It's a battle of the ages. This month's specialty beer event at the Nomad Pub puts two big craft breweries in a steel cage and only one is walking out alive. Ok, maybe it's not that intense. But the West Bank bar is inviting beer lovers to come in Friday night for something it's calling the "West Coast vs. Gold Coast Smackdown." The dueling breweries are Deschutes (from Bend, Oregon) and Goose Island (from Chicago). Both brew houses will put four beers on tap, a few of them rare around these parts (that's 8 taps total).
Deschutes will have: Hop Henge Experimental IPA, Red Chair NWPA, Black Butte XXIII and the Abyss.
Goose Island will have: Naughty Brown Goose, Fluer, Sofie and a 2009 barrel of Pere Jacques.
You can buy flights for $10 (four 5-oz glasses). Nomad owner Todd Smith said he plans to hold similar specialty beer events every other month at the bar.
Starting at 9 p.m.: Live music by JT & the Sloppy Seconds and the Gated Community.
Details: 6 p.m. (for the beer) Friday. 501 Cedar Av., Mpls. 612-338-6424. www.nomadpub.com.
If you needed any further enticement, this video should do the trick:
