Category: general beer

Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest Announces Breweries and Ticket Sales

By on November 21, 2016in beer events, breweries, Brewers Supply Group, general beer, misc. mn beer, MN, mnbeer.com

Mark Opdahl and Juno Choi of Chop Liver Inc. decided four years ago that the Twin Cities needed a rare beer festival. Something similar to the Firestone Walker Invitational, Denver Rare Beer Fest, and the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers. Their solution was a rare beer festival held at the beautiful Minnesota Historical Society called Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest. “We wanted to take those ideas, hand select the breweries, and give the beer community what they want” says Opdahl.

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The breweries (30 in total) are a mix of local and national, which provide a nice variety of beers that are hard for Minnesotans to get their hands on. “We’re pretty lucky too” says Opdahl. “It’s a testament that they want to have some of their beers up against the best in the country. It really shows that they appreciate what we do the rest of the year with Chop Liver Inc. events.” This event is also rare in that food is included in the cost of the ticket ($100 with a portion of the proceeds going to Pints for Prostates) and is often better than you’ll find at other beer events around town. “It’s not just deli sandwiches and potato chips” he says laughing. For example, last year they served pork belly sliders, beer cheese soup, along with all sorts of snacks.

Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest

Another thing that sets this event apart from others is the venue. The Minnesota Historical Society hosted Winterfest for years before they outgrew the space with so many new local breweries. “The venue is really what makes this event what it is” he proclaims. “Marble top to bottom, and a view of the capitol from the 3rd floor. We only sell 750 of these tickets so it’s easy to get around. If you spend this kind of money, you should be able to move around.” So how do they get so many of these breweries on board? Experience. They had been running beer events for 6 years before the first Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest giving them the opportunity to meet representatives from many of these breweries. The other co-founder Juno Choi has been working at Brewers Supply Group for years where he’s built relationships with some of the most notable people in the industry.

Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest

This year’s event will take place on March 11th with tickets going on sale this Friday at 10 AM, just in time for the holidays. The festival provides attendees the chance to try a lot of these beers without committing to full bottles and long lines outside of liquor stores. “Its a great opportunity to try unique beers that are often not found in stores. If you go into a normal bar and pay for a single flight, you’re already at $15” states Opdahl.

 

All in all this is one of the best beer festivals held here in Minnesota, and a ticket to this event is a great gift idea for those who seek out hard to find beers.

So which breweries are gonna be there? We at MNBeer.com are proud to announce the brewery lineup which can be found below:

unnamedAugust Schell Brewing Company (2015 winner)
Avery Brewing Company
Ballast Point Brewing Company
Bells Brewery
Bemidji Brewing Company
Bent Paddle Brewing Company
Boulevard Brewing Company
Central Waters Brewing Company
Dark Horse Brewing Company
Deschutes Brewery
Elysian Brewing Company
Fargo Brewing Company
Fitgers Brewhouse (2016 winner)
Forager Brewing Company
Fulton Brewery
Goose Island Beer Company
Grand Teton Brewing Company (2014 winner)
Great Divide Brewing Company
Great Lakes Brewing Company
Indeed Brewing Company
Lagunitas Brewing Company
Left Hand Brewing Company
Lift Bridge Brewing Company
Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Oskar Blues Brewery
Steel Toe Brewing Company
Stone Brewing Company
Surly Brewing Company
The Bruery
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company

Cheers!

Modist Introducing the Deviation Series

By on October 13, 2016in cooking & food, general beer, hops, misc. mn beer, MN, Modist Brewing, new beer, tap rooms

The brewery in town known for pushing boundaries is launching a series of beers they’re calling Deviation. Keigan Knee and his crew of brewers plan to make use of a 10-barrel fermenting vessel they installed 6 months ago with the sole purpose of experimenting with ingredients and processes to create new beer experiences.

These “experiments” will be taproom only releases and will not be made in large batches unless they are successful—measured strictly by popularity with their patrons. Those cute names they’ve given their flagships offerings will not apply to this series. Each batch will only be assigned a number beginning with 001 and 002. The first two will be available in the taproom on Friday, October 14th beginning at 7 pm for 001, and 8 pm for 002.

Deviation 001 is being described as a dark beer that was brewed with pilsner, rye, wheat, and coffee malts. The hops used in this batch were Amarillo, Cascade, and Columbus. Only 17 kegs were produced so it won’t last long. 5.6% ABV, 43 IBU, 21 SRM.

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Deviation 002 is a wheat monster. In fact, it was brewed with 100% wheat malts (which is very uncommon) and tons of Citra, Bravo, and Ella hops. This should be a beautiful, hazy looking beer due to the use of 100% wheat malts. Only 20 kegs were produced. 7% ABV, 88 IBU, 4 SRM.

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These releases are one-of-a-kind so you don’t want to miss out.

The Modist vision:
At Modist, our aim is to modify beer and how it is perceived by defying rules and
expectations. We don’t abide by established style guidelines and refuse to bend to pre-
conceived notions. We push past traditional brewing by embracing creativity and
unconstrained experimentation, taking an innovative approach to ingredients and
techniques in order to harness raw inspiration and create a new beer experience.

 

Cheers!

Bev-Craft Seeks to Improve Minnesota Beer

By on September 28, 2016in beer education, education, general beer, MN

Tim Nelson and Dave Hoops left Fitger’s Brewhouse over a year ago with hopes of improving the quality of Minnesota beer by starting a consulting business called Bev-Craft. A “think tank” is what they like to call it. Dave Hoops who is the Director of Brewing Operations is excited to lend his experience to new breweries seeking to improve their beer. “Unless you’re someone like Sierra Nevada, you should always be trying to make better beer” says Hoops.

Dave and a team of cicerones tasted over a hundred beers (locally made) at the state fair and gave feedback, positive and negative to breweries around the state. The goal was to give honest advice to some of the breweries looking to improve their beer. “I’m overly opinionated” he said. “But I’m fair.” Dave also serves as a judge at the Great American Beer Festival which gives him a head up on most brewers (in my book) here in Minnesota.

Tim Nelson acts as CEO while Dave Hoops heads up the brewing operations. Brad Nelson (Tim’s brother) is in charge of the branding while Paul Christensen is responsible for sales. “Basically we’re here to help breweries start up. We’re also specialized consultants. That doesn’t mean that I’m approaching them. People that have a question, we’re there to help” says Hoops.

In an overcrowded local market, this can only be a good thing. Especially with all of the sub-par beer being produced by the newer breweries. My advice to new breweries looking to open….don’t serve your beer until it’s ready.

Quality should always come first. And if you need help, reach out to the professionals.

Cheers!

The World’s Largest Single-Site Malting Facility is in Our Back Yard

By on September 28, 2016in general beer

This weekend our friends at Rahr their new malt house and other new spaces to tons of neighbors and brewery folks this past weekend on Saturday. As some of you know, I had the pleasure of being on-site as the new malthouse, lab/pilot brewery and distribution center were being completed. It was a massive undertaking that was completed ahead of schedule. Not bad!

Rahr President and CEO William Rahr. Photo: Christina Rahr Lane

Rahr President and CEO William Rahr. Photo: Christina Rahr Lane

According to president and CEO Willie Rahr, “This project is focused on taking our quality, capabilities and service to an even higher level. We’re adding 28 full-time employees at our home base in Shakopee to make this growth possible and meet the needs of a thriving brewing and beverage industry.”

For any of you unfamiliar with the Shakopee company, Rahr is a family-owned company that manufactures malt and distributes malt and other ingredients to brewers, distillers and other beverage-makers worldwide, including almost all (90%) of Minnesota’s breweries from August Schell to Steel Toe. Nearly 1/4 of American-brewed beers contain Rahr malt. That’s a lot of 2-row, 6-row, pilsner and wheat malt!

The brand-new “malthouse 6” ads over 100,000 square feet of production space, making Rahr’s headquarters the largest single-site malting facility in the world. The expansion increases the annual malting capacity from 390,000 to 460,000 metric tons – enough to brew about 6 billion bottles of craft beer.

Technical Center - research brewery and lab. Photo: Christina Rahr Lane

Technical Center – research brewery and lab. Photo: Christina Rahr Lane

The expansion includes a 20,000-square-foot research brewery and technical center that enable Rahr to test the performance of its products in an actual brewery environment, as well as an 80,000-square-foot distribution and packaging facility. This facility is used primarily for warehousing and bagging by Brewers Supply Group, a Rahr Corporation subsidiary that supplies premium ingredients to brewers, winemakers, distillers, and home fermentation retailers.

Matt Brynildson from Firestone Walker had this to share: “Firestone Walker Brewing Company has been partnered with Rahr Malting since 2001.  We have enjoyed a long and productive relationship through many years of growth and an ever-evolving beer landscape.  Consistent, clean and good flavored malt is at the core of all good beer and Rahr has delivered world-class malt to us year in and year out.  The talented and dedicated Rahr team has playing a key role in the success of our brewery.” 

 

Noteworthy Beers from Autumn Brew Review 2016

By on September 18, 2016in beer events, breweries, Dangerous Man Brewing Co., general beer, hops, Indeed Brewing Co., Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, misc. mn beer, MN, mnbeer.com, new beer, NorthGate Brewing

With so many fantastic beers on display at the 16th annual Autumn Brew Review, it’s hard to choose favorites. Instead I’ve highlighted some that stood out. Here they are:

Whiskey Queen from Indeed Brewing – A smooth Russian Imperial Stout that delivers flavors of bittersweet chocolate, vanilla, stone fruits and oak to the palate.

Twisted Zweig from Forager Brewing – This was probably my favorite beer at the festival. An Imperial Berliner Weisse aged on black currants. Sour, juicy, and extremely drinkable. You’d never know this was an 8% (ABV) beer, which is almost dangerous. This brewery has really impressed me this summer and it would be worth your while to visit them down in Rochester. I was honestly shocked that there wasn’t a line at this booth.

Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout from Dangerous Man – Smooth and creamy milk chocolate with a little bit of heat (alcohol) on the end. It’ll be fun to explore some these barrel-aged beers coming out of Dangerous Man in the coming months.

IWL from Town Hall Brewery – This wheat based lager was very heavy on my two favorite hops—Mosaic and Citra. Another fine creation by Mike Hoops and his team of brewers over at the Seven Corners brewery. There’s a reason it’s the first place I take anyone new to the Twin Cities.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout from NorthGate – Dark stone fruits, chocolate, and bourbon dominated the flavor profile of this one. Nice example of the style for a brewery that focuses on British ales. This one stood out among the many other Imperial Stouts available at ABR.

Cheers!