Author: ryan

Ryan Anderson (that's me!) is the editor & founder of MNBeer. Much has changed since the fall of 2005 and I'm proud to have been a part of it all. Sometime I'll tell you about my grand theory that links craft brewing to punk rock. Just ask.

Win St. Cloud Craft Beer Expo Tickets & Transportation

By on December 8, 2010in misc. mn beer

Would you like to take a hot date (or perhaps just your ugly buddy with the shitty “beard” you keep telling him to shave) to the St. Cloud Craft Beer Expo on Jan. 22nd? And better yet, would you like a ride? No sense in taking the risk of riding with beardy after a few dozen samples.

You’re in luck. We’re giving away two charter tickets to the ‘fest. Yup. A $100 value. This includes two general admission tickets and a chartered bus ride from Midway Stadium to St. Cloud & back.

So how do you win? Follow these simple instructions:

1. Send an email to ryan AT mnbeer.com with the following subject line: “I’d shave my beard for free tickets to the St. Cloud Craft Beer Expo.”

2. In the body of the message? Your name, mailing address and favorite Minnesota-made beer.

3. Deadline? Dec. 15th at midnight.

Winner will be notified via email. Losers won’t.

Cheers!

Beer Geek Christmas at Heritage

By on December 8, 2010in beer events, beer stores

Here it is… Heritage’s annual Beer Geek Christmas. Grab your favorite geek (or geekess(?)) and head over to Heritage for some beery goodness Thursday!

You’ve waited all year, and now it’s just a few hours until the big in-store event here at Heritage. Join us in celebrating the holiday season beer geek style at Beer Geek Christmas. Thursday December 9th from 5-9pm we will have a one of a kind tasting and event as a way to say Thank You to everyone that supports us and craft beer throughout the year.

We will have numerous beers that we have pulled out of our cellar (miss last years Surly Darkness, Surly Four, 08’ Bourbon County, 08’ Celebration?…they will all be on our shelves that day) as well as too many other things to list here. I have listed below just a few of the beers and breweries that will be here with some amazing goodies.

Dave from Dave’s Brewfarm with a selection of his beers
Sam Adams Winter Classics plus their new beer “Infinium”
New Belgium Frambozen
Lift Bridge with possible appearance by their new head brewer Matt Hall
Deschutes, Goose Island, Weyerbacher, Great Lakes and more

Plus a few BGC Surprises from Santa’s Bag…

This just in: Anyone with a receipt from Beer Geek Christmas on Thursday Dec 9th will get buy one pint get one Pint free from “ANY” of the 75 taps at the Hanger Room in Willernie, MN. Good Thursday only, but last we checked they still had Darkness on tap plus a slew of other tasty treats.

Things will be changing and we will be adding “Specials” at a moments notice so be sure to watch Heritage’s Facebook page for  updates leading up to and during Beer Geek Christmas.

Cookin’ with Lanny, Pat, Scott & Jake at Grumpy’s NE

By on December 8, 2010in bars/restaurants, beer events

Whatcha’ doing on Friday? Lanny from Artisanal Imports tipped us off to a cool event going down this Friday, December 10 at Grumpy’s NE.

Lanny will be cooking with Pat Dwyer (owner of Grumpy’s), Scott Ketcher (Hohenstein Sales Guy) and his friend Jake Endres for Customer Appreciation Happy Hour! On the menu are snack portions of oak-smoked lamb ribs with grits and greens. Pat’s going to do up some kind of killer sauce and everyone is invited!

Beers include the normal Grumpy’s line up but also Kwak Belgian Ale, Tripel Karmeliet and Meantime IPA.

Starts at 4 and goes until the delicious food is gone. Oh, and the food is free if you are having a beer.
Where: Grumpy’s Nordeast, at the corner of 22nd Ave. and 4th St. in Nordeast Minneapolis

Brewing TV Does Surly

By on December 3, 2010in breweries

…er. Blame Chip. He came up with that one. Perhaps it’s cuz he’s from Texas? In any case… The new Brewing TV Episode features Surly & it’s a doozy. Check it out. (And what’s a doozy?)

Winterfest Sold Out… In Less than a Minute!

By on December 1, 2010in breweries, brewpubs

Wow.

Ticket Sell Out Update – 12/01/10

Winterfest 2011 sold out in less than a minute – that means there were far more than 700 people online waiting to buy tickets at the instant they went on sale. A large number of you got a screen that indicated that there was a heavy load – while technically true, our ticketing partner has informed us that this was not a sign of error and people were queued up in order. The first 700 people to get in were successful (we are talking a matter of seconds or milliseconds) and if a person dropped out of the pending sale the next person in line was able to get in on the sale. This has become a natural lottery system of sorts and in order to keep Winterfest intimate and accessible, the MN Craft Brewer’s Guild does not want to increase attendance levels to meet current demand for our festival.

We apologize if there was any perception of unfairness or technical error, the system did function correctly and we are excited by the level of enthusiasm our state has for our Craft Breweries and Brew Pubs.