Category: breweries

Art-A-Whirl 2016

The Electric Fetus and Dangerous Man Brewing have teamed up again for a full day of music and beer on Saturday, May 21st from noon – 10 pm in the parking lot behind the brewery. This year the beer garden will only be serving Dangerous Man beer (last year they teamed up with a few breweries to serve their beers as well) which will include the highly anticipated collaboration beer they made with Surly called Blutpakt.

The food truck lineup is fantastic with the highlight being the BBQ truck Bark and the Bite. Rumor has it that they may just be selling chicken quarters right out of the smoker on Saturday. Oh, also….Chocolate Milk Stout makes for an excellent accompaniment to your breakfast.

Music lineup at Dangerous Man:
12:15 pm Tony Peachka
1:15 pm Still Pacific/Shellycoats
2:15 pm Driftwood Pyre
3:15 pm Rabbit Holes
4:15 pm Tiny Deaths
5:15 pm New Years Steve
6:15 pm Frankie Teardrop
7:15 pm Mike Mictlan
8:15 pm Forever Young Dance Party
Food Trucks:
Hot Indian Foods
Bark and the Bite
O’Cheeze

 

Art A Whirl 2016 4

Bauhaus will be hosting The Liquid Zoo which kicks off Friday, May 20th with the “Haus” band Viva Knievel. On Saturday Andrea Swensson from The Current will be there to get things going before a lineup of Jeremy Messersmith, The 4onthefloor, and Sonny Knight and The Lakers take the stage. That’s one hell of a party…

 

Art A Whirl 2016 2.5

Indeed will be hosting Whirlygig again and the big highlight will be Charlie Parr who is performing on Sunday, May 22nd at 5 pm. Nate Dogs will be on site slinging wieners along with Blue Door Pub throughout the weekend. The event goes Friday, May 20th through Sunday, May 22nd.

Grumpy’s will have the best music lineup on Saturday, May 21st with Babes in Toyland headlining a set that features Romantica and Mississippi Hot Club. Brian Oake from 89.3 The Current will be the emcee for the day. NE Tattoo will be on site in case you want some ink.

Art A Whirl 2016 3

Fair State will be hosting another Art-A-Whirl event but this time it will run both Friday and Saturday. The highlight will be Frankie Lee who takes the stage on Saturday, May 21st at 9 pm.

612Brew will have also have music both Friday and Saturday with a lineup that features Hapduzn and Sara Streitz on Friday. Saturday Nooky Jones and The Satellites will perform while Outlaw Grill and Market BBQ will be cooking up a storm.

Also, be sure to visit the many studios and support local art. After all, that’s what Art-A-Whirl is all about.

Cheers!

City Pages Beer Fest Moves to West End

City Pages Beer Fest has moved around over the years, this time to West End in St. Louis Park. The event is taking place from 5 – 9 pm on Saturday, May 21st and will feature over 50 breweries—many of them from Minnesota. Some of the highlights include Castle Danger, Steel Toe, Bad Weather, Oskar Blues, Clown Shoes, and Blacklist Artisan Ales out of Duluth. This is one of the longest running beer festivals (now in its 24th year) here in Minnesota and part of the proceeds this year will go to Finnegans.

City Pages Beer Fest 2016

The food lineup is solid as well with Rusty Taco, Urban Sub, Big 10 Restaurant, WildEarth Wood Fired, Pinstripes, and Cheer on Top Confections. Free and Easy Band will be performing throughout the festival along with accordionist Bill Koncar and Brian Boru’s Irish Pipe Band.

Tickets will cost $30 and you can grab them here. See below for the entire brewery lineup.

Alesmith Brewing Co.
American Vintage Beverage
Bad Weather Brewing
Bank Beer
Bent Brewstillery
Bent Paddle Brewing Co.
Big Sky
Blacklist Artisan Ales
Boom Island
Bull Falls
Burning Brothers Brewing
Canal Park Brewing Company
Capital Brewing
Castle Danger Brewery
Clown Shoes
Company
Crazy Mountain
Empyrean Brewing
Enki Brewing Co.
Excelsior Brewing Co.
Fargo Brewing
Finnegan’s
Furthermore Brewing Co.
Fytenburg/St. Croix/Stage Coach
Goose Island
Harriet Brewing
Horny Goat Brewing Co.
Indeed Brewing Company
Insight Brewing Co.
Lakes & Legends Brewing
Lift Bridge
Mankato Brewery
Maple Island Brewing
North Loop BrewCo (Lucid)
Omni Brewing
Oskar Blues
Prairie Artisan Ales
RJM/Grays Brewing/North Lake Brewing/Killebrew Beverages
Rock Bottom Brewery
Sand Creek Brewing
Schilling Cider/Two Towns Ciderhouse
Schram Winery & Brewery
Sierra Nevada
Sixpoint Brewery
Sociable Cider Werks
Steel Toe Brewing
Stone Brewing
Third Street Brewhouse
Tin Whiskers
Wabasha Brewing Co.
Waconia Brewing

Cheers!

Surly and Dangerous Man Make a Pakt as Minnesota Collaborations Continue

blutpakt“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” That’s the motto that Co-Owner Rob Miller at Dangerous Man lives and bleeds day in and day out at his brewery in Northeast Minneapolis. Miller and the crew over at Surly are the latest members of the local brewing scene to team up on a collaboration beer that they are calling Blutpakt which translates to “blood pact.” The beer itself is based on an old recipe that piqued the interest of Dangerous Man brewer John Leingang who was doing extensive research on historic beers. “I was at home doing some research and found some old recipes. I found the old German Porter recipe and I thought it looked awesome” John says.

 

Dangerous Man and Surly are two of the most popular breweries in the state so this one makes total sense. Collaborations often seem like a good idea, but they don’t always work out. Sarah Bonvallet, the other Co-Owner at Dangerous Man and current Secretary of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild Board, says that they’ve reached out to a number of breweries in hopes of collaborating—but that doesn’t always work out. “We’ve attempted a bunch, but they sometimes get stuck in the brainstorming phase.” This German Porter’s malt base is primarily Münich and the recipe was brewed at each location with the main difference being that the Surly version used brettanomyces. The Dangerous Man version is nice and toasty, almost marshmallow like. The Surly rendition is less toasty, but it has a nice little funk to it from the addition of brett.

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You will be able to find both varieties within a couple of blocks of each other when they are released during Art-A-Whirl at noon on Saturday, May 21st. The Dangerous Man version will be released at their taproom while Surly’s version will tap at the 331 Club right down the street.

Surly, namesake of the “Surly Bill” which set the current taproom scene in motion back in 2012 has wanted to work with Dangerous Man on a collaboration for a while. Jerrod Johnson, who represented Surly in this project thinks that it would be nice to see more of these collaborations, but for the right reasons. “The interesting part is seeing the small process differences. It really brings to the forefront the character of the different breweries” says Johnson.

DM collab uno

When asked why the two breweries wanted to collaborate, Miller mentioned that Surly was the right fit for them. “They are good brewing friends, and we have similar interests.” Sarah chimed in and mentioned that both breweries have solid reputations which means that it benefited them both equally. “What I loved about this collaboration is that we both stand on our own. It was fun and I really enjoyed seeing that” she said. The right fit indeed.

Meanwhile, down Broadway, Bauhaus and Fair State have been dreaming up a Münich Helles for well over a year. Both Matt Schwandt of Bauhaus and Niko Tonks of Fair State are very particular about their brewing methods which makes this a fitting collaboration. “This is how people should find common ground” says Tonks.

Bauhaus collab

This is the first Helles that either brewery has done and according to Schwandt, It was Niko’s idea. Helles Lager is the “holy grail” of lagers according Tonks and the ingredients that each brewery used were a little different. For one, Bauhaus used a German Bock yeast whereas Fair State used a yeast called Augustiner.

This “no frills” Helles lager is called Das Homeguys Helles and they are both very clean, crisp, and refreshing beers—perfect for patio season. Lagers are notorious for being tricky to brew because it’s much harder to mask flaws in delicately balanced beers such as these.

Both versions will debut at Republic Seven Corners today (5 pm) just in time for Lagerfest. Both taprooms will also be releasing their versions of the beer today and they hope it will make through Art-A-Whirl which is happening next weekend.

Collaborations such as these, come at a time when large breweries such as AB InBev are buying up smaller craft breweries to keep their foothold on the market. “For the past decade, craft brewers have charged into the market, seeing double digit growth for eight of those years,” said Bart Watson, chief economist, Brewers Association in a press release regarding craft breweries. While “big brewers” are losing market share to the ever-growing craft market (up 16% nationwide in retail dollar value for 2015), craft breweries are popping up all over the country and the camaraderie is stronger than ever.

“It’s starting to happen more and more, and I think it’s a good thing” said Schwandt about local brewing collaborations. This is most likely a product of a close community of breweries who are operating under the assumption that a rising tide lifts all boats. Bonvallet pointed to the fact that Denver hosts Collaboration Fest (149 breweries participated this year) as proof that collaborations are here to stay. Trend or otherwise, we’re likely to see plenty more of these here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

“It’s a sign of a more mature scene” says Tonks.

A scene that is growing together, instead of apart.

Cheers!

Badger Hill Brewing and Valley Fair Team Up for High Roller Extra Park Ale

High roller tap handle

Valley Fair is turning 40 this year and they wanted to celebrate with a special beer offering at the park. The folks at Badger Hill met up with Valley Fair last month to come up with a beer (Extra Pale Ale) that will be available at 3 locations within the park. Those locations are Atomic Beer, Chickie’s and Pete’s, and Depot Refreshments.

The beer will be called High Roller Extra Park Ale and will also be available in the Badger Hill Taproom when the beer is officially released on Friday, May 13th. Oh, and the tap handles are made out of reclaimed wood from the famous High Roller ride that was built back in 1976. The beer checks in at 5.2% ABV and hits 43 on the IBU scale.

Who says that kids get to have all the fun?

Also, The Curious Goat’s little brother The Smoking Cow will be debuting at the Badger Hill Taproom tomorrow (Friday, May 5th) from 4:30 until 8 pm. Ian Gray and Kiri Anderson are the ones behind both of these trucks, and they are known for serving up some of the best locally sourced food around. Heads up: If there’s brisket on the menu, order that. You’ll thank me later.

Cheers!

Blutpakt‬.

Are the folks from Surly and Dangerous Man starting a death metal band? Today they both posted about a “Blutpakt‬…” Further research suggests a potential (surprise, right?) collaboration beer of the same name.

Gross, eh? Here’s another hint. A little electronic bird told me that this weighs in at about 5.7% abv. Given the keg ring below, I’d assume that this will start as a draft-only offering. Speculate away!

blutpakt