“It’s not open yet, thirty more minutes.” I said. “Let’s grab something inside.” My wife and I were standing outside San Francisco’s Ferry Building. It was our last morning in the city. Most of our trips end with an early rise and a mad dash to the airport. I prefer leaving in the middle of the day. You get a proper goodbye and one last chance to see something you missed. On that morning we took the California street cable car from Nob Hill to the Embarcadero. I stood on the front right corner of the car – in complete bliss – like a dog with his head out the window. My plan was to ride the euphoria into craft beer. Fort Point would make me wait.
Continue Reading…Mikkeller Bar SF
April 11, 2020
“Remember the first brewery we went to in San Diego?” I asked my wife.
“No” she replied.
“It was after we toured the ship, we all sat around that barrel.”
“Oh yah, I liked that place.”
“This is the same people, but it’s a bar. So they have beer from a lot of breweries.”
“Do they have food? I’m hungry.”
With our priorities established, we left our hotel room and took to the streets of San Francisco. A short walk away was our destination, Mikkeller Bar SF.
Barley John’s Brewpub
March 24, 2019
I’m at an age where you start to see your friends less and less often. Everyone has a family and they’ve settled into their own routines. There are a few people that I’m lucky to see more than once a year. I’ve been working in St. Paul for over a decade and one day it dawned on me that one of those friends lives relatively close to my office. It took just a few texts to line up a time after work to meet my friend Adam at Barley John’s Brewpub in New Brighton.
Continue Reading…Rowley Farmhouse Ales
August 19, 2018
We’d just spent the morning at Bandelier National Monument and had worked up quite the thirst climbing in and out of the ancestral pueblo homes in the Frijoles Canyon. After re-grouping in the parking lot we determined that a brewpub would fit the bill and I identified a particular one that I thought would be worth a visit. Into our rental cars we piled and headed back into Santa Fe to the taproom of Rowley Farmhouse Ales.
Continue Reading…Second Street Brewery
August 4, 2018
Anytime you have a metaphysical experience you should follow it up with a beer. Which is why, after running around and exploring the magical world of Meow Wolf, we took a walk around the corner to reflect on our experience and trade notes about all of the craziness. Our destination was one of several craft breweries in the area, and since one couple in our group was now pushing a stroller we chose the closest: Second Street Brewery’s Rufina Taproom.
Continue Reading…Two Brothers Brewing
February 14, 2018
In January my wife and I were determined to visit our friends in Cleveland for a birthday party. That’s a significant drive, so we decided to make a pit stop in Chicago to visit my old friend and roommate Adrian. I slipped out of work around lunch, swung home to pick up Samantha, and texted my friend our estimated time of arrival. He was well prepared for our visit and had planned our night accordingly. The first stop was for food and beer at the Two Brothers Brewing Roundhouse.
I generally do my research when I’m visiting breweries outside of Minnesota, but this time I left it completely up to my friend. He’d been living in Colorado for many years and I was banking on his experience to drive a recommendation. Something about Two Brothers rung a bell when he mentioned it but I didn’t put two and two together until I saw their logo. I’ve seen their beer in stores and, while I’ve never tried it myself, I’ve always been curious to give them a taste. There’s just too much local beer to support that it’s hard to branch out sometimes. My friend explained that the brewpub was inside an old roundhouse. It turns (no pun intended) out that trains began with only the ability to move forwards! This creates a bit of a challenge when you want to turn a locomotive around. Even after reverse was added it still made more sense to spin around in a less conventional way. That’s why the roundhouse was invented, and now it provides a stunning location for a brewpub with a truly unique beer garden.
Continue Reading…Gun Flint Tavern
November 8, 2017
Earlier this spring I mentioned to my wife that this could be a good year to hike the entirety of the Superior Hiking Trail. A crazy suggestion, yet just a handful of months later we were pulling into Grand Marais with one sleep left between us and the trail. In the morning my parents were going to drop us off on the Canadian border and to temper our nerves we had planned our last meal at the aptly named Gun Flint Tavern.
Continue Reading…Pryes Brewing Company
August 6, 2017
New taprooms continue to open every month, and the summer is high season. When my brother-in-law mentioned he wanted to visit a taproom that “nobody had been to yet” I knew there were several to choose from. I told him that Pryes Brewing Company had just opened their new riverside taproom. A day later we were working up a thirst and cruising along the river road.
Continue Reading…Tanzenwald Brewing Company
August 1, 2017
We’ve got a handful of friends located in the south metro area and beyond. We’re always looking for places that may be more convenient for them to avoid requiring them to drive to the cities every time we want to visit a new taproom. When we heard that Northfield would soon be home to two breweries, we planned accordingly. The first to arrive was Tanzenwald Brewing Company.
Continue Reading…Frothy Beard Brewing Company
July 25, 2017
I awoke on our last full day in Charleston to a quiet condo with six people asleep. After stumbling out of bed, I made my way to the balcony overlooking the ocean. The early morning sunlight warmed my face and a moment of sadness crept in as I thought about the cold that awaited us back home. I’d sent some feelers out for any breweries that would be open on Easter Sunday just in case we were looking for something to fill time. A response in my inbox let me know that Frothy Beard Brewing Company would be happy to provide a place to eat and drink.
Frothy Beard is located northwest of downtown Charleston in a neighborhood called West Ashley. There was a bit of a struggle locating the building, but when we were greeted by a large mural adoring the name and logo of the brewery we were fairly certain we were in the right spot. With the midday sun beating down on us we took our obligatory photos and entered Charleston’s largest taproom.
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