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Check out the label art for Surly Nein label art by artist Erica Williams. If the name doesn’t already give it away, Nein will be (you guessed it!) Surly’s ninth anniversary beer. According to the label, Nein was inspired by a trip to Bamberg, Germany. The beer is brewed with oak-smoked wheat malt, fermented with a German Hefeweizen yeast and then aged on charred oak. Surly calls it a “huge, complex, dark beer” and suggests a punch of smoked banana, vanilla and clove.

From the artist:

The inspiration for Surly’s Nein Anniversary Ale artwork mirrors that of the ale itself. Todd visited Germany and knew he wanted the beauty of traditional German aesthetic reflected in the label so I used heraldry as my main source of inspiration. Lions, black eagles, billowing scrolls, and symbolically powerful imagery are commonly found in their shields, architecture, and art so we went with that. I also used three lions, each with three eyes, because Todd and I are both cat people and I wanted to infuse the label with 3s and 9s. The oak leaves play to the process of making the beer and the spades are a symbol of good luck.

Reading “smoked bananas” immediately had me thinking about the band The Dead Milkmen. As a direct result, here’s my present to you, good or bad…

WCCO reports that Lakes & Legends Brewery is coming to Loring Park this summer.

MPR reports that the Minnesota Dept of Public Safety predicts that the number of breweries in Minnesota will top 110 in 2015. In 2005, they reported just 5 breweries. Can you name them all?

The Journal reports that Dangerous Man is expanding. No surprise there!

Michael Agnew talks about beer glass shapes in the Star Tribune.

Firkin Fest recap at APerfectPint.net

The Good:

New St. Cloud brewery, Beaver Island Brewing Co. is opening their taproom to the public this Saturday at 2pm. Beaver Island Brewing Co. was founded by a couple of St. Cloud homebrewers, Nick Barth and Matt Studer. Though the two certainly were not strangers to the industry, the made a wise choice in hiring Chris Laumb as brewmaster. Chris has been a longtime friend of MNBeer and we’ve watched him transition from O’Hara’s to McCann’s to Third Street Brewhouse. He makes a mean dubbel, too.

I spent a short stint of my life in St. Cloud. After leaving the Fargo/Moorhead area, I followed a girl to St. Cloud State University in 1997. During my time in the Granite City I sampled far too many single bottles of beer from Westside, dabbled in wine nerdery and discovered the house-made beers at O’Hara’s. It was something special… not necessarily a craft beer epiphany (that had already happened), but still something special. I could go on, but I won’t. Suffice to say that I’m excited for Chris and the folks from Beaver Island Brewing.

Bonus, they occupy the former Bo Diddley’s sandwich shop location in downtown St. Cloud. Cant wait to check them out.

Road trip to St. Cloud anyone?

The Bad:

Bring Me the News reports that Granite City is up for sale or merger. Granite City is a place that is often panned by craft beer newbies. Short of former brewery operations wizard Bob MacKenzie’s Batch 1000, you won’t fine a ton of hops in any of their beers or offbeat seasonal offerings. Regardless, it’s sad to see an early craft beer operation falter. I still remember rolling out to their first location in St. Cloud in 1999 and being wowed by great food, huge portions and a rotating variety of beers. St. Cloud had (has?) its own small scale brewery and at the time, it felt pretty special. We wish them the best. We also wish they’d bring back their Belgian strong golden ale recipe from a few years ago.