July 15, 2015. Getting Surly in Minneapolis

LOCATION:  Minneapolis, Minnesota

WEATHER:  Cloudy. Highs in 80s

We walked around a residential area in Rochester where we stayed last night.  Many of the houses have beautiful landscaping.

On to Minneapolis, where our destination was the new Surly beer brewery. 

 

We learned that the original brewery first started when the owner became "surly" because he could not find craft beers in Minnesota, as he had tasted on the West Coast.  He built the first small brewery and Surly beers quickly became popular.  The owner is quite famous for changing the laws in Minnesota to allow beer and food sales in a brewery.  Once he successfully got the law changed, He built this huge complex, with a German-style beer hall on the first floor and gourmet restaurant on the second floor.  We had a platter of lamb sausage for lunch in the beer hall, then signed up for the brewery tour.

At the end of the tour, we sampled some beers and learned about their production and distribution.

George befriended the tour guide...

While we sampled the beers, the guide tested us with some trivia questions.  I won a free beer in the beer hall!  :-)

We met this fun group of women, coincidentally from Rochester, and invited them to share beers.  As usual, George was a hit with the ladies....

I checked out the gift shop.  This onesie is so cute!

We returned the rental car at the airport, then went to a motel.  

DINNER:  Leftover pizza from last night's Redwood Room pizza.