Category: breweries

Red Cow “Cowlaboration” No. 2 with Lift Bridge

cowlaborationWe love collaborations. Hell, we’re even down for “cowlaborations,” provided that the brewers keep our bovine friends out of the mash tun. (In a bun, of course, is just fine.) In any case, here’s just such a cowlaboration: Red Cow and Lift Bridge Brewing Co., are teaming up for a special beer release this weekend, the second beer in Red Cow’s Cowlaboration Series – Red Rye IPA.

Those of you playing along at home may recall the previous Cowlaboration, a session Red IPA brewed in conjunction with Odell.

The beer comes as a colla… er cowlaborative  effort from the Lift Bridge brewers, Red Cow owner Luke Shimp and Red Cow’s go-to beer guy, Grant Fabel. We’re told we should expect a beer with “a slight spice and peppery nose, rustic earthiness, undertones of citrus (grapefruit) hops and fresh cut pine with a light caramel and toast notes, yet not sweet. It’s soft on the palate, medium dry finish with light zest, and color is a rich amber-copper, reddish hue with an ivory head.”

Thirsty? The folks at Red Cow suggest that it will cut through sweet foods and accentuate the heat profile with spicy offerings. They like it paired with the 60/40 Burger, the Brooklyn (double patty in-house ground meat w/bone marrow, white American & crispy leeks) and Ahi Crisps. Gah. Thanks. Now I’m hungry, too.

If you want to get your hands on this beer, visit Red Cow’s North Loop location this Sunday (August 23rd) during Open Streets Downtown Minneapolis celebration. Red Cow will host a beer and cocktail garden in a nearby parking lot on the corner of 1st Ave. and Washington, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with food, yard games, DJ music and of course, tasty cold beer. In addition to the new Red Rye IPA, Red Cow will also serve up 60/40 sliders, Double Barrel (two patties), Chips-n-French Onion Dip sliders, cocktails, Lift Bridge Farm Girl, Lift Bridge Hop Dish and Odell Easy Street Wheat. All beers will be available for $5. For more details, visit www.redcowmn.com.

 

More Nobel Star Beers from Schell’s on the Horizon

Schell's Apparent Horizon

To be frank, I’ve really been digging the Noble Star series of beers from August Schell. From the first offering to the very latest, I’ve really enjoyed the various takes on Berliner Weisse beers. So if you’re like me, you’re curious as to what’s next. We hid in the bushes outside of Jace Marti’s home with out paparazzi friends and ambushed him, begging for answers, TMZ-style. Here’s what we learned….

The next beer in the series will be called Apparent Horizon. It’s another experimental take on a Berliner Weisse brewed with 35% rye malt. This beer will be a slightly stronger “Vollbier” (full beer) strength Berliner Weisse. After a mixed primary fermentation with yeast and lactobacillus, the beer was transferred to one of Schell’s 1936 Cypress Works lagering tanks. Then a culture of brettanomyces was pitched into the beer for a long, slow (9 month) secondary fermentation.

Jace says that the resulting beer is a complex, spicy version of a Berliner Weisse, featuring a moderate, but balanced acidity with notes of lemons and cider. He says that the rye lends a spicy dryness with an aroma not unlike sourdough and pumpernickel.

Deets:

11˚P OG, 5.1% ABV, 5 IBU, 0.75% Total Acidity
Malts: Pilsner, Wheat, Rye, Cararye
Batch Size: 60 bbls
Availability: 750ml Bottles, Draft

Schell's Orbital Drift

Further down the road you’ll see the next beer, Orbital Drift. With this beer, Schell’s brewed a traditional strentth Berliner Weisse, but substituted out all of the pale malts with darker malts to give the beer a reddish-orange hue and more of a malty backbone – atypical for a Berliner Weisse. We’ll learn more details about this beer as it continues to develop. Suffice to say that we’ll be curious to taste it when it’s ready.

Darkness 2015 Artwork by Brandon Holt

surly-darkness-brandon-holt-mnbeerSQ

Surly Brewing Co. 2015 Darkness Art by Brandon Holt. Click on the image for the full version of the artwork.

Go figure that we stumble across the artwork for Surly Brewing Company’s 2015 Darkness on a hot and sticky day in which a Russian Imperial Stout is about the last thing I’d consider drinking. Truth be told, I’m nursing some iced tea and craving a saison. But I digress… For 2015 Surly brought tattoo artist and illustrator Brandon Holt on board. If you’re curious to check out some of his other work, click here for a some samples and here for his Instagram feed. Brandon follows Nic Skrade as second Darkness artist affiliated with Uptown Tattoo.

From the back:

Our 2015 vintage bottling of Darkness features a screeching bat-nightmare by local artist Brandon Holt.

No creature is more adept at navigating in the Darkness than a bat. Emerging from a deep and ancient cave, this year’s twisted nocturnal creature has evolved a set of adaptations well suited to detecting and devouring uncommon nourishment.

Notes of chocolate, coffee, dried tart cherries, and raisins emanate from his lair. If you can evade the talons and teeth, the thick body of this Russian Imperial Stout finishes sweet, with a piney resinous hop character.

Surly Darkness Day 2015 is slated for Saturday, October 24th at their Brooklyn Center brewery. Watch this space for more info as it becomes available.

 

Summit Unchained #20, Sticke Alt

sticke-altOld timers still lament the loss of Summit Altbier. I remember seeing it around, but quite frankly, I don’t actually remember much about it. I’ll defer to the old timers, who seemed to be quite fond of the beer.

Iold-altbiern October, brewer Mike Lundell brings another Alt to the Summit line-up in the form of Summit Unchained #20, Sticke Alt. Perhaps I’m just a beer nerd, but there’s something special about an Altbier. Alts are brewed at relatively moderate temperatures using top-fermenting ale yeast and are matured at cooler temperatures. The resulting beer ends up with a crisp flavor, not unlike a lager.

Summit describes Unchained #20 as a beer with a light noble hop nose with a good malt backbone that is slightly sweet, with a crisp, clean finish.

For this beer they’re using Pilsener, Vienna, Light and Dark Munich, Caramel and Black malts along with Hallertau and Mittelfruh hops. IBUs rack up at 55 and an abv of 6.3%.

Cool, eh?

Now keep in mind, this info is about Unchained #20. The 19th Unchained beer is still in stores. “Make it So,” is an ESB brewed with Earl Grey Tea. If you haven’t checked it out, you really should. I enjoyed it.

makeitso

 

Chop & Brew #38: Homebrewing With Tea

A new episode of the locally produced homebrew/cooking webcast Chop & Brew is now online. This episode focuses on the topic and technique of homebrewing with tea. Tea geek/homebrewer Jessica Hanley (until just recently the manager of Eden Prairie TeaSource) talks about methods for brewing/infusing beer at home using tea. She also hosts a flight of her tea-kissed homebrews. We also throw Summit’s new Unchained 19: Make It So in the mix since it is an ESB infused with Early Grey tea. Relevant and timely!

Other recent C&B episodes you may enjoy:

C&B 37 – Influence of Mashing on Sour Beer Production
Features a presentation by Michael Tonsmeire, author of American Sour Beers and blogger The Mad Fermentationist, on his experience and suggestions regarding mashing for particular styles of sour beer.

C&B 36 – Big Brew Day at Summit
Dozens of homebrewers descend upon Summit Brewing Company for American Homebrewers Association Big Brew Day to brew extract, all-grain and Brew in a Bag batches of homebrew and enjoy a great day in the Minnesota sun.

Speaking of Summit’s Make It So, here is a bit more about the beer, its Star Trek nerd inspiration and effect of the Earl Grey tea:

(Full disclosure: post author works at Summit. Sup.)