Made it out to Fulton. Love this place.

Cliff Notes version of today.... Ate an early lunch at Mabes Pizza with bottles of Double Dry Hopped Pseudo Sue and King Sue on draft. Headed to Pulpit Rock to enjoy Loopey Lynn and Mr. hoppy Pants, two excellent unfiltered super IPA's, along with numerous samples from an adjacent bottle share going on...beer people are good people! Left for our pickup time and were in and out in 20 minutes.....Toppling Goliath has their **** down on releases....JesterKing needs to take notes. We drank more beer at Pulpit Rock and returned to Toppling Goliath around 2:45 to get in line for their tap room opening at 4:30 which would feature a 1/6 barrel of Assasin. It was about 9 degrees, but the cold really didn't settle in until around 4:00. We toughed it out until the opening and got pours of Assasin, Morning Delight, BBA Chainsmoker and Tour Moil. All were excellent, but the clear winner was Assassin, one of the best beers I have ever enjoyed...an ultra smooth stout with notes of roasted chocolate and plenty of dried fruit notes. Superb! A long day but a great day!!!

Every female there was a wife/gf that their significant other had entered into the contest and won. Most looked like they were having a good time...except for the girl from Brazil whose boyfriend dragged her up here to get him beer and United lost all thier luggage. I didn't see one smile on her face.

Ok, here's my quick writeup on the KBBS release day.

We left downtown Minneaplois at 8:00am for the 2.5 hour drive down to Iowa. The roads were clear so it was an easy drive. the ground and sky were the same color which made it a weird sight for this born and raised Texas boy. But then, a speck appeared and started growing bigger and bigger as it approached us. Gloriously, and this will make sense to those that saw my Halloween outfit, a brother Amish child of God was heading our way. Being Amish for a day was a moving experience for me (I went without my phone for an entire hour!) so I had to snap a pic:



We strolled into Decorah around 10:30 and decided to grab an early lunch to beat the crowd. We parked downtown and my first step on the ice was not successful. Much like my prison stint in '82, I complained about a sore ass the entire time I was there. I kid, prison wasn't that bad. We walked into Mabe's Pizza for a meal and some beer. They opened early that day for breakfast pizzas and King Sue on tap but no one told our waitress who arrived just as we did. She really had no idea what was going on that day. Management dropped the ball and she was clueless. After some misunderstandings, she brought out 2 Double Dry Hopped Psuedo Sue bottles. I couldn't drink a whole bottle so I passed but still had a sip. It was excellent. But then she figured out that King Sue was on tap and brought out 3 glasses. I drank most of mine and it was excellent as well.



After lunch it was time for La Fours and Turfman to pick up their bounty so we tried to figure out a way to get them there without losing our parking spot but no luck:



We strolled thru downtown, got in the car, and dropped them off around 12:30. I was fully expecting them to take an hour to pick up their beer so Mrs BSD and I drive back downtown and set up base at a coffee shop so we could work while we waited. As soon as my sore ass touched the chair to wait on my coffee I got a call from La Fours saying they were done. I changed my order to make it a roadie and off we went. We picked them up, loaded the beer into shippers, and found a parking spot at Pulpit Rock Brewing, about a block from TG. We walked into PR to the melodic sounds of Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man" and the day got even better. I had a sip of an IPA which was pretty darn good, talked to a few people and then it was Mrs BSD's turn to pick up. We walked over and she was in and out in 10 minutes. While she was in there I got to talking to some guys and we started the line for the taproom to open. It would be a 2.5 hour wait but the weather wasn't that cold and I would be guaranteed a pour of all the beers. Not being much of a drinker, I couldn't pass it up. So there we stood for 2.5 hours. The guys in front of us brought a propane tank heater so Mrs BSD stood next to it the whole time. I went for a short walk to warm up. La Fours and Turfman stumbled out of PR at about 3:00-3:30 and joined us in line (I had let everyone know they would be "returning" so it wasn't really cutting). We talked to everyone around us. NoCo sent us sore-loser texts about being cold weather wussies. It was fun. The weather started getting colder at 4:00 but the fact that we were 30 minutes from glory kept us warm. That and the heater.



At 4:30 we walked in and saw they had roped off a line to pick up one Assassin and another roped off line for other pours. They marked your hands for each rare beer you got to limit you to one each. For some reason my wife requested than my mark be modified to reflect my true character. The Assassin lasted about an hour before it floated.




The other beers we got were BA Chainsmoker (excellent), Term Oil (also very good but a step behind Assassin), and Morning Delight (I was a bit disappointed in this one but it was still a fun beer).



Since we got there early, we were able to grab one of the very few chairs along the wall and a barrel top in the corner. The place is tiny! It got pretty crowded.



Mrs BSD was a good sport. She had a good time and loved the Assassin. At about 6:30, we left Decorah and headed back to Minneapolis with a stop at Forager Brewing in Rochester for dinner. Here are a few more random pics from the drive back after a damn good day.

La Fours said:

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BSD said:

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Every female there was a wife/gf that their significant other had entered into the contest and won. Most looked like they were having a good time...except for the girl from Brazil whose boyfriend dragged her up here to get him beer and United lost all thier luggage. I didn't see one smile on her face.

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Man that was brutal. The Brazilian wife was piiiiiiiissed.

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The coolest thing that happened to me yesterday was a kickass dump.

Throwback to probably my first step into the craft beer world. Domed during a marathon session of Star Wars Rebellion this afternoon.

Not on y'alls level, but enjoying some beers in Mexico City, in between the wine and mezcal.

This beer is the tits... Should have bought more.

Got back this evening from the trip to Iowa with BSD and LaFours. I brought back of load of Toppling Goliath hop beers along with the lottery stouts. And Assassin is worth every bit of its hype. Overall an excellent trip with world class beers, great Aggie camaraderie and some good food, too, along with my first taste/enjoyment of poutine!

Made it back with a hell of a haul.

Oliphant Gobias
New Glarus Serendipity
New Glarus Raspberry Tart
Une Anne Peche
Hoppin Frog Borris the Crusher
New Holland Mischevous
Hoppin Frog Rocky Mountain D.O.R.I.S.
Central Waters Scotch Ale
Central Waters Stout
New Glarus Oud Bruin 2016
DFH World Wide Stout
TG KBBS
TG Assasin
TG King Sue
TG Sosus


Whoever it was that recommended Casanova Liquors in Hudson, WI, was nails. Brady there helped a ton and found a lot for me to take back to Texas. Really cool dude, and great place. Found some 3 Floyds Space Station Middle Finger on draft there. Even had some New Glarus Spotted Cow, which... meh.