Category: Modist Brewing

MNBeer Holiday Gift Guide

ba-dmThe holidays are right around the corner and we’ve got some gift ideas for you over here at MNBeer. With so many choices it can seem a bit overwhelming at times. That’s why we’ve got you covered.

Surly Brewer’s Table Gift Card – The accolades keep piling up for the Jorge Guzman run fine dining restaurant located upstairs at the Surly destination brewery. The food is phenomenal and the way they pair it with the beer is unlike any other experience in town. This is why Food and Wine Magazine named it one of the top 10 Restaurants of the Year and they were not alone. Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl also gave it high praise in her piece for Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine last spring. The gift card is available from $25 -$150.

Minnesota Craft Brewer’s Guild Ticket Pack – With over 100 brewery members, the guild is stronger than ever and the brewers often bring their best beers to these events. Winterfest is going to be at a new location this year (Target Field Legends Club) while the picturesque Bayfront Park in Duluth plays host to All Pints North in the summer. Autumn Brew Review serves as the finale and is held at the Grain Belt Brewery Complex in Northeast Minneapolis. If you have someone who loves local beer, this is the perfect gift pack ($300 includes 2 tickets to each event) for them.

Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest Tickets – What sets this beer fest apart from the others is that it features 30 breweries from here and around the country, and they bring beers that you may never see on local store shelves or on tap at the local breweries. The focus is on rare beers in an intimate setting with fantastic food included in the ticket price of $100. The Minnesota History Center is the perfect fit for this upscale event.

Hoodie and a Hat from Sociable Cider Werks – For $45 this is a great stocking stuffer. You choose a hat and a hooded sweatshirt, perfect for the cold Minnesota winter. Sociable Cider Werks specializes in apple graffes and their taproom is great place to check out music on the weekend and the fire pit is a great hangout on cold nights in the Twin Cities.

Crowlers from Dangerous Man, Bauhuas, Junkyard, Sisyphus, Sociable Cider Werks, and Modist – Let’s face it, beer is an affordable luxury and it makes the perfect gift. Stop in at any of these breweries and pick up a few crowlers. These 750 ml (size of a bottle of wine) cans of beer are perfect for the holiday dinner table or out back by the fire pit. They usually run anywhere from $7 – $10 each and are a great way to try beers from multiple breweries around town.

Dangerous Man Barrel-Aged Bombers – You know that delicious Peanut Butter Porter made by Dangerous Man in the Sheridan neighborhood? Yeah, they put that in Port wine barrels and aged it for months—and they’ll be releasing it on Saturday at the taproom. It’s gonna go very fast along with the Dopplebock (one of the best beers crafted by them) they aged in cedar rye whiskey barrels. The sale kicks off at noon and the bottles are priced at $20 each. Be sure to get there early if you want to pick these up. There will certainly be a line.

Beer Smarts with Paige Didora at Modist

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

Modist Introducing the Deviation Series

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!

Modist Brews a 100% Wheat Beer

modistmarkMaking beer with a 100% wheat malt bill is very uncommon. Only one other brewery in the country has made a 100% wheat beer to the best of this writer’s knowledge, and that is Tennessee Brew Works. They brewed Walk the Lime as a spring seasonal using the same filtration system that Modist uses. Keigan and the Modist crew decided that they wanted to try a 100% wheat beer because why not?

Well it turns out that most wheat beers use only 40 – 50% wheat because the wheat is high in soluble proteins and it becomes too sticky in the process—which makes it hard to extract all the sugars from the malt. Fortunately at Modist they have that fancy state-of-the-art filter that helps them out big time.

Head brewer Keigan Knee is excited to experiment with more of these 100% wheat beers. “Our mash filter brewhouse made easy work of the wheat malt due to its design” he says. As for those future batches, he intends to explore all of the possibilities. “It will be exciting to develop new flavor combinations from the wheat malt. The possibilities are endless.”

For this batch they used Rahr Red and White Wheat, Crisp Torrefied Wheat, and Weyermann® CARAWHEAT®. This isn’t a typical wheat beer at all in that it clocks in at 8.2% ABV yet it drinks like 4% beer. So how is the beer? Well this writer was able to try it at the St. Paul Summer Beer Festival and it was fantastic. The wheat flavor is very present and it would be easy to over do it on this since it goes down so easy.

Get down to Modist and check it out for yourself. I’m hearing it won’t last long.

Cheers!