Category: general beer

Fitger’s Brewhouse Signs 20-Year Lease

By on April 2, 2014in general beer

Fitger's BrewhouseToday, Fitger’s Brewhouse has announced that they’ve signed a 20-year lease with Fitger’s On the Lake. After nearly 20 years in the Fitger’s Brewery complex, it’s nice to hear that they’ll bee there for another 20 years! What could this mean for beer fans? An longer lease opens the door for the Brewhouse to invest in their location – just what we’d expect with an expected brewery expansion.

“With this lease in our back pockets, Fitger’s Brewhouse is ready to reinvest in our own equipment and facilities within the complex,” said Brewhouse Principle, Tim Nelson. “We can’t think of a better place to showcase the talent of our brewers and support staff than at Fitger’s, the historic brewery on Lake Superior. This is good news for Duluth’s craft brewing scene.”

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Chop & Brew #22: John Kimmich from The Alchemist

By on March 30, 2014in beer education, breweries, brewpubs, Features, general beer, history, homebrew, video

It’s not MN Beer officially, but likely something that will interest beer lovers and homebrewers here in the Upper Midwest. In this episode of the locally-produced Chop & Brew webshow, a discussion and Q&A with John Kimmich, head brewer at The Alchemist in Vermont, famous (infamous?) for the traders’ cult favorite Heady Topper. In this hour-plus video, John discusses not only his personal journey into and through craft brewing, he also offers homebrew-friendly advice and insight on all elements of brewing specifically as it relates to brewing hoppy beers. Footage shot in October 2013 while visiting Nashville, TN for the Music City Brew Off — which will be the focus of an entirely separate future episode of Chop & Brew. For Heady Topper recipe and other related links to the episode so this link to official episode page.

We also slacked a bit on posting the prior two episode of Chop & Brew in separate posts. So here they are in handy-dandy hyperlink form:

C&B 20: Homebrew Video Nerds Unite Two homebrewing videographers chat about their obsession with documenting brew days and what role video plays in the current landscape of homebrewing.

C&B 21: Meet the Brewer: Mino Choi Mino Choi is an award-winning homebrewer, winemaker and meadmaker. Join us for a gold-medal flight of his amazing fermentations and get some tips and tricks from one helluva competition fermentationist.

Hey Art Nerds, How ‘Bout a Beer Gig?

By on February 14, 2014in breweries, general beer

call-for-artists-02

Our friends at Surly Brewing Company are looking for their next featured artist. Said artist will create art for Surly’s next anniversary beer (∞ight?), SurlyFest & Darkness. You’ll no doubt see the artwork on bottles posters, shirts and other fun things.  Surly has worked with a variety of artists over the past number of years (tattoo artists, graphic designers, illustrators, painting elephants) , so the medium & style is wide open with the caveat that the work needs to be unique and “Surly.”

And while recognition and free beer is nice, this is a paid gig as well. “The chosen one” will be working from concept to design to finished piece with the merry men and women of Surly on a timeline.

Care to join the likes of artists such as  Josh “Jawsh” Lemke, Brent Schoonover, Michael Berglund, Aesthetic Apparatus, DWITT, Nic Skrade, and Adam Turman?  Send some info about yourself, your connection with Surly and examples of your previous work (links to your portfolio, etc.) to michael@surlybrewing.com by Friday, March 7.

Good luck!

Chop & Brew #19: NYC Homebrew Tour

By on February 1, 2014in beer education, beer travels, Features, general beer, homebrew, tours, video

In this episode of Chop & Brew, we hit the road from the Twin Cities to New York City for the NYC Homebrew Tour. The C&B crew join beer journalist Joshua M. Bernstein and dozens of beer tourists as they visit three homebrewers and their homebreweries in Brooklyn. Maybe some day soon, we’ll see soemthing like this in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area? Check out the Official Episode page at Chop & Brew’s website for information on the tour, three homebrew recipes, and C&B merch like t-shirts, stickers and ringtones.

Beer Dabbler Winter Carnival – Recap

By on January 28, 2014in beer events, general beer

Ryan couldn’t go to the Beer Dabbler last Saturday, so I made it my duty to check in on the things he thought he’d miss out on.

Backpack full of cookies

The day turned into a blur.  A cold, mumbling blur.  I will not fault anyone with the event for the cold weather.  It is winter in Minnesota, so prepare for it if you’re going to stand around outside.  Everyone seemed to be dressed and prepared for the conditions – including the dude I sat next to on the bus ride there who wore a backpack full of home-baked cookies.  I didn’t pack snacks, but I was ready.

Turns out I could have done more.  It was damn cold.

Brewers who poured from bottles/cans clearly were feeling fortunate because they seemed to be the only ones able to reliably satisfy the masses.  Excelsior Brewing – pouring from an insulated trailer – was also a hit.  Not everyone’s lines froze, but more often than not we were met with an apologetic shrug and shake of the head from brewers’ booths.  Space heaters, foam insulators and human ingenuity limped many of them along but weren’t enough to save them all from freezing over.

Being resourceful

Being resourceful

I couldn’t sample everyone (who could?) so I tried to stick to new Dabblers and folks I hadn’t met yet.  Hammerheart, with their immense barrel-aging capacity didn’t disappoint with no less than three barrel-aged beers.  Blacklist Brewing out of Duluth was showcasing their collection of Belgians and the guys at Junkyard Brewing in Moorhead had some good beer and seemed to be the ones most genuinely happy to be there.

Any downtime I had was spent trying to clean out my frosty tasting glass or simply huddled next to someone’s fire, trying to warm up.  It was difficult to enjoy, but I managed to do just that.  The day after, though, presented a different challenge entirely.

That’s what Ryan did miss.  And now, the 10 things he thought he’d miss:

1. Beer from newcomers Burning Brothers & Day Block Brewing

Couldn’t find Burning Brothers, which irked me because I pledged to myself I’d check them out for the sake of my GF friends.  I did try Day Block.  I think.  Probably. Did I mention things turned into a blur?

2. The James Page folks & Oskar Blues folks duking it out over who really was the first craft brewery in cans

Oskar Blues clearly flexed their marketing muscle.  I didn’t bother waiting in line.  Given that I already think they’re ubiquitous and they’ve only just entered the market I don’t think they’re going to make it difficult for me to find their beer.

3. Sims

Probably performed.  The stage was so far from the rest of the action (itself very spread out) I had little clue what was going on.  The only thing I recall hearing from the stage was “This is definitely the most Minnesotan thing we’re ever going to do.”

Junkyard Booth

Junkyard Booth

4. Random dudes wearing horse head mask(s)

Surprisingly none!  Wise.  Those things aren’t insulated and are a pain to drink from.  A friend told me.

5. Beer from our friends in the plans of Fargo & Moorhead, Fargo Brewing Co. & Junkyard Brewing

I think Fargo had froze by the time I found them but Junkyard did not.  They, along with Blacklist were my two most memorable, friendly stops.  The cold didn’t seem to phase the folks from Moorhead & Duluth.

Yes, he biked there

Yes, he biked there

6. Freezing dude in kilt.

I fully expected to see this, but did not. Clearly this dude, wherever he was, is not without logic.

7. Winchfest

This actually looked like a blast.  It reminded my co-Dabbler of growing up near Green Bay where their idea of fun was throwing on skis and getting towed behind a Sixties-era Airens snowmobile.

8. NateDogs

ND: “You want the beer mustard?”

Me: “Yeah, in fact, just skip the dog and give me the mustard?”

9. Pelting intoxicated people with snowballs during the World’s Largest Snowball Fight

Did this even happen?  Seriously, I had no clue where it was supposed to go down.  Apparently there was a fee to participate as well?   [Update: It happened. It was free. Sadly they didn’t break the record. Given the cold temperatures, a lack of participation isn’t a surprise. -RA]

10. Having a beer with you. Seriously.

Aww, shucks.  I missed you too.