Kyle Nabilcy
American pop culture is riddled with the adult male road trip trope — Swingers, The Hangover, Mad Max: Fury Road -- and they’re usually exercises in highlighting the dopey fragility of the men in question. Men are the worst, it’s true, but I’d like to self-servingly put forward me and my Beersball buddies as proof that there doesn’t always need to be a bewildering face tattoo or an embarrassing interaction with a waitress by the end of the weekend.
A quick recap is probably in order for those of you who haven’t been putting up with me on Twitter for the last five years or so. Beersball started as a fairly impulsive pilgrimage to Minneapolis for a Minnesota Twins ballpark-exclusive beer from Surly. It has developed into a deep and abiding friendship between four guys now living in three states, and a willingness to travel to a city to take in a baseball game we may care nothing about, eat a lot of food, and drink plenty of very good beer.
It may get a little self-punishing at times — do I really need this side order of hot vinegar-doused collard greens with my Nashville hot chicken? — but there’s no question the balance between the twin pursuits of quality and quantity is maintained throughout. If we go hard on something, it’s because it’s damn good.
This year was a return to the Twin Cities after two years of not being able to coordinate schedules. Unlike previous trips that were Minneapolis-heavy, however, we decided to give St. Paul its due. And among many points of interest on the map, St. Paul Beersball meant one thing for sure: Barrel Theory Beer Company.
Two former Surly employees left that brewery in late 2016 to eventually open Barrel Theory last summer. (In what can only be a headline writer’s dream scenario, one of those two ex-Surly employees’ last name is Splinter.) The young brewery has quickly become a go-to spot for hazy pale ales, aggressively fruited Berliners, and fudgy adjunct stouts — in other words, it was Beersball catnip.
We missed a bottle release by a couple weeks, but there were plenty of crowlers on hand to take home, plus a dozen taps, all house beers. Black Lotus (a milk stout with coconut) and Java Oats (an oatmeal stout with cold brew coffee) were table favorites and both available to go. A fruited Berliner weisse called MPG (for mango, passionfruit, and guava) was a blessedly jammy experience.
A panoply of IPAs and double IPAs touched on nearly as many hop varieties: Shooter McGavin (Citra), The Magic Man (Galaxy), Boat Shoes (Vic Secret, an unexpected hop choice). The very hazy Double Dry-Hopped Rain Drops, with Nelson Sauvin hops on top of Citra and Mosaic in the base beer, was a treat.
The merch was good, the staff was friendly — we could have stuck around all day, but there was more to see in St. Paul. Tin Whiskers Brewery is a pleasant neighborhood brewery, family-friendly with a lot of games to play and bottles to take home. A fun chocolate orange stout called Dynamo was a bottle release available on-site or to go; we shared it with a Beersball member’s brother and sister-in-law, who live nearby and brought in some Black Sheep pizza.
And if you dine out in St. Paul, do not skip Saint Dinette (especially for brunch), Revival (yes, the answer is yes to the collard greens question above), and multiple James Beard award nominee Michelle Gayer’s bakery Salty Tart. We found a dense and lovely chocolate cupcake made with Barrel Theory’s Black Lotus in the entirely tempting pastry case.
You are allowed, of course, to visit both St. Paul and Minneapolis, and if you hit the latter, we have plenty of fresh recommendations for you. Half of us had already been to the palatial new Surly brewery/taproom/restaurant, but this trip brought everyone up to speed. It’s great, and the new kitchen regime has kept the superior Hog Frites, a sort of poutine/nacho/Italian beef hybrid.
Bauhaus Brew Labs has a taproom that’s spacious in its own right, a social gathering spot with bean bag games and pinball, and of course all the light Germanic beers that make Bauhaus a perfect summer choice. The industrial location can be a little hard to find, but that makes it all the better when you do. Bauhaus is also one corner of an excellent triangle of breweries, along with Fair State to the north and Dangerous Man to the west. In a real value-add, Dangerous Man is neighbors with Young Joni, a deservedly hot restaurant in the Minneapolis scene.
The Minnesota Twins played a key role in getting Beersball started, and naturally it was key to making this year’s return edition come to pass. The June 8 game was also the second annual Prince Night, with ticket packages that included a quite dope Prince-symbolled purple paisley Twins cap, and a free inflatable light-up guitar for the first 10,000 people in the park. Oh yeah, we all got one of each.
Should you take in a Twins game, definitely look for the slightly out-of-the-way Gate 34 Draft Wall for some fine beers from Minnesota brewers like Bent Paddle, Modist, Fair State, and Insight. Get a wrap of some kind from the Holy Land booth, and definitely consider a cheddarwurst from James Beard America’s Classic winner Kramarczuk’s, like most of us did. Your trip to the Twin Cities doesn’t have to be the sausagefest that is Beersball, but hey, it works for us.