2012: The Year Gone By, Part Two

We're back, with the remainder of the year in beer gone by. In Part One, we looked at events in January through July. For July through December, there are two events I will skip, for I used up all the good pics in the posts that I did for them. These would be the first annual All Pints North beer festival in Duluth, and the 13th Annual Autumn Brew Review in Minneapolis, in September, the one local festival I haven't missed once, since my first visit. But, there are other events I never devoted a blog post to, like my first visit to Madison, Wisconsin in 4 years for the Great Taste of the MidWest, in August, and this year's Darkness Day, which took a different turn for me this year, but one I enjoyed immeasurably more. Plenty of other exploits along the way, so enjoy this peek at my life in beer, in the year gone by, 2012!

July 2. After a Bill Frisell show at the Dakota for  my birthday, Deb and I visited a new beer bar downtown called Devil's Advocate, with 40-some taps and a menu comprised entirely of meatballs. We didn't eat (she's a vegetarian), but had some drinks, and she found herself drawn to the La Chouffe gnome statue in the window, and the bartender kindly took it down for us to play with. I'll get my own someday, I've supported La Chouffe plenty, after all, but don't know where I can display it without it getting stolen. The gnome got Deb's phone number, but he never called.

August 28. I tried to host a gathering for our initial release of Indeed Brewing Company's beers, with all of their first 3 beers on tap at once. Perhaps because they'd already debuted at other bars, or even more, because the taproom was open and drawing a crowd night after night, the turnout wasn't great. But, I did have some friends show, including Tim Johnson, at left, Rita and Dean, and in the right corner, Tom Whisenand, one of the 3 Indeed owners.

August 8, my first visit to the Indeed Brewery. The other pictures I took weren't that great, just the same old tanks and racks and canning lines. This one clearly shows off their allegiances, which only goes to explain some of the beer names.

August 10, Dexter's Pub, Madison, Wisconsin. Here's Margarita and Nate, who were kind enough to give me a ride en route to my first visit to the Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival in 4 years. Jason and Angie were the ones who got me the tickets, and secured the lodging. Dexter's was our fist stop on the night before the fest, an evening which is full of brewery events at bars all over the city. We eventually made it into downtown Madison proper and had some free-wheeling fun mixing it up at beer bar and non-beer bar alike, up and down the avenues. A fun night of misbehaving.

The beer event at Dexter's? Why, they were hosting Toppling Goliath Brewery, of Decorah, Iowa. Who was sitting right next to Jason when N, M, & I arrived? Why, my old friend Bob Slack, who is a brewer at TG. Here's Bob, gasping in awe at the Mornin' Delight Imperial Stout I'm holding in my hand.

August 11. We took a shuttle from Ale Asylum, which was wasn't far from our Motel 6, to get to the festival in downtown Madison. I couldn't help snapping a shot of this misguided man who is celebrating his imminent arrival at a major craft beer fest sporting a hat made out of a Coors Light box. Mixed signals.

At the bottom of the hill, way back of line. Some people camp out for hours to stake a good place at the front line, and get into the fest first. I don't see the point. We're all getting in eventually. What difference do those few minutes make?

One of the best things about these festivals is trying new breweries you've never heard of, might never visit, and who probably don't often go outside their home territory. I tried quite a few of those, but at the same time, needed to visit my friends, as well. I don't think I have photos of those breweries, I was too busy taking pictures of people I knew. Here are Ryan and Val helping pour at the BrewFarm booth, with Farmer Dave hanging out in back (identified by his cowboy hat.)

Here's a Schell's fan posing with the Schell's man, owner Ted Marti, outside the  Schell's van. What do you know, another example of me taking a picture of someone getting their picture taken.

At left is Jason, at right Meagan, who's working this one, representing Tallgrass Brewing, who brought some excellent derivations of their regular beers. You know, I'm going to break out that program, and tell you all about them...later...

The Surly booth was always busy, and very well-manned, with brewer Jerrod Johnson ready to serve your needs.

But he's too late, for Linda Haug has already poured me a beer. It's probably a Three. Why do I know that? Because...

Two is out! Boo hoo, no more Two!

Here's August Schell Brewmaster Jace Marti hanging out behind the Surly booth, chatting with Surly brewer Derek Allmendinger. 

Surly artist Michael Berglund (Darkness '11, Syx labels) has volunteered to pour, and told a funny, apparently to Joel and Aleah.

I don't have a caption for this one. Maybe you do?

Here's Surly head brewer Todd Haug enjoying the fruits of his labors, while Omar takes a shift.

Some brewers don't just bring beers, they also deck out their booth or tent in some manner of theme to grab the festers attention. Bell's had a super-hero them going this year, giving out these capes that everyone seemed to be wearing. If I recall, there's a contest for best booth dressing. don't ask me who won.

New Holland Brewing's theme was "Zombie Prom." All of the brewery employees and volunteers were decked out as  zombies who are going to the Prom. Which explains the black balloons. Isn't anyone else tired of zombies or am I really the only one?

The theme at Tyranena Brewing Company was Santa Claus. Not pictured: Owner Rob Larson dressed as Santa, asking the young hotties to sit in his lap and tell him if they were naughty...or nice.

I was thrilled to meet up with my old pal John "Woody" Chandler, of Lancaster, PA, who I probably haven't seen since 2008. Woody makes the scene at many events all over the country, decked out in a monk's robe, it's heavy cloth and his vast beard not deterring him the least in this summer heat. He's even added a crown of hops to his sartorial repertoire. (When not in monk attire, he wears a heavy coat loaded with brewery patches.) I first met Woody in person back in 2006, when he crashed on my couch during a tour of Upper Midwestern breweries.

A very bad photo of the bar at the Great Dane in dowtown Madison. After taking the bus back to our motel, me dined, then took a cab back downtown. Even after  a big beer fest, I wasn't going to go to sleep at 9pm, with the wonders of a foreign town at my disposal! We hit various spots, and ended at the Dane, lounging the night away in their garden, I enjoying a quadrupel with the droll name of MidWest-veletern. End of a great weekend in Madison, WI.

September 4. My fist visit to the Lift Bridge Brewery in Stillwater. Brad Glynn is showing Dean, Brandon, and me what is in all those cool barrels.

October 27. My sixth time at Surly Darkness Day, and this year I have no photos to share of freezing fans waiting in line early in the morning. I actually strolled up around 2pm, with Dan, Beth, Brian, and Erin, completely sober, and left that way (give or take). Why didn't I take basically an entire weekend off of work just to buy 6 bottles of beer? Gosh, why would I? It was fun when could leave early Friday night (when I had someone who could close the bar for me), sleep, and then wake up early enough to get a good spot in the line. But, every year there are more people and the line is longer earlier. Last year, I got no sleep, arrived around 6 am, and barely made the cut-off. This year, I paid attention to facebook, twitter, and BeerAdvocate, and listened to the people saying there were 500 in line by 6pm, 800 by 8, etcetera. It was pointless. I wanted to sleep, but I still wanted beers. Eventually I decided to go the next afternoon and hope for some left-overs. 

If you looked carefully in that last photo, there was a face looking towards me. That belonged to Nils, seen here, approaching me with a bag of goodies from a tasting table still standing hours after the Surly event officially began. There are really two things going on at Darkness Day. The camper-outers are celebrating their comraderie in craft beer by treating each other to untold rarities, all shared freely, but among variously located outposts. Some of this was documented in my post about last year's Darkness Day. The other event is the one that Surly actually hosts, which is the bottle sale, the food vendors (some of which is available to the campers), the live music and games, and the special beers for sale. Very often these two events only intersect in this way: the campers enter the gates, get their beer, and go home with their bottles. For a lot of them, Darkness Day is only about all those rare bottles passed around with friends and strangers, and little interest in what goes on inside the gates, besides their bottles. Nothing wrong with that. This year was the first time that I did not participate in both parts of the event, only the Surly-sanctioned one. And I enjoyed it. 

Ohmigod! Look who it is, Jeff and Shelly! Remember them from last year? And here comes a little bit of irony. All that chatter on the internets? It was wrong. They counted wrong, or whatever, but they were wrong. J & S arrived at 11:30 A.M., and easily got wristbands. If I knew, we would would have left hours earlier, still gotten sleep in our beds, and received 6 bottles, rather than 4. Oh, well...big deal... I guess...

Perhaps that explains why I look less than delighted in this picture with Omar that Shelly took?

Although I had no problem smiling in a picture with Jeff, however.

Since it was the weekend before Halloween, costumes were not out the ordinary. But this couple, with their can of Furious and can of Wet attire really went the extra mile. 

Top right, Todd Haug shreds with his band, Powermad. Bottom right, in fur cap, his wife Linda bangs her head.

October 31. Halloween fell on a Wednesday, and I dj'ed at Harriet's Taproom, at least until a band came on. I peppered my usual funk/soul/fusion/hard bop/be-bop/swing set with scary sound effects and Halloween-type songs. People seemed to dig it. 

November 3. Place: the Blue Nile bar. Event: the 5th Annual Stoutfest. Dave is taking a break from his samples, while I snap this, with Jay and Julie sitting to his left. These guys have been making it to most of these events. I think it was the 4th StoutFest in a row for J & J. got to love them for that.

My friends Dean and Rita are at the bar, choosing their stouts and porters, while one of my Somali regulars, who drinks only gin and tonics, looks at the list with utter bewilderment. This is my world, ladies and gentlemen.

November 27. Another Surly Darkness Vertical Epic Tasting, this one a bit more collaborative, as I brought some, and others brought the rest. Rollie the cat looks on and approves. 

Jay and Julie deep in thought, contemplating the Darkness. 

Matthew's awfully excited to have so many years of Darkness in his hands. We found that the 2009 & 2010 were tasting best, and while the 08 and 07 were not bad, they hadn't improved appreciably. Perhaps 2 or 3 years is as much as you should age these guys. Don't go overboard people, they won't turn amazing at 10 or 20 years old. You can try it, but we warned you!

Bryce gives his glasses some very close scrutiny. Andy was the sixth member of the group, but he really didn't want his picture taken. Another fun night of drinking Darkness, where once again strangers become friends through beer tasting!

And you know what? No much happened in December! (That I didn't already report.) Here's to more beer in 2013!