Michael Dawson from Northern Brewer Homebrew Supply & Brewing TV gets some one-on-one time with Summit Brewing Company’s Mark Stutrud to discuss Summit’s new year-round American IPA release “Saga IPA.”

Good times ensue.

Kick off American Craft Beer Week at Butcher and the Boar this year! On Monday, May 14th they will be featuring Great Lakes Brewing Company by pouring three of their very awesome beers. The brews include Rallydrum Red (Brewed in Honor of the Cleveland Indians, who are in town playing the Twins on Monday), Holy Moses White Ale, and a VERY limited Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Out Stout.

Then on Thursday, May 17th Butcher and the Boar will be featuring Fulton! They will have four varieties of Fulton beer available including Sweet Child of Vine IPA, The Lonely Blonde, The Ringer Pale Ale & a Cask of Worthy Adversary. They also feature Fulton Fries on their menu, that go great with the brews! However, the Fulton Fries are not available in their beer garden, only in the restaurant.

Head over to The Sample Room on Saturday on Saturday, May 19th from 11:30am – 4:30pm for a special firkin event featuring beer from Schell’s, Surly, Fulton, Lift Bridge, Summit, Flat Earth, Tallgrass and Boom Island. $10. Sounds like fun, and at $10, the price is right!

Wednesday, April 25th at 5pm, Pizza Luce in Hopkins will tap a firkin of Summit’s newest beer, Summer Ale. The beer will also be available on draft for comparison. Enjoy!

Tomorrow night, Old Chicago Minnetonka will be pouring a very tasty pin (a smaller version of a cask) of Left Hand Smoke Jumper! Yum!

Great Waters’ Anniversary Week may be over, but due to a turn of events (fortunate for you if you missed the orignal date), one last hurrah comes in the form of a rescheduled All Cask Beer Dinner.

The Menu:

1. Smoked Tomato Capsicum with GW House Ale
2. Carnitas Lettuce Wrap with Blackwatch Oat Stout
3. Almond Encrusted Walleye & Tomato Scallop Sauce with Dry-Hopped St. Peter Pale Ale
4. Pork Tenderloin, Polenta & Mild Chipotle Sauce with New Centurian Mild Ale
5. Fruit Pizza & Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie with Cask Brown Trout Brown Ale

$65 reg / $55 MBA members (includes tax and grat)
Seating Limited – Call 651-224-2739 to reserve your spot.

Barley John’s is upping their Wednesday cask beer game this week with a “wild” version.

Mark your calendars now – this Wednesday around 4pm we will be tapping a cask of Saison Brunette – our first WILD Wild Brunette. I kept 5 gallons of the wort last time the beer was brewed, fermented it with a French Saison Yeast as well as Brettanomyces bruxellensis. It has been aging for nearly 7 weeks in the cask now, so it should have some great bretty-funk to it. This one is going to go fast, folks!

Republic is very pleased to announce that 25 additional tap lines are planned for installation in early May, bringing the grand total of their all craft draft beer offerings to 57.

The expansion will fill gaps (if any could be counted) on their beer list and represent more local and emerging American craft beer companies. A few more offerings from Germany and Belgium are also part of the plan.

Co-owner and beer buyer, Matty O’Reilly, will keep around 50 lines aggressively rotating
with the seasons and new releases, with a number of year-round static lines maintaining
their spots (e.g. Surly ‘Furious’, Fulton ‘Sweet Child of Vine IPA, Left Hand ‘Nitro Milk Stout’). Five lines will be dedicated to a weekly rotation of “one-off” kegs, limited releases and special features. One line will remain for Beer of the Day, which is a daily rotating $3 all-day, everyday, craft beer. One line (utilizing a beer engine) will be dedicated for cask conditioned ales.

We mentioned Great Waters’ 15th Anniversary in an earlier post, but below you’ll find some specifics on their  special five-course, five-cask dinner. The menu, created by Great Waters’ chef Ernesto, has been carefully planned alongside five specially chosen beers by Brewmaster Bob.

Details of the dinner, which takes place at 7pm on Monday, April 2, at Great Waters Brewing Co., are below:

1. Smoked Tomato Capsicum with Great Waters House Ale

2. Carnitas Lettuce Wrap with Blackwatch Oat Stout (with Cacao Nibs)

3. Almond Encrusted Walleye & Tomato Scallop Sauce with Dry-Hopped Timma IPA

4. Pork Tenderloin, Polenta & Mild Chipotle Sauce with O’Byrne’s Irish Red

5. Fruit Pizza & Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie with Scotch Ale

Tickets are still available for the event at $65, http://www.greatwatersbc.com.

Join the Pig & Fiddle tonight when they tap their first firkin! Well, it’s actually a Pin, but it’s still going to be delicious. At 4pm, they will be pouring Rush River’s Batch 1000, a red rye ale. One of the owners and brewers from Rush River will be on site to answer any questions you might have about their beer or the brewery. Cheers!