Category: general beer

Steel Toe Brewing Moving to Cans

By on June 30, 2016in general beer, misc. mn beer, MN, mnbeer.com, new beer, Steel Toe Brewing, tap rooms

Back when Oskar Blues first starting canning their beers in 2002 many people wondered why they went that route. Now just about everyone is going to cans for many reasons, one of them being that you can take them anywhere. Just ask Steel Toe Brewing owner Jason Schoneman who tells me that they are going to start canning their suds—which are expected to hit a limited number of stores on July 13th. “The big reason we are going to cans is that we want our beer to be everywhere” he says. “We like going to the lake too, and bombers (22 oz. bottles) are a pain in the ass” he says laughing.

STB3

 

Steel Toe will be canning their popular flagships Size 7 IPA and Provider Golden Ale to start with other varieties to follow. The regal design of these cans will showcase the signature boot logo in a black on silver look that features the color associated with each brand. Green for Size 7 and yellow for Provider. They will be sold in 6 packs of 12 oz. cans and as stated above will start out at select retail locations across the metro beginning on July 13th. The plan then is to roll them out to all of their retail locations by the end of the year. You’ll still be able to find their other varieties in bomber bottles around town for now.

STB2

They had been talking about this change for a while but tank space was always the concern. So why the switch now? Two words: The customer. “We’ve had so many requests for this format. It’s what the customer wants” says Shoneman. Here’s to hoping Sommer Vice and Size 4 follow suit.

STB4

So grab your camping gear and don’t forget a six pack or two on your way out of town.

Cheers!

Surly Brewer’s Table Named Top Ten Restaurant by Food & Wine Magazine

By on June 9, 2016in beer dinners, breweries, cooking & food, food pairing, general beer, misc. mn beer, MN, mnbeer.com, Surly Brewing Co.

Two years ago Surly hired Jorge Guzman as the Executive Chef for their new destination brewery, a position that came with a lot of pressure. Two years later the accolades are rolling in.

The Star Tribune named Jorge Guzman Best Chef of 2015, while award-winning local food critic Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl gave The Brewer’s table a glowing review a couple months back. Now, Food & Wine Magazine has named The Brewer’s Table among the top ten restaurants in the country. That’s right….the entire country!

The Chef & Brewer Pairing Menu consists of four courses including beer and will run you $70, not bad for a fine dining experience. The menu changes regularly, but if you see octopus be sure to order it. It was fabulous when this writer paid a visit.

Jorge is also competing in the national COCHON555 competition (June 18th in Snomass Village, CO) after he was awarded the title Prince of Porc (winner of regionals) back in February. The goal at the national event is to use a whole heritage breed hog (head-to-tail) and win over the judges by serving a selection of the dishes that won at regionals.

practice pig

If you’d like to check out the Brewer’s Table you can make your reservation here.

Cheers!

Modist Brews a 100% Wheat Beer

By on June 8, 2016in breweries, general beer, Modist Brewing

modistmarkMaking beer with a 100% wheat malt bill is very uncommon. Only one other brewery in the country has made a 100% wheat beer to the best of this writer’s knowledge, and that is Tennessee Brew Works. They brewed Walk the Lime as a spring seasonal using the same filtration system that Modist uses. Keigan and the Modist crew decided that they wanted to try a 100% wheat beer because why not?

Well it turns out that most wheat beers use only 40 – 50% wheat because the wheat is high in soluble proteins and it becomes too sticky in the process—which makes it hard to extract all the sugars from the malt. Fortunately at Modist they have that fancy state-of-the-art filter that helps them out big time.

Head brewer Keigan Knee is excited to experiment with more of these 100% wheat beers. “Our mash filter brewhouse made easy work of the wheat malt due to its design” he says. As for those future batches, he intends to explore all of the possibilities. “It will be exciting to develop new flavor combinations from the wheat malt. The possibilities are endless.”

For this batch they used Rahr Red and White Wheat, Crisp Torrefied Wheat, and Weyermann® CARAWHEAT®. This isn’t a typical wheat beer at all in that it clocks in at 8.2% ABV yet it drinks like 4% beer. So how is the beer? Well this writer was able to try it at the St. Paul Summer Beer Festival and it was fantastic. The wheat flavor is very present and it would be easy to over do it on this since it goes down so easy.

Get down to Modist and check it out for yourself. I’m hearing it won’t last long.

Cheers!

News and Notes Early June 2016

By on June 7, 2016in beer dinners, beer events, Bent Paddle Brewing Co., breweries, charity, Fair State Brewing, general beer, Lift Bridge, misc. mn beer, MN, mnbeer.com, new beer, Summit Brewing Co.

On June 15th Fair State Brewing will release their sour Saison Roselle in cans. This beer is brewed with Hibiscus and is a perfect beer for warm summer days. Speaking of Fair State, they will be hosting a sour beer festival on June 25 called Mixed Culture. At this event they will be tapping 7 new barrel-aged mixed culture beers and bringing out some oldies from the cellar. Oakhold will also be previewing some of their beers at the event. As you may know, Caleb Levar (Co-owner of Oakhold) has been helping Niko and the Fair State crew around the brewery with their sour program.

The Lift Bridge folks made a trip out to Fort Collins earlier this spring to collaborate on a Belgian Ale with Odell Brewing called Peaks and Prairies. This recipe utilizes Colorado Palisade peaches and Cardamom and was aged on oak. This release is a part of Taps & Tables which is a celebration of craft beer and restaurants in June. For $30 you and a guest will be able to enjoy food and the beer at participating restaurants with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. Click here for the schedule.

This is the 5th year for Pride Dabbler which will take place on June 24th from 5:30 – 9:30 pm. More than 50 breweries will be on-site pouring beers while food trucks such as Natedogs, The Anchor Fish and Chips, Hot Indian Foods and more will be selling food. Grab your tickets here.

Summit will be releasing the 22nd variety in their Unchained Series called Zingiber Cream Ale with ginger. Expect this to hit shelves and tap lines in the next couple of weeks.

Bent Paddle’s Lollygagger Pale Ale hits store shelves this week. 5% of all sales of this beer will go to helping Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores build a 100 mile mountain biking trail system called The Duluth Traverse. This copper colored beauty is sure to please those that appreciate a well-balanced Pale Ale.

That’s it for now.

Cheers!

Mighty Axe Hops Expanding Taking Local Hops to the Next Level

By on June 6, 2016in breweries, general beer, hops, misc. mn beer, MN, mnbeer.com

There have always been issues for local hop growers here in Minnesota. For one, breweries need to be able to depend on large quantities of quality hops in which they contract years out. Another issue is that even if hop farmers could supply all of those hops, they’d need to process them with expensive equipment in order to satisfy the need (most desire pelletized hops) of the breweries. CEO Eric Sannerud and the Mighty Axe Hops team have a solution to this issue. A $4.6 million dollar project will assure that Mighty Axe Hops has the space to grow them and the equipment to process them all right here in Minnesota. Gillmanton Township near St. Cloud to be exact.

Staying close to the city was important to Sannerud. “We’re gonna be close. It’s only an hour from Northeast Minneapolis.” The facility will be 14,000 square feet and it will house a picker, a dryer, a pelletizer, and a freezer all of which will be state-of-the-art.

Eventually they plan to share some of their equipment with other growers around the state but as of right now, Sannerud is unsure how that will work. They will work with breweries via contracts the same way the system works right now and they’re excited to be able to offer this on a local level. “Right now everything is a special release” says Sannerud. With contracts, breweries will be able to make some of their standard beers with local hops as well meaning they won’t have to go out west for them. “We’re excited to be able to do long-term contracts like the breweries are already used to” he says.

As far as the acreage goes, they plan to grow eighty acres. Forty the first year (CTV, Cascade, Centennial, and Crystal) and another forty acres (varieties not yet known) the year after that. The plan then will be that at the end of each season, the Mighty Axe folks will freeze whatever doesn’t sell and offer them in later years to experiment with. Much like a “vertical” where you can taste them side by side with the current year’s version. For example you could brew two batches of beer using the same ingredients except for the hops which would be from different years. Brewers could also experiment using hops from Minnesota and the Yakima Valley and find the subtleties between the two.

After all is said and done the goal will remain the same. To bring Minnesota hops to relevancy.

“Brewers are hungry for Minnesota hops, and that’s really exciting for us.”

Cheers!