Beer and Ice Cream - Summit tour and Izzy's

On Saturday we went on the Summit Brewery tour in the afternoon. The tour itself was ok. The brewery is small, so the tour was short. Our tour guide didn't know a whole lot about brewing. She was trying to give the tour off of her note cards. I don't know how long she's been doing this, so hopefully she is still getting the hang of it. The other half of the people there got a tour guide who was actually one of the brewers. That may have gone better.

The best part of most brewery tours is the free beer at the end. We were each given 3 wooden tokens good for free beer. Since my wife only had 2, that left 4 for me. She started with the HefeWeizen, which I got a sip or 2 of. She didn't really care for that beer, although she liked it enough to finish it. She thought it was too bitter, I'm not sure that it was bitter but I knew what she was talking about and couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it's a little dry on the finish? It seemed pretty typical of other hefes I've had (which isn't a lot). Anyway... she then went on to the Scandia Ale, which is a Belgian style ale. I, again, had a sip. We both agreed that one was very good. It would be a great beer for hot summer afternoons.

I started with the Great Northern Porter. It had kind of a light body for a porter, which was refreshing, and it was bitter on the finish like porters are. I don't drink a lot of porters, but I wouldn't hesitate to grab one of these when I'm in the mood for a dark beer.

Next I got an Oatmeal Stout. I really liked this one. The color of it was gorgeous, it was slightly sweet with flavors of chocolate, coffee, and caramel, and it was very smooth. This one is not available in bottles and is only distributed in kegs, so you'll have to find a place that has it on tap to get some.



Next up was the Extra Special Bitters. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this one. I didn't know if it would be along the lines of an India pale ale or an extra pale ale. According to the website it has the same bittering units as the Porter, but it certainly didn't taste like it. The ESB was very well balanced and I enjoyed it quite a bit. There is also something very appealing about it's dark amber color.

I finished off our tokens with the Pilsener. The Pilsener was fine... not the best I've had, but certainly not the worst. Waaaaaay better than the "Great Pilsner taste of Miller Lite". It would probably also be very refreshing on a hot day. This day was not. It was like 52° and raining.

So... we decided to go to Izzy's Ice Cream Cafe in St. Paul after we were done drinking free beer. And what says ice cream more than 52° and raining? Frankly, nothing. We are such Minnesotans that any weather is perfect weather for ice cream. That's why people in Moorhead stand in line in the snow on March 1st for the walk-up Dairy Queen to open... every year.

We each got a waffle single (one scoop in a waffle cone). They make the waffle cones themselves. They are more substantial than your standard waffle cones, but are light enough not to make that a problem. They were pretty good cones. They plug the bottom of the cones with a malted milk ball, which is pretty neat but I'd rather eat a milk ball before ice cream than after it. The scoops are pretty big. A single may sound small, but it's probably enough for most people. I was wanting something chocolatey so I got the Chocolate Almond. That was always my favorite flavor from the Schwan's man growing up. My wife got the Irish Moxie, which I believe was an Irish whiskey flavored ice cream. It also had a coffee flavor to it. I don't like most things coffee. Izzy's also gives you a small scoop of something on top, which they call an Izzy Scoop. We both got Salted Caramel for our Izzys.

The Chocolate Almond was certainly delicious, simple but tasty. The Salted Caramel was awesome. It was very creamy, sweet from the caramel, and the hint of salty makes it very balanced. Very nice. We ended up taking a pint home.