News & Updates

Town Hall Lanes Fresh Hop Fest

By ryan on October 6, 2016in Bad Weather Brewing Co., Badger Hill Brewing, breweries, Castle Danger, Indeed Brewing Co., Lift Bridge, North Loop BrewCo, Northbound Smokehouse

Fresh hop beers are very popular these days, and the folks over at Town Hall take their hops seriously. This is why they are hosting the fourth annual Fresh Hop Fest on October 22^nd from 1 – 5 pm at the bowling alley in south Minneapolis.

Fresh hop beers are expensive to make in that the demand is so high for them, and the timing (should be used within 24 – 48 hours) from bine to brew kettle is so crucial. The hops are in fact still wet (and can be quite a mess) so brewers need a larger volume of them than with dry pellets. We’d actually be better off defining these as wet hop beers.

The brewery itself consistently brews one of the best fresh hop beers every year, and they enjoy celebrating with other breweries—local and national. Fresh Hop 100 and Fresh Hop Dry will be available along with offerings from Badger Hill, Bad Weather Brewing, Castle Danger, Dark Horse Brewing, Indeed, Founders, Lagunitas, Sierra Nevada, Northbound Smokehouse, Odell, Lift Bridge, North Loop, and more.

Tickets are available for $7, but you’ll need tasting tickets ($2 each) if you want to enjoy the beers. VIP tickets are the way to go for this event. They’ll run you $37—but you get unlimited tastings, a tasting glass, exclusive VIP beers, a game of bowling, and a t-shirt.

If you’re a fan of hops, you should really check this out. These beers are only available once a year.

Saturday, October 22^nd from 1 – 5 pm
Town Hall Lanes
5019 S 34^th Ave
Minneapolis, MN 55417

Surly Hashing Up Plans to Paint the Town Black Leading Up to Darkness Day

By Ryan Tuenge on September 30, 2016in Surly Brewing Co.

Back in 2007, Surly Brewing was just a small brewing operation out of a Minneapolis suburb making bold beers for loyal beer nerds. One of those beers was called “Darkness” which is a Russian Imperial Stout that was dreamed up by Director of Brewery Operations Todd Haug. Now this is one of the most sought after beers in the country—where people line up 24 hours prior, just for the opportunity to purchase some on the day dedicated to the annual release…Darkness Day. “The first year I made 12 barrels” says Haug. “That first month at Café 28 [a restaurant formerly owned and operated by Todd and his wife Linda] no one knew about it” he said.

But for the last 8 years they’ve not been able to make enough of it which is why this year they made a concerted effort to do so. Surly is now distributed in the Dakotas, Wisconsin, Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska and they don’t want let those markets down. So this year they’re running a campaign called Paint the Town Black. They will be releasing 3 dark beers into all of their markets starting this week with Furious Black, a nod to the character from Harry Potter. The recipe for this version of Furious is essentially the same aside from the addition of roasted malts—which add notes of dark chocolate and seemingly tone down the bitterness of the hops in comparison. This is the only one of the 3 that will be draft only.

Damien is a beer that has been made for 5 years but has only really been available at the annual Darkness Day event. This year it will be packaged in bomber bottles that will sell for around $8 in all of Surly’s markets. The release date will be October 3^rd for the beer dubbed as “The Child of Darkness” according to Jerrod Johnson, lead brewer over at the Brooklyn Center brewery. “Damien is made from the last runnings of Darkness” he explains. “It’s always been a big game to see how high we can get the ABV [percentage of alcohol by volume] on that beer.” This year though, it’s different. They wanted to make it a more sessionable beer steering the ABV below 6.5%. Damian is somewhat similar to Darkness but you don’t get the stone fruit notes and the chocolate notes seems to be more prevalent in “The Child of Darkness.”

Darkness will round out the lineup being released into the wild October 17^th, a couple of days after Darkness Day. There should be quite a bit of this available this year unlike in years past, which has always been a gripe of those among the Surly Nation. People have often accused the brewery of brewing a limited supply to keep up with demand, but that’s not the case according to Johnson. “The only thing that has kept us from brewing this amount was capacity. That’s it. We’re excited to be able to provide more of it this year” he says. Todd verified that statement and also added that over the years they’ve really been able to “dial in” the recipe. “It is what it is” Haug says. It took us years to get that recipe down, and brewing more of it has allowed us to do some blending.” Surly Darkness Day will take place on Saturday, October 15^th at the usual location, the Brooklyn Center Brewery.

One last note about the 2016 version of Darkness being released in a couple weeks is that it is not barrel-aged. The High West Rye Whiskey barrel-aged version will hit shelves in early 2017 meaning it will get its own release at that time. In the meantime, enjoy these limited fantastic offerings. They won’t last long.

If you go:

Surly Darkness Day

When:

Saturday, October 15^th 2016

Where:

4811 Dusharme Drive

Brooklyn Center, MN 55429

Bev-Craft Seeks to Improve Minnesota Beer

By Ryan Tuenge on September 28, 2016in beer education, education, general beer, MN

Tim Nelson and Dave Hoops left Fitger’s Brewhouse over a year ago with hopes of improving the quality of Minnesota beer by starting a consulting business called Bev-Craft. A “think tank” is what they like to call it. Dave Hoops who is the Director of Brewing Operations is excited to lend his experience to new breweries seeking to improve their beer. “Unless you’re someone like Sierra Nevada, you should always be trying to make better beer” says Hoops.

Dave and a team of cicerones tasted over a hundred beers (locally made) at the state fair and gave feedback, positive and negative to breweries around the state. The goal was to give honest advice to some of the breweries looking to improve their beer. “I’m overly opinionated” he said. “But I’m fair.” Dave also serves as a judge at the Great American Beer Festival which gives him a head up on most brewers (in my book) here in Minnesota.

Tim Nelson acts as CEO while Dave Hoops heads up the brewing operations. Brad Nelson (Tim’s brother) is in charge of the branding while Paul Christensen is responsible for sales. “Basically we’re here to help breweries start up. We’re also specialized consultants. That doesn’t mean that I’m approaching them. People that have a question, we’re there to help” says Hoops.

In an overcrowded local market, this can only be a good thing. Especially with all of the sub-par beer being produced by the newer breweries. My advice to new breweries looking to open….don’t serve your beer until it’s ready.

Quality should always come first. And if you need help, reach out to the professionals.

Cheers!

The World’s Largest Single-Site Malting Facility is in Our Back Yard

By ryan on September 28, 2016in general beer

This weekend our friends at Rahr their new malt house and other new spaces to tons of neighbors and brewery folks this past weekend on Saturday. As some of you know, I had the pleasure of being on-site as the new malthouse, lab/pilot brewery and distribution center were being completed. It was a massive undertaking that was completed ahead of schedule. Not bad!

Rahr President and CEO William Rahr. Photo: Christina Rahr Lane

According to president and CEO Willie Rahr, “This project is focused on taking our quality, capabilities and service to an even higher level. We’re adding 28 full-time employees at our home base in Shakopee to make this growth possible and meet the needs of a thriving brewing and beverage industry.”

For any of you unfamiliar with the Shakopee company, Rahr is a family-owned company that manufactures malt and distributes malt and other ingredients to brewers, distillers and other beverage-makers worldwide, including almost all (90%) of Minnesota’s breweries from August Schell to Steel Toe. Nearly 1/4 of American-brewed beers contain Rahr malt. That’s a lot of 2-row, 6-row, pilsner and wheat malt!

The brand-new “malthouse 6” ads over 100,000 square feet of production space, making Rahr’s headquarters the largest single-site malting facility in the world. The expansion increases the annual malting capacity from 390,000 to 460,000 metric tons – enough to brew about 6 billion bottles of craft beer.

Technical Center – research brewery and lab. Photo: Christina Rahr Lane

The expansion includes a 20,000-square-foot research brewery and technical center that enable Rahr to test the performance of its products in an actual brewery environment, as well as an 80,000-square-foot distribution and packaging facility. This facility is used primarily for warehousing and bagging by Brewers Supply Group, a Rahr Corporation subsidiary that supplies premium ingredients to brewers, winemakers, distillers, and home fermentation retailers.

Matt Brynildson from Firestone Walker had this to share: “Firestone Walker Brewing Company has been partnered with Rahr Malting since 2001. We have enjoyed a long and productive relationship through many years of growth and an ever-evolving beer landscape. Consistent, clean and good flavored malt is at the core of all good beer and Rahr has delivered world-class malt to us year in and year out. The talented and dedicated Rahr team has playing a key role in the success of our brewery.”

Noteworthy Beers from Autumn Brew Review 2016

By Ryan Tuenge on September 18, 2016in beer events, breweries, Dangerous Man Brewing Co., general beer, hops, Indeed Brewing Co., Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, misc. mn beer, MN, mnbeer.com, new beer, NorthGate Brewing

With so many fantastic beers on display at the 16th annual Autumn Brew Review, it’s hard to choose favorites. Instead I’ve highlighted some that stood out. Here they are:

Whiskey Queen from Indeed Brewing – A smooth Russian Imperial Stout that delivers flavors of bittersweet chocolate, vanilla, stone fruits and oak to the palate.

Twisted Zweig from Forager Brewing – This was probably my favorite beer at the festival. An Imperial Berliner Weisse aged on black currants. Sour, juicy, and extremely drinkable. You’d never know this was an 8% (ABV) beer, which is almost dangerous. This brewery has really impressed me this summer and it would be worth your while to visit them down in Rochester. I was honestly shocked that there wasn’t a line at this booth.

Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout from Dangerous Man – Smooth and creamy milk chocolate with a little bit of heat (alcohol) on the end. It’ll be fun to explore some these barrel-aged beers coming out of Dangerous Man in the coming months.

IWL from Town Hall Brewery – This wheat based lager was very heavy on my two favorite hops—Mosaic and Citra. Another fine creation by Mike Hoops and his team of brewers over at the Seven Corners brewery. There’s a reason it’s the first place I take anyone new to the Twin Cities.

Bourbon Barrel Aged Stout from NorthGate – Dark stone fruits, chocolate, and bourbon dominated the flavor profile of this one. Nice example of the style for a brewery that focuses on British ales. This one stood out among the many other Imperial Stouts available at ABR.