Great beer galore at the Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival. Left: Ely’s Boathouse Brewpub was in the top three again with a third place for its Blueberry Blonde. Above: Indeed claimed first place honors for its Wooden Soul No. 7. Seventeen brewers brought samples for beer enthusiasts to sample.
Nancy McReady
Seventeen brewers from all across Minnesota had their taps ready for the 6th Annual Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival at Caribou Highlands Lodge in Lutsen this past weekend. Brewers from Grand Marais, Two Harbors, Ely, Duluth, Stillwater, Minneapolis, St. Paul, New Ulm, Cold Springs and St. Cloud were all in the running for top honors with hopes of going home with Hopped Up Caribou tap handle. The unique tap handle is created each year by Silver Creek Signworks in Two Harbors.
A rainbow crested the sky just before the Brewers’ Reception. It began to rain and everyone scrabbled to move all the tables and chairs that were set up outside of the tent and bring them under the tent. With the last tables moved, the skies opened up with a downpour. All was good under the tent as the beer tasting began.
Numbers may have been down a bit due to so many other things going on up and down the North Shore – Grand Marais Arts Festival, Silver Bay and Beaver Bay Bay Days, Two Harbors Heritage Days and the Duluth Air Show. There was still plenty of fun, beer, music, and food for all.
Over 75 different brews to sample were on tap over the two-day festival. Naming just one from each of the breweries:
Beaver Island – Sweet Mississippi; Bent Paddle – Mosaic Bumped Lollygager Pale Ale; Blacklist Artisan Ales – Imperial Rhubarb Wit; Boathouse Brewpub – Weekend Warrior; Burning Brothers – Roasted Coffee Ale; Castle Danger – Blood Orange infused Cream Ale; Fitger’s – Corvus; Gunflint Tavern – Sawtooth Mountain Pale Ale; Indeed – LSD Honey Ale; Lake Superior – Kayak Kolsch; Schell’s – Firebrick Vienna Lager; St. Croix – St. Croix Cream Stout; Summit – North Shore Blueberry Lager; Surly – Todd the Axe Man; 3rd Street – Lost Trout Brown Ale; and Voyageur – Lake Day Bohemian Ale infused with Cucumber. There were even a couple ciders from Sociable Cider Werks, which offered Hop A Wheelie.
In addition to beer, there was a Bloody Mary breakfast bar, great food throughout the weekend, live music and lots of fun. Beer themed T-shirts were the attire of the day.
The food for the Brewers’ Reception Friday evening was just as interesting and flavorful as the brews sampled.
The menu included: Strange Brew Fondue with Fresh Pretzels, Greek Pasta Salad, Roasted Mushrooms in Red Wine Butter, Bacon Wrapped Chorizo, Apricot BBQ St. Louis Pork Ribs, Apple Cider Pork Sliders, Wild Game Bacon Meatballs, Thai Peanut Chicken Satay, Lumberjack Mac, Smoked Salmon Mousse w/Crudité, Ranch Cream Cheese Stuffed Jalapenos, Honey Sriracha Chicken Wings, Mussels in Belgium Beer Curry, and Moguls’ Famous Walleye Cakes.
And don’t forget the dessert table which included Stout Dark Chocolate Fondue with: Applewood Smoked Bacon, Homemade Marshmallow, Fresh Strawberries, and Banana Beer Bread.
Saturday morning started off again with a full Bloody Mary Bar, breakfast buffet assorted eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, french toast, biscuits and gravy, and also a chef-attended omelet station.
The breakfast and the Brewers’ Reception are only available to the Full Barrel ticket holders that also included two-nights lodging. Saturday afternoon during the beer festival, food tickets were available for brats, hamburger, veggie burgers and tacos in a bag.
Voting for the winning brew was done by dropping a washer into the can labeled for each beer. Top honors went to Indeed for their Wooden Soul #7. Second place went to Fitger’s for their Blood Orange IPA, and third place once again went to the Boathouse Brewpub’s Blueberry Blonde.
Ely’s Boathouse Brewpub had won third place for Blueberry Blonde in 2012 and third place in 2013 for their Off Kilter.
Topping off all the great beers and great food there was music provided by Erik Berry from Trampled by Turtles Friday evening, Tim Haus from Lutsen Saturday afternoon and Saturday evening around the firepit it was Eric Frost from Tofte.
Caribou Highlands hopes to see its Hopped Up Caribou Beer Festival bring in more and more brewers each year along with more beer geeks and beer connoisseurs. Some of the shirts worn by the beer festival goers are pretty funny.
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