If you get one thing out of reading this too long post it is this: St. Patrick’s Day is on Saturday, March 15th this year not Monday, March 17th. Praise be to God.
A blog that I have been enjoying recently is MN Beer. It has clued me into a number of cool happenings in the local beer world (such cask night at the Bulldog NE on Wednesdays). Through this blog I have become aware of a pub in St. Paul called The Happy Gnome. They have a huge beer list and even host beer dinners. All good things, fer schur.
I went there the day before Valentine’s Day for the Bell’s Big Ale Night. I was excited to go, because the thought of trying 8 different beers for $10 seems like a no-brainer. Not to mention visiting the beer drinking paradise known as The Happy Gnome. I was not impressed. We tried 8 different Bell’s specialty ales and did not find one that we wanted to drink a full pint of. At the end of the night, I had to have a Gin and Tonic, just to clear my palate. Here is a list of the types we tried:
Java Stout
Cherry Stout
Expedition Stout
Double Cream Stout
Third Coast Old Ale
Sparkling Ale
Hopslam
Batch 8000
Of these, the Batch 8000 was the most palatable. A few of the stouts had such a strong coffee flavor that they might have ruined my taster for the rest of the night. And the “beer” called Hopslam was so hoppy that I felt like I was fellating a copper pipe. When I got back to a computer, I looked at the Bell’s website and found that the beers we tasted were all very limited run. In fact, some of them should not even be available now, so they were just putting on this shindig to get rid of unwanted beer.
The highlight of the evening was when we left, there was a guy asking people for money. One of the fella’s that was outside when I was leaving told this beggerman to go bug the busty woman outside smoking. Real class shit.
My mind is not made up on The Happy Gnome. A great name and a great variety of beer is awfully tempting. I can’t comment on the food, the waitress never gave me a menu. A few more quirky things from their website is that they are having their 1st Annual Firkin Festival, which, until I looked it up I thought was one of those lawn gnomes, on March 16th, the day after St. Patrick ’s Day. Did you know that it is on the 15th of March, not the 17th this year?!? I guess the Catholic Church changed it this year to prevent drunk parishioners on Holy Monday. Lastly, The Sweet Colleens are playing at the Gnome on the 15th. Because of these things, I will reserve judgment on the joint.
(Do you like the bottom line?)
