of this excellent beer weekend for all of you. This post is the intro, and I'll work through each of the 3 main events. Just a warning; if you're a beer geek like me, you may have a very strong desire to attend this event after reading all of them.

My next post will cover the Friday night Meet the Brewers Social.

Until then...

Coborn's Tasting - Saturday, July 16

Are you looking forward to the extreme heat coming to visit us in the Twin Cities this weekend? I know I'm not. Want some help cooling yourself down? I suggest quenching your thirst with a cool beer or two. Stop by the Hastings Coborn's Liquor on Saturday so I can aid you in your search for summer brews. I'll even have 6 tasty beverages open for you to taste:

• Flat Earth Belgian Pale Ale
• Odell Myrenary
• Widmer Citra Blonde Summer Ale
• Widmer Drifter Pale Ale
• Widmer Hefeweizen
• Widmer X-114 IPA

Come visit between 2pm and 6pm. I'll be happy to pour you a sample and help you find the beer you're looking for. Let's beat the heat together!

Beer Brief #1 - Lucky Bucket Certified Evil

Welcome to the first of a new kind of post on Lupulin Libations. I've decided to start doing quick sessions with non-local brews that I'll call "Beer Briefs." They still contain some good info about the beers, but they'll be very concise and to-the-point. Don't worry, I'll still continue posting my full-fledged sessions with local products in between these mini sessions. Now, onto the 1st Beer Brief:


Brewery - Lucky Bucket Brewing in La Vista, Nebraska

Beer - Certified Evil

Style - Belgian Strong Dark Ale

ABV - about 10% (according to brewer's video)

Color - Black

Aroma - Coffee, chocolate, herbal spice, slight dark fruit

Flavor - Imperial Stout crossed with Belgian spice, roasted coffee beans, unsweetened chocolate, black pepper, hint of ripe cherry and figs, good bitterness

Verdict - I like it!

Lupulin Libations is in the news!

Today I am happy to report some exciting news (at least for me). Lupulin Libations is in this week's edition of the Hastings Star Gazette!

Apparently, Chad Richardson (of the Hastings Star Gazette) had come across my blog not too long ago. He contacted me by email soon after. I was pleased when he told me it is very well written and asked me to join their parent company's AreaVoices blog domain. I eagerly agreed and now maintain 2 Lupulin Libations blogs. The newest (lupulinlibations.areavoices.com) has become a featured blog on the websites of multiple newspapers in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.

That was all very cool, but I was even more excited when he asked me to do an interview for the local paper. We did some questions and answers over the phone a couple weeks ago, but couldn't coordinate pictures until this past Monday. We met at RJ's Tavern (always my first choice in Hastings for good beer), and he snapped a couple shots as I sipped on an Arrogant Bastard while wearing my prized Summit Brewing shirt. Then I received confirmation Thursday that the article was printed in this week's paper.

On my way home yesterday, I stopped at a gas station to pick up a copy of the paper. Sure enough, there was a blurb on the front page that said "A Resident Beer Taster." When I paged through to find the article, I was amazed that Lupulin Libations had the whole front page of their Et Cetera section. Last night, I decided I had to celebrate. I did so with some Tripel Karmeliet and Ommegang Hennepin. That's not surprising at all, is it?

If you want to check out the article, click here. That will take you to the Hastings Star Gazette website.

I want to thank all my readers. As long as you keep reading, I want to keep blogging.

Cheers!