friends in high places

There is that old saying "It's good to have friends in high places".  Well, I have a friend at the tippy top of the high places.  At the Summit!

At our quilting retreats, we all supply our own food and beverage for retreat, and have a shared snack table to graze between feeding times.

This time, in addition to the snack buffet, Leisl offered to tap into her connection to Summit Brewing in St. Paul.  She brought an assortment of beers for us to sample.

So I did.

My problem is, I am not a very good sampler.  They all were very drinkable, so I really can't rate or compare them to each other!  The Maibock and Porter are varieties that I probably would not have purchased because my pre-conceived notion would tell me that I would be wasting my money on something I would end up passing over to Bob to consume.  (He'll drink anything!)

Well, they were actually very tasty, and I would not have shared with Bob!

And then, while shopping at the local little Gordy's Groceries in Augusta, I spied this--

I was not familiar with a "malt specialty" liquor.  I did buy this and brought it home to share with the previously mentioned guy.  It was probably the marketing that made it for this beverage.  The patriotic theme of the name, complete with eagle flying and mountain peaks on the horizon.  The flavor "apple pie" is like the trademark of America!  The folksy chalkboard-art-looking graphics, which remind us of the good old school days of our childhood.  The description at the bottom states it is brewed in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, evoking a picture of the beauty of nature all around us as we sip our drinks.  And then, bottling it in a mason jar really completes that moonshiney backwoods down home feel!  After sampling it straight, I'm not a fan.  But it has been suggested to me that I might like to try it mixed with ginger beer or cranberry juice.  Sounds like a good idea!  As I did a little more research into the making of this product, I found that it is made by Stout Brewing Company.  My first thought was that it had a connection to the nearby University of Wisconsin - Stout in Menomonie, nowhere near the Blue Ridge Mountains.  But it's a different Stout.  In North Carolina.  Not far from Charlotte, in the city of King's Mountain.  42.4 miles from Ballantyne, the home of the Carolina branch of our family!  Maybe a field trip on our next visit there!  It's a small world after all!  (And now I will have that earworm in my head all day!)