Shelley and I love trying new food and new beer. Read this blog regularly, and you'll see that we bond over food and beer! ... Well you can add meads, ciders and wines to her list too, but I generally stick to the beer! Although I'm trying to get into the whiskey game.
Our favorite days are to go bumming around town, usually beginning with some thrift shop adventures, mix in sampling something new at a restaurant we haven't tried, and ultimately hitting up one of the area craft breweries for something new. But, we haven't done that regularly in months. In fact, since our state shut down because of COVID in March, we hadn't had a date day like that. And we sorely missed it!
Well, this past Sunday, we broke the seal and hit up a restaurant we'd be excited to try and a new brewery that hadn't been open pre-COVID. We felt comfortable enough thanks to the fact that they both had patios where we could enjoy ourselves in the fresh air.
To be honest: I was a little giddy. I'd forgotten how much I love our outings built around two of our favorite hobbies, food and beer. And the beautiful summer day did not disappoint.
We chose to visit Swing Barrel Brewing Co., which had targeted opening in March but was postponed due to the pandemic. Persevering, Moorhead's newest brewery opened finally in early July before ultimately deciding to allow for only patio seating and off sale due to safety concerns.
Swing Barrel is the joyful story of two college buddies who didn't know then that they would reunite later in life to build a craft brewery. Owners Sean Syverson and John Kapla met in college at Minnesota State University Moorhead. After graduation Syverson left to teach language arts in South Korea and Kapla left for Minneapolis, but the two stayed in touch. And both happened to begin brewing beer as a hobby. Conversations eventually turned to the "what if" of making a living out of brewing beer, and the pair decided to come home to Moorhead, so to speak, to make a go of it.
They describe their beer-making style as traditional, but plan to open up their experimental sides as the business progresses. I look forward to that day!
Sunday wasn't the first time that Shelley and I had experienced Swing Barrel's goods. Earlier this summer in an attempt to support these entrepreneurs while they couldn't open their doors, we bought several cans each of their Honey Blonde Bombshell, Session One Amber Ale and Indies 4 Brown Ale.
While I enjoyed the Session One Amber Ale the most out of the three, I'll be honest we weren't convinced that any of them would make it into our regular beer rotation.
So I was excited when we got to Swing Barrel on Sunday to see that they had some new offerings on tap. We each had two glasses, and I went with the Squeeze Play Wheat IPA and the 6-4-3 IPA. Shelley opted for the El Luchador Mexican Lager and a Sugarfoot, Jr. Vanilla Oatmeal Stout.
Well ... drum roll, please ... the results were similar to the first three beers we tried earlier this summer. ... None of the beers was bad, but none stood out either as a beer that I wanted to stand on my rooftop and share with the world.
My favorite so far has been the Squeeze Play, and if you're looking for a perfectly fine, mild IPA, you'll do OK with it. Shelley probably liked the El Luchador the most out of all the ones she's tried.
Maybe the most damning thing we could say about all of the beers, was when Shelley mentioned that every one of them finished with a watery aftertaste. When drinking a SB beer, it just feels like the flavor explosions we were used to from craft brews isn't there.
The trouble we've theorized is that the beers taste like they were made by a couple of buddies who like to brew home beer got together and started a business. ... (Oh wait ...) ... And that those buddies are brewing beers that they like. Only, I think that their initial efforts at a mass scale have produced tentative brews, made to be safe. Hedges that would get their business off the ground and get people in the door.
Again, there is nothing wrong with that, of course. If you're a brewer, naturally you're going to make what you know and like. But I think that these friends will have to quickly get experimental if they want to grow an audience. We've been fortunate to have a few really good local breweries here in the Fargo-Moorhead area, and they offer strong lineups. To get the beer crazy locals to include Swing Barrel's offerings in their regular rotation, I think they're going to have to step up their game. ... And quickly.
I need to say that I sincerely hope that buddies Syverson and Kapla make it, and I'll continue to slip in once in a while to pick up some new offerings, or even to buy a couple of regular brews, to help them out. After all, they took the entrepreneurial leap to come back to my town and try to upgrade the beer offerings here. For that alone, they have earned my support.
So, Swing Barrel ... let's do this! ... How about next release, you deliver us a really jazzy experimental IPA that is going to make beer snobs like us sit up and take notice!
But, first, welcome to Moorhead, and thank you for your courage!
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