Our friends at Fulton are releasing their Black IPA, URSA, today in their taproom. The beer was made with locally grown hops from Mighty Axe Hops. Today starting at 5pm, stop in for the special tapping Ben, Brian and Eric from Mighty Axe hops will be in attendance as well.
Let’s all welcome another brewery to Minnesota, shall we? Today, Eastlake Brewery & Taproom opens their doors to the public starting at 11am. Eastlake Brewery is located in the Midtown Global Market, 920 East Lake Street, Minneapolis.
I love the concept. I’ve been a fan of the Midtown Global Market since its inception and adding a brewery/taproom seems like a mutually awesome thing for both food vendors and the brewery, opening the doors to a wealth of awesome food/beer pairings.
For your designated drivers, they’ll have root beer and a couple of varieties of kombucha on tap as well. Go check them out. This should be fun!
Open week hours:
Thursday – 11 am to midnight
Friday – 11 am to midnight
Saturday – 9 am to midnight
Sunday – 9 am to 6 pm
Closed Monday and Tuesday.
Summit’s Unchained Series has really been something I’ve looked forward to over the course of the past several years. This round marks a few firsts for the brewery – this will be the first Unchained offering in cans (i.e. 16 oz. silos… get it?). It will also be Summit’s first foray into the world of double IPAs. Summit suggests that this one will have strong hop characteristics with a punch of citrus, herbal and pine notes. At 101 IBUs, this beer goes to eleven! Check it out.
Malts: Crisp Best Pale Malt, Simpson’s Premium Englis Caramel Malt, Simpson’s Crystal Dark
Hops: Zeus, Azacca, Apollo, Lemondrop, CascadeIBU: 101
ABV: 8.3%
I firmly believe in the notion of “No Xmas Music before December.” I’m just not ready for Bing and Elvis and those guys who play the wooden flutes in shopping malls until at least December. As far as I’m concerned, there’s a one month window for “Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree” and standing idly by while your poor grandmother gets laid out by Rudolph. Period.
Not that I don’t like the stuff – we tend to play a variety of the old classics in the MNBeer household – Guaraldi, Sinatra, Elvis, Bing Crosby and perhaps even some Johnny Cash if he’s actually singing and not talking about Christmas. We try not to veto much in the MNBeer household (after all, I have a five-year-old who loves “Frozen”), but Christmas albums from Mariah Carey, N’Sync and contemporary country artists are banned.
That being said, let’s roll out a few Christmas/holiday/winter offerings that I enjoy for one reason or another. Sit tight:
The New Standards – Snow Days.
So this was originally a Trip Shakespeare song… but you knew that, right? In any case, I was never a huge Trip Shakespeare fan, but I enjoyed some of their songs and even saw them in Moorhead, Minnesota one summer in the 90s. (Side note, there were several “huge” TS fans. One of these fans almost got punched in the throat by other audience members for shouting incessantly at the drummer ‘Elaine! ELAINE!’) Anyway, this song has always stuck with me and I find myself humming it every time it gets shitty outside. Fitting.
The Ramones – Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight), Brain Drain (Buy it.)
Bad Religion – Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Christmas Songs (Buy it.”)
Bad Religion did a Christmas album. Think about that for a second. Bad Religion did a Christmas album.
RUN DMC, Christmas in Hollis (Buy it!)
This always makes me smile.
The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl – Fairytale of New York, If I Should Fall from Grace with God (Buy it.)
This is my absolute favorite from the entire list. Love it. Bonus, here’s version from the band No Use for a Name with Cinder Block (Tilt, Fabulous Disaster) filling in Kirsty MacColl’s spot. I never got too excited about NUFAN, but this version is a standout. Link.
Photo: Gun Flint Tavern