Vine Park is hosting a beer trip and it sounds like a great time… if only I had some $$ and vacation time…

Enjoy a beer with us in Prague & Krakonos & Cerna Hora & …
Introducing Vine Park’s First Beer Trip!

Ten days starting & ending in Prague with days of exploring micro and
independent breweries throughout Czech Bohemia and some of Moravia.
We’ll visit medieval cities, tour breweries, see Telc (a UNESCO World
Heritage site) and much more. Our focus is the culture of the area as
expressed in the beers but also with plenty of time to see &
experience the food & people beyond the beers!

August 31 thru September 10, 2006. We meet in Prague and the trip
price includes: 9 nights accommodations, travel by private coach, rail
and public transportation, brewery visits, beer tasting, entrance fees
& tours, all breakfasts, 4 lunches, 3 dinners, and trip leadership.

Our tour operator is very experienced and specializes in travel to the
great beer destinations of the world. We are very lucky that Beer
Trips owner, Mike Saxton, will join us in our travels. Dan & Deb
Justesen will go as trip hosts and we want to encourage spouses &
significant others to come along.

Detailed trip information and registration is at
www.beertrips.com/vinepark. Contact Dan at dan@vinepark.com or call
at 651-228-1355 to express an interest.

Great Waters will be releasing their Tartar Control IPA next Tuesday. I suggest you stop by for a pint. Their e-mail also detailed their happy hour specials:

Join us for Happy Hour!
Monday – Friday 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
and 10:00 p.m. to close

All Pints – $2.50
Rail Drinks – $2.50
House Wine – $3.50

I’m all about saving some $$ and having a great pint of beer. Now if only we oculd get them to update their beer list on their website 🙂

It’s Wednesday again (thank God!) and Minneapolis Town Hall will have two beers tonight! Sounds tasty! I was there on Friday night and they were rolling out a few different seasonals for the weekend. They had the last of their Irish red on tap when I arrived and I also tasted a barley wine (Twisted Reality), a smoked dunkel and an imperial stout (Jack Frost). My favorite beer of the night, however, was the IPA on cask. My preference will probably change on my next visit, but the cask IPA was very nice.

Midnight Howler Coffee Stout- 5.3% Stout infused with cold press coffee made from freshly roasted beans by Peace Coffee. (Check them out @www.peacecoffee.com)

Little Stubby Pale Ale 5.7% English pale ale that features floor malted Marris Otter base malt and this beer is also generously hopped with British Kent Golding hops. Some may believe it resembles an ESB, but we used an Irish yeast. This is the first batch of beer made in our new fermenter…..the short little stubby tank.

If you are wondering what will fill the third seasonal line you may just have to stop by the brewery and see……should be worth the trip!

Pssst! Surly is having their grand opening in May!

Mark your calanders! Surly is planning on opening to the public for tours (which involve beer tastings) on May 12 & 13. Yes 2006. Look, we have been really busy brewing beer because people keep drinking it. Yes, it took a long time. Look, it’s gonna be cool. Two beers on cask, Bourbun Bender and maybe a dry-hopped cask of Furious. I’m not sure exactly, I’ll have to see what Todd wants to do special for the Grand Opening. Of course we will have Bender and Furious on tap. Our summer beer? Well it may or might not be ready. More details to follow. See you here.

P.S. The April 1st posting about Surly versus Surly was, of course, an April Fool’s joke.

Here’s an update from Mark at the Muddy Pig… they’ll be celebrating Prohibition’s partial repeal tonight (yup, 74 years ago Americans could once again legally buy 3.2 beer!) I thought about going but then decided to meet random friends at Minneapolis Town Hall to celebrate Prohibition’s repeal, my new job and my 31st birthday. Cheers!

Today we celebrate the repeal of Prohibition and our right to enjoy good beer. To mark to occasion our friends at Summit Brewing Company have organized a pub crawl with The Muddy Pig and The Happy Gnome. Pints of Summit beers are just $3 all day at both pubs. Yippee!

The Happy Gnome will be serving up Easter brunch on the 16th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reservations are not required but would probably be a good idea.

Summit’s newest beer, Scandia, is their take on a Belgian white ale with a Scandinavian twist. It makes its debut on Thursday, April 20 and will be available at both The Muddy Pig and The Happy Gnome.

On a sad note, the 9th annual “I Love Beer” pub tour will not be happening this spring. Two more pubs dropped out this year because the owners just don’t get it. But I was talking with Pete over at Town Hall (Pete and I set up the first tour in ’98) and we think we can get things back on track this fall with a new and improved list of participants. The tour must go on.