Beer, wine & other good things flowing in St. Paul Friday!  From 4-7pm the store will celebrate the first full year of The Ale Jail and the sixth year of The Wine Thief!

They will have representatives from 15+ breweries and 8 wine distributors all pouring samples in their back parking lot for your enjoyment! Free!

Participating Breweries (Subject to Change) include: Lagunitas, Odell, Rush River*, Unibroue, Epic Brewing Co*, Goose Island, Tallgrass, Surly Brewing Co., Dave’s Brewfarm*, Great Lakes, Boulder, Victory, Big Sky, Ommegang, Olvalde*, Central Waters, Anchor, Boulevard*

Cider/Kombucha: Crispin, Deane’s Kombucha*

*Brewmaster Present

Wine Distributors: Paustis, Wine Co., WW Cellars, Cat and Fiddle, Vinocopia, Grape Beginnings, New France

In addition to great beverages, The Blue Door will also be there selling burgers!

They will also be raffling off a pair of tickets to the AM session of The Autumn Brew Review!

Every Wednesday at the Nomad at 6pm the crew has planned a special event, dubbed “Mid-Week Beer Geek.” The events will range from a tapping of something unique, to a brewery take over to a side by side tasting.  Events are held in conjunction with the Minnesota Beer Activists and the schedule is as follows;

September 7th – Odell Double Pilsner tapping
September 14th – Southern Tier takeover for Autumn Brew Review
September 21st – Side by side tasting of Deschutes “Conflux 2? and Boulevard “Collaboration 2? White IPA’s
September 28th – Brooklyn Brewery/Mr. Mustachios Food Truck collaborative beer dinner
October 5th – Limb & Life 2 tapping

Designations like “dubbel” and “tripel” appear on Belgian beers to describe the strength of the beer in relationship to the amount of malt used, which correlates to the alcohol content. Brewers labeled their barrels “X”, “XX”, or “XXX” so they’d remember what was inside. The Belgian style Dubbel was originally created by the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle in 1856 as an alternative to their sweet and light Witbier. They’re essentially strong brown ales, the kind of beer you want to sip slowly, their rich roasted malt and sweet raisiny flavors balanced with a touch of bitterness. This style tends to get overlooked, but we’re going to give it some love this week.

Our Bomber of the Week is Sierra Nevada’s first release in the Ovila series, Dubbel, which will be 20% off.  We’ll also crack open some Belgian Dubbels for our Thursday tasting on September 1^st from 5-7PM.

Assuming you’re not one of the people who doesn’t abuse the word “epic” (and “fail” for that matter), I’d like to invite you out to a little tasting at Heritage in Maplewood tonight. Read on.

In the last year, the new breweries that have entered into the Minnesota market have put our state in an enviable position for what we have available. On most of those lists, the most recent addition is Epic Brewing out of Utah, which was founded shortly after Utah lifted restrictions on alcohol content in 2008. They are the first brewery in that state since prohibition to exclusively brew beers over 4%ABV, brewing their first batch in March of 2010. Among the many awards they have already garnered, earlier this year they made the RateBeer Top New Brewers in the World in the #3 spot. From 5-7PM this Thursday, the 18th, we’ll be tasting out a few of their offerings to see what they’re all about. See you here.