Beer Lover’s Guide to Paris: French Friends & Belgian Beer

It’s hard to believe it’s already been over two months since our summer 2018 Europe trip. It still feels like just a couple weeks ago we were walking the black sand beaches of Iceland, gazing out over the Cliffs of Moher and admiring in revered silence the beauty of Westminster Abbey. We talk about our trip all the time and are already dreaming up our next one. But I’m getting ahead of myself. There’s one more country and ale adventure story to tell…

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From Reykjavik to Vik | Our Journey Through Iceland’s Breweries & Brewhouses 🇮🇸

For the past nine months, Katie and I have been adventuring our way through Minnesota’s craft beer community. With more than 150 breweries and brewpubs to visit — last we heard that number was actually upwards of 180 now — we’ve been busy and content with what’s right here in our own backyard. But sometimes a new adventure calls, and when an opportunity to visit breweries in Iceland, Ireland, London and Paris came calling — we answered.

In truth, no one came calling for us; we just happened to be heading to Europe on a sort of one-year anniversary/bucket list trip. Still, we took advantage of our time abroad to visit some new taprooms, make some new friends and drink some new beers.

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Løkken Bryghus | Narvorn Coffee Whiskey Stout

Ever since a 6^th grade math teacher corrected the spelling of my name, I’ve had an itch to visit Denmark. Even though we all know the rhyme “I before E, except after C”, the majority of folks named Niel in the States spell it backwards – Neil. But not me, regardless of what Mrs. Something-or-other seemed to think. I later learned that my family has roots reaching back to at least the early 1800s in the Danish countryside, the origin of this funny spelling. Which made me wonder, “Is there a land full of Niel’s that spell their name the right way?” Fast forward 20ish years and I now live within an hour’s flight of the homeland. And though I didn’t find anyone sharing my first name, I did find lots of good beer.

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The Brooklyn-Stockholm Connection | New Carnegie Brewery

“It’s like I was given a new puppy,” my husband says, as he sips his beer, “and then someone takes it away from me.”

The new puppy was a beer … Read More

Ultimate 6er: A Pub Crawl from Dublin to Prague

One of my bucket list items was to go to Munich and visit the birthplace of Oktoberfest. This year, I decided to cross it off my bucket list and go for my belated dirty thirty. What started out as a trip to Munich, turned into a three week long pub crawl full of awesome beer and liquor.

After visiting six countries in Europe, I return to you with my take on some of the best beers I’ve had in Dublin, Ireland; Edinburgh, Scotland; Bruges, Belgium; Amsterdam, Netherlands; Munich, Germany; and Prague/Kutna Hora, Czech Republic. Here is my story of my trip throughout Europe, in beer form.

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