Category: general beer

Suly Updates & Events

By on December 13, 2006in breweries, general beer

Lots of good stuff from Surly:

Hello Surly Nation,

Who wants to drink some free beer? I know this email is boring, but free
beer is worth the trouble.

Holy Crap, Surly is coming up on it’s one year anniversary. We brewed our
first beer December 30th, 2005. We’re planning some fun stuff to celebrate
the most over-hyped, trendy and underbrewed brewery in Minnesota. (I’m not
sure what underbrewed means, but its what somebody told us.)

Our biggest news:
one – our anniversary beer will be released in January. It’s a high-gravity
small batch lager aged for over 6 months.

Here are some of the events on the books at this time.

January 10th
Anniversary Beer Dinner @ The Happy Gnome
Six course dinner paired with the following beers and others:
bender
furious
a cask beer
coffee bender
bourbon bender – Our first beer brewed one year ago!
one – Our 1st anniversary beer
Call the Happy Gnome to make a reservation – 651.287.2018

Growler Sales continue @ the brewery!
December 16 – Furious & Bender & Coffee Bender (limited numbers) – noon-2:00
December 23 – Furious & Bender & Darkness (limited numbers)  – noon-2:00
December 29 – Furious & Bender – Special Friday Fill Time – 4:30-6:30
Coffee Bender & Darkness sale limited to one growler per person.

Free Surly Beer!
1st up, The Groveland Tap in St. Paul this Wendsday, December 13th,
7:00-10:00. We will tap a cask of Tea-Bagged Furious at 9:00. Show up early
to get a ticket for a free glass. We will also be giving away some free
shirts, hats and such.

The next Wednesday, December 20th, we will be tapping another pin of free
beer at Acadia Café in Minneapolis. Tapping will commence at 9:00. As
always, show up early to get a drink ticket.

We’re gonna try to tap a pin every week at a new bar, check the calendar at
www.surlybrewing.com to keep updated on cask beer events.

See you drinking,
Omar
www.surlybrewing.com

Whit?

By on December 6, 2006in general beer, history

Recent beer history buffs, lend me your ears… Jim wrote to us asking about a locally produced beer that went by the name Whit. He says that he remembers first trying it around 15 years ago at a food and/or beer fest in the upstairs area of Bandana Square. I’m fairly sure the only beers I’d tried at that time could be purchased in gas stations, so I’m no help. Anyone?

And just so we’re clear, the beer wasn’t simply a wit/witbier, but an actual beer with the name of “Whit.”

Old timers?

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Crash the Minnesota Craft Brewer’s Guild Meeting

By on December 4, 2006in breweries, general beer

The Minnesota Craft Brewer’s Guild allowed me to sit in on their meeting at Schell’s on Saturday afternoon. I’d like to think that MNBeer holds a lot of the same core beliefs as the Guild, so it seemed only natural for me to want to check out their meeting. I’d like to have MNBeer more involved in reporting Minnesota beer-related politics so that we can all be more aware of what’s going on and can be mobilized to act whenever necessary. The Guild is obviously a great resource for this sort of thing.

Unfortunately, I have no real secrets, rumors or dirt from the meeting to share with you. No one present knew anything about the brewery that is going to be part of the Clyde Iron Works revitalization project in Duluth. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the “brewery” was actually a brewpub ended up being a Granite City, but like I said, no one seems to know yet.

After the meeting, Dave (Berg) took us on the detailed tour of the brewery, including many places that you don’t get to see on the official tour. Schell’s is such a cool place to visit to begin with, so visiting with a guide who actually makes the beer was even cooler. You won’t see the bottling line, pasteurizer, cellars or even the main brew kettle on their regular tour (and my wife Dawn argues that that’s perfectly fine…) so this visit was a treat. Apologies in advanced for forgetting to take some photos… I was too busy walking around slack-jawed, looking at the second-oldest continuously-run family-owned brewery in the US. Definitely cool.

Misc Beer News

By on December 1, 2006in breweries, general beer

One: At this very moment, Winterfest tickets are still available. 325 tickets sold within the first thirty minutes. At this point, I would guess that less than 50 tickets are still available. If you want to taste some great Minnesota beers, get your tickets. A few memorable beer from last year included aged barleywines, dubbels, tripels, barrel-aged beers and of course Surly’s debut.

Two: While driving to work today, I heard the radio version of this piece on the renovation of the Clyde Iron Works complex in Duluth. The plan includes a sports complex, hotel, market and a brewery. I wasn’t able to find any additional information about the brewery – hopefully we’ll learn more soon.

Three: A few photos have been added to Flat Earth Brewing’s website.