Category Archives: Events

Upcoming public Perfect Pint events.

Crispin Cider Dinner at A25 Sushi & Sake Bar

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Snowstorm be damned! Monday night I slogged through the mush to attend a Crispin Cider dinner at A25 Sushi & Saki Bar on Nicolette. When I heard about this event my first thought was how well cider would pair with sushi, and the pairings on offer confirmed my hunch. The intimate group in attendance was treated to four courses from the recently reconfigured and re-visioned A25 (formerly Anemoni Sushi) each paired with Crispin Cider or a custom Crispin cocktail devised by A25’s resident mixologist. Crispin’s owner Joe Heron was on hand to greet guests and answer questions. So as outside snow fell and cars were towed, we sat comfortably inside enjoying a great meal and great conversation.

Upon arrival we were greeted with a sneak preview of Crispin’s newest Artisanal Reserve cider, The Saint. I was told that this was the first public pouring of this new cider. The Saint is made from a blend of fresh-pressed apples with maple syrup added. The real kicker is the Belgian Trappist ale yeast used to ferment it. The result is a cloudy cider with moderate apple flavor and acidity. The maple syrup adds some balancing sweetness and subtle flavors while the Trappist yeast give a nice herb and spice phenolic edge. The yeast character is more subtle than you would find in classic Trappist ales, but it’s still enough to call this a “Belgian” cider. It was refreshing and fruity on ice, but I preferred it straight up for a more intense flavor. Look for more complete tasting notes for The Saint coming later.

The first course was sea bass with black bean sauce on a bed of bak choi. This paired excellently with the first Crispin cocktail called Original Sin, consisting of Crispin Brut, Ketel One Citron, lemon juice, diced ginger and ginger simple syrup. This concoction was another highlight of the night for me. I ordered another at the end of the meal. The wonderful floral, citrus and ginger flavors of Original Sin brought out similar spicy ginger notes in the black bean sauce. The fish was nicely prepared and attractively presented.

Course two, a sashimi sampler with Crispin Honey Crisp, was the best food of the night and the best pairing. The plate was beautifully arranged with an assortment of very fresh sashimi. The light carbonation and acidity of the cider cut the fat of the fish, while the vinous sweetness and body was bold enough to stand up to wasabi.

The third course was crispy pork tenderloin paired with the second Crispin cocktail called Intelligent Design. This course was the least successful in both the food and the pairing. While the pork tenderloin wasn’t bad, it didn’t stand out like the previous dishes. The presentation was uninteresting, just the sliced tenderloin on a white plate with a small timbale of white rice. Had I not known it was “crispy” pork tenderloin I’m not sure that’s how I would have described it. Again, it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t at the same level as the other dishes. Similarly, the cocktail, consisting of Honey Crisp, lemon juice, Plymouth Gin, honey water, and Parfait Amour orange liqueur was tasty, but not as seductively delicious as the first and it didn’t do all that much to complement the dish.

Desert, a sweet rice and cheesecake roll with a cider, honey and ginger reduction ended the meal on a high note. The fried roll had just the right amount of sweetness and the reduction was like a caramel apple dipping sauce drizzled on the plate. It worked very well with the Honey Crisp cider that I had left from the earlier course.

I was lucky to sit at a table with Joe Heron so we spent the evening talking cider and beer as I tried to tease out what we can look forward to from Crispin. He hinted at more experiments with yeast and revealed that they are opening up several new markets in the coming weeks. The best bit of news for me stems from Crispin’s recent acquisition of the Fox Barrel Cidery in California. Fox barrel produces three wonderful ciders, a hard cider, a pear cider, and a black currant cider, that I tried on recent trips to the Bay Area. Joe says we can look for these great products becoming available in the Twin Cities in the coming weeks.

Winterfest 2010 Recap

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Friday night saw seven hundred Minnesota beer fans assemble at the Minnesota History Center for Winterfest 2010. The annual winter beer festival presented by the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild is a showcase of all things beer in the land of lakes. Seventeen Minnesota breweries and brewpubs were on hand pouring over seventy-five beers. The arrangement of the History Center was much better this year than last, spreading out the brewery tables to prevent crowding of the narrow hallways and allow easier movement and more comfortable imbibing. The only downside to the arrangement was that it was sometimes a challenge to find the particular breweries that I was looking for. Another plus this year was the plentiful food. In past years the food was usually picked over and nearly gone by the time I felt the need to refuel. This year there was still food to be had at multiple feeding stations right up to the end of the event. One of the greatest things about Winterfest is the presence of the brewers behind the serving tables. The only missing faces this year were Jeff and Cathie Williamson from Flat Earth who just welcomed their new daughter Heather into the world a couple of days ago. I guess they can be excused for missing. Beer was flowing, kilts were on display (though fewer than in previous years), and it seemed all festival goers were having a great time.

So what about the beers? In general I found the beer selection to be wanting in comparison to past Winterfests that I have attended. The variety of styles was a bit limited, lots of heavy stouts and big IPAs. It seemed like the brewers brought fewer special beers this year and there were fewer that stood out in the crowd. That said, there were some real winners and a few that were not so great as well.

For my money, Town Hall Brewery had the most interesting and consistently tasty selection of beers at the event. If the lines at their table are any indication, I wasn’t the only one who thought so. Nearly everything that I tasted from Town Hall was wonderful. Especially noteworthy for me was LSD, an ale brewed with lavender, honey and dates. It has a wonderful floral aroma and a flavor that starts out dry and hoppy only to explode with honey and raisin sweetness mid-palate. I loved it at Autumn Brew Review and still love it now. Also impressive were Twisted Jim, an American barleywine aged in Jim Beam barrels, and Russian Roulette, a huge, rich, chocolaty imperial stout served on cask.

Recounting my top-five of the fest, starting at number five is Smoked Porter from Rock Bottom Brewery. This smoked porter is made with 25% cherry wood smoked malt for a char-pit kind of smoke flavor that is totally different than the familiar meaty smoke of the classic Rauchbiers of Germany. A year ago I had a cherry wood smoked bock at Goose Island in Chicago that blew my mind. Ever since, I have been searching for another cherry wood smoked beer that works as well as that one did. I have tried many, including a couple others at Winterfest. Most have failed. While it didn’t blow my mind, the Rock Bottom Porter really worked.

Number four goes to Flat Earth’s Winter Warlock Barleywine. I have always loved Winter Warlock. Lacking the intense caramel and dark specialty malts of most English barleywines, this golden barleywine finds layered depth in simplicity, just English base malt and sugar. The 2009 batch is good now, but will be even better next year. While I am talking about Flat Earth, let me move on to my number three pick, the Grand Design S’more infused porter. This was the Great Snowshoe best beer of the festival winner this year as chosen by the attendees. I hate s’mores, but I really do like this beer. Built on the base of one of my favorite local beers, Cygnus X-1 porter, it explodes with vanilla, cocoa, and graham cracker sweetness that really does remind one of flaming marshmallows on a stick by the fireside.

My number two beer is the above mentioned LSD from Town Hall. I described it briefly up top, so suffice it to say here that it is a floral and fruity delight. A truly unique beer.

For my personal best beer of the festival I chose Unoaked Rosie’s Reserve from Barley John’s. This is a huge and hugely complex beer. While others opined that they preferred the oaked version, I am somewhat tired of bourbon barrel aged beers. I’m not that fond of bourbon to begin with and I think they have been overdone. The lack of bourbon and vanilla flavors in this 15.5% beer allowed for the discovery of delicious caramel and dark fruit without a trace of hot alcohols. Another beer that coaxes complexity from simplicity.

A few other beers deserve mention. I enjoyed the Winterye Mix and Blackwatch Oat Stout from Great Waters Brewing Co. Surly Mild was delightful as always and Four was tasty, but I want to reserve judgment until I can actually taste more than a couple ounces. It took on a kind of chalky, charred flavor that annoyed me slightly the more of it I drank. Winter Wheat from Rock Bottom was a great palate cleanser to end the evening.

A couple of beers for me missed the mark. Fitger’s Undertow Pilsner seemed a bit thin and flavorless. It could be because I had been sampling the endless number of imperial stouts and barleywines before I arrived there, but normally I like to seek out a pilsner as refuge from the huge. This one did not provide it. Great Waters’ Vulcanus Rex cherrywood smoked beer took the char pit smoke to an unpleasant level. The Smoked Doppelbock from the Herkimer Pub & Brewery, another cherrywood smoked beer, promised greatness with the aroma and then failed to deliver. The worst disaster of the evening in my view was the Chipotle Wee Heavy from Town Hall. All I can say is what a waste of their great Wee Heavy.

Beer Dabbler at the St. Paul Winter Carnival

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The Beer Dabbler Showcase
St. Paul Winter Carnival Event
Saturday, January 23rd, 3:30 – 7:30 PM
Mears Park in St. Paul
$20 ticket when you buy at any of the 8 locations prior to Jan 22nd
$20 plus a service charge of $3 per ticket when you order online anytime
Click here to purchase tickets online
$25 at the door

The Beer Dabbler Showcase is a traveling beer festival that strives to bring a large variety of micro and craft brews to audiences across the Midwest. The brainchild of Minneapolis resident Matt Kenevan, the idea of the Beer Dabbler was to bring beer festivals to the people instead of making people come to the festival. The showcase kicked off last summer with a tour of beer festival events all over Minnesota. Six Showcases have been staged so far.

These are not beer-geeks-only events. According to Kenevan, “The concept behind the Beer Dabbler is to introduce great beer to people who may or may not be familiar with craft and micro brews. It is also intended to be a fun event for people of all levels of beer enthusiasm.  Our guests range from the avid home brewer beer geek to the micro/craft beer newbie just getting started and the goal is to please them both.” The Showcase features a wide selection of local, regional, national, and international brands representing a wide range of styles and tastes. Kenevan adds, “If you can’t find something you like, then you probably just don’t like beer.”

So about this Winter Carnival event…an outdoor beer festival in St. Paul in January? Cold beer on a cold winter’s day? Is he crazy? I asked Matt this very question. “Different, true.  Risky, true.  But very Minnesotan.” was his reply. “The natives love beer and winter.  If they don’t love winter but are here anyway, then this is something much more lively and fun to do than sit inside and wait for summer to come around again.  As long as people dress to be outside, everyone will be comfortable in the space. The 10-day forecast looks quite comfortable for this time of year. Hopefully we’ll have fresh snow and upper 20s to kick off the first annual Saint Paul Winter Carnival Beer Dabbler.” The warming fire pits will help too.

So what should one expect at the Winter Carnival Beer Dabbler?

I’ll be there. Will you?

Lager Beers

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The January Meeting of the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club

When: Friday, February 12, 2010 NEW DATE!
Cost: $25
You must be a member of the club to attend. Go to the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club to join and RSVP.

I often hear people (even beer geeks) saying, “I don’t really like lagers.” I say this is poppycock! Don’t be fooled by the mass produced, pale-yellow brew commonly called “Lager Beer.” The only thing differentiating lager from ale is the yeast.

The world of lagers is a rich, varied, and flavorful one. While the so-called American Lagers are part of the family, beyond these lie beers for people who want something more. The light colored lager styles include the boldly bitter Bohemian and German Pilsners, the maltier Munich Helles, and the balanced Dortmunder Export. There are the amber colored Vienna and Märzen styles and the smooth, black, and malty Schwarzbier. Then there are the Bocks. From the summery Maibock to the sumptuous Doppelbock, these beers display intensely rich toasted malt that fills the mouth without being cloying. And it wouldn’t be craft beer without the outliers, those experimental beers that defy categorization.

At this meetup we’ll sample a mind-blowing array of bottom fermented brews. We’ll shatter your mega-brew induced preconceptions of lager. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You will never again be able to say, “I don’t really like lagers.”

Beer Club Potluck II

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The December Meeting of the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club

SOLD OUT!

Beer Club Potluck IIWhen: Friday, December 18, 2009
Cost: A beer and a dish
You must be a member of the club to attend. Go to the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club to join and RSVP.

It’s back by popular demand.

December was going to be a month off from the Beer Club to let everyone celebrate their holidays. But club members want to celebrate the season together. They asked for it. They got it. The Beer Club Potluck II.

Here’s how it works. You bring ONE beer and a food item to go with it. Yes that’s right, ONE beer. Don’t go crazy! Bring enough beer for everyone in attendance to get a 4 – 5 oz pour. Bring something you have never had before or something you thought was worth sharing with the group. Research your beer so that you can talk a bit about it. Let us know what we’re drinking.

That’s it. It’s just that easy.

Holiday Ales & Winter Warmers Recap

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Last night the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club gathered once again, this time to celebrate Holiday Beers and Winter Warmers. Our host for the night was club member Rachel who is the only person to have attended EVERY club event. I can’t even claim that and I’m the organizer. Rachel’s condo was also the site of our very first meeting nearly a year ago. We had a record number on hand for the nearly sold-out event. As always great beer was tasted and great conversation was had.

Sam Adams UtopiasThe highlight of the evening was also the first beer we tasted; a bottle of 2007 Samuel Adams Utopias. For those who don’t know, Utopias is the gold standard of extreme beers. Made from a blend of several different beers aged in several kinds of wood and fermented to a whopping 27% ABV, Utopias is more like a spirit than a beer. It is un-carbonated and best served at room temperature in a snifter. I had tasted the 2007 previously, but it had been at least a year. The passage of time has served this beer well. Rich and warming with a complex blend of butterscotch, maple, sherry, and vanilla flavors, this was a real taste treat. Utopias was the nearly unanimous favorite for the night. Of course paying $12 for 1 ¼ ounces may have influenced people a bit.

From there we tasted our way through nine holiday beers from around the world, with examples from the United States, Great Britain, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, and Italy. We began in England with two very different examples of the classic British winter warmer, Samuel Smith Winter Welcome and St. Peter’s Winter Ale. Winter Welcome is the more traditional of the two, an excellent example of an English Old Ale. Falling somewhere between a strong bitter and a light English barleywine, this beer has beautiful caramel and toffee malt character with plenty of plum and citrus fruit to complement. While balance to the sweet side, there is enough hop bitterness and floral hop flavor to keep it light and drinkable. The St. Peter’s Winter Ale is a much darker brew, verging on a porter or brown ale. The malt has a nice nutty and biscuit character with a background of roast and deep dark fruits. Both were excellent beers, although the St. Peter’s suffered for having come after the Utopias.

Next we came back home with two classic American holiday beers, Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale and Anchor’s Our Special Ale Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale(A.K.A. Anchor Christmas Ale). To introduce the concept of holiday beers I explained to the group that it is a wide-ranging category. Whether spiced or simple, high or low gravity, a holiday beer is such because the brewer says it is. These two beers exemplify this concept. Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale is really nothing more than a great, hoppy, American IPA. While the hop flavor does emphasize the pine-resin notes of the American Cascade hops and the malt backbone is a bit heftier than some others, there is nothing specifically “Christmas” about this beer except the timing of its annual release and the holiday theme of the packaging. Anchor’s Christmas Ale on the other hand is the quintessential American holiday beer. A yearly tradition for nearly 35 years, the 2009 version is a dark and spicy beer with luscious fresh plum fruitiness underlying festive nutmeg and allspice flavor. One member said of this beer that it tasted just like the “old-time, traditional gingerbread” that he makes.

We straddled the Atlantic for the next beer, Van Twee, a collaboration between Belgian brewer De Proef and Bell’s Beer from Wisconsin. Van Twee is a mash-up of styles combining elements of a Belgian dubel and a porter, then adding fresh cherries and wild Brettanomyces yeast for a bit of barnyard funk. You can read my detailed tasting notes for this beer here. This brilliant brew inspired the quote of the night when one member stated, “This is like licking a cherry pony.” I’m not exactly sure what that means, but everyone seemed to agree…in a good way. Van Twee was one of the favorite beers of the night.

St Bernardus Christmas AleNext we had three very different examples of the Belgian strong dark style all brewed in different parts of the world, Nöel from Birreria Baladin in Italy, Klosterjul from Denmark’s Ølfabrikken, and St. Bernardus Christmas Ale from Brouwereij St. Bernardus in Belgium. Nöel is a straightforward example of the style with rich dark fruits, bready malt, and the characteristic cotton candy Belgian sugar and yeast flavors. The bottles we had exhibited slight papery oxidation, but not enough to ruin the beer. While Nöel is a good example of the style, it doesn’t really hold up to some of the better Belgian versions that are available. Klosterjul is a strongly spiced version of the style with pronounced anise flavors. Yeast-derived green banana notes detracted from my overall enjoyment of this beer, but it is still an interesting example that reminds me in some ways of a Gruit. The best of the Belgians was the St. Bernardus Christmas Ale. Built on a base of the St. Bernardus Abt 12, one of the best examples of the strong dark style, subtle spicing adds cinnamon and clove notes to the ample bready and dried dark fruit character to make this resemble bottled fruitcake. This is one of the best holiday beers out there and it was a big hit with the club.

We finished off the evening with what is perhaps the world’s foremost holiday beer, Samichlaus from Austrian Brauerei Schloss Eggenberg. SamichlausSamichlaus is brewed one day a year on December 6th, St. Nicholas Day, and then aged for eleven months before bottling. It has been described as a doppelbock, but its 14% ABV puts it at nearly twice the strength of the typical beer of that style. However you wish to classify it, it is a world-class beer. Definitely a sipper, it is remarkably drinkable for its strength. Smooth, sweet, caramel and melanoidin malt is balanced by spicy noble hops and warming alcohol, with rich dark fruits and light chocolate notes forming a compelling undercurrent. While big and sweet, it still has the crisp, clean character of a lager. Samichlaus is a beautiful beer and a fitting capper for the official tasting part of the evening.

After the official tasting, we entered the usual “free-for-all” portion of the club meeting. I want to give a shout out to Flat Earth Brewing. Club member Cory brought a growler of Grand Design, the S’more infused version of their Cygnus-X1 porter. It made for a tasty desert. Huge marshmallow aroma was a teaser for the chocolate, graham cracker, and vanilla flavor explosion that filled each sip. I have never liked S’mores. This beer might lead me to reconsider.

Follow the link for information about the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club.

Autumnal Ales Recap

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Continuing on the fall beer kick, the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club met on Friday night to enjoy some of the best beers that autumn has to offer. Eleven of us gathered at the home of club member Loren to sit by the fireplace and sample nine great brews, including a good number of local and regional selections.

Furthermore Fallen AppleThe night began with Fallen Apple, the quintessential autumn offering from Furthermore Beer in Spring Green, Wisconsin. Light and refreshing, but surprisingly high in alcohol, this tasty, tart, cider/beer blend was loved by all in attendance. One member reported that while she didn’t like cider, Fallen Apple tasted enough like beer to overcome that. It was one of her favorites for the night.

Next up was Wisconsin Amber from Capital Brewery, another regional brew from Wisconsin. Capital specializes in German style lager beers. Wisconsin Amber is a smooth, balanced Vienna style lager. The sweet, toasty malt is dominant, but is well balanced by spicy German hops and a crisp lager finish. A couple of the more beer-knowledgeable members commented that they had always passed this beer up with the thought, “Wisconsin Amber…how interesting could that be?” They won’t be passing it up any more. Wisconsin Amber was the second favorite beer of the night overall.

From there we went for another essential autumn beer, pumpkin ale. We had two examples to sample and compare, Ichabod from Michigan’sDogfish Head Punkin Ale New Holland Brewing Company and Punkin’ from Dogfish Head in Delaware (thanks Stephanie). Ichabod is a session pumpkin beer, more beery than pumpkin, with rich caramel malt and nutty butterscotch flavors supporting subdued pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice. The offering from Dogfish Head is more intense. Higher alcohol, full-bodied caramel malt, and an explosion of pumpkin and spice make this a more interesting beer overall, but one that you may not want to drink more than one. Both were tasty. In the end it comes down to whether you want a nice session beer or a high-intensity pumpkin experience.

The KaiserFor Oktoberfest, we dispensed with the traditional and went for the tweaked. The first of these was Surlyfest from Surly Brewing. Surlyfest has the toasty, caramel heart of a traditional Oktoberfest cranked up with spicy rye malt and higher levels of hopping for a sharply bitter/spicy bite. This was another crowd favorite, which was a surprise to some who did not expect to enjoy a bitter Surly brew. The other Oktoberfest was The Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest from Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado. This 9.3% ABV bruiser of a beer received a mixed reception. While some liked the intensely sweet malt, others found it offensively boozy and perhaps a bit overly sweet.

You can’t talk about fall beers without a wet-hop IPA. For this, I selected Harvest Ale from Founders Brewing. Unfortunately I selected and purchased this beer for the event before trying it. You can read my review below. While a couple members enjoyed it, most did not. The general consensus was that “this was not so much a hoppy beer as straight-up unsweetened grapefruit juice.” Even the usual hopheads among us had difficulty with this one. It was the only beer to remain untouched during the “free-for-all” following the formal tasting.

The remaining two beers were Autumnal Fire from Capital Brewery and Chestnut Hill from the local Lift Bridge Brewing. Capital calls Autumnal FireAutumnal Fire a “doppelbock based on an Oktoberfest personality.” I have no idea what they mean by this, but the beer makes a mighty fine doppelbock in my view. It’s a smooth and malty brew with a bit of alcohol warmth and loads of raisiny dark fruit flavors. Some felt the raisin was a bit too intense. Others liked it precisely because of the intense raisin flavors. Lift Bridge’s Chestnut Hill was the nearly unanimous favorite of the night. One of my Autumn Brew Review top five picks, Chestnut Hill is brown ale for those who think that brown ale is synonymous with boring. Packed with toasty, nutty, caramel malt, balancing spicy/herbal hop flavor and bitterness, and just a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon spice, this is one delicious brew. It’s only available on tap and the supply is running out. You will need to get it soon if you want to get it at all…unless the Lift Bridge guys can be convinced to make more.

If you want more information about the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club go here and request to become a member.

Autumnal Ales

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The October Meeting of the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club.

Atumnal AlesWhen: Friday, October 23, 2009
Cost: $25
You must be a member of the club to attend. Go to the Twin Cities Perfect Pint Beer Club to join and RSVP.

Fall is finally here. The crispness in the wind signals change. The days are getting shorter, the leaves are turning, and there is a chill in the air. It’s time for the beers we’re drinking to change as well. It’s time to leave the refreshing summer beers behind. Enough of the lightweight wheat ales. Cancel the kölsch. Forget about the fluffy, fruity beers.

But fall is an in-between time. The air is chill, yes, but the bitter cold of winter has not yet set in. Daylight hours are decreasing, but it is still light at 4:00 pm. The same holds true for autumnal ales. It isn’t yet time for sipping barleywine by the fire. Imperial stout may still be too heavy and the spiced holiday beers haven’t yet been released. Fall is a time for in-between beers, beers with some color to match the trees and just enough alcohol warming to tame the wind’s bite.

For this meetup we’ll delve into the beers of autumn. We’ll taste toasty browns, aromatic ambers, and authentic (and maybe not so authentic) Oktoberfests. We might even sample a spicy seasonal specialty. Pumpkin anyone?

Celebrating Winter Beers at the Kitchen Window in Uptown

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Holiday BeersWhen: Friday, November 13, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Where: The Kitchen Window in Uptown
Cost: $75
Click here to reserve your spot.

Join chef Ben McCallum and Certified Cicerone™ Michael Agnew at the Kitchen Window in Uptown for an evening of fine food and festive winter beers. Our first course is CARAMELIZED LEEK AND OYSTER GRATIN paired with WEIHENSTEPHANER HEFEWEISSBIER from Germany – a great tasting hefe with characteristic banana and clove flavors. Then we’ll enjoy BEER-ROASTED WHOLE CHICKEN with HAZELNUT MOLE SAUCE paired with ANCHOR CHRISTMAS BEER from San Francisco – every year since 1975 Anchor has brewed distinctive and unique Christmas Ale; the Ale’s recipe is different every year. Next is hearty ALE-BRAISED SHORT RIBS with CHARRED TOMATO BARBECUE SAUCE paired with ST. BERNARDUS CHRISTMAS ALE from Belgium – with aromas of yeast and bread and tastes of spice, raisins, and nutmeg. Ben will also serve FRESH-BAKED BEER BREAD with GORGONZOLA WHIPPED BUTTER. For dessert, we’ll have PORTER-INFUSED CHOCOLATE BROWNIES paired with Cygnus X-1 PORTER from Flat Earth in St. Paul – a nice flavorful punch of citrus hop, balanced by slight caramel sweetness.