What a great way to spend a weekend afternoon – the 2009 St. Paul Summer Beer Fest held in the parking lot of Midway stadium. Midway stadium is home field for the St. Paul Saints baseball team and is just a block or two south of the state fairgrounds. Easy to find, easy to get and plenty of parking.
I guess there’s also a Fall Beer Fest and this was the first summer event. Fifty different craft breweries from around the country were represented. You get a tasting glass – about twice as large as a shot glass – as part of your ticket price. Then you just walk around and sample whatever beer you’d like to try.
The variety is endless – from blueberry and apricot wheat ales, to pepper flavored IPA’s, coffee flavored porters and oatmeal chocolate stouts. As you can imagine there are some you’d rather never taste again. But it’s always fun to try new beers and we all (except our daughter in-law Kelly who’s pregnant) came away with a couple new favorites we’ll look for in the stores.
It was a gorgeous mostly sunny day with a decent breeze to keep us cool. And as always, we hit the Nook for a great burger before heading home.
