Happy Thirsty Thursday!
Boy, I’m hopping all over the Twin Cities this week!
This week’s MN Brewery edition takes us 25 miles west of Minneapolis to Victoria. Let me introduce ENKI Brewing!
ENKI. You are probably wondering where that name came from. I did! And I spent a lot of frustrating, non-connective wi-fi time trying to figure it out. But there it is right on their website:
Most notably recognized as the Sumerian God of Running Water, ancient Sumerians believed that ENKI brought life-giving waters to the Fertile Crescent, enabling grains to grow and ultimately beer to flow. ENKI also represented creation and wisdom–both virtues important to the integrity of the craft of brewing beer, a practice as old as ENKI himself.
~
Appropriate, no?
But ENKI Brewing has another mission:
I don’t see anything wrong with that!
The people who live in Victoria and the vicinity are lucky to have a brewery in their midst, without having to trek all of they way to Minneapolis. For us, it was a bit of a hike. Such that, this happened:
We went on the wrong day to use our Groupon. {You can’t fill a growler on a Sunday! Doh!} We decided to just order the beers we wanted to try rather than go with the beers that would have been included in the Groupon flight. We gave our Groupon to a friend who lives in the area. Truth be told, I think we wouldn’t have liked the flight as much as the beers we tried!
ENKI’s taproom interior is pretty small. There are only a couple of seats at the bar. And only a handful of tables in the main room.
There is additional seating in odd little corners throughout the building as well as on the patio when the weather is nice. Unlike other breweries, there is no food truck parked outside. But there is ENKI Express, a small menu offered in conjunction with the local restaurant Victoria House.
Yet ENKI does display two things that every local craft brewery should:
- A display of growlers from every other local craft brewery they’ve enjoyed,
- The current tap list.
(Though not necessarily in that order.)
We were so lucky to arrive on the day that we did. There was a very special beer on tap – the Mocha Porter. It was an experimental beer that they were testing out and they… NAILED IT!
The only problem was that it made every other beer taste subpar!
Well, in my opinion, anyway. Rob really enjoyed the Tailfeather IPA and the Warming Hut Brown Ale. After trying my friend Jen’s Mocha Porter {the specialty beer}, it was tough for me to go back to my Cacao Porter {the year round beer}. I knew that on any other given day I would have found the Cacao Porter to be sensational.
I tested this theory a few months later at a restaurant that had the ENKI Cacao Porter on tap. It was smooth and creamy with a hint of chocolate. I was pleased. But I didn’t have the Mocha Porter alongside it to taint me. 🙂
Yes, ENKI Brewing was most definitely worth the trek. Stop by if your are in the area. Or consider taking following this SW Minne Tour!
Have you ever had a food or beverage that you know you liked but that didn’t taste as good because you just consumed something even better?
Cheers~
Carrie
Season It Already! 