Category: MN

Top Brewer Minnesota

By on October 5, 2012in bars/restaurants, beer events, breweries, homebrew, MN

Description from Top Brewer: This event is a celebration of the local craft beer scene.  Never before has the community been brought together to choose what beer will enter the local market.  This event unites local breweries, beer lovers, homebrewers, and craft beer bars in one harmonious event, by showcasing each, and the contribution they make to our community.

Groveland Tap, October 11 & 25th – 6-9:30pm
Edina Grill, October 18 – 6-9:30pm
3 Squares, November 1 – 6pm-9:30pm

The event is 100% Minnesotan.  Taking place on Thursdays in October on scenic patios.

The brewer that will own the Top Brewer MN will be determined through a series of 4 qualifying events, which will be held at a different Blue Plate Group Restaurant. Each week 6 local homebrewers bring a beer to be judged; the winner of each week will be given ingredients courtesy of Northern Brewer and Brewer Supply Group to make a beer for the finals.

The Finals will be held at Lucid Brewing Company on February 2nd and the winner will be be known around Minnesota and beyond as TOP BREWER MINNESOTA.

Top Brewer MN will give local homebrewers an opportunity to be able to brew on a production scale brewing system with the gang at Lucid Brewing Company, help name the beer, and of course be apart of the promotional team through a series of events in March.

Each of the four events will be limited to 200 attendees and will cost fifteen dollars. Ticket will includes a complimentary Lucid beer of your choice, live music featuring local artists, and special pricing for Lucid beers as well as some food items paired specifically with the Lucid beers. For more information go to www.topbrewer.org

Building the Brewery: Surly Brewing Co.

By on October 3, 2012in breweries, Features, MN

And Now for Something Completely Different
In terms of craft beer in Minnesota, Surly & MNBeer sort of “grew up” together, launching around the same time and watching the beer scene grow steadily. I’m sure some of you remember tasting their beers for the first time at Winterfest in 2006 (bonus: remember Omar with long hair?). Instead of detailing their very interesting past (which is much better heard at the brewery while enjoying a Furious anyways), I will be sharing the insights of Surly’s president, Omar Ansari, about the plans for Surly’s new destination brewery. I should say here that I first talked to Omar about his ideas for the new brewery while at an event to celebrate Surly selecting HGA Architects (my employer) to design it. While I may be biased about their choice of architect, this feature isn’t going to be about the design, but about the concept, and of course, the beer.

A New Brewery the Surly Way
In May of 2011 the “Surly bill” was signed into law, allowing breweries producing under 250,000 barrels a year to sell their own beers on site. This law change cleared the way for Surly to begin planning their $20 million destination brewery, which will include a brewhaus, beer hall, restaurant, event center and an outdoor beer garden. The planning is still in the very early stages. Omar compared it to actually starting the brewery, “It’s a slow process. This in many ways is much harder than building the brewery the first time around. The only people I had to convince then were my family and Todd, and then get the building ready. Now there are so many moving pieces. We have to work with the city, the county, architects, lawyers, bankers, land sellers and neighborhood groups. It’s a much bigger undertaking. From idea to brewery the first time around it took 2 years. We started thinking about this in 2010 and we’re shooting for opening the new location in 2014.”

The big missing piece is the site location. So much of what the new brewery will be like is dependent on what site they have to work with. Though a Prospect Park location has received some serious attention as of late,  nothing has been finalized on this front yet. Omar simply joked, “People always have lots of thoughts on where the brewery should be. Usually it’s within stumbling distance of their house.” While it can’t be in everyone’s neighborhood, it’s important to be located in a place that is densely populated and has easy access via public transit and on bike. Offers from many suburbs are attractive, but just don’t fit with what they’re trying to achieve.

He and Todd have always felt that this project would be urban. He talked about breweries around the country that have gone into depressed industrial areas and helped to revitalize their neighborhoods. They’re having trouble finding a spot like that here. He explained the difficulty they’re facing, “We need a certain size site and there just aren’t that many spots available in Minneapolis, which is a good thing. The Twin Cities doesn’t have these old vacant areas. Things are so developed.”

Although the exact location isn’t yet determined (which means we can all keep dreaming about it being in our neighborhoods for the time being), Omar shared some of the details about the new brewery that I’m sure MNBeer readers will find equally important. By this, I mean he told me about the plans for the beer.

Doing What’s Best for the Beer

The new location will open with Surly’s current line up, but he hopes to have 15 to 20 of their beers on tap in time. As production moves to the new facility, the Brooklyn Center location will be devoted to what he calls “wild” beers (he mentioned a barrel aged Darkness and it set my heart aflutter). It’s no secret that Surly can’t make enough beer right now. He explained, “The constant struggle is that everyone wants more Furious, but they also want more of the anniversary and specialty beers.”

It’s been inferred before that Omar has prevented Todd from being as creative as he could be. The reality is that in their Brooklyn Center location, there just isn’t enough space to do all of the barrel aging and other creative brewing that they’d like to do. This will change when the new facility gets up and running. Having a 25,000 square foot facility for barrel aging and sour beers is a luxury that not many other breweries have. This is another indication that the Surly way of doing things isn’t going to fall by the wayside with their new increased production capabilities.

In the past, Surly has tried to go into other markets and had to pull out because they were having a hard time meeting demand. With an increase in brewing capacity of 100,000 barrels a year they could try to reestablish themselves in those abandoned markets, but that isn’t necessarily what is best for the beer. He emphasized the importance of meeting local demand, “We’re brewing all the beer we can brew. We’re going to have to make enough to meet Minnesota demand first and it’s hard to know what exactly that is at this point. So if this doesn’t get us back into those markets, I guess we never will. There’s only so much you can do to grow.”

First public tour. Not the short goatee!

One of Omar’s chief concerns about the increase in production was whether they’d be able to get enough raw materials. He assured me that they were able to secure contracts for their ingredients, “Getting those particular hops contracted was important. And if we didn’t, we’re building this big facility and what would we brew? We were able to lock that down, so we’ll be able to grow with the brands that folks know and love and maybe even make some of the smaller ones bigger.”

Speaking of ingredients, Surly’s fresh-hop beer, Wet, recently hit the market. This is Omar’s favorite Surly beer and he explained why, “it’s a delicious beer and a lot of work goes into it. We had two tanks fabricated just to make it. It’s an unbelievably laborious process. We don’t sprinkle a little bit of hops on it; all the hops are wet hops. It doesn’t necessarily make a lot of sense in many fashions, but it embodies the way we do things.” Whenever Omar and Todd are confronted with a decision, they always bring it back to what is going to make the best beer.

Going from the new kids in the Minnesota beer scene to veteran brewers making some of the best loved local beers in just six short years shows that doing what’s best for the beer is much appreciated by consumers. Omar is a little bit in awe of the success they’ve experienced, “What’s happened to us is nothing that me or Todd or anyone else would have ever thought would happen. We always thought we would brew beers that literally didn’t belong in every bar and liquor store.” Fortunately for and thanks to Minnesota beer drinkers, that is not the case.

Summit Oyster Stout Premieres at Oyster Fest

By on September 28, 2012in bars/restaurants, beer education, food pairing, general beer, MN

Just a reminder that Summit Brewing Company will launch their Oyster Stout during Oyster Fest at Meritage in St. Paul this Sunday, September 30th. I was there last year for the festival (and Lift Bridge’s Oyster Stout) and it was a blast! It’s funny how similar the oyster-head world is to the craft beer nerd world when it comes to getting the highest quality and regionally interesting products… and bragging rights for sampling them. (Check out this episode of Brewing TV to see last year’s brew day at Lift Bridge and the 2011 festival-in-action at Meritage).

This time around, Summit had the honor of making the festival beer. Whether you’re an experience bivalve-lover or new to the game, it’s a great way to explore the world of oysters while enjoying this new beer. Meritage says this about Summit’s Oyster Stout:

Summit Brewery will launch their Oyster Stout, inspired by and made from our very own oyster shells. In first discussions the brewers are thinking a British perspective and tradition might be an interesting way to go. Enjoy your pint, and even join us at the pairing station to learn about the beer, its process and pairing oysters with it.

Carmody Irish Pub & Brewery, Duluth

By on September 24, 2012in brewpubs, Features, MN

Nestled between North Shore brewing giant Fitger’s Brewhouse, and their offshoot, Tycoons Alehouse, sits a comparatively smaller and less renowned pub. Carmody Irish Pub sits just three blocks from Fitger’s, and is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself heading north.

Carmody is a very small brewing operation, with a brewing setup that only yields 2 1/2 barrels per batch. With such small batches, it’s no surprise that when I asked what was on tap during my visit, the bartender had to check the beer menu for the day to remind himself which beers and how many different beers were available on the day of my visit. They have four permanent beers in their lineup: Tipplers Golden, Agnes Irish Red, Scanlon IPA, and Famine 47 Irish Stout. The rest of their beer lineup changes on regular basis.

Carmody doesn’t open until 3pm, but they stay open until 2am with live music six nights a week. Their menu is simple, with a couple of sandwich options, a handful of wrap choices, and soup. In addition to their own beers, they also serve a variety of imported European beers and Irish whiskeys, as well as a collection of regional and micro brews. Owner Eddie Gleeson says that they plan to shuffle their guest beer taps to all Minnesota taps in the near future.

Eddie’s wife, Liz Gleeson, spends her days in the Carmody basement brewing beer, while her husband Eddie heads up the business end of their pub. It’s obvious when first meeting Liz that she loves her job. She glows when she talks about her involvement in a business dominated by men, and proudly displays her pink boots from the Pink Boots Society, whose mission is to encourage women in brewing – whether it be professionally or as a hobby.

Her enthusiasm for brewing is clear, even as she highlights the perils of being a smaller brewery. She points out that three of their fermenters are temperature controlled, while two are not. She says that they got such a great deal on the other two that they had to buy them anyway and figure out a temperature control system later. Gleeson now has these two fermenters hidden within a box of sheet insulation. An air conditioner pumps cooled air directly into this insulated box – creating a makeshift cold room. Solutions like this are a regular part of being a small brewpub.

Even with only brewing small batches, Carmody is on the cusp of expansion. They are planning on opening a second location in Two Harbors on October 1. Gleeson says that they aren’t just building a bar, but that Two Harbors will have all of the aspects of Carmody that people have come to expect.

“Our goal is to bring craft beer and a new music scene to the North Shore,” said Gleeson.

Fulton Libertine Release Events

By on September 21, 2012in beer events, breweries, MN
Fulton Brewing Co.

It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting in the back room of the Four Firkins and sampling a beer from a brewery-in-planning called Fulton. Man, how time flies! And just in time for the first official day of Fall, Fulton is releasing their seasonal double-red ale, The Libertine with a week of events starting Saturday at the brewery.

Here’s the complete rundown. Something for everyone!

Saturday, 9/22 @ Fulton Taproom in Downtown Minneapolis: Libertine will be on tap and available in growlers when we open our doors at noon. As with last time it was available at the taproom, Libertine is $5 for a 12 oz pour and $18 for a growler. Also of note: we’ll have some very cool limited edition Libertine T-shirts available for sale.

Sunday, 9/23 @ Bryant Lake Bowl in Uptown Minneapolis: Laura and the great crew at BLB will be tapping Libertine to coincide with their weekly Neighborhood Night. Starting at 6:00, you can not only get Libertine, but also discounts on other local beers, appetizers, and bowling to boot!

Monday, 9/24 @ The Happy Gnome in St. Paul: Head over to the Happy Gnome! If Libertine alone doesn’t get you moving, consider this: The Gnome will have Sweet Child of Vine, Lonely Blonde, and yes, War & Peace on tap. Libertine and War & Peace are both rare in their own right; getting them at the same time is almost unheard of.

Tuesday, 9/25 @ 3 Squares in Maple Grove: We know there’s a lot of beer enthusiasts in the Northwest Metro. We’ll be joining the fine folks at 3 Squares for pints & perhaps some sweet Fulton giveaways as well.

Wednesday, 9/26 @ The Muddy Pig in St. Paul: Some purists say that cask-conditioned is the best way to experience a beer; others prefer it from a keg. (We believe there are many paths to nirvana, and will stay out of this argument). Come to the Muddy Pig and decide for yourself the best way to enjoy a Libertine: they’ll be tapping a keg as well as a cask conditioned with Fuggles.

Thursday, 9/27 @ Acadia in West Bank Minneapolis: If you haven’t been to Acadia for a Beer & Beast night, mark your calendar for this one. We’ll be serving a cask-conditioned Libertine aged with hickory. Better yet, Acadia’s smokemaster Ted will be serving steaks smoked with the same hickory! Sounds like a perfect pairing to us.

Friday, 9/28 @ Edina Grill: Last but certainly not least, we’ll be stopping by Edina Grill to finish out our Libertine Tour of the Original Six Fulton bars. Edina Grill holds a special place in Fulton’s heart, as it’s only three blocks from the garage where we brewed our first homebrew batches. Arrive early before Brian has a chance to eat all of the pierogies!

The Libertine Release Tour schedule is packed, but we know not everyone who wants a Libertine will be able to make an event. Many other bars & restaurants will be serving Libertine as well, so ask around. Also, as mentioned before, we’ll be doing a very limited run of 750 mL (wine bottle size) bottles for our liquor store friends this year. We’ll have more information about the mid-October release of those bottles as the date gets closer.