Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Summary

This is a work in progress.  I realized maybe I should drop the dates and breweries and posts and maybe the books in a table.  Otherwise I'm likely to lose track of what I'm up to when it comes to trying to remember where I've been.  I think I'm at 16 [as of 6/5/2023].  That's a hell of a clip given I was on vacation outside the country for two weeks.

Date	Brewery	Mileage	Book	Link
6/3/2023	Venn Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
6/1/2023	Metronome Brewing [and Wabasha]	40	Sugar	Link
5/31/2023	Wild Mind Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
5/28/2023	Wandering Leaf Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
5/26/2023	Modist Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
5/22/2023	Omni Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
5/19/2023	Nine Mile Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
5/15/2023	Grog in Bath	40	Sugar	Link
5/3/2023	Ineffable Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
5/2/2023	North 20 Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
5/1/2023	Arbieter Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
4/28/2023	Wooden Ship Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
4/24/2023	Inver Grove Heights Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
4/14/2023	Urban Growler Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
4/18/2023	Bricksworth Brewing	40	Sugar	Link
4/21/2023	Baldman Brewing	40	Sugar	Link

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Venn

6/3/2023 - Venn Brewing.  Thank you - last one for a while and I'm all caught up.  I'm not caught up on UK vacation photos, but now I can get back to a better pace.  I love the dogs at Venn. There are always a ton of them wandering around.  Arbeiter is dog friendly as well, but Venn seems to attract so many of them.  This guy was insistent that I provide belly rubs.  He was part of a wedding party and wearing his own tux.  Super cute.

Reading Sugar about how awful sugar has been for humanity and eating a giant, monster cookie that traveled up into south Minneapolis from Eagan just like me.  I think the cookie factory is at the far end of Diffley by Trail Stop Tavern, a stone's throw to the south of Thomson Reuters.

Venn is one of the closest breweries to me, but this was a long ride.  I pedaled along Minnehaha Creek and did the lakes loop, all the way around Bde Maka Ska [Lake].  About 40 miles total.  I was trying to get my timing right so I was at Angry Catfish cycling right around 4:00 p.m. as they were showing off a new line of bicycles and serving FREE root beer floats and beer [Voodoo, no sneaky extra local brewery this time].  I didn't buy a new 4000 dollar bicycle.  But I did lust after the many bicycle packs. I've got that new road bike and I don't want to drop a rack on it, so adding a stiff pack and underbar pack might be the ticket to allow me to use it for brewery tours as I HATE carrying a book in a backpack/bike bag.  I think I spent a full five hours of my afternoon on a bicycle, drinking, shopping tour.  There are worse ways to spend a day.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Metronome [and...Wabasha...sort of]

6/1/2023 - Metronome Brewing in downtown St. Paul, near CHS Field.  Are you getting the impression I'm spending a little bit too much time at breweries? I am.  I think I'll be slowing this down a little and targeting something breweries further out.  It's weird to spend so much time bicycling and having a mid-ride beer that I'm deeply behind in blogging about where I went.

Rained on me on the way to Metronome.  Not too bad.  A few spots on the way had obviously barely missed me, but when I got into downtown at the bridges it drizzled on me.  Fortunately I carry dry shorts and bike jerseys dry fast.  I picked Metronome for 6/1 because they were donating part of their beer sales to the Pride celebration/activities for Pride month. I had a lot of options, but Metronome seemed optimal because Sarah Morris was playing at Mears, and I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.

The bartender there talked bicycles with me for quite a while.  Great guy.  That's a fun brewery.  I'm reading Fordlandia about Ford's company owned rubber town in Brazil.  Crazy book.

I sent this photo to Aeryn.  They played oboe before bassoon.  They still hate it when we say that bassoons are simply big oboes.

If you get a chance to go there, seems like there's constant live music [a group was setting up while I was there] and the mosaic on their wall is amazing.  The bartender said that there had been another brewery there previously that had tile art on the wall, so they hired the same artist to come in and tile over his own work.

After Metronome, I headed over to Mears Park to see Sarah.  And have some mini corndogs, an ice cream cone, and another beer from Wabasha Brewing.  So I'm going to add them, even though I wasn't reading anything different.  But the ad hoc nature of getting a Wabasha beer from so close to their brewery during live music....I'll call it a tacit check in the box.

Sarah's funny.  She was wandering around the park during the previous act eating a big salad out of a tupperware bowl, moving from place to place.  I believe she's setting up merch here.  Her mom or grandmother was her official merch rep for the event.

I had a great spot, but when I went to get a beer a woman and her boyfriend sat down AND MOVED MY HELMET TO TAKE MY SPOT.  Asshats. I sat nearby, but my other spot was better/shadier.  The boyfriend kept hitting his elbow on my bicycle that was leaning against the rock.  He'd glower at me, but I'm absolutely certain if you steal a cyclists spot while s/he's getting a beer, you deserve to be hoisted on your own petard.

Great music.  Great venue.  HUGE turnout.  The park was packed.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Wild Mind

5/31, Wild Mind in Richfield.  Although this is more appropriately Books, Bicycling, and BREWs 2023.  It was too early in the day for beer.  But like Venn, Wild Mind doubles as a coffee shop before 4 p.m. weekdays, so I went with a cold press instead.  Great thing about this ride was, I was getting a little beer-ed out, so coffee was a nice alternative, although it doesn't really have a brewery "character" to speak of.  Cold press is pretty much cold press. And, the flooding was finally down enough on the Minnesota river that I could pop across from Eagan to Bloomington and Richfield on the Old Cedar Bridge.  Cuts soooo many miles off rides to the near north side of the river, particularly as I start to head West.

My sister gave me this book.  Ronson' Publicly Shamed isn't as quirky as his Men Who Stare at Goats.  It's all about internet shaming/et al and it feels a bit dated given it's about ten years old [as far as shaming instances] now.  Still, mostly makes you wish you lived in Europe/UK where you can have info killed/forgotten if you want to.  I saw a PERFECT example of this at work the other day on No Rolls Barred where a professional card counter was banned from a casino and, while he suspected it was for characteristics related to card counting, they hadn't told him.  He know electronic surveillance was part of their set up, so under GDPR he asked for the digital records to see how they'd decided to ban him.  That's a cool use of that law.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Wandering Leaf

5/28 Wandering Leaf.  I had NO idea this place existed.  They're not even fully installed in their mall yet as the outside patio is still under construction.  This was amazingly close to home.  Still about an 18-19 mile round trip, but just a hop across the Hwy 5 bridge at Fort Snelling and I'm there.  Closer than even Venn.

Today's reading.  Dystopia time.

They've got a very cool plant vibe.  Reminds me of the new coffee shop [Curiouser] that went in recently down in Apple Valley.  Gives it a real great ambience for a mall.

And their board game selection was excellent.  I didn't know Trash Pandas came with so many bananas.  Like some board game Hausu.  But there were a number of non-starter games, more than I've seen anywhere.  Only thing that made me sad was I dropped my odometer when I went to put it back on my bike.  Fell less than three feet, but landed right on the edge and cracked.  I could live with it, but I suspect it'll be a huge problem if I'm in the rain, although even then I can just transfer it to the protective plastic baggie I keep in my bike bag.  I looked it up.  They're repairable, although if you do it through Garmin they swap you for a refurb on the cheap.  I'll have to work my way up to that.  I'd like a stiff bike bag for the back of the rackless road bike first, so we'll see where I feel my priorities lie.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Modist

5/26 - Modist Brewery in downtown Minneapolis.  This was a good choice.  Particularly if you like to go to breweries where most of the people are more attractive than you are.  Although perhaps that applies to all of downtown.  I love the ride along the [Mississippi] river up past the Stone Arch bridge and into town.  So much to look at and so many people to see.

Reading the second Lacey Lamar and Amber Rufkin book, which is really the first.  I liked the second better because it expanded more fully to other family and friends.  But they were both well worth the read.

Sank might be amused to know I ended my trip to Modist by buying their THC gummies on a whim.  Very good.  No after taste.  Although I didn't chew one mid bike trip.  That feels crazy.  But I did try a 5 mg at home.  And nothing.  I know that's not uncommon.  Then I did it again.  And nothing.  Then I went to 10, nothing.  Again.  Again.  The last time I coughed once.  I suspect I slept better as I took them in the evening, but I'm five tries in without an effect. Someone else said that perhaps it was simply a bad batch and took a 5 mg.  It was obviously NOT a bad batch.

I was sort of ambivalent, so I'm not sure I'll continue with the experiment, despite the big leg bruise and intercostal strain.  I'll wait for something more consistent before I add a new vice.

I love Modist.  Great beer.  LGBTQIA+ [see the colored flag that looks like someone hung up Minnesota backwards on the right].  Great breeze.  The photo above was inside, but I quickly moved to an open table outside with a little shade and was in heaven.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: OMNI

5/22 - Omni Brewing [and wine] in the Rosemount area. Another brewery in a cornfield.  Apparently most things south of me trend that way.  Maybe it's ambience.  Maybe everything south of me is a cornfield.  Regardless, a nice play.  I asked the bartender if it had been there long and he said "oh, yeah, long time."  I was surprised, because I hadn't heard of it.  Then he added, "Since December."  I obviously have a different definition of a long time.

Aeryn showed up to have a soda and pizza with me.  This book on sex was good. I'd have liked MORE history instead of some of the affirmational sex-positive reassurances, but I'm fairly sex-positive and assured, so it's a bit wasted on me as a target.  Still...I get the audience she's after.  The World Record Book of Racist Stories is wonderful.  Part of a two book set and I recommend them both. I found out that one of my coworkers in my book chat on Slack went to school with the Ruffins in Omaha.  He recognized people from the stories.

Their ambiance.

And tap list. If you zoom in on their tap list, you can enjoy beer names like Time Machine and Strategery.  Points for clever beer names.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Nine Mile Brewing

May 19: Nine Mile Brewery - a heck of a haul after being in the UK for two weeks without my bicycle.  The Theory of Everything Else was a sort of trivia book.  Good.  Not great.

Did about 40 miles and change round trip.  Safety book in this photo - it doesn't count because I didn't switch.

Flooding was still going on, so part of the reason the ride was 40+ miles was that I had to go around the Minnesota river and across the 494 bridge instead of across Old Cedar Bridge.  Google Maps tried to lead me back across near Nine Mile.  Google Maps does NOT understand flooding.  Unfortunately, to get to this crossing I had to come way down into the river valley and then....go back up.  It was a tough enough [albeit short] climb that I forgot to turn my odometer back on.

I thought that I had strained a muscle, maybe during the ride, maybe when I had a charley horse that woke me up that night.  It was tough to sleep after that ride.  But a few days later Jen says "What did you do?"  I had no idea what she was talking about.  She said I had a black and blue mark on the back of my leg.  This does not fully capture the glory of that bruise.  For a while we were concerned I'd had some sort of clot/thrombosis on the plane.  But it is possible to get a charley horse so bad that it breaks blood vessels in the muscle.  Meet an example.  I can't really articulate how bad the charley horse was that woke me up. I was pretty sure my leg wasn't going to rip itself off.  Apparently that's exactly what it tried to do.

I'm trying really aggressively to injure myself.  I managed to get an intercostal muscle injury [ribs] running recently as well.  Feels like I'm sleeping on a softball on the left side.  It's finally getting a little better and I biked and ran my way through it because I'm not straining it like some professional.  But I'm clearly outpacing my ability.  And I should stretch more.  Always that last thing.

Books, Bath/Britain, and Beer 2023: Grog

This does not officially count for BBB2023, but I'm including it because I so badly wanted to bike in Bath, UK, but got caught up making sure my wife and kid were fine getting to Bath and could ambulate [more on that in the London posts coming up].  I should have taken the early train to Bath and rented a bike and spent five hours going up and down the Duluth-like hills, along the Avon, and through the nearby softly rolling hills.  Instead, I left my family in the town square on day ten and went to see what I could find uphill from the Roman baths.

I was super excited to find Grog.  I strongly recommend a visit if you're in Bath. They were really the first place I found that was serving local beer other than the brewery in London near The Shard from my first day.  Grog isn't a brewery, but they had a huge selection of local beers and gins.

They guy walked me through his coolers which were basically laid out close to Bath to further from Bath, so I went with the most local brew I could.  Great beer.  Beautiful shop.  You'll note this definitely doesn't count, even if I had a bicycle, because it's the same book.

Back of the can for completeness.

As their website notes, "Bath store is expanded from the surviving wall of a historic chapel bombed in World War 2".  The owner, who I chatted up for a few minutes about the Minnesota brewery scene and distillery scene [and Du Nord and the George Floyd protests as they were proximate to many of my favorite breweries/distilleries] told me about the chapel, and then noted that they had learned that the crypt from that chapel was underneath their property and available to use.  He told me to head on down and check it out.

Amazing.  Looks like the microversion of where the Beatles played in Liverpool.  I joked he was going to eventually host the next Bath proto-Beatles down there and got a chuckle.  That is a seriously cool place to have a beer and/or board game event.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Ineffable Brewing

We had a two week vacation in London, so there was a bit of a gap here.  I didn't deal much with technology while I was there other than to clear my inbox/slack at work to ensure nothing was getting orphaned while I was out of office.  But expect a lot of London photos soon, I need to catch up and get my stories in print.

Right before I left, I took advantage of the weather [it was cold enough in London we could see our breathing one morning] to get in one more brewery ride.  So May 3, 18.07 miles, 791 feet of climb.

That's the NE Hazy IPA in my glass.  It seemed the best lower alcohol option.  I certainly wasn't going to drink a Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout at 7.1% and crawl back on the bicycle in Burnsville traffic.  The traffic in that area, as you head toward the Burnsville Mall and Odyssey Theater, which I did quite a bit while Eagan had no theater pre-pandemic, is awful.  You spend as much time waiting on lights as you do making your pedals go round. I think it's probably the worst option available to me: SE, E, NE, N, NW, and W are better.  There's an arc between S and SW there that's miserable.

Their beers and sign.

The introduction from The Best Science Fiction of the Year 6, edited by Terry Carr, 1977.   I was amused at the hyperbole.  I wonder how he would have felt about self publishing and e-books.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: North 20 Brewing

 I didn't even know this brewery - North 20 - even exited.  Right in my own hood, relatively speaking, over between Thomson Reuters and Rosemount.  Pretty new from the looks of things, particularly the bathrooms.  Beautiful patio overlooking a grassy farm valley.  I thought I was lost for a while when I turned onto a dirt road.  Gotta say, I'm glad I got to the brewery before the school busses started cruising down that dirt road, because they were barreling, and it wasn't very wide.

16.09 miles, 666 feet of ascent.

It's VERY new looking.  Nice and clean.  I hope the TR folks discover it as an alternate happy hour location.  It's much nicer than Union 32 imo.  Not quite the variety when it comes to appetizers, but I prefer not being gouged by the ounce.  The Crafttapped people were there for an event.  A bunch of TR co-workers used to be part of that system and the coordinator remembered at least one I mentioned.  I ponder signing up for it...at least in the summer, it would pick my location for me.

A Prairie View Pale Ale.  Super clean, easy to drink, and not too high in alcohol for once.  Constance Verity Destroys the Universe is the third in the series, and I've enjoyed all of them.  Although I agree with a young Aeryn, that Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain is my favorite. I think Aeryn read that one half a dozen times.

I let Aeryn know I was there and they had food and a cookie so they could pop by for dinner.  They brought Cascadia [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/295947/cascadia] with them and we snuck in a board game over dinner.  An easy ride, but I do have to say the 20+ mph headwinds are starting to take their toll on my legs.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Arbeiter Brewing

 Ah, Arbeiter Brewing.  5/1/2023. Per the original rules, the exception when it comes to number of times I can visit.  I took a detour on the way there, so it was 29.08 miles and 892' of climb.  If I went house to brewery and back....more like 26 miles.

This is a Nitro Into the Sea.  A very clean beer.  Good choice.  And that book by Tamsyn Muir, also a good choice.  Hilarious.

The beer board.  Maybe some people are allergic to nitrogen?

One of my favorite new addendums is the artwork related to what to do about the burnt out third precinct building.  I was talking to my mother about it and the insanity it would take to reopen the original building?  Not "it would save money".  It's a black fucking hole in a vibrant neighborhood and a reminder of times that were so absolutely shitty that it took a murder to boil them over.  It needs to go.

Another poster.  Makes you wonder how the hood has survived without a precinct building for so long.  Place sure does seem more settled in some ways without it.  I'm not saying there doesn't need to be a way to deal with crime. But I'm pretty sure that old way is bullshit.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Wooden Ship Brewing

I think the inability to keep up with books will slow me down a bit.  That's a good thing.  I'm tying some of my habits together in a productive way. The volume of reading is fairly spot on...I think I'll hit about 2000 pages again this month, so I'm generally queuing up something new in time for a new brewery visit.  I think there's one book on Afrofuturism I didn't even show with a beer.  

This trip on Wednesday [4/26] was to Wooden Ship brewing up off the west edge of Harriet.  About 17.9 miles one way.  I didn't do a full round trip because my kid wanted wings at Busters, so I pedaled over there for dinner and by the time I was done, it was raining.  I don't rust.  Much.  But raining and COLD...that's just asking for trouble and a ride home.  So 22.34 miles total and 581 feet of climb - light on the climb because I didn't have to go back through the river valley.  Usually this would be a shorter ride, but the river valley [Minnesota, although the Confluence is nearby] is flooded, so I have to swing around past Fort Snelling to get into the cities.

I broke my rule and had two beers because I had free wooden beer coins for Wooden Ship.  I've donated at the Memorial Blood Center bus a few times there but not used the free beer, so it seemed like a fine pass on my rule.

This is They Put Cauliflower in Anything. Much like cauliflower crust pizza, it's nice and clean tasting on the front, and sort of less so on the back after it's been sitting in your mouth for a while. Although honestly, I can say that about many beers, maybe the majority.  Goo, light beer and the cauliflower is a fun use of veggies, but I wouldn't do that one again.  Cauliflower just doesn't have enough character.

I guess that makes it much like that book in the photo. The Cleveland Heights LGBTQ Sci-fi and Fantasy Role Playing Club is sort of hum-ho.  There's a really good book in there, but it just didn't manage to come out.  Could be because it feels like the role playing is an aside, and there's better writing in those sections.  Could be because it feels like it hops around a bit without finding a groove. I'm enjoying it - but compared to books I've pulled into my list via the NPR Concierge, it's run of the mill.

Now THIS was a good beer.  155 Beets Per Minute, a sour and a collab with Venn Brewing.  YUM.  I enjoyed that immensely.  When the bartender was filling that glass, red beet was running all over the place.  It looked like a horror movie.  I did discover that I'm one of the 10-15% of people who can't fully process beets.  I had a nice moment of being startled when I peed pink later.  I also learned that beets are pretty high in oxylates which can encourage kidney stones.  As a two time stone sufferer including during a stop-all-traffic snowstorm, I won't be encouraging my kidneys to deal with extract of beet too often.

I love Wooden Ship.  Frequent beer for blood via the Memorial Blood Center Bus, non-gendered bathrooms [that are generally very clean because everyone knows there are standers and sitters sharing real estate], a charity of the day that's posted on the board and that often includes women's reproductive autonomy charities, and...

...period products in the bathrooms for anyone in quick need or who has enough period poverty they have to choose between a beer and a tampon.  The idea of every beer coming with a tampon charge for one charitable tampon is a good idea.  Use that beet beer and drop a string in it [not gross...periods are just periods...deal]. Anyway, kudos to Wooden Ship.  Great brewery.

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Inver Grove Brewing Company

It was too cold to go for a ride today.  I think it was forty something when I set out.  But I needed a ride and the repetitive motion inside is wearing my knee a little after I gave it a twist on a walk up a muddy hill over at Lebanon Hills Park.  So I targeted something within reach that I didn't necessarily feel was a good future outdoor candidate: Inver Grove Brewing.

April 24, 23.31 miles, just shy of 1125 feet of climb.  Pretty hilly for a short little ride up and down the Eagan hills and IGH backroads.

You can see my bicycle in the background.  I've got the new, super light, road bike.  But it's got nowhere to tuck a book.  Yet.  I may have to figure out how to fix that with a center bar bag or something, even if it looks a little goofy.  I do worry putting a piece of cloth across the underbar area will act like a sail.  So in the meantime, I'm sticking to my faithful sport ride.

The book is Little Eve by Catriona Ward.  I'm not finished yet, but I get why it has a Shirley Jackson award.  Family is the scariest thing, which is really at the heart of Shirley Jackson works, and so far this book drips with an unusual extended family situation that I can only assume is going to get stranger.

The beer....let's see.  It's a Sergeant Schneider's Reserve Hazy IPA, description below....oh, fuck this...it benefits something related to Gary Sinese? The actor who coordinated the "secret" conservative actors organization in Hollywood?  Ok, I'm all in favor of military families getting charity and support, so good.  Glad some of money is going somewhere useful and it doesn't seem to involve his other activities.  And props to Gary for standing up for McCain for his service against the blathering/s of the former Yam in Chief.  I suspect this is the closest I'll come to a conservative beer in my travels around the Twin Cities area.  It doesn't surprise me it's in Inver Grove Heights.

"Oorah, Hooah, Hooyah, whatever your battle cry, we support you. This Hazy IPA named after one of our owners Veteran grandfather utilizes a Veteran's Hop blend from Yakima Chief. Proceeds of this hop blend go to the Gary Sinise Foundation.  The blend consists of Idaho 7®, HBC 692, Sabro®, Mosaic® and HBC 630 giving this IPA a beautiful citrus, sweetfruit, and stone fruit aroma. This beer has a delicate mouthfeel and an aggressive aroma. Enjoy responsibly!" 

Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Urban Growler, Bricksworth, and Baldman

This is a new thing I 'm doing this year.  Books, Bicycling, and Beer.  The goal is to bike to a brewery, have a single beer or the sampler, show what I'm reading [which should be different every time], what I'm drinking, and pedal home.  I'm a little late to the game and figuring out my ground rules, but I've got the first three listed here. Note that Arbeiter brewing is excluded from the one beer / one brewery / one time rule.  It's my brewery of choice, so I'm allowed to hang there although I haven't biked there yet this year, only swung by to work on a Friday.

April 18, roughly 11 miles round trip, Bricksworth in Burnsville.  A Slime Truck beer, IPA, as chewy as it looks.  Cursed Bunny is a collection of short stories by a Korean writer translated to English and truly....strange.  A bit of body horror and Ito in the mix.

 

April 14,  31 miles round trip, Urban Growler, the women owned brewery in St. Paul. Note that Bang brewing is immediately behind it, but the rule is one brewery / one beer, so I have to pedal back up there to try Bang as well as the other half dozen in that neighborhood.  This was the day/s it was 89F out.  I miss those days.  This nasty cold, borderline freezing, and overcast crap sucks. 

That's a Spring Fling Maibock in the mug.

I was reading The Hacienda.  Gothic romance isn't my forte, although I read a lot of it as an English major in college.  This was better than that because it took the format and overlaid Mexican War period and culture all over the usual format, and then applied all that noise to the house gothic style.  So however much gothic romances generally bore me, it added a layer to keep me involved.

April 21, Baldman, a few miles, walked.  So no bicycling, but perhaps "boots".  I felt it counted given I'm far more likely to walk to Baldman than to stop on a bike ride because it's generally on the way to or from somewhere else.  This was a "make up" because I walked before those other two, in March, but didn't come up with plan by that time.  That is a Hold the Line IPA that supports charity.  My wife came to fetch me, although the first time I went I walked there and back.  Africa Risen is short stories and very good.  I really enjoyed the one about the woman who wouldn't let the Christian men cremate her.