Beer without ye booze, and a (secret) wine sale

By Jeff Zeitler on Thursday, March 14th, 2024

And here I thought Urban Forage couldn’t make beer.


We can’t, but we found a way to make something that sorta tastes like beer, and is gluten free and is actually pretty good. If you like a good Boddington’s bitter ale or another such ESB-style beer. Very hoppy and a nice, slightly creamy amber finish. Not a hint of gluten in it, as no grain was harmed to produce it. So it’s safe for all of our regulars, and safe for those on the wagon to boot.


Try it on draft for $6 while you’re in our taproom. Some comments so far: “Are you sure there’s no alcohol in this?” Yep. “It’s reallllllly hoppy!” Oh yes. “Yuk! This is horrible!” —That last one was my teenage daughter, which made me smile.


The feast of St. Patrick often is a boozefest of bright green spandex and silly top hats. But if you like, you could spend a more sedate day with us on the 17th having a very civilized Amber Hop water with us and listening to Paraiso Musical on the radio in the taproom. It’s often quite quiet here on March 17th, so we’d welcome your company and we’ll do what we can to provide you a safe haven from the chartreuse and teal mayhem.


Also, in a ever so slightly more festive mode, we have Ireland trivia tonight. All questions are focused on: 1. Contemporary Irish music 2. Irish history 3. Irish geography. Nothing about leprechauns or Lucky Charms, I’m sorry to say, if that was what you were hoping for. But it should still be fun. Come win a bottle of dry cider!


By the way- the photo at the top of the page? It’s a young woman holding a stalk of Irish giant rhubarb, a monster perennial not really related to the plant most Minnesotans grow in our backyards, but similar enough to warrant the name. It’s considered an invasive species in Ireland and Scotland, but it sure does look nifty.


Oh, and the secret wine sale? This is the only place you’ll hear about it. I won’t be posting about it on social media, so consider this your only notification. We have a few wines that we have small quantities left from previous batches, but not enough room on our chalkboard to post all of them. So we’re clearing them out, at least for the most part.


These are bottles that we’ve been cellaring for a while, in some cases, for years. Why? A few to save for personal consumption, some to save for seasonal use, others were just forgotten about. These are some of the spendier wines- our $42 and $45 bottles. This week, we’ll be clearing them out for $25 each, all varieties. That includes sales taxes, so $25 is your cost out the door.


The list includes:

Blackcurrant wine

Cherry melomel

Apricot melomel

Frontenac, 2019 vintage

Plum wine

all $25 per bottle


Yes, you can tell your friends. It’s not that much of a secret, but we don’t have a lot of bottles of some of these batches. So come when you can, but don’t expect a reminder!


Now in music- we have our ever growing list!


First, the jam sessions:


March 30, 4-6 PM:Irish Session Musicians

April 7, 2-4 PM:Bluegrass and Oldtime songwriters circle

April 13, 1-3:30:French Canadian Music jam

April 14, 2-4 PM:Slow Irish session


Now, the Friday at 7 PM shows:


March 15: Matthew Hope guitar

March 22: Vlad Messing

March 29: Pete Hofmann

April 5: Dueling Mandos

April 12: The Daily Norm

April 19: Peter Ruddy

April 26: Brethren Bones

May 3: RJ Vocal

May 10: Phil and Bill

May 17: Shakute


And of course, trivia!


March 14: Ireland

March 21: Freinds

March 28: Seinfeld

April 4: Harry Potter

April 18: The Office

April 25: Dune


We hope to see you soon!


Cheers,

Jeff and Gita Z