My wife Becky and I love Duluth, it’s one of our favorite places to get away for a few days. It’s close(ish), beautiful in any season, and has a long history of craft beer.
It’s been a while since we had time to visit breweries so for my birthday (Halloween) we chose to return and check out new and a few previously visited breweries. Since our last stay, there have been three breweries open their taprooms in the area – Blacklist Artisan Ales, Hoops Brewing, and Earth Rider Brewing in Superior, Wisconsin. During our 3 day stay we called on 11 locations and had a wide variety of experiences and beers.
After the long drive, our first stop is the Dubh Linn Brew Pub for lunch. A typical American “Irish” restaurant and bar with great fish and chips with malt vinegar, they added their own brews in 2011. Becky and I never found them to be compelling or memorable. Decent beer though.
It was a pleasant surprise to find the beer offerings much improved. Becky had the Cobh IPA featuring a really pleasing biscuit and cracker malt backbone with enough American hops to remind you this in American IPA. I ordered the River Moy Dark Brown and really liked the rich, creamy chocolate favor and toasted bread notes. Both were well balanced, clean, and had excellent flavors. We wanted to try more but knowing we were visiting more breweries today, we decided to revisit on our next trip.
Next stop, our first bonafide brewery/taproom: Lake Superior Brewing. Somewhat hard to find, this was one of the oddest (and saddest) taprooms we’ve seen yet. Stationed at the end of an aging strip-mall-like business building on the West side of town, I wasn’t sure we really were in the right place. Entering the lobby felt like going into a low-rent office and finding the interior space gouged out to house a brewery/factory space. It’s obvious this space was never intended to house a taproom, it looks cobbled together once the Surly bill passed.
The taproom states it opens at noon but with all of the tables and chairs stacked up and brewers notes scattered across the bar, this felt more like we were interrupting someone’s workday to grab a beer. It was awkward. Someone finally noticed we were there and took our order. He was nice enough and served us what we asked for, then went back to his work. Again, nice enough, but awkward.
Becky chose the Sir Duluth Stout and I grabbed an Old Man Winter Warmer. We were surprised that both beers were pretty much undrinkable. We’ve had both beers in the past and gave them good scores but man, these were horrible. Hers was an absolute butterscotchy diacetyl bomb, the aroma and flavor even smelled oily. My winter warmer, though the description does mention peat smoked malt, was so out of balance as to taste like I was sucking on a chunk of burnt peat – not even the malt. We’re not sure what happened, even talked with the guy working and he mentioned something about new owners coming in (which we knew about) and thanks for the feedback. We purchased a growler for our collection (clear glass? really?) and left with our tastebuds looking for a real beer.
We stopped for a one-and-done at 7 West Taphouse on Superior and had Beaver Island’s 212 IPL (pretty good) and a Moon Boots Peanut Butter porter by F-Town.
We were staying at the Suites Hotel in Canal Park, the one wit the two water towers on top. A bonus for staying here, the Suites has a deal with Hoops Brewing (which is across the lobby) and Old Chicago (right next door) for a free happy hour 10oz. drink at both places each day. Guess what our next stop was? Hoops it is!
Replacing the previous Timberlodge Steakhouse, Hoops is a marked improvement! Long rows of bench stye seating at heavy, blonde wood tables with plenty of seating and a pretty neat display of the brewery behind the expansive bar. The signage for beers is displayed on chalkboard slats hung high above the bar so everyone has a clear line of sight. At 5:00, things were just starting to pick up and we chose a spot at the far end of the bar to saddle up to.
The staff was great, attentive, and accommodating. For our freebies we ordered up what we hoped to be better than the Lake Superior Brewing fiasco. Becky had the No. 9 Pomegranate Rye and I chose the No. 104 Scottish Ale. Becky really liked hers but I thought it tasted a like cough syrup (too much pomegranate?). The Scottish ale was delightful with caramel, toasted bread, and a touch of floral sweetness. It finished dryer than usual for a scotch ale but I rather liked that in this particular beer.
We ordered a second, and got the No. 13 UK Pale Ale and their No. 48 IPA. Both were very solid beers. The pale ale was a little bit surprising with some dry chocolate notes that were subtle but added a really neat complexity to this style of beer. Very well done! We wrapped up the day with some appetizers and few more brews at Old Chicago (they were free!). Probably could have finished up with something lighter but Rum King form Indeed is such a great desert beer.
We made plans for the next day to check out some ships (saw 2!), do little shopping, and hit Blacklist for certain – everything else was up in the air.
Stay tuned for day 2: Canal Park, Bla
