Wicked Wort Brewing & Minnesota Craft Beer Festival

Welcome everyone to our first of many blog posts. We are so excited to share our stories with you. Heidi and I started our adventures a little over 8 months ago and here we are now bringing our adventures to you. We enjoy getting out and enjoying life and figured why not share our experiences with others looking to do the same thing. Most of our weekends in the summer and fall have been filled with trips kayaking, hiking, and learning about different locations. We both love living and exploring in Minnesota and that naturally led us to Minnesota's great state parks and rec areas. In the winter, when it’s not as hospitable as we wish, we love finding the hidden indoor gems around the state. We discovered that we both love breweries, cideries, and wineries and the unique experiences they offer. We are not experts in any fashion but we know what we enjoy and want to share that with others. We hope you enjoy the site and we are open to suggestions and ideas for our next adventure.

Saturday morning Heidi and I decided to head to the twin cities for the day and evening of good food, beverage and conversion. We had purchased tickets to the Minnesota Craft Beer Festival in Minneapolis a few days earlier and decided to head to the cities a bit early to get lunch and to try out a new brewery before heading to the festival. Our first stop was Robbinsdale because Heidi has friends that would let us park the car at their house and we would have dinner with them after we returned from the festival. After arriving in Robbinsdale, our first stop was the Wicked Wort Brewing Company downtown. Wicked Wort is in a large building with a small brewery feel. It’s decorated as a brewery should be and the layout of the brewery is very interesting with an open area overlooking the beer making area. We decided to go with a flight so we could sample a few different beers. From the diverse beer menu we picked the Showgirl Raspberry Wheat, Chocolate Cherry Vanilla Stout, JP Dooley Irish Red Ale, and the Peace Porter. As we tasted and discussed each beer we struggled to pick one that stood out above the rest. All the beers we picked were excellent and we would gladly get a pint of any of the bunch. The Showgirl Raspberry Wheat was smooth and refreshing with little to no after taste. This would be a great beer for a summer day on the deck. The Irish Red Ale surprised both of us on how easy it was going down. It had a subtle caramel note that filled your taste buds. The porter was an excellent example of a porter. Dark and rich with a slight dark roasted finish. The one that surprised Heidi was the chocolate cherry vanilla stout. She has come to love a good stout but cherry isn't her thing. The cherry was subtle and added to the flavor of the other ingredients. After finishing our flight we figured we better get lunch and get to the beer festival.

After dropping the car off and catching an Lyft to the Minneapolis Convention Center, we checked in and got our craft beer festival tasking mini-mugs. We were not sure what to expect because neither of us had ever been to a beer festival before but were going to try as many beers as we could in the 3 hours we had. The Minnesota craft beer festival included 115 breweries and a whopping 450 different beers and ciders. When we walked into the festival area we were surprised by how big of an area the festival was in and the amount of people attending. We found out later that the event was sold out. After seeing the crowd we formulated a plan quickly about how we would manage our time and the beers we would try. The plan was to stop and get a beer to sample and move on as we drank. When the glass was empty we would stop and get something different to try. The majority of the breweries were from Minnesota and we tried to sample only beers and ciders from Minnesota and smaller breweries. We tried to keep track of the different breweries but it turned out to be harder than we thought. We were able to get a few photos of some of the places we stopped but it's only a small sample. Some of the names that were notable included Pipeworks Brewing, Minneapolis Cider, Wild State Cider, Belching Beaver Brewery, Schilling Hard Cider, Fat Pants Brewing, Bent Brewstillery, Lakes and Legends Brewing Company, Outstate Brewing Company, Duluth Cider, 2 Town Cider House, Nouvelle Brewing, and Beerclub Brewing. Each brewery has a way to wash out your glass between samples and even had a bucket to dump out the extra if you were just sampling each beer or to discard any that we didn't care to finish. We only used the buckets three times to dump a couple beers that were not to our liking. We tried to alternate between darker beers and ciders. We did try a few IPA’s, fruit beers and seltzers along the way. As the afternoon went on the crowd became more relaxed and you could tell the people were having a good time. The music of an 80's cover band filled the air as people strolled along and enjoyed their beverages. As the clock neared 5 we had to be a bit more selective with our choices and the pours where getting larger as the vendors were trying to empty the kegs. We knew that we were going to be going to Nouvelle brewing for dinner after the festival; so we had to try their beers when we walked by their booth. We both decided to try a sour beer called Willy Chonka. This fruity concoction was sweet and delicious and was more like drinking a smoothie than a beer. Soon after getting our samples from Nouvelle a voice came over the intercom saying it was time for the last pours and that vendors needed to shut down. We decided to go with a somewhat local brewery we had sampled recently. Beerclub Brewing from Mora MN was our choice for our last drink of the festival. The person running the booth was excited enough to give Heidi a hug when she stated that she picked them for her final pour. We took our time finishing up our last sample of the day and then headed out to find a ride back to Robbinsdale and dinner with a few friends.

We were dropped off at the front of Nouvelle Brewing and quickly found Heidi’s friends tucked away in the back. Nouvelle Brewing was the re-launch of a former brewery and pizzeria known as Pig Ate My Pizza. Back in December of 2021 Pig Ate My Pizza was transformed into a modern brew pub serving unique food and beverages. Saturday night the place was hopping and we were lucky to have a place to sit. Heidi and I ordered a pint of the Willy Chonka that we sampled at the beer festival. The beer was just as good at the restaurant as it was at the festival. The restaurant currently does not have table service but we were able to find a QR code that took us to the menu. With drinks in hand we looked through the menu and picked a couple unique items for dinner. Heidi decided to go with the crab cakes and I had the smothered fried chicken. The crab cakes were a mix of blue crab and shrimp and came on a bed of arugula and topped with thin dried jalapeno slices. The smothered fried chicken was brought out in a cast iron pan and smelled great. The dish consisted of a chicken thigh smothered in a parmesan garlic cream sauce. Both meals were extremely filling and had incredible flavors. As we finished dinner and an excellent day and night we reminisced about the day and decided we need to spend a full day in Robbinsdale sometime soon.