brewery tour

As a general rule, I try not to drink before Noon... but sometimes rules are made to be broken. Yesterday, for example. :)

**I want to note, though - because that sounds kind of bad - that I don't really drink that often (vs. the college years, anyways) and when I do, it's usually not much. 

So, yesterday I went with some friends to the Summit Brewery in St. Paul for a tour. If you get a chance, it's neat. Our tour started at 10:30 a.m. and we were sampling by 11:30 a.m.  Summit mostly sells locally, and particularly in the midwest, although they do sell in a few states outside of the area. I guess you have to reserve it really early, though, if you want to go on a Saturday - I was taking an extra slot my friends had, but they had booked it in May.

The people who volunteered for the tours were all really nice and knowledgeable - and it started of with a very pleasant PowerPoint presentation. Our tour guide, in particular, was pretty witty - near the end of the tour when no one seemed to have any questions for him he gave everyone a final chance for questions: "Any questions? About the tour? About my personal life? Anything?" - that made me chuckle. And because noone had any questions (on topic or personal) for him, we headed out to the bar for our samples.

Here's some pictures from the day:

I liked this huge copper kettle. This room gets really warm when it's running, so they recently started using that more efficiently. In the summer, they have this room closed off from the main area and send the hot air outside, rather than keeping in the building and increasing their air conditioning costs. In the winter, they funnel the heat from this into other parts of the building, reducing their heating costs. They had several things they do to be socially responsible that they talked about, and I thought that was interesting.

These giant canisters are used in the beer making process -- on one side, they are one-deep. On the other side, they are three-deep to the wall. That's quite a bit of brewsky. P.S. This is Brian & Beth.

This is where they do the bottling and packaging. It's a pretty neat system and interesting to learn about their quality assurance process during this phase.

This is a close-up of part of the bottling process - I thought it would make a neat picture. :)

As I mentioned, you get samples after the tour - I liked their wrist bands because they had your drink tickets attached, making it very difficult to lose them. As you can see, you get 3 samples.

Here are some of the samples. I'm not sure what the two lighter ones are, but the medium one is Summit Red and the dark one if their Oatmeal Stout. Overall, I tried the Oatmeal Stout, the Anniversary brew (because they're celebrating 25 years this year), and a pilsner.

This is the Oatmeal Stout - it was cool because they put an "S" in the foam on top. I'm not sure if it was for Summit, or for stout. Either way, it was cool so I hope it shows up OK on here. By the way, the Oatmeal Stout ended up being my favorite of my samples even though super dark bear isn't typically my thing.

And because I am told I don't post enough pictures of me, here's one. This is my friend Emily (left) and me (right) in front of the brewery.

So, check out the Summit Brewery. To steal a quote from one of the t-shirts in their gift shop:

Think Globally, Drink Locally.


And, thanks to E, B, B, A, and A for letting me join you for the tour. :)

where were you?

Where were you? It's a question that comes up about historical moments, especially on their anniversaries. When JFK was shot, or when the U.S. Miracle Hockey team won the gold medal, or Pearl Harbor.

I wasn't born, yet, when any of those things happened. Close with the hockey team, but I was about 8 months too late.

Unfortunately, most of the time these events are some tragic event where someone / thousands of people died. And unfortunately, everyone will have at least one in their lifetime that they will be able to answer "where were you?" At 30, I have 3 that stick out already - the Oklahoma City bombing, the 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and the September 11 attacks on the U.S.

Today, on the 10-year anniversary on 9/11 you'll be seeing television specials, news specials, facebook posts, news articles, and other remembrances. I was fortunate that no one I know directly was there, was hurt, or was killed. A lot of people weren't as fortunate, though. So, where was I?

On September 11, 2001, I had just started my 3rd year at college. I was living off-campus for the first time in a house about 7-8 blocks from campus with two friends. I had 8 a.m. class. I remember waking up to my radio alarm, showering, and quickly getting dressed - and heard something odd on the radio about a plane, but didn't have time to pay too much attention because I needed to get to campus. Out the door I went.

My 8 a.m. class went ahead as normal, and I wandered to the student center to the "cube" where my organization's cubicle was to see who was around. There was always someone in the Cube to talk to between classes. And there was one friend who told me that "another plane had hit the WTC towers." I didn't know what she was talking about, but I did hear something about a plane on my way out of the house, right? So, she enlightened me on what she had heard so far.

Any TV in the student center was tuned into the news and people just sat and watched. I don't remember if classes were cancelled for the rest of the day, but I feel like campus was "quiet." Just a little bit after my conversation with my friend who told me what was happening, I ran into another friend, Kim, who was really upset for two reasons. Her dad was on a flight out of Boston that morning and we didn't know about any destinations or flight numbers of "the flight." Second, her uncle worked in at the WTC. I remember sitting outside of the student center with her talking for quite a while, as she waited to hear more.

I don't have vivid memories of a lot more -- except that I was so happy when Kim heard her dad was on a different flight out of Boston and that her uncle wasn't in the buildings. And that I felt really awful for her until we found out. And that there was a general feeling of nervousness, confusion, and sadness.

So, where was I when I heard the news? -- In the "Cube" in Davies Center.

Where were you?

things that make me go hmm... #3

I was having lunch with a friend recently - she and her husband are having their first child (yay!). I asked her if they are going to find out if it's a boy or a girl, and she told me that they are absolutely not going to find out. They will find out when s/he gets here. That's cool with me - I think the surprise is kind of fun. :)

What I found interesting, though, is she told me that there are some people who are actually upset with them that they aren't finding out the sex of the baby before s/he is born because "How are we supposed to know what to buy you?"  To which she said (to me), "I didn't ask you to buy me anything." and "If we're comfortable planning for our baby without finding out early, you should be able to - or wait - or don't."

I have to say I agree 100% with her. That being said, I'll admit that I'm far from the expert on babies, planning for babies, and pretty much anything babies. But seriously? People get upset because parents-to-be choose how they want to plan for and learn the sex of their baby? I don't get it. Hmm...

Personally, I think it's their choice - it's about them (the parents) and not anyone else. I've had friends who have done various things. Find out and share the news. Find out and not share the news until s/he arrives. Don't find out until s/he is here.

I'm interested in  your thoughts on this because this threw me off a bit.

If you have kids, did people have odd responses to your choice on this?

If you don't have kids (like me), what do you think about this?

Hmm....

Signed: Not a baby expert, but seriously?