Scooter Chronicles

Yesterday evening, I headed over to the Blue Dog Pub with Catherine and David for a beer tasting. Reps from Summit Brewing in St. Paul, Minnesota were going to be there, and they planned on have many of their beers available. This was the first tasting that any of us had been to, so we weren’t sure what to expect.

It was supposed to start 6:30, and after about an hour or so, Marcia was going to call us with a take out order, since her Mom, sister Paula, and our nephew Ryan were coming over. Well, the brewery reps weren’t there on time. Luckily we were being waited on by Lindsey who David and Catherine get quite frequently when eating there. So even though the reps weren’t there, she brought us over a small glass of each of the five brews they had on tap from Summit.

The five were their Extra Pale Ale (an American pale ale, which I thought was pretty good, since it wasn’t as hoppy as I would have expected), and India Pale Ale (which was alright), an Amber Ale (which is decent), their Grand Pilsner (which was a non-descript pilsner), and a limited release Scandia Ale, which is a Belgian style wit beer (which was very good, and excellent with a lemon wedge). We decided then to have a bottle of their 20th Anniversary brew, since it was only in bottles. It was an ESB (extra special bitter) which was disappointing. Both David and I were hoping that their anniversary brew would be adventurous like other brewers do. It was a good ESB mind you, but nothing special at all. It was obvious that the Scandia Ale was by far the best of the bunch.

Eventually the guys showed up, but we were already into a pint of the Scandia (this was after the ESB) before they showed. Lindsey sent them to our table first since we had been waiting over an hour. They gave us a couple of samples of the two pale ales, and we pretended that we hadn’t tried them yet. They also gave us a brochure and a bottle opener. Another disappointment was that the two guys were a sales rep and the local distributor. We were hoping to talk to one of the brewers, or someone heavily involved. Oh well, it wasn’t all that bad.