How to Talk Like a Beer Geek: All About the Hops!

Welcome to the latest installment of How to Talk Like a Beer Geek. Today, it’s all about the hops! Whether you like super hoppy beers or malty beers with very little hoppy flavors, hops are a major player in every beer. Just ask the Reinheitsgebot! Ummm... Yeah, we will get to the Reinheitsgebot another time.... for now, let’s get HOPPY!

The first term for today is NOBLE HOPS. There are four noble hops out there; Saaz, Tettnanger, Spalt, and Halltertua. These hops all have low bitterness and are hops with lots of aroma. Some specific beers must be brewed with these noble hops to be considered “genuine” for their beer style. Also, lots of people will tell you that to be considered true noble hops these hops must be grown in a specific region. This whole noble hops thing sounds a bit stuffy to me and elitist, but we gotta know the terms so we can scream out our beer geekiness!

The next hop term is FRESH HOPPED/WET HOPPED. These terms mean the same thing. Basically it is using hops in a beer that have been very recently picked and have yet to be dried out. This brings different levels of oils in the hops to the beer and really can make a hug difference in a beer, even from using the same hops but ones that have been dried out. You see fresh/wet hopped beers seasonally around fall each year after the hops have been harvested.

The final term for today before we... ummm... hop outta here... is DRY HOPPED. No, this isn’t what your neighbor’s dog is trying to do to your leg, but rather dry hopping a beer is the brewing practice of adding hops to a beer after the boil. Usually hops are added at different stages during the boil, depending on if the hops are used for aroma or bitterness. But dry hopping again will give different flavors and aromas than a beer that is just hopped during the boil. It’s all about getting different stuff out of the same ingredient by using it in a different way!

So there you go! A few hoppy beer geek terms for all you hop heads out there. Now, hop on over to your local tap room, have a beer, and talk hops!

A Night Out at Urban Growler

Last week I finally had some free time to check out someplace on my brewery list, someplace I’ve been eagerly waiting to have a beer at. A free night from chores and work, out at the newest brewery in St. Paul? Add in the historical aspect of this being the first women owned and brewed microbrewery in Minnesota and my interest is peaked.  After work I headed right over to Urban Growler without delay to get a look at this highly talked about brewery for myself.

First impressions are one of the most important pieces of any first meeting, even when that meeting is between you and a new brewery. I like a taproom where I feel comfortable, where I can sit and have beer with a friend or on my own while working. I want to be treated like I’m welcome and walking into Urban Growler felt like I was being welcomed into a friends home. Not only was Urban Growler clean and comfortably lit, but its exposed brick walls and local photography gave the taproom a cozy feel. I found a seat and settled in when something caught my eye. On a chalkboard, near the center of the room, boasted a message. ‘Kill the keg’ it begged of me. If I could kill the keg of Rhubarb Wit I could be the proud winner of a pint glass.  I knew then what my first beer would be.

It was only moments before my server came by to take my order and I almost fell off my chair when he handed me a food menu. Dear Gods of beer, thank you for the tap rooms with food. As someone who regularly suffers from the dreaded drunken munchies (there was that time the hubby had to step in and abort my after festival Dominoes order before it reached the triple digits), I am grateful for even a frozen pizza. But a full, fresh, hot menu of options? For not the first time in my life I regretted that snack before leaving work. Believe me though when I tell you, that I caught myself staring at my fellow patrons, perhaps somewhat creepily, as they devoured delicious looking food. Next time food menu, I will come for you.

But I did have the beer (poor review this would be if I didn’t). I did start with the Rhubarb Wit and if they have any left (spoiler alert: I did not kill the keg. I tried.) you should make it a priority to try before we are fully in the grasp of fall. Summery and fresh, the rhubarb was not overpowering, more of a sweet tangy after taste. I was pleasantly surprised to taste that the coriander in the beer wasn’t overdone, but just right. I don’t mind spices in my beer but often times I find that they are overpowering to the other flavors and my palate. The balance in this was perfect. I had two.

Rhubarb Wit (left) and Blueberry Wheat (right)

Next up was the Blueberry Wheat, the menu boasting that this was the second in their Plow to Pint™ series. Plow to Pint™…my farm girl roots were intrigued. What Urban Growler is doing is partnering with local farms for some of their ingredients, literally from the farm plow to the pint in your hand. As I continued reading I found that the Rhubarb Wit was the first beer in this series. I love the fact that the brewery is sourcing local ingredients and supporting their farm community. The concept isn’t new to the restaurant world but this is the first time I’ve noticed a brewery taking up the model. Genius. And it shows in the beer. The Blueberry Wheat, also fresh and fruity, yet not overly sweet. I find most wheat beers to be very drinkable and this beer was right on in that aspect.  Hopefully this one stays around a little into the fall so I can give it a second go around.

For my next beer (don’t worry, I wasn’t driving) I went for the Cowbell Cream Ale. For my ‘quantity’ drinking I like a good cream ale and this is a good cream ale. Trust me, you’ll like it if you’re a fan of cream ales. Light and fresh, it’ll quench your thirst a couple times over without knocking you on your butt. I wish I’d gotten a growler.

I probably should have left after that one, but since I wasn’t driving, I decided to have one more…a little one though! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, at Urban Growler you can get a half pint! I love it! Sometimes, I want a little less beer. Usually because in the long run I’d like to drink a little more beer, but different beers. There’s nothing worse than staring at a lovely beer menu, knowing that with that slightly full feeling, you’ll have to cut your sampling short.  But the half pint gave me room to explore! Which I did with the Amber Skyline, a gorgeous amber ale. This was perhaps my favorite of the night, which surprised me. While I like ambers, they aren’t usually my first selection. I will be going back for this one though. It was a smooth, caramel beer with that wonderful sweet maltiness to it. This one will have its place in my fall beer rotation.

With work coming early in the morning I had to bring the night to a close. I thanked my servers, who were beyond friendly and fun. On the way out I checked out the beer garden and was a little sad that it had been too blustery out, and I too summerly dressed, to have enjoyed a beer outdoors. It was beautiful though and as soon as the weather permits, I plan going back to enjoy it with my pup. It’s always a plus to sit enjoy a great beer with your best friend. Even if next time I’ll have to drive because, well, he’s a dog. There will be a next time though, and a time after that. So check out Urban Growler if you haven’t already. I for one can’t wait to see what they have in store for St. Paul.

http://www.urbangrowlerbrewing.com/

Beers - Doggy Style!



Hola beer peeps! I’m Moe Pug. I hijacked Beerploma to let all you dog lovers out there know that we pups like to go out for beers too! Well, obviously we are too young to drink (evidently you humans refuse to acknowledge dog years at bars!), but we love getting all cleaned up and going out on the town with our beer lovin’ humans. So, my big brother Maverick and I hit the streets to check out some pawesome dog friendly patios where our mom and pop can get a tasty craft beer.

(Maverick and I hitting the streets!)

First we hit up 612Brew. They have a really pawesome patio with all sorts of different tables, a fountain thingy, and of course great beer! The patio is big enough so we were able to find our own table out of the way a bit from the other peeps. My humans each had a flight of beers. I didn’t know beers could fly! He-he... ok, back to it... All were great beers, but the one problem was that by the time they got to the last beer it was pretty warm. That ain’t the breweries fault though, it was like a gazillion degrees out! Next time, maybe a pint at a time. Or, papa could quit being a sissy and drink faster. Either way this is a great patio to bring us furbuddies to and they have great beers!

(612 Patio)

(612 Flight)

(Maverick on 612's Patio)

(Maverick and Papa at 612)



Next I decided to lead my pack over to Indeed Brewing Co. It was less than a mile walk from 612 with plenty of things for me to pee on along the way. When we got to Indeed’s patio this nice lady brought my brother and I each a bowl of tasty cold water. The bowls even had Indeed’s logo all over them, just like the pint glasses. Nice touch!

(Maverick having a drink at Indeed)



Papa and moms had a special beer at Indeed. It was a Mojito Shenanigans. They infuse Shenanigans, which is their summer ale, with lime juice, pineapple juice, and mint. Pretty refreshing on a hot summer day and a perfect patio beer! This stuff must have been pretty dang good cuz mama wouldn’t shut up about it!

(Mojito Shenanigans at Indeed)

On the way home Pops wouldn’t stop complaining about how hungry he was. So, I took him to The Happy Gnome in Saint Paul to shut him up... He can get a bit cranky if you don’t feed him when he is hungry. They have a really nice patio. In fact this patio was Maverick’s fav of the day, probably cuz papa gave him a french fry for being a good dog all day. The nice lady here gave us a bowl of water too, which was good cuz I did a lot of walking... Aaaand as you can see, I am a bit... well... let’s say plump.

(I needed a little drink in the shade)

The Happy Gnome has 76 craft beers on tap and a bunch in bottles as well! That is freakin huge! The food was tasty as well. Papa ordered poutine with wild game gravy and sweet and sour pork wings to go along with his Hell or High Water Mellon beer. I had one of the fries from the poutine... Dude, they are dang tasty!

(My brother kickin it at the Happy Gnome)

At this point I think we were all ready for a couch and some AC, so we hit Dennis Brothers Liquors in Cottage Grove for some beers to bring back home. The peeps here were really nice to me and Maverick. They gave us head scratches and we each got a cookie! This place has a boat load of top notch beers too. They are a member of Sidewalk Dogs, which is a great site to discover places to bring us pups. Papa made his selections with help from the pawesome staff and we headed home. 

(I wish I had thumbs so I could open the door to Dennis Bros!)

All and all a pretty durn good day for a pug like me! My brother and I got some exercise, some belly rubs, plenty of water, got to pee on all sorts of stuffs, and even got a french fry! And of course ma and pa got some fine craft beers. So next time you decide to go have some beers on a patio on a nice sunny day, don’t forget your furbuddy cuz we love doing that stuffs too!

Moe Pug OUT!!!

http://www.612brew.com/

http://www.indeedbrewing.com/

http://thehappygnome.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DBLINC

http://www.sidewalkdog.com/



Saint Paul Summer Beer Fest - A Whole Lotta Beer!

The Saint Paul Summer Beer Fest was a great event. There were tons of brews, actually over 100 breweries and over 400 beers! Out of all of them, the best one as voted for by fans was Dangerous Man Brewing Company out of Nordeast Mpls. Good job Dangerous Man! They seem to be winning a lot of awards lately, and having had a lot of their beers it makes total sense. Unfortunately, as often happens at this large of an event, I never got to their booth. But, I did have a lot of other great beers. So, let’s get to it!

(Crowd Around Dangerous Man)

Let’s start with one of my favorite breweries, Bent Brewstillery. Last year at this event was where Bent made its debut and gave Dark Fatha to the world. This year Bent brought Dark Fatha that had been aged in rye whiskey barrels. WOW! This beer was awesome! Dark Fatha is a very smooth approachable beer. Barrel aging this beer added depth to it while maintaining the smoothness. There was no boozy bite like lots of barrel aged imperial stouts. But, if you want a bit of a bite they had ghost peppers that you could toss into your glass to spice things up. Bent Brewstillery is doing awesome things. It has been fun to watch them grow and to have seen how their beer has evolved from the beginning till now. Expect more greatness to come from these guys!



(Bent Brewstillery Pourin' The Good Stuff!)

Next up we have one of the newest breweries on the block, Tin Whiskers BrewingCompany. This brewery just recently opened in St. Paul, so I wanted to see what they are doing. I tried the Wheatstone Bridge. This beer is an American style wheat beer made with chamomile and honey. It has an almost chai tea flavor to it. It has ginger and floral notes along with a nice sweetness. It is a refreshing beer with an awesome original flavor. Although I am not sure I could sit down and drink a whole 6 pack of it, it shows how creative brewers can be with beer and makes me think we are going to see some awesome creations from Tin Whiskers going forward.

(Third Street Out Back)

ThirdStreet Brewhouse never fails to bring something tasty to these parties and they didn’t let us down at this fest with Hunny Do. This beer is a wheat beer with honey dew melon. The smell of this beer had a nice melony scent along with a hint of a cinnamon toast crunch, although only the melon flavor stuck around when the beer hits your tongue. It’s crisp, refreshing, and fruity. Thanks for never letting us down, Third Street!

Now let’s hit a couple “unbeers”. First up is Angry Orchard. They brought a hard cider with elderflower. We tried this purely because earlier we were talking with our Norwegian friend about elderflower. And then, BAM, an elderflower cider.... It was meant to be! This cider was sweet, slightly floral, fruity, and light. It was a good drinkable cider and was a great departure from a typical “just apple” hard cider. I know this is a beer blog, but Angry Orchard deserved a little cred for this one for sure!

(Great Music At The Beer Fest)

Our last beer of the day is a shout out to Vicky who writes our blog series Confessions of a Sober Cab; Lift Bridge Brewing Company’s Root Beer. Vicky said it was sweet but not overly sweet nor bitey and was a good mellow root beer. Thanks for bringing something hand crafted for our sober cab, Lift Bridge!  

(Three Marks Means Trouble!)

All in all I had a great time at the Saint Paul Summer Beer Fest. There was more beer than I could ever imagine, the rain stopped right before pulling into the parking lot, and the crowd was fun and festive. Chop Liver knows how to throw a great beer party!

(My Crew And I Havin' Fun!)

Road Trippin' to the Twin Ports Brewfest

(Twin Ports Brewfest in Action)

Last month, My friend Chris and I made the ridiculously icy trek from Saint Paul to Duluth for the Twin Ports Brewfest at the Black Bear Casino. It was cold and the roads sucked, but once we got there and the beer started flowing we had a blast!

One thing that struck me was the fairly small brewery turn out. I have been to a lot of beer events and this one had the least amount of breweries. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty. And actually I am not sure this was a bad thing.

The smaller amount of breweries, while it limited variety a little bit, made it possible to actually hit every booth to sample every brewery. With most events having 30-70 breweries, this is impossible. Sometimes that leads to missing out on some pretty good beers. This time I was able to hit every booth and sample a beer from every brewery there.... although I didn’t hit up the wineries and of course skipped the Coors Light booth and the booth that had the Hard Mike’s and Hard Teas. What were those last two even doing there?!?!

It was nice to be out of town and trying some local breweries I haven’t tried before. Different area, different local breweries, right? One that stuck out, and actually was my favorite of the day, was Thirsty Pagan out of Superior, WI. They had one of only a few “special beers”, a sour! I love sours, and this one was good. Tart, a tiny bit funky, and not covered up with fruit. I like fruit sours, but I love a sour that can just stand on it’s own. This was my favorite of the event.

 

(Thirsty Pagan)

Chris’ favorite was the Apricot Wheat by Fitgers. Chris is somewhat new to the craft beer scene. It’s awesome when someone somewhat new to craft beer finds a beer that they say they could drink all day. This beer was a little malty, kind of fruity from the apricot, and really smooth. I swear he hit up that Fitgers stand so many times he was probably close to being on a first name basis with them by the end of the day!

 

(Fitgers)

There was a bit of a downer during the concert portion of the event. There was a small break where they got rid of all the brewery booths for the concert. The Dropkick Murphy’s totally rocked the house! But when we decided we wanted a beer, all they had for sale were a few national brands.

 

(Dropkick Murphys Rockin' Out)

It was the casino that was handling the beer and alcohol sales at this point. But seriously, this was a craft beer event! You have a huge room full of craft beer drinkers! After spending the day drinking awesome craft beers all you can offer me is a Bud or a Miller Lite? Ugh! We had mixed drinks instead.

 

(Crap Beer... C'mon Man!)

All in all this was a pretty fun event. A couple small tweaks and maybe another couple breweries and this event will be top notch. I’m always up for a road trip, so I am sure I will be back!

http://thirstypaganbrewing.com/
http://fitgersbrewhouse.com/
www.twinportsbrewfest.com
 

Minnesota, Land of Ten Thousand Beers... Or is it 4?

I was reading an article on Vita.mn that had "Beer Experts" pick a MN 6 pack of fame. I have a bone to pick with these "Beer Experts."

 

Every week there seems to be another list like this. The silly part is that they are all the same! Sometimes I wonder if these "experts" are going to the same bars and beer stores in MN that I am.

 

MN has so many great craft breweries and beers. We have such an awesome diversity of beers. MN as a state is at the forefront of the craft beer movement, but yet these types of lists never change.

 

We have a Surly beer, check! We have a Summit beer, check! We have a Schells beer, check! Throw on Grainbelt for the hipsters, Check! And throw on maybe one lesser known MN beer to make it seem like we have cred, Check!

 

I LOVE beer! Heck, even more I LOVE MN beer! I drink a fair amount of it weekly.... let's just call it blog research...He-he!... But I haven't had a Surly or Summit in a long time. I tried Schell's Star of the North and Goose Town, but other than that haven't had Schell's in forever.

 

Grainbelt? Uhhh.... couldn't tell you the last time I had one of those... Probably a night when I had already had a few good beers at a friends house and maybe accidentally grabbed the wrong bottle out of the fridge or something.

 

I do want to be clear, I am not trying to bash any of the breweries, or their beers, on these types of lists. More what I am doing is questioning why these "Beer Experts" can't get off a kick that started many years ago, and for most of us ended years ago too. 

 

Surly and Summit are not the only game in town anymore. They haven't been for a while now. By only making readers aware (again and again and again and again) of these few beers the "Beer Experts" are selling our craft beer scene short. It takes something that is really awesome about our area and makes it seem so small, dull, and old.

 

So, I am going to make a pledge. This weekend I am going to drink nothing but MN beers. I am going to open my eyes to some new MN beers and I am NOT going to drink a Surly, a Summit, a Schell's, or a Grainbelt... although I wasn't going to be hitting up that last one anyways.... All I want to know is, who's coming with me, man?

 

 

(Here is the article if you want to take a look:  http://www.vita.mn/best-of/230914481.html)

Take Me Out to the Beer Game

 

 

 

I will just come out and admit it… I am not a baseball guy. It just isn’t my sport. I need a sport that has violent collisions on a regular basis, like football, hockey, heck even NASCAR. I probably catch a combined total of one inning of baseball a year.

 

That said, recently I had a chance to go to Target Field to see the MN Twins try to play baseball for a work outing… Let’s see; sit at my office all afternoon or go drink some beer on a sunny afternoon at the ol’ ball park…. Easy decision!

 

Baseball aside, I was actually really excited to go. I had heard great things about the ballpark; the beer, the food, the views, and it didn’t disappoint.

 

Target Field itself is a beautiful ball park! It’s new, clean, and easily accessible. Even though we had the cheap seats the view of the field was great, and we didn’t need a Sherpa to get to them!

 

 

 

 

Blah, blah, baseball, ballpark… Whatever, lets get to the beer side of things! This place is a beer drinker’s paradise. It was great to finally go to a stadium and have options other than beers that start with the word Miller or end with the word Light.

 

My first stop was right inside the gate I entered, Twin’s Pub. Just a normal average looking hot dog, nachos, and beer type stand that is at every stadium I have ever been to except this one had tasty beers! I went for a bomber of Summit Extra Pale Ale. Nothing too adventurous obviously, but I have always liked this beer and never have ordered a bomber of it, so why not?

 

 

 

 

I walked through the concourses searching out other fun beer stuff and found Hrbek’s. Hrbek’s is a full service sports bar inside the ballpark named after former Twin’s first baseman Kent Hrbek… He played back when the Twins were good. Anybody remember that? I didn’t get a drink there because I was still working on my Summit, but the place looked nice and at least had leinie’s on tap.
 

 

After watching a couple innings of baseball with my coworkers I headed back out for another beer. I came across a small beer counter the size of a large walk in closet built into the wall called Twin’s Brews, Beers of Twin’s Territory. This little place was awesome! They had countless local craft beers. It was a cool touch to see the hometown team promoting hometown beers. We need more of that type of stuff if you ask me. I had a Lost Trout by Third Street Brewhouse. It was a little on the chilly side that day, so a good brown ale went down great!
 

 

The Twins lost, but I was really impressed with the wide selection of craft beer available at Target Field. The beer combined with some great food stands, like Foods of the State Fair and a variety of sausage vendors among other things, makes for a great fan experience, even if you are not a fan in the first place.
 

On a quick side note, Beerploma was nominated for Best Beer Blog in the Growler’s Kind-of-a-Big-Deal awards. Thanks to those who nominated us! If you like what you read here, please take a second to go to www.growlermag.com/vote and vote for beerploma.blogspot.com for best beer blog (category number 18). 

Wisconsin's Finest!

Life has been pretty busy this summer. My wife and I really needed to hit the open road together for a short vacation and some beer. Since my wife’s favorite beer, as well as one of mine, is Spotted Cow from New Glarus Brewing it was easy to decide where to go; New Glarus, Wisconsin.

New Glarus is a small town nestled in the rolling hills of south central Wisconsin which boasts a deep sense of Swiss tradition. In fact, it is often referred to as “Little Swiss Town”. It really is this town’s thing. A majority of the buildings look like chalets straight out of the Alps. They have a Swiss bakery, a Swiss chocolate shop, a Swiss meat market, and a great Swiss restaurant which was oddly called the New Glarus Hotel. I say oddly because it was not a hotel and they have no rooms. Figure that one out! While we really enjoyed the town that was not why we were there. We came for the brewery!

(New Glarus Hotel Restaurant)

The New Glarus Brewery is absolutely beautiful! It has almost an old farm type feel to its architecture but has landscaping that will just blow you away, like the huge stone stairs and creek leading to the entrance. We were already amazed and we had barely gotten out of the car!

(Me standing outside New Glarus Brewing)

(My wife, Vicky sitting by the creek in front of the brewery)

The front of the place is nothing compared to the back. They have a huge patio beer area with vast views of the rolling hills and farmland below. Forget taprooms, forget little beer patios, this was bar none the best beer drinking area I have ever seen associated with a brewery. Words can’t describe it, heck pictures barely describe it. In person it was breathtaking.

(The view from the beer drinking area)

 (Drinking beer on the New Glarus Patio)

We grabbed a couple of tasters and headed into the actual brewery for a self-guided tour. New Glarus was brilliant when putting this place together. Basically you walk through a glass hallway where you can see all the inner workings of the brewery, but you get to go at your own pace with a beer in your hand. Plus, no overhead of tour guides for the brewery! It’s very clean, dry, and quiet, which if you tour breweries often you probably know this isn’t always the case.

(Cheers from inside New Glarus!)

(It's working!)

 (Great words to live by inside the brewery)

But back to the beer, which is why we came in the first place. It was a little bit spendy, but for such a beautiful environment for beer drinking I was fine with it. A taster flight of 3 beers of your choice was $3.50, which isn’t a bad price when you add in that you get to keep your taster glass. If you wanted a pint it would cost you 5 bucks (refills were a couple bucks cheaper), but again you walk out with a nice pint glass out of the deal. Heck, they will even rinse it out and wrap it up for you. Talk about attention to customer service and detail!

The most expensive beer we had was a pint of Serendipity. Man, was this beer great! It is a fruit sour ale made with cranberries, cherries, and apples. It was a creation which came about due to a Wisconsin cherry crop that was devastated by a drought in Wisconsin. Thus, instead of making their usual cherry sour beer they used some different fruits and Serendipity was born! It’s fruity, sour, dark, thick and perfect! It came in at a whopping 9 bucks for a pint, but consider that this is a beer that you will pay around 10 or so for a bomber of it at a liquor store. And of course, you keep the glass.

(Vicky enjoying a pint of Serendipity on the beer patio at New Glarus)

We didn’t want to leave, but there was more exploring to do in town and if we didn’t want to have to walk the couple miles back to our hotel room it was time to go. Lucky for us, New Glarus has a beer cave where we could buy some brews to go!

We hit the beer cave and found, among other beers, a strawberry rhubarb beer. It was amazing. It’s a wild fruit ale that had a great tart and sour taste of rhubarb balanced out with the sweetness of strawberries. It reminds one of summer time picnics with strawberry rhubarb pie. What a creative beer!

New Glarus Brewing only sells its beers in Wisconsin. In fact they have a motto, “Drink Indigenous.” Lucky for me I am in Wisconsin almost every weekend.

I did have one beer I did not like, but it had nothing to do with New Glarus Brewing. We went to dinner at a Swiss restaurant. They had some pretty good food, but I think I took the whole Swiss thing too far when I tried the one Swiss beer they had on the menu. It was bad. I couldn’t really tell you anything about this beer because the label is not in English. I drank it, but it was just plain not a good beer. But, when in little Swiss town… right?

(Yuck)

We had a great time in New Glarus, WI and at New Glarus Brewing in particular. The area is beautiful, the town is beautiful, the brewery is beautiful, but most importantly the beer is spectacular! The brewery is worth the drive to New Glarus and the beer is definitely worth the drive to the Wisconsin border.

One last thing! If you enjoy reading  our blog, whether it's for Adventures of a Beginning Home Brewer, Rise of the Beer Barron, our Brewery Series, or just for beer reviews, please take a moment to nominate us (beerploma.blogspot.com) for the best beer blog in the Kind of a Big Deal awards. Just click on the link here, http://growlermag.com/nominations/  and go from there. It only takes a minute and would mean the world to us!