News & Updates

Beer Smarts with Paige Didora at Modist

By on November 16, 2016in education, Modist Brewing

modist-lalaModist Brewing is all about changing the way people think about beer, and it starts with education. Their plan is coming to fruition with a six part series taught by Paige Didora. After years of working in the industry and her writing experience, Paige is the perfect person to teach such a class. Beginning on Monday, November 21st when she will be discussing malts and how they are used in the brewing process.

Head brewer Keigan Knee is excited about the program. “Craft beer nationally – even globally – is evolving at a rapid pace and it’s no longer just one-tone, macro light lager. It’s an incredibly nuanced thing that benefits greatly from a passion for flavor and quality. At Modist, we feel that an informed consumer that knows more, can appreciate more, can enjoy more. That’s why we’re doing this.”

Some of the other topics being discussed over the duration of the course will be water, the process of making beer, yeast, off flavors and pairing beer with food. Tickets will be $50 and will cover all sessions including a possible bonus session. Seats are limited to 50. Check the schedule below:

CURRICULUM:

Session 1 – Monday 11/21: A Malty History

  • A focus on malts

Session 2 – Monday 11/28: Just Add Water

  • A focus on water and water quality

Session 3 – Monday 12/5: Boil it, Hop it, Spin it, Cool it

  • From mash to boil to whirlpool
  • A conversation about hops and other additives

Session 4 – Monday 12/12: Magic!

  • Yeast – the impact on beer flavors, aromas

Session 5 – Monday 12/19: Good Beer Gone Bad

  • Off-flavors: their sources and causes
  • The importance of proper packaging and storage

Session 6 – Monday 1/2/2017: Evaluating Beer and Pairing it with Food (the basics)

  • How to evaluate beer and the basics of food and beer pairing

Harriet Brewing to Close in Early 2017

By on November 1, 2016in Harriet Brewing
Harriet Brewing

harriet logoSad news from Harriet Brewing – they’ll be closing after January 31st, 2017. From their Facebook page:

Fellow Harriet Brewing Supporters,

Harriet Brewing will close after Jan 31, 2017. After 6 crazy years, it’s time to move on. Development plans for our property do not align with Harriet; thus, we’ve been forced to relocate. After much contemplation, it has become apparent that Harriet can only exist in it’s current location. Attempting to relocate and repeat would be lame. Relocating would require a new brand and business plan, and, frankly, starting another brewery now seems unoriginal and risky in this saturated market. Please join us in supporting the final chapter of Harriet Brewing during these next 3 moths! Let’s celebrate the short life of this fantastic MN craft brewery! The music will rock and the beer will flow till the end!

Yours in the love of beer!

Launched in 2011, Harriet Brewing was one of the new guard of craft breweries in Minnesota. 2011 was the first “boom” year for breweries in Minnesota in recent times with the launch of seven breweries and brewpubs Steel Toe Brewing, Olvalde, Castle Danger, Boom Island, North Loop (Lucid), Dubh Linn Brew Pub and Harriet.

Todd and Linda Haug Set to Join Forces with 3 Floyds Brewing

By on October 31, 2016in Surly Brewing Co.

Surly Brewing Company5796130634716784210

Todd and Linda Haug have been bombarded with questions since they stepped down (Linda in February, Todd less than 2 weeks ago) at Surly Brewing. Most of their friends and family assumed they would start a brewery here in the Twin Cities, but that’s false. The former Café 28 owners are moving six and half hours southeast to Chicago, Illinois where they will be joining forces with 3 Floyds Brewing—a craft beer powerhouse just across the border in Indiana.

Todd will be helping the brewery out with their expansion, distillery and all sorts of things—but the main focus will be new products and engineering. “They need help with a lot of things down there. We respect the hell out of them” Todd says. He won’t be the head brewer, but he’ll have a crack at creating some new beers there at some point in the future. “It’s exciting for us” he says. The biggest thing for me is I get to work with Chris Boggess [the head brewer] down there. It’s a very wide scope of work, and he won’t have to worry about everything.”

Todd plans to continue making music down there as well. The longtime Powermad guitarist sees the band sticking together for the most part, and he’s excited about playing in a city with a great music scene. He also has some musician friends down there that may end of creating some music with down the road.

Linda will be in on the restaurant and will also be helping with some design stuff. The couple sounded very happy on their way back here from Chicago over the weekend. In fact, the house is sold and they are adamantly searching for a house down in The Windy City where they’ll bring their talents along with their family of 5 cats. She says they’ll miss their friends up here in Minnesota, but they have plenty of friends down in Chicago already. “We have lots of friends down there. It’s heartwarming. I’ve always loved the energy down there” said Linda.

The move is expected to happen within the first couple weeks of December and work should start for them sometime in January or shortly after. There will also be other opportunities down the road for the couple which includes traveling the world. Don’t rule out a move to Europe down the road either. 3 Floyds and Mikkeller have a brewpub called WarPigs over in Copenhagen and Todd seemed intrigued as he spoke about it. In other words, this is not the end of their journey.

So what about Surly? Todd was the brand, the attitude, and the culture there. “Omar is going in a different direction. I see it getting worse. But no blame. I poured my heart and soul into that place” he stated. It sounds like he’ll really miss the brewing staff though that he helped build over his 10 years at the brewery. “Surly is left in very capable hands. I won’t be there to help them out. That’s the shitty part.”

“When the door closes, a window opens. We’re going in a different direction” said Linda.

Minnesota wishes you well.

—

Dara grabbed the story last night as well. Read her take here.

 

Hoops Brewing Set to Open Brewery in Canal Park Next Spring

By on October 28, 2016in Hoops Brewing
Dave Hoops at Fitger's Brewhouse

hoops-brewingIt’s happening….The longtime head brewer at Fitger’s Brewhouse is realizing a dream, a vision he’s had for a while will come to fruition in the form of a new brewery located in Canal Park. Hoops Brewing is aiming for a March/April 2017 opening date for their 9,000 square foot brewery and beer hall. The model? Something similar to what Dangerous Man did in Northeast back in 2013. “I have all this admiration for Dangerous Man. I give a lot of credit to Rob and Sarah over there” he says. Crowlers were chosen as the preferred package that will go out in limited distribution because Dave doesn’t like growlers.

Some breweries choose to have a wide distribution such as Surly, Bauhaus, Indeed and Bent Paddle. Hoops respects that model but points out that he wants to do things his way. “It’s the best model for me. I don’t need to sell my beer in a five state area. I just want to brew beer the way I’ve done it for 20 years” he said. Much of that time was spent running Fitger’s Brewhouse where he churned out award winning beers. Everything from lagers to wheatwines, using a wide variety of hops and malts.

Dave Hoops at Fitger's Brewhouse

Look at that baby face!

He pegged Melissa Rainville as his head brewer, someone he was very familiar with working at the Duluth brewpub. “She has a very similar philosophy to me, and I’m fortunate to have her” according to Hoops. He explains that she’ll have a lot of say with the types of beers they will create which will include everything from lagers to barrel-aged beers. He hopes to attract everyone, from the local community to tourists, and especially the hockey community—a community he proudly belongs to.

There won’t be a kitchen on-site, but he plans to have menus available from local establishments and he even expects to have a runner system where they will make sure that food ordered to the beer hall is delivered to his customers.

Hoops learned about the space (formerly Timber Lodge Steak House) being available last February and he insists that BevCraft (a consulting firm he’s a part of) was a big reason he secured the space. “They were huge in every aspect of this project” he proclaims. The space itself will seat around 250 people and with areas where one can watch a hockey game on the big screen, or areas with no televisions where people can socialize.

Photo: Tim Nelson

Photo: Tim Nelson

If one thing is certain, he’s proud to be local and he wants the place to be a big part of the community of Duluth. “This is my dream, and I’m going all in.”

That three-hour drive is looking better than ever.

Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, A Minnesota Craft Beer Institution, Celebrates 19 Years

By on October 25, 2016in Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Mike Hoops
Like a "Mom" tattoo, only better. If you've ever noticed the quilted banners at the brewery that highlight Town Hall's awards, you've seen Pete's mom's work. A fitting memorial.

Like a “Mom” tattoo, only better. If you’ve ever noticed the quilted banners at the brewery that highlight Town Hall’s awards, you’ve seen Pete’s mom’s work. A fitting memorial.

Before Steel Toe Size 7, there was Masala Mama. Before Surly Darkness, there was Czar Jack, and long before barrel-aged beers were popular—Town Hall was putting beer in barrels. Nineteen years ago a young Pete Rifakes opened the doors to the Seven Corners mainstay, in hopes of bringing great beer to the Twin Cities. To say that he has accomplished that is an understatement.

At the time, brewpubs were where you went to get a great beer. Summit and Schell’s blazed the trail but you often purchased their selections at the liquor store, or at an upscale bar here in the Twin Cities. Places like Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery and Sherlock’s Home were where you went to find something different, or particularly interesting. You weren’t “hip” if you were seeking these beers out. You were probably a homebrewer or a beer geek looking for inspiration. These are the kind of people that keep head brewer Mike Hoops around after 16 years. “The nice thing [working at a brewpub] is you’ve got direct interaction with your customer base” he says. “As long as we’re making good beer they’ll keep coming in. Our growth is limited, but our fingers are the only ones on our beer. I really like this environment” said Hoops.

Mike Hoops, Barrel-Aged Week 2014. Photo: Ryan Anderson/MNBeer.com

Mike Hoops, Barrel-Aged Week 2014. Photo: Ryan Anderson/MNBeer.com

Brewpubs also tend to have a little more freedom to play around with different styles partly due to the batch sizes being smaller. It’s super fun making different beers” he says. “Let’s give ‘em a reason to keep coming in.”

Hoops (formerly of Fitger’s Brewhouse) was hired on in 2000 after their original brewer John Haggerty left and things could not have worked out any better. Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery has since taken home 15 Great American Beer Festival medals and changed the way we think about beer here in Minnesota. Their Masala Mama IPA was the number one rated American IPA on both Beer Advocate and Rate beer for years.

To celebrate 19 years, the brewery will release Three Hour Tour Coconut Milk Stout, Mango Mama (a mango version of their influential IPA Masala Mama), along with some barrel-aged releases later in the week.

Mango Mama was born at an Indian restaurant where Hoops and some of his brewers were enjoying a meal back in 2007. They ordered their food extra spicy he remembered and they wanted to cool their mouths off. “We ordered a Mango Lassi [Indian Yogurt drink] because our mouths were burning, and the fruit sweetness mellowed out the spice.” They played with recipes and found one that worked, deciding on the name Mango Mama.

Mike HoopsHoops wondered if he could do something similar with a Stout so he played around tirelessly with different forms of coconut before finally settling on coconut chips. That beer would be called Three Hour Tour (a personal favorite of mine), a Coconut Milk Stout.

What does the future hold for Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery? “We’re starting to mess around with sours. It’s on the horizon” he says.

If there’s one thing to celebrate with the West Bank brewpub, it’s that consistency, quality, and innovation are a recipe for success. Just ask your favorite brewer, it’s where they go drink and learn about beer.

Anniversary Week Schedule:
Monday, Oct 24: Double Beer Release! Anniversary Ale & Three Hour Tour | 5pm

Tuesday, Oct 25: Anniversary Beer Dinner | 7pm

Wednesday, Oct 26: Mango Mama in Pints & Growlers (64oz growlers available) | 5pm

Thursday, Oct 27: Beer Trivia at THB with Trivia Mafia | 730pm
Thursday, Oct 27: Throwback Thursday Menu | All Day

Friday, Oct 28: Barrel Sampler (Manhattan Reserve, Twisted Trace, and Buffalo Bock) | 5pm

Saturday, Oct 29: Free Brewery Tours | 12-5PM
Saturday, Oct 29: Russian Roulette Release | 11AM

Cheers!