Yearly Archives: 2011

Beer and Wine Tips and Videos in June Cambria Style Magazine

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A while back I teamed up with my good friend sommelier Leslee Miller of Amusée to create some super pairings for the summer issue of Cambria Style Magazine. Outside, the gray and snowy day hardly made one think of summer, but inside Kitchen Window in Uptown things were warm and glowing. We shot several videos that day to accompany our written pieces about pairing beer and wine with food. The only down side was that the food and drink were being photographed for the issue, so very little sampling was done. Nonetheless it was a great day. The videos came out beautifully. Be sure to check out the magazine spread as well.

Summer Beer/Wine/Food Pairings

Pouring a Proper Pint

One More Class to List

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I’m doing one more summer beer class that I didn’t mention in the last post because I thought it was a members-only event. It’s not.

 

Beer Class: Understanding Hops
June 8, 5:30 PM, $30 includes light appetizers.
Campus Club, Coffman Memorial Union, University of Minnesota
The Campus Club regularly produces beer themed events for members, including our annual Oktorberfest and our spring Beer Testing. This is our first ‘class’ focused on a specific beer theme. Our presenter is Michael Agnew, Certified Cicerone (the beer equivalent of a Sommelier). His beer column appears each month in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
You will learn a lot about hops: History, Botanical Description, Production, Types, Varieties, Brewing Process, and Vocabulary. You will sample a spectrum of beers to gain a deeper understanding of this essential ingredient in beer.
You must reserve your place(s). Call 612-626-7788. Non-members are welcome, but you must reserve your place.

Summer Beer Classes

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Now that I’m back I’m hitting the ground running. I have a bevy of public events and classes coming up that I want to let you know about. Check these out.

Beer & Cheese Pairing at Midwest Supply
June 23, 6-8 PM, FREE
People usually talk about pairing wine and cheese, but beer is a much better companion. In fact, they are sort of the same thing (learn why by coming to the event). In the class we’ll talk about some basic principles of pairing beer and cheese while sampling the wares of some of Minnesota and Wisconsin’s best cheese makers and brewers. Midwest Supply is going to stay open later than normal so you can stock up on your brewing supplies while you’re there.

Summer Fresh Beer Pairing Dinner at Cooks of Crocus Hill
June 24, 6-9 PM, $75
With Chef Jeremy Reinicke
Fresh, light, easy. These are all the words that spring to mind when we think of summer food. But summer beers are no different! They’re fresh, light and easy to drink. Join Cicerone Michael Agnew and Chef Jeremy Reinicke for the perfect pairing of yummy warm-weather favorite foods and summery suds.
Menu: Assorted Fresh Cheeses; Summer Harvest Salad with Honey Basil Vinaigrette; Tuna Tartare with Dill on Toasted Baguette; Roasted Leg of Lamb with “Flanders Red” Marinade; Summer Berries with Puff Pastry and Aged Balsamic; a Selection of Summery Craft Beers.

Beer, Wine & BBQ at Cooks of Crocus Hill
July 29, 6-9 PM, $75, SOLD OUT get on the waiting list.
With Chef Mike Shannon and Sommelier Leslee Miller
Smoky. Sweet. We’re not just talking about the food either! Chef Mike, Sommelier Leslee and Cicerone Michael are back together again, this time pairing grapes and grains with the great summer flavors of the grill. Join them as Mike fires up the grill and Michael and Leslee throw down the pairings. There’s no better way to beat the heat this summer.
Menu: Grilled Tomatoes with Mozzarella; Grilled Romaine with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette; Coconut Shrimp with Vanilla Gastrique; Knife and Fork Manchego Burger; Grilled Peaches with Grand Marnier Cream.

Hope to see you there!

I’ve Been Gone, But Now I’m Back

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I’m back. Looking back it seems I have only posted four times in the last two months.

I’ve been away from home for the better part of those two months working on a non-beer project that was pretty all-consuming, but definitely worth the time and effort. I have a nearly annual gig at St. Leonard’s House, a halfway house on Chicago’s West Side making theatre with men and women who have just been released from prison. This year I actually lived at the men’s house with the guys. That was interesting in its own right. Imagine a Cicerone® spending two months in a sober house. You get the picture. Still, it’s one of my favorite gigs and one of my favorite places to be and to work.

Being away for two months, I became pretty disconnected from the Minnesota beer scene. A lot of things were happening of which I was only vaguely aware. The “Surly Bill” is now the “Surly Law.” The t-shirt bill, Sunday sales, and brewpub bill all went down in flames. Not to mention that I missed all of Minnesota Craft Beer Week!

I was in Chicago during Chicago Craft Beer Week, but it fell during my production week, so I didn’t even really get to take advantage of that. I think I attended one event. But it wasn’t an entirely beer-free two months. During my stay I managed to squeeze in around 25 brewery visits for the Upper Midwest Beer Guide that I am writing, interviewing brewers or owners at most of them. Illinois is in about the same place as Minnesota in terms of developing its craft beer industry. It was late to get started, but is making up for it with a vengeance. During the time that I was there, three or four new breweries put beer on the streets, making it hard to keep my master brewery list up to date. There is some great beer being produced by breweries and brewpubs both old and new in the great Chicagoland area. More posts about these will be forthcoming.

It’s time to end my internet silence. It’s great to be back.

Terrapin Side Project Series #14: TomFoolery

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TomFoolery
Terrapin Beer Co., Athens, Georgia
Style: Black Saison
Serving Style: 22 oz. Bottle

Aroma: Saison yeast exhibiting subtle bananas. Loads of tropical fruit and pineapple. Fresh sourdough bread. Herbs; thyme and oregano.

Appearance: Another one drunk from a hotel Styrofoam cup. I assume it is black, but I can’t see it through the voluminous tan foam.

Flavor: Pineapple and herbs; the same thyme and oregano from the aroma. Light green banana flavors. Fruitiness is intense. Leans to the sweet side of the saison spectrum. Bitterness is low and barely balances. Very gentle roastiness gives it a bit of a boost. Subtle coffee roast flavors. Lightly spicy hops with hints of black pepper in the finish. Finish gives a last bite of bitter at the back of the tongue and lingers on fruit, herbs, and roasted coffee.

Mouthfeel: Medium-light body. Medium carbonation.

Overall Impression: Generally I liked this, though I liked it better at the start of the bottle than at the end. It wore a little thin over time. I wish it were a little drier and a little bitterer. The sweetness at times came off like fruit cocktail syrup. I appreciate the delicateness of the roast; not overwhelming, still lets the saison character come through.

Cigar City Papaya IPA

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Cigar City Brewing Co. of Tampa, Florida is one of those breweries that was able to achieve a kind of cult status within a few months of opening. They are particularly well known for their Humidor Series beers, big, bold-flavored beers aged on cedar from cigar humidors. I have had the pleasure of trying their cedar-aged IPA and it was indeed a treat; perhaps one of the best IPAs I have tasted.

Finding myself in Boca Raton with some time to kill I decided to seek me out some Cigar City beers. Mind you, I didn’t have a car. The closest liquor store to my hotel was a couple of miles away. But what the heck, I love to walk and the exercise would do me good. So walk I did. An hour and a quarter later I was back at my hotel with a big bottle of Papaya IPA, the brewery’s acclaimed Jai-alai IPA with dried papaya added during conditioning. It sounded intriguing. Here’s my notes:

Papaya IPA
Cigar City Brewing Co., Tampa, Florida
Style: American IPA with papaya
Serving Style: 750 ml. Bottle

Aroma: Flowers and tropical fruit. The papaya aroma is huge. Soft graham-cracker malt adds a sweet undertone. It’s like tropical fruit lifesavers. This beer smells good.

Appearance: Appeared to be amber and when I poured it, but I drank it from a hotel Styrofoam cup so it’s hard to say. Voluminous tan foam that just won’t settle. I wish it would. That’s the cup’s fault, not the beer’s fault.

Flavor: Papaya is much less pronounced in the flavor than in the aroma. That’s a bit disappointing. Fairly bracing bitterness, but backed up by a big base of sweet, graham-cracker malt. It comes off almost sugary. Light floral notes – or is that those tropical fruit lifesavers – hang in the background and linger into the finish. Otherwise a mélange of citrus, pine, and spice. Bitterness hangs on after the swallow. Pronounced papaya comes in long after the swallow and lingers a very long time.

Mouthfeel: Medium-full body. Medium carbonation.

Overall: It’s complex, offering a different sensation with each sip, but in the end I have to say that I didn’t really care for it. It seems at first to be just a double IPA, and not the best example of one either. Then these odd floral/tropical fruit flavors come in, layered on top of the large amount of hops. It really is like tropical fruit lifesavers. The malt comes off a bit too syrupy, like the syrup from a can of tropical fruit cocktail. It was worth a try, but I wouldn’t buy it again.

OMG Cheese & Beer Pairings at Cooks of Crocus Hill

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Wednesday night was all about local beer and cheese at the St. Paul Cooks of Crocus Hill. I paired up with James Norton and Becca Dilley, the folks behind The Heavy Table and authors of The Master Cheesemakers of Wisconsin, to bring together what are arguably the two best products to come out of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Guests were welcomed with a glass of Schell’s Pils to start the evening off. Once everyone was seated, we got down to business. As we got our introductions out of the way, Becca was wielding a skillet to heat up the first cheese, Brun Uusto from Brunkow Cheese of Darlington, Wisconsin. This munch-worthy American twist on the Finnish Juustoleipa-style cheese is buttery, salty, mild, and a bit oily. Light caramelized flavors made it a great match for Proper, a malt-forward English Bitter from Furthermore Beer in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

My second favorite pairing of the night was Surly Bender with Upland’s Pleasant Ridge Reserve cheese. This is a fantastic cheese to begin with. It’s won the equivalent of Best of Show at the American Cheese Society three times. Pleasant Ridge Reserve is dry and nutty with gentle grassy background flavors that make for a “heavenly chorus” pairing with Surly’s nutty oatmeal brown ale. Both have big flavors, but they are evenly matched with one another. The nuttiness of one speaks to the nuttiness of the other. The beer and cheese together amplify some floral notes that are absent when tasted separately. You really should rush out and try this combination.

The pairing that really made my mind explode was Matacabras from Dave’s BrewFarm with Meadowlark, a cloth-bound, cave-aged cheddar from Pastureland in Goodhue, Minnesota. This is one unusual cheddar. The cave-aging lends it loads of funky, mushroomy funk that you wouldn’t normally associate with cheddar cheese. These melded seamlessly with the funky Belgian yeast flavors in the beer. Matacabras leans to the sweet side and drips caramel and dark fruit. These flavors offered a wondrous counterbalance to the deep, umami flavors of the cheese.

Although not the official pairing, Matacabras also went beautifully with the next cheese, Amablu, a cave-aged blue cheese from Faribault Dairy. Think blue cheese with fig puree. Fantastic. The actual pairing to this cheese was Summit Horizon Red. This beer’s slight caramel residual sweetness counters the sharpness of the blue cheese while dirty, grassy Horizon hops pick up the tangy moldiness.

The “dessert” pairing was also very nice; Crave Brothers Mascarpone with Tyranena’s bourbon-barrel aged Rocky’s Revenge. The cheese has a creamy sweetness of its own that was amplified by the rich vanilla and whisky flavors of this sweet-leaning beer. While full flavored, Rocky’s Revenge is not so heavy as to overpower this fairly lightweight cheese. The orange biscuits served with the cheese sent the whole ensemble over the top.

Gold Sovereign Ale, the 6th beer in Summit’s Unchained Series, made a great match for Hook’s 7-Year Cheddar from Hook’s Cheese Company of Mineral Point, Wisconsin. The beer is hoppy and bitter bit has enough backing sweetness to pick up the creamy sweetness of the cheese. With wine they say, “if it grows together, it goes together.” The same can be said of beer. Cheddar cheese and English India Pale Ale are a can’t miss combination.

I can’t wait to do this class again; sometime, somewhere. In the mean time I may just have to pick up some of these cheeses and beers to re-experience the pairings on my own.

Steel Toe Brewing Nears Launch in St. Louis Park

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The snowstorms may be done for the year (with the emphasis on may), but Minnesota is experiencing quite a flurry of new brewery activity. Way up on the North Shore in Two Harbors, Castle Danger Brewery started selling beer in March. April 1st saw the suspiciously auspicious announcement of Pour Decisions Brewing Company, believed at first by most to be an elaborate April fool’s hoax. It was no joke. Co-founders Kristen England and B. J. Haun expect to have beer on the streets in July. Another up-and-comer planning a July release is Steel Toe Brewing. Husband and wife team Jason and Hannah Schoneman have been quietly building out a leased St. Louis Park industrial space since February. The brewery is in place, if not yet plumbed, and they expect to fire it up in June.

Steel Toe brewer Jason Schoneman isn’t just another homebrewer deciding to go pro. He brings years of professional experience with him. His career track started after a move to Boulder, Colorado from his native Iowa. While living the ski-bum life and sleeping in the back of his truck, he was exposed to the great beer scene on the Colorado Front Range. When he moved back home he missed the beer. “The big thing back then was Busch Light. I figured if you can’t find it, you’ve got to brew it.” He started homebrewing in 1997 and caught the brewing bug.

Hannah’s job took them to Bozeman, Montana where Jason was hired at Lightning Boy Brewery. In a story that seems common in the industry, he started out working 15-hour days washing kegs and filling bottles.  “That was the test,” he says. “If you still love it after that, then it’s the right fit for you. For me it was the greatest thing. It didn’t feel like work.” After a couple of weeks he was promoted to brewer.

Their next move took them to Wisconsin where Jason was unable to find a job as a brewer. Not wanting to give up the dream, he bit the bullet and enrolled in the Diploma Course at the Siebel Institute brewing school in Chicago. “I did the whole thing. Racked up the credit cards and took a leap of faith. We figured if you’re going to do it, do it right.”

Newly armed with Siebel credentials, he was hired at the Pelican Pub & Brewery in Pacific City, Oregon, where he once again started out washing kegs and filling bottles. Within four years he had advanced to the position of Head Brewer. The time at Pelican was formative. He learned there what it takes to make a brewery go, gaining experience in all aspects of brewery operations; wholesale distribution, dealing with customers, tours, brewery logistics and maintenance. “I had a great mentor there. He taught me how to stay really consistent every batch. That is so important. I don’t want to experiment on people. When somebody has our product and likes it I want to be able to give it to them again.”

The birth of their first child prompted a move back to the Midwest to pursue the long-held dream of opening a brewery of their own. The Schonemans feel that they are in the right place at the right time. “It’s been a lot of fun for us to come back here from the Northwest where there’s a great brewery around every corner, and hear people getting excited talking about really flavorful beer.” says Hannah. “The big hoppy beers. The Big malty beers. It’s fun to hear that conversation happening that we haven’t heard any other time that we’ve been up here.”

They are interested in starting small and staying small, keeping operations intimate and local. They anticipate limiting distribution to a small circle around the Twin Cities metro. Jason believes that their converted dairy tank brewery should allow them to produce around 3000 barrels annually. They have plenty of space to add additional fermenters as needed to keep up with demand. They are still working on securing funds for the start-up, creating a Kickstarter page where supporters can donate. If the licensing and such goes smoothly, they expect to be brewing by June and have beer out the door by July.

Jason doesn’t want to make beers that necessarily fit into any neat style category. He plans to launch with a light, summery ale. He describes it as a cross between cream ale and golden ale; unfiltered and cloudy with light malt flavor and floral hop aroma.  Within the first couple of months they also plan to release a big, west-coast double IPA, an imperial red, and a stout that falls somewhere between foreign extra and oatmeal. Longer range plans include barrel-aged barleywine and imperial stout and possibly some experiments with sour beers. But those can wait until they get off the ground. As Hannah put it, they will get done “when and if we are able to do them.”

Crispin Cider Dinner at Kieran’s Irish Pub

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Monday night Kieran’s Irish Pub played host to a sumptuous, 7-course, cider-pairing dinner featuring Crispin Ciders and Fox Barrel ciders. Kieran’s chef James Kelly and his staff whipped up some apple-tastic delights that were prepared and paired with cider. Attendees were treated to a taste of 2-Gingers Irish Whiskey, a brand commissioned by Kieran’s along with a few other local eateries for in-house sale. The menu also featured the charcuterie of Green Ox meats, a local purveyor of artisan sausages and cured meats, as well as a couple of new-ish treats from Crispin; “cream cider” and a new version of the Fox Barrel Pear Cider.

Until now the popular (at least in our house) Fox Barrel Pear Cider has been an apple cider flavored with pear juice. The new version is a true perry, made from 100% pear juice. Unaware that we had this new version in front of us, the first thing we noticed was an extraordinary aroma of flowers, honey, and pears. Thinking this aromatic explosion was due to the glassware, we started planning a trip to the kitchen store. It wasn’t until Crispin CEO Joe Heron let us in on the secret that we realized it was actually the cider. Besides the intensified aromas, the new recipe has a richer, fruitier flavor with interesting woody background notes. It’s a nice change.

Cream cider is actually Crispin Original served on nitrogen gas like Guinness. The problem with nitrogen gas is that is lightens the flavor of whatever it’s pushing. That doesn’t matter so much with the intense roastiness of a Guinness Stout, but with a lighter drink like cider it leads to a fairly bland experience on its own. It looks pretty though; bright golden color with a huge, cascading, white head.

We were served the cream cider in one of two cider/whiskey cocktails featuring 2 Gingers whiskey. I’m not a whiskey drinker. I’ve never been able to tolerate even the smell of it. However, the cocktails disguised the flavor enough that they weren’t too bad. The first of them was a Crispin Spritzer with Crispin Original, 2 Gingers, and seltzer. A wedge of lime added a nice tart citrus touch. The second, Ginger Cream, consisted of the cream cider with 2 Gingers whiskey and Canton ginger liquor.

The food and the pairings were fantastic. The first course, an Amuse Bouche consisting of warm Green Ox pork rillettes and wild mushroom 2 gingers fricassee piled on top of a chicharon chip and surrounded by caramelized-Crispin apples, was fantastic. It was like apple-cinnamon bacon. Amuse bouche means amusing bite, and this really was just a bite. It left me wanting more.

The second course was a butternut squash and pear cider soup. The cider flavor came through clearly in the soup and was a wonderful sweet/tart match to the squash. It made for a great pairing with the new Fox Barrel pear cider. Bleu cheese crusted walnuts and fried herbs added a savory touch.

The fourth course was another stand-out to me; seared sea scallops wrapped in Green Ox cured loin over a roasted tomato puree. It was infused with just a touch of chili oil that gave it some zip. The tomato puree was to die for and really set off the sweetness of the scallop and the saltiness of the cured loin. It was a little too salty for my dining partner, but I didn’t mind that. Paired with Crispin brut it was excellent.

The star of the meal was desert (no surprise there, really); crème de banana crepes. The banana crème stuffed crepes were had a dollop of semi-fredo made with Crispin’s the Saint cider. I had to ask the chef what a semi-fredo was. Seems it’s one of those high-tech, cooking-with-science creations made with liquid nitrogen; something about the intense cold coagulating the cream and other stuff that I only barely understood. Anyway, it was like cider ice cream and it was good. There was a drizzling of cider glaze, basically a Saint Cider reduction. The reduction process intensified the flavors, bringing delicious caramel-apple flavor and a bright, contrasting bit of acidity. The pairing with the Saint cider was fantastic. Fermented with Belgian ale yeast, the Saint has unique banana and spice flavors that perfectly complemented the dish.

A warm fennel-sausage and potato salad with arugula and Browns Lane cider vinaigrette was nice, but would have been better had it actually arrive warm. The main course was a cider marinated brisket served with root vegetables roasted in honey and Honey Crisp cider with a whiskey and cider demi-glace. The flavor was very nice, especially the vegetables, but the brisket was a bit overdone; easy to do with brisket.

All in all it was a fun evening. I’m all about beer and food pairing, but I’m starting to see the potential of partnering cider with food as well. I might have to expand my pairing vocabulary for my clients’ private beer dinner parties.

Recap of Firkin Fest 2011 at the Happy Gnome

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Saturday afternoon saw the return of Firkin Fest to the Happy Gnome in St. Paul. This was the fourth year for this annual celebration of cask-conditioned beer. Unseasonably cold weather didn’t discourage beer-lovers from turning out. There were at least a billion people there (okay, not really). It was damned cold for us non-VIP-ticket-holding schlubs who arrived early to be near the front of the line. After nearly an hour waiting, my toes had gone numb. It took a while to stop shivering despite the heated tent. A big barleywine was definitely in order.

Last year I took the Happy Gnome to task for a load of logistical issues that marred the fest. This year some changes were made that fixed many of the problems. The line was handled much better this year, as staff worked their way along it early checking IDs and giving out wristbands. This really sped things up once the doors opened. Despite huge numbers of people swilling large amounts of beer, the wait at the port-a-poties was nominal. In fact, a female friend of mine said that she never encountered a wait. Well done!

The only blot on an otherwise fantastic fest was the crowd. The organizers took a step in the right direction this year by limiting the number of tickets sold and increasing the size of the tent. The number of people was still way too high. By mid-fest one really couldn’t move. I started choosing which beer to taste next based on what booth was closest instead of what I really wanted to try. Getting from one side of the tent to the other was just too daunting a task.

Think about it. At Winterfest the MN Craft Brewers Guild has three floors of the History Center. They sell 700 tickets. Autumn Brew Review and The St. Paul Summer Beer Festival both take place in large parking lots. They sell around 1500 3000 tickets. The Happy Gnome sold 1600 tickets for Firkin Fest; a festival that took place in a tent not quite the size of a football field. It was simply too many people for the space. I got into the tent at 1:00. By 3:00 I could no longer stand it. I was out the door by 3:30, despite the fact that there were still a number of beers I would like to have sampled. I know that I was not alone. As I was making the decision to leave a number of friends were doing the same, and for the same reason.

I’m sure that the Happy Gnome calculated the number of tickets they had to sell in order to turn a profit. In future years, however, they really need to either further restrict the number of attendees (I would say by half) or double the size of the tent to take up the whole parking lot. As it is, it’s really unpleasant. For about the same amount of money I’d rather drink five pints of cask ale in the relative calm of the Town Hall Brewery.

There was more beer (always a good thing). While last year’s fest featured 65 casks, this year’s was projected to include more than 80. I don’t know the final tally, but there was a lot of beer. Another plus – I didn’t witness any gross mis-handling of firkins this year, at least during the time that I was there. Last year was a cask-lover’s nightmare of firkins turned on end to get the last sludge-filled drops. It may have happened at the end, but I didn’t see it.

Fulton Beer Company took the Golden Firkin award this year with their War and Peace, a Peace Coffee infused version of the Worthy Adversary Imperial Stout. Along with their Beer Dabbler win last summer, this should give some of the haters out there pause. In the industry it isn’t about whether a gaggle of nattering beer-nerds think a beer is the best example of such-and-such a style. It’s about whether or not people want to drink it. Given Fulton’s upward sales curve and recent People’s Choice recognitions, clearly they do. I didn’t try War and Peace this year, but I’m told it was good.

My picks for best-of-the-fest this year went to British and British-style beers. Bitter & Twisted from Harviestoun Brewery and “Jaipur” IPA from Thornbridge Hall both went down well and brought me back for seconds. Bitter & Twisted was a nice session bitter with a floral “heather-like” character that really set it off for me. Jaipur was a great English IPA with a bigger, grainy-sweet malt backbone and balanced hopping. It was surprisingly light-colored, which made the big flavor even more surprisingly pleasant. Sticking closer to home, Summit’s Gold Sovereign Ale was every bit as good on cask as I had expected it to be.

In addition to these, I really enjoyed Rush River’s Lyndale Brown with pomegranate and green tea. It was like nutty, chocolate green tea with a strong hazelnut finish. Crispin’s Desert Noir cider was also a favorite. Stronger and sweeter than I expected, it was strong, yet fruity and refreshing with nice notes of agave. I like that Crispin keeps trying new things with cider.

The award for most unusual beer has to go to Psych-Oasis from Tall Grass. What happens when you infuse an Extra ESB with candy cap mushrooms? You get something that tastes like fenugreek and dirt, but in a good way. This was another one that brought me back for more. I liked it. Although I wouldn’t probably want to drink a pint of it.

All in all Firkin Fest was a good event this year. Fix the crowding problem next year and it will be a great event.