Category: breweries

Congrats Minnesota GABF Winners

By on October 14, 2013in breweries, brewpubs

gabf13_logo_insideCongrats to our Minnesota winners at the Great American Beer Festival. All in all, Minnesota breweries took home four medals – twi silver and two bronze medals. The winners:

Silver – Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery – “Twisted Trace” (Wood and Barrel-aged Strong Beer)

Silver – Summit Brewing Co. – “True Brit IPA” (Extra Special Bitter)

Bronze – August Schell Brewing Co. “Oktoberfest” (American-Style Amber Lager)

Bronze – Surly Brewing Co. “Pentagram” (Wood and Barrel-aged Sour Beer)

You can check out the complete list of winners here.

Fitger’s Brewhouse Representing at GABF

By on October 11, 2013in breweries
Photo: Tim Nelson

Photo: Tim Nelson

This is cool… a Minnesota beer was selected as the official welcome beer for this year’s Great American Beer Festival Media luncheon. The festival is in its 32nd year and hosts the largest collection of US beer ever served. The luncheon is attended by 200 beer journalists from around the nation and this year Fitger’s Brewhouse’s Gooseberry Gose was the official welcome beer.

“If we get more Minnesota brewers on the national stage, I think Minnesota will get a little more respect for making decent beer,” Fitger’s master brewer Dave Hoops says.

Hoops was been asked to give a ten-minute speech to the assembled journalists and talked about the rise of Minnesota brewing. Our state was 10th for overall craft barrel production in 2012. Last year there were 5,100 beers and only 3% of breweries that entered won, so winning a medal is a big accomplishment. Town Hall has won 13 medals in previous years, Fitger’s Brewhouse has won 2, Summit has won 7, and Surly has won 1.

Indeed Mosaic Fresh Hop Release Today

By on October 8, 2013in beer events, breweries

mosaicfreshhop

Why do just one fresh hop beer when you could do two? Indeed steps up to the plate for round two with their Mosaic Fresh Hop – and you can taste it today at Republic (7 Corners) at 6pm.

Here’s Indeed’s description:

Our second fresh hop beer of this harvest season is brewed with wet Mosaic hops from Yakima, Wa., the epicenter of hop growing in the United States. Mosaic, a relatively new variety of hop, gives this limited beer an intense aroma of blueberries and tropical fruit.(4.8% ABV, 30 IBU)

Summit Frostline Rye

By on October 2, 2013in breweries

frostlinerye

Look at this sweet little label! We twisted a few arms and learned some more (emphasis mine):

Frost Line Rye is our new “between-seasons” seasonal release for the bitter cold late winter months, planned for release in mid-January between our Winter Ale and Maibock. Beer lovers in the Upper Midwest know that that time of year is a beast all its own and requires a beer that brings a bit of warmth and comfort. Inspired in-part by Mike Lundell’s Unchained 3: India Style Rye Ale, Frost Line Rye will highlight the earthiness and spice from several varieties of rye and unique hops. This is going to be a great beer to help fight off the deep freeze while longing for the spring thaw. More details to be released in the coming months at Summit Brewing Company’s website, Facebook and Twitter.

 

Communication Not Litigation

By on September 26, 2013in breweries

hammerheartThis is a great example of a case where a little communication goes a long way. HammerHeart Brewing planned on producing a beer called Black Cascade. As luck would have it, a Colorado brewery, TRVE Brewing already has a beer on the market with said name. Long story short, Austin from HammerHeart humbly reached out to TRVE and now there are two Black Cascades available for your imbibing pleasures.

The end result of our discussion, as I mentioned before, is a handshake agreement that we’ll both continue brewing our respective Black Cascades, and that no harm will come of that. Our collective stance is that this industry is being infected with litigation. Why a bunch of breweries claiming to be humble, artisinal, community-oriented, small batch, blabbity blah need to sue each other is a mystery to both our breweries, but we’re not going to be a goddamned part of it.

You can read the whole thing here.