The other week was the grand opening of Wooden Legs Brewery in Brookings, SD. Sure it's been open for awhile, but this was a 3 day event in where they were launching a new beer and their kitchen has finally opened so they are in full swing. It all started with a movie on Thursday night, ribbon cutting an live music on Friday night, then "Pork and Pints" on Saturday, I had my kid this past week and weekend, so I was able to get a babysitter for Thursday night, and brought him down on Saturday for lunch.
Thursday Night - Showing of "The Beer Hunter" documentary of Michael Jackson
So Thursday night I went to Wooden Legs Brewery for a special screening of the movie "The Beer Hunter" which is a documentary of Michael Jackson, the world renown beer writer (and apparently for whiskey). I got to Wooden Legs a little before the movie was scheduled to start (7pm) to take my time and order a beer, I went with 11th Hour IPA from Crow Peek Brewing Company, great beer. We ended up going into the side room where it was setup with chairs, tables, Wooden Legs coasters, a projector and the best part....chex mix. I haven't had chex mix in a long time but quickly remembered how addicting this stuff is, especially when combined with beer.
Overall I thought the movie was very interesting, I had never heard of Michael Jackson (the writer) before, and left feeling the urge to checkout what different books are available on Google Play for me to purchase. The biggest one seemed to be the The World Guide To Beer which I will definitely look to get, first check the local library (because it's free) then see how much it is on Google Play and/or Amazon. The majority of the filming seemed to have been in Michael's last days, and at first I didn't know what to expect, he seemed very groggy and had long scraggly hair and a long beard...but when he spoke it was with a certain clarity and was so engaging no matter who he was talking to, an owner of a brewery or the cab driver that we went in and bought a beer for and brought it back out to him. It's a classic case of not judging a book by it's cover, because he was very interesting and very personable when he spoke, and that made the movie very enjoyable. I loved the 15 minute beer break intermission in the middle of the movie, the screen simply went black with white text saying "15 minute intermission, go grab a beer!" which of course we did.
The only negative critique I would have is the audio, it would go from being able to hear the narrator very clearly, to all of a sudden barely able to hear what either Michael was saying, or the person he was talking to. There would be instances where he was in a crowded bar for an appearance, and he wasn't mic'd up so you could hear ever conversation in the place and it made it really difficult to hear what he was saying. Even with the audio going in and out, I did like the movie and will look to perhaps rent it at home in the future to try and see if I can hear more.
Saturday - "Pork and Pints"
Starting at noon you could arrive at Wooden Legs and they had a huge smoker out front where they had been cooking 400lbs of pork! The deal was $5 all you can eat (which included potato salad, beans and chips) and it was $5 pints of beer. I met Rich at his house and we played daddy daycare by loading our kids in a Radio Flyer and walking down for the festivities. You could smell the pork from about a block away, and we were nervous at first if this was going to be a "family affair", something about taking your kids to a brewery just didn't seem right. However there were plenty of families with their kids there all having lunch, we loaded up a couple of plates and sat down for some good eating. Once we got settle Rich went up to the bar to order us a pair of the new What We Got - double IPA that had just been released the night prior. I have no idea what types of beer go with what types of food, but I do know that the double IPA tasted amazing with those pork sandwiches and potato salad. Ran into a lot of friends and coworkers that were down there for lunch as well, so it ended up being great food, company and most importantly.....beer, haha.
I look forward to Wooden Legs now being fully opened (now open daily at noon!), and definitely plan on making it down on a regular basis and help support the work that they are doing.
