FKA Viking Brewery

Last week Carol & Pete and I went on a little adventure to Dallas, WI.

There is a nice microbrewery there called Valkyrie, but it was Formerly Known As Viking Brewing.

On Thursday afternoons in the summer, they offer free tasting of 4 of their beers and cheap Louis' Finer Meats bratwurst, so we gave it a try.  

Wanda, Carol & Pete
You buy your first beer for $7, then keep the glass and get $2 refills.
I guess I'll have to keep my red glass in the car 'just in case'.

The beer was very good & the brat tasty.  

I tried a Rubee which was a red lager that was tasty.  I also enjoyed their Lime Twist which is a light lager with lime extract, tasty and refreshing.  Some of the other beers were good, but not my preference.  Big Swede which is an imperial stout about filled me up with one taste, and Viking Maiden was a good lighter lager.  All of their beers had a nice crisp taste and I think they do good work there and must be very sanitary to produce such good tasting products.  

I'm hoping to get back there on a Saturday to tour their brewery before the snow flies.

They also brew a seasonal beer called Hot Chocolate, that is a must try for me!

***

The most interesting part of the visit to Valkyrie was a conversation I overheard at the bar 

(this place is about the size of my kitchen, so it wasn't too hard to listen in).

A customer was telling the owner / bartender how his brewery had the trademark on the Winterfest brand name and that a large brewery from Golden, CO came after them to get it.  He said that this large brewery sent them a huge thick book of documentation in preparation to sue to get the TM for Winterfest.  (I was really craning my ear to hear what he was saying as I worked on the Winterfest brand for most of my career at said large brewery.)  I believe he then said that they settled out of court for an exchange of the brand name for some creative & legal work to give this unknown brewery an alternate brand name to use.

I will have to chat with my pals from my working days to see what the real story is.

What really is fascinating to me is that here I was, in a little tiny microbrewery, in a small Wisconsin town that is way off the beaten trail, and I happen to hear someone talking about my old employer.

I am sure the conversation started with the story of why Valkyrie changed from Viking - that story was something about a European brewery wanting to buy their name - and that opened the door for this man to complain about his experience.  

He went on to talk about another incident with the big brewery folks from St. Louis, but about that time, I checked back into the conversation at my own table, so didn't get any details.  

Life is so interesting!