Perks of the Blog

Team Roundhouse! #selfie

On January 18th, I got to capitalize on the perks of the blog.

In early 2019, my wife, Ellie, and I had the opportunity to ride the Roundhouse bus to the St. Cloud Craft Beer Tour. We enjoyed every moment. I think that day reminded us of why we used to frequent Roundhouse so much (when we lived 20 minutes closer) – good people, a willingness to get goofy, slightly roudier than our usual gang, and a big inclusive vibe.

I wanted to go again in 2020. Since I was now Roundhouse’s blogger, I hit Holly up. She said, “Hell Yeah!” This time I would be going to do “field research” and “social” media. This is the blog post I promised I would write.

Chuck, our head brewer, invited me to ride with him. What a guy! And at about 9:30am, we sipped a coffee beer and headed out to the big shebang! 

We arrived at the St. Cloud Convention Center, and it was eerily quiet. Most of the booths were empty; it took a hot minute to find our table. Once we did, we hopped to it and set up our booth: a classic 10×10 tent, logos galore, and a big box filled with all of our favorite liquid goodness.

After a quick lunch, we showed up to a full Convention Center floor. People were more than ready to drink our beer. Our Ice Auger blonde was our featured beer of the day, as the big Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza was right around the corner. (Check out the blog post from last month for more information on that.) It was pouring much faster than the fish bite. We were also excited to share our Miss Galena sour, apple blueberry flavored, yum.

At the end of our booth, we had a Plink-O game setup. It always amazes me how excited grown-ass people get for free stuff. Like seriously, it’s a sticker. Are you a kid at the drive-up bank teller with your mommy? But who am I to judge? (I may or may not have a beer sticker covered fridge.)

The first highlight of my day was finally being able to drink Fergus Brewing. I LOVE their mandala logo, and couldn’t wait to try their beer. The crew was super chill and excited to share what they had brought. They had a breakfast stout that was on par with that big kid’s breakfast stout. I look forward to making a visit to Fergus Falls this summer.

An unexpected hit of the event was a blind taste test. I think this is the first of these events I have ever been a part of. Thirteen breweries were asked to submit a dark beer to be tasted and ranked. The overall winner was a peanut butter stout by Bad Habit. But my vote went to a hefty barrel aged imperial stout. I believe it was beer number six. Mmm…

The last highlight was meeting some of you. It’s always fun to see people you know online, but have never met. Thanks, Internet. You know who you are from that day. Thanks for reading this blog. And thanks for saying “Hey!”

Quickly, the event wrapped itself up. Lots of tasters had been drunk. Lots of small chats had been chatted. LOTS of our beer was poured. We wouldn’t have it any other way. Chuck and I made our way north, I took a cat nap, and all was good in the world. 

Cheers y’all.

-Zacharoo

(I am not sure what happened with the rest of our crew downtown
St. Cloud that night, but I am sure it was rad and definitely appropriate!)