Tightening supply of hops could mean rising price of local beer by John Brewer
Combine that with rising barley prices and you can bet that your beer is going to be more expensive. No doubt our local breweries, brewpubs and homebrew shops are feeling this. Inevitably, some businesses will probably get squeezed out… let’s hope that it’s not any of our great Minnesota breweries, brewpubs and homebrew shops. Yet another reason to drink locally, drink early, drink often!
I just learned that Surly is the Official Beer Sponsor of the Sandstone Icefest. At least that’s what it says on Surly’s event page and on the Ice Fest site. While I’m not sure drinking and ice climbing go hand in hand, I can’t imagine anything more fun than drinking Surly around a bonfire in December in Northern Minnesota.
As yet another sign that Minnesota is slowly but surely scratching and clawing its way up the hill towards brewing respectability, All American Grill and Brewhouse will be opening in Waverly, MN on November 12th. Okay, maybe that opening is a bit dramatic, but I get excited about these things. For those of you wondering, Waverly is about 30 miles west of Minnetonka on Highway 12. Now, my wife and I got burned a few years back by getting ourselves all excited about the opening of Bandana in Mankato and rushing down there to check it out, only to find out that they weren’t quite ready to tap their kegs. So, as to avoid any similar embarrassment, you may want to give All American to see if they’ll be serving their beer before you make the trip out there. If I weren’t so lazy, I’d call for you. But there it is… Maybe we’ll see some of you there???
Okay, so we missed the boat on this one (or a certain brewer didn’t send us a reminder e-mail… you choose 🙂 ), but Schell’s Snowstorm, a Belgian-style dubbel, is available for your drinking pleasures. It’s good, too.
Apparently 32 draft lines aren’t quite enough, because The Muddy Pig just added another 16, bringing their total to 48. Some notable beers pouring are Ommegang Chocolate Indulgence Stout, Surly Darkness, Liefmans Frambozen, SN Harvest, Duchesse de Bourgogne, and so on….
Fat Tire will make it’s first Twin Cities draft appearance starting Monday.
For those into expensive extreme beer, on November 1st Sam Adams released their 2007 vintage Utopias, which is a whopping 25.6% abv. Only 12,000 numbered, collectible bottles were released worldwide. Expect to see limited numbers of bottles in the Twin Cities metro in time for the holidays retailing for somewhere around $130.