Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery head Brewer Mike Hoops and crew will be talking home brewing roots, pro brewing, Pro Series collaboration, barrel aging (their Barrel Age Week is coming later this Feb.) and much more at Northern Brewer in Minneapolis on Saturday! As always they will raffle off some goodies!

Brewing TV is getting ready for St. Patrick’s Day with stout on the brain! For the occasion, Jake and Mike brew two beers. One is a Dry Irish Stout on par with the modern Guinness Draught, which we serve on nitrogen through a stout faucet. The other beer is a Single Stout Porter, based on a beer Guinness produced back in the 1880s. We put the beers up against each other in a taste test… and find out the secret to Chip’s Chocolate Stout along the way. Get viewing… and get brewing! (Recipe blog and more here.)

Alongside classes on homebrewing and winemaking, Northern Brewer Minneapolis is hosting several events in February that may interest all craft beer lovers.

Town Hall Brewing Company
Feb. 11th / 1-3 p.m.
Round Table Discussion with Town Hall Brewer Mike Hoops and crew, topics include going professional, Pro Series collaboration, barrel aging.

Briess Malting Company
Feb. 25th / 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Join Penny Pickart of Briess as she talks about the history of Briess, their malting facilities, rye extract collaboration and the Maltster Reserve Series.

Here’s one for the homebrewers trapped somewhere between extract and all-grain homebrewing. Brewing TV goes deep undercover on some BIAB action! After reading so much about how easy and fun it can be, Jake Keeler decides to give the “Brew In A Bag” method a try. To put it bluntly – he’s hooked! Join us for a brew session and discussion about the pros and cons to see if brewing-in-a-bag is right for your homebrewery.

Brewing TV is in serious homebrew mode for the next three episodes of the show starting with this one on “Lager Workarounds.”

‘Tis the season for brewing and fermenting lagers. But what if you don’t have the set-up for true lagering process (fermenting fridge, near-freezing basement, etc.)? Brewing TV says “Fake the funk!” In this episode, Dawson and our cohort Don Osborn brew up three beers. They use some yeast strain and temperature workarounds to make them into great non-lagers.

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Brewing TV is planning some cool roadtrips for 2012 including Colorado next month, Dogfish Head later this spring, and the National Homebrewers Conference (and likely some pro brewers, too) in Seattle this summer. Keep an eye out for upcoming episodes from those trips! All for brew, brew for all!

Northern Brewer is hosting several events this month that may be of interest to craft beer fans and homebrewers in the Metro area. All events take place at the Northern Brewer Learning Center inside Northern Brewer Minneapolis (6021 S. Lyndale Ave.). These events are free and open to the public.

Fulton Brewing Company
Saturday, January 14th, 2012 / 10:30-11:30 a.m.
Ryan Petz and Brian Hoffman from Fulton Brewing talk about their beers, the path from homebrewing to commercial brewing, and their new brewery location.

Gordon Strong & Nathan Smith
Thursday, January 26th, 2012 / 2-7 p.m.
Join Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) president/author Gordon Strong and award-winning Bay Area homebrewer Nathan Smith. Smith will be brewing a Double IPA and leading a discussion on the style from 2-5 p.m. Strong will be on hand for the brew session taking questions as well and will be signing copies of his book, Brewing Better Beer, from 5-7 p.m.

Wyeast Laboratories
Saturday, January 28th, 2012 / 1:00-3:00 pm
Owen Lingley from Wyeast Laboratories will lead a discussion and Q&A about yeast as it related to home and pro brewery.

Brewing TV wraps up 2011 with the BTV Pro-Am Beer Fest. Three dudes. Three pro beers. Three homebrews. Come along for a quick taste tour of the beers… then saddle up for a wild ride as we deliver your BTV Holiday Gift in the form of bloopers and outtakes from the past year of production. There’s a lot of homebrewing around the bend. Happy 2012, beer dorks!

By the way, Northern Brewer‘s Brewing TV podcast was awarded a “Best New Arts Podcast” honor in iTunes Rewind 2011. All for brew… brew for all!

New Brewing TV episode online now. Northern Brewer Minneapolis is more than NB’s third and flagship retail store. It was built it to be a forum for demonstration, discussion and documentation of homebrew and pro brewing. Join BTV for the first few weekends of events at NB Minneapolis including a test-brew for an upcoming beer kit, Q&A with Kristen England and Jerrod Johnson (both homebrewers gone pro) and inside a Home Brew Day celebration!

Come join Beer School for their last class of the fall semester! Jake Keeler from Northern Brewer will be handing out prizes for Beer School Graduates, Rob Shellman from Tallgrass will be in to announce a few events for his new project, Better Beer Society, and Omar Ansari from Surly will be at class talking beer and pouring some rare brews-and all for only $5! Also, come today to get in on the presale deal for next semester-only $25 for the whole 16 class semester. It’s not one you want to miss!

Northern Brewer hosts a discussion with award-winning homebrewer and soon-to-be professional brewer Kristen England. Brewing TV’s Jake Keeler moderates the Q&A in which England talks about his time spent building recipes for Northern Brewer, the origin of Patersbier, considerations to make between extract and all-grain, fine-tuning your palate and your homebrew, going pro, and we get a look at what beers Pour Decisions Brewing Company will be hitting the market with in the first half of 2012. (Shot December 4, 2011 at Northern Brewer Minneapolis)

Look for more special guests and pro brewers to appear at Northern Brewer Minneapolis, most of which will be recorded and posted on Northern Brewer’s “Connect” page and YouTube channel including one from Surly’s Jerrod Johnson in the next week or so.