Considering the slightly sketchy travel arrangements in some early sections of the trip, everything went pretty smoothly. And I had zero books to bring back. Which is always good.
I visited a load of breweries. No shock there. Don't ask me to name them all. But Schell's in New Ulm was a particular treat. While certain large brewery's St. Louis brew house is a thing of tryue beauty.
Brewery taps of every size crossed my path as I stumbled sideways across five states. With the poise and sense of direction of a 15-pint luncher.
As always, I met a diverse bunch of people. Beer was always the thread that bound us, no matter what our other differences. A jailer, former detective, legendary veteran writer, university professor, 5th-generation brewer, former rollerderbyer, bloke from Middlesbrough, hand excavators, barrel wrangler, talkative Nigerian taxi driver, randy peacock, former truck driver, brewer's mum, Scotiaphile, cask fanatic, newlywed, new dad, farmer and student. Loads more I can't recall at the moment.
I loved meeting everyone and chatting, but even more so having someone actually effing listen to me expound lucidly on beer history*. And I crossed off three more states: Missouri, Minnesota and Indiana. Hoping to collect the full set of 48**.
Full reports to follow, arsing allowing. Just more pics for now.
See if you can guess where they're from.
* Drone on and on about crap I've found in brewing records.
** The contiguous US states.
Buy my new Scottish book. It's why I was in the USA.
Well the second photo is obviously a prison, unless it's a school.
ReplyDeleteHaha - the 2nd photo is part of a college (not the prettiest part, but still).
ReplyDeleteNope. The second picture is definitely at Hillsdale College in Michigan.
ReplyDelete#4 was the first sub basement at Earthbound in St Louis.
ReplyDeleteUnknown,
ReplyDeletecorrect.