Gumption Cider

Sent to me from: Alicia Stepp
Date: Jan 15, 2017
Drank at: Fox Tax, Mpls MN

Well, 15 years has passed since I drank my first buy-me-a-beer. The site has gone through a boom and a down time, and we've seen plenty of Tall boys, bombers, bottles, cans, pints and 40s. Through it all one person who's faithfully returned every couple years to buy me a beer has been Alicia from Dallas. I don't know what Alicia was doing in 2002, but now she's doing some amazing photography work, which you can check out at www.aliciastepp.com and www.oneplusoneimages.com

Alicia bought me a Gumption, made by WoodChuck Cider. I didn't have too much trouble finding this one, and picked up a six pack from the liquor store. While being a little sweeter than I normally like, this is a pretty nicely done cider. It is sweet, but not the cloying, syrupy stuff I've had from some other cideries. And their bottle design is a homage to P.T. Barnum, which I think is pretty unique.

So I toted my beers with me last night to an Art opening at Fox Tax in Northeast Minneapolis. After ten years of doing taxes for the creative/artist community in Minneapolis, and ten years of some amazing art shows in their gallery, they have finally been forced to move locations due to the neighborhood gentrifying, so this is their last art opening in their space before the move. Being the last one at this space, all of our friends bundled out against the cold and made it out of the house for the party.

The show was amazing, and everything went great...until the end of the night when the building almost burned down. Long story short, after almost everybody had gone and there was just about a dozen or less of us left, we smelled some smoke coming from the back loading dock. We went back to find flames in the cardboard dumpster. After some failed attempts to put it out with half full glasses of water, and failing to find a fire extinguisher in time, the dumpster soon became a roaring ball of fire. One of our smarter friends opened up a garage door and was able to wheel the dumpster out into the alley before any of the building caught on fire, and the fire department was able to come roaring in to take care of business in no time. 

So I made it home smelling not unlike I used to years ago when I would come home from the bar before the smoking ban had been passed. My clothes smelled like an ashtray and my hair smelled like a campfire. It may take a week or two for the smoke smell to make it's way out of the building, but at least nobody was hurt.

So, that's how my Gumption Cider drinking experience went. Can't say the night was any worse for having some delicious cider in hand. Thanks Alicia!