King Gambrinus – Patron Saint of Beer!
We keep waiting for serious beer drinking weather to get here, and it keeps sliding from spring back into winter, (like this upcoming weekend) but we know it will warm up sooner or later. In the meantime, we thought it would be good to celebrate yet another beer based holiday, which brings us to this week’s edition of…
Ask the Brewer
What’s a good day to celebrate beer in April?
While today (April 7th) is National Beer Day, we decided to go with a more obscure, lesser known beer holiday. (Although, there is nothing stopping you from celebrating both!) King Gambrinus Day is celebrated on April 11th and it honors Gambrinus, the supposed King of Flanders, who, in the late 13th century is credited with first adding hops to beer. As such, he is considered one of the “unofficial” patron saints of beer.
A look at the history behind this suggests that the addition of hops can be ascribed to either John the Fearless, AKA Jean Sans Peur (1371-1419), otherwise known as Ganbrivius, or, earlier in history, Jan Primus – John I (around 1251). Either name can plausibly have evolved over the centuries into Gambrinus, the King of Beer. While John I was a scion of the burgundy line of princes, neither he nor John the Fearless was a king. However, when you look at how important beer is to human development, nothing less than king-hood can be bestowed on this man.
Taproom Tidings
We are down to our final keg of Cranberry Shandy for the season. We know many of you may be sad about this, but don’t worry, we’ll have it back before long. (It is the Midwest after all, and winter is coming… I swear I saw snow this morning… WTF?!) Come on down to the taproom and help us kill the keg so that we can make room for tapping Dane’s latest version of our American Lager. This version is a little drier than our last, so the hop flavor is more pronounced.(Updated 4/9/16)
This weekend also brings us a brand new food truck on Friday, April 8th with the arrival of Patacones and their enticing Colombian Street Food. Saturday, April 9th we’ll be featuring Tollefson Pork Farm and their fusion of farm fresh offerings and pork deliciousness. (per usual, both menus are exclusively gluten-free, but you’re not really surprised by that…)
- Tap selection includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey Ale, Cranberry Shandy, Raj-Agni IPA, Parched Lime Shandy, and American Lager
- Thirsty Thursdays $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills (no growler or grumbler fills after 8pm on Thursdays)
- Coconut Turtle Cupcake from Groundswell includes a coconut chocolate fudge cake with pecans, whipped cream, honey caramel sauce, and chocolate ganache
Final Thoughts
While we have no events running this weekend, we want to mention that there is an upcoming event that people may want to check out. Our second ever gluten-free beer pairing dinner in partnership with the Signature Cafe! This event is occurring on Sunday, April 24th, and will feature Dane pairing five of our beer styles against five gluten-free dinner courses prepared by Signature’s own Derek Grams. If you were on the wait list for the first dinner, give Signature Cafe a call, 612-378-0237, as you will have preferred placement for this second dinner!
As always, if you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook or Twitter.
Cheers!