Beer and Boats at Summit’s Ratskeller

On March 5th, we hosted about 100 folks from the community in our workshop for a celebration of our Grand Opening.  The founder of Summit Brewing, Mark Stutrud, happened to attend this event (he occasionally drops by Half-Time Rec next door for a beer) and by chance, we happened to have a cooler full of Summit EPA for our guests.  He was excited by what we were doing, and offered to host a canoe-build at the brewery!  This was sort of a dream for us, and so we worked with Summit to plan the event for August.

We envisioned a unique hands-on experience; a sociable and enriching activity with high visual appeal, that incorporates some of the core values that Summit Brewery and Sheer Craft have in common: focus on craft, quality and community building.  I think it’s fair to say that this is exactly what occurred.

 Over the course of 8 days, Maria and I led small groups of students who had signed up for an evening of building a 15-foot skin-on-frame canoe, either outside on the patio, or during inclement weather, in the taproom.  It was a fun, relaxed way to try their hand at steambending, making precision cuts with a Japanese saw, or tying a square lashing with artificial sinew, while sipping good beer with old and new friends.

Lots of innocent brewery patrons were exposed to the addictive process of building a wooden boat.  They’d saunter up and share stories of wooden boats in their lives, while eyeing our activity with wonder and curiosity.  At times, it felt like a cheat, sort of like walking a cute dog around the park to get dates.  But, we and our students shamelessly carried on until the canoe was ready for the water.

 We launched the boat on Lake Phalen, and celebrated a job well done.  The new owner, the only student who attended all 8 days of the build, opted to purchase the completed canoe for the cost of materials.  He left a happy paddler, with a canoe he’d built at Summit on his roof rack.