1. If you've been following this blog since Debbie and I left Valley Cottage, NY on September 16th, you might have noticed that Debbie and I decided before departing NY to make this return home a tour of dog friendly breweries along the upper tier of the USA. We've arranged our trip so that we can enjoy matinee beers. Every brewery that welcomes dogs does so with outdoor seating and we have been enjoying the mild weather -- only one stop was not mild.
That one stop was today.
As we continued our drive west through the gorgeous Upper Peninsula of Michigan and as we crawled across the scenic north of Wisconsin, the temperatures were in the high 60s and low to middle 70s.
But as we closed in on Superior, WI, we entered a fog bank. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees and a light but noticeable wind kicked up.
Being intrepid beer samplers at dog friendly breweries, we decided to put a few more clothes on and brave the fog and wind and try some beers in the yard behind the Cedar Lounge Taproom of Superior's Earth Rider Brewery.
We started on a wobbly two person table and I thought I could smell another dog's crap nearby, so we moved to another table in the taproom's back yard and that worked much better.
Our flight had nice variety: a Russian Imperial Stout, a double hazy IPA, a "regular" hazy, a blueberry cream ale, and a pilsner. We finished sharing the flight and Debbie had a larger pour of the double hazy IPA and I had a 10 oz pour of Earth Rider's Raspbecrushed, a tart raspberry wheat ale. I enjoyed it a lot. I am enjoying wheat beers more all the time and liked how this beer delivered on the raspberry flavor with no sugary quality. It was very pleasing.
2. We finished our beers, dashed to the Camry to get warmed up, and decided to try Bent Paddle Brewing in Duluth.
It was a sound choice. The outdoor seating was on a balcony that was protected from the wind and weather was a bit more sunshiny in Duluth than Superior.
We ordered another flight with good variety -- an ESB (Extra Special Bitter [which is not a bitter beer]), a black ale, combining porter and stout with oats, a cream ale with sea salt and lime zest, an IPA called Hopmosa, and one other beer I don't recall.
As Debbie and I got to bs-ing about our beers and our trip, a Russian guy who works for Microsoft and loves to explore the great outdoors of the USA overheard us and jumped into our conversation. Later, he left his table to do something, came back and a couple had taken it over, so he joined us and we talked about the great cultural diversity in Russia and he urged us to travel to St. Petersburg and told us about his mom coming to the USA to visit him.
While we yakked away, Debbie drank a full pour of the Hopmosa IPA and I enjoyed a glass of the Black Ale.
We had a blast.
3. We ended with dinner at more of a restaurant than a brewery -- but they do brew their own beer. Fitger's Brewhouse is part of a multi-establishment culinary Fitzger bonanza in Duluth and the Russian guy had recommended we try their wild rice burger at the brewhouse.
I did and I liked it a lot. Debbie had a Portabella mushroom sandwich.
Eating outside at a table on the street as the sun was going down on a rapidly cooling day meant that we got kind of cold again. The food, though, was pretty good. I drank part of a golden ale that I thought was excellent, but I had had enough beer and left much of the pint undrunk.
Gibbs enjoyed all three places and it's fun how many people stop at our table to ooh and aah over what a handsome (okay, cute) dog he is and it leads to some fun conversation.
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