Greetings!

Like all good Minnesotans, we try to start conversations by talking about the weather. So, how about this heat wave? If it keeps up much longer, we’re considering packing up our garagery and moving to Canada. You’ll be the first to know if that happens, but in the meantime, here’s what’s new in the world of Fulton.

Upcoming Events
Thursday, 8/12: Firkin at Eden Prairie Old Chicago
At 5:00, Old Chicago in Eden Prairie will be tapping a cask of our Sweet Child of Vine. We’re not available at a lot of bars in the SW Metro just yet, so this is a rare opportunity to get a SCOV (on cask, no less) in the area. Hope to see you out!

Friday, 8/13: Brew At the Zoo!
This will be our first Brew At The Zoo event, but they’ve told us that we’ll be serving beer from the Kodiak bear cages. We’ll be doing a sockeye salmon infused IPA. Seriously though, Brew at the Zoo is a great idea for a great cause. In addition to beer, there will be some great local music acts, including Tim Mahoney. All proceeds to go the Zoo’s Conservation fund. For tickets and more information, visit http://www.mnzoo.com/events/Events_brewZoo_10.asp

Sunday, 8/15: King’s Wine Bar 1st Anniversary
We’re not playing an official role, other than to mingle and show our support for the great folks at King’s. For those of you who haven’t been to King’s, Sunday would be a great time to come by. They’re one of the top Fulton accounts in the city, both by volume of Fulton served, and by general coolness. There will be specials and live music Sunday, so be sure to swing by if you’re in the neighborhood.

Sunday, 8/29: Tangletown Gardens Dinner
We already had the honor of participating in Tour de Farm with Tangletown earlier this summer. Let’s just say that food doesn’t get any better than when it’s picked that day and prepared by some of the best chefs in the country. Well, if you missed Tour de Farm, this is your second chance. This time, Tangletown is bringing in legendary localvore chefs Ryan Child and Dana Younklin from iconic California restaurants Chez Panisse and Boulevard. We’ll be preparing some special beers just for this event. To find out more, please visit http://www.tangletowngardens.com/

Finally, something for our mothers to be proud of
Big Win at the Beer Dabbler!
Some of you were in attendance on July 17th at the Highland Park Beer Dabbler. Those of those of you that weren’t missed out! There were 50+ great breweries there, and a lot of good beer to try (or “dabble,” in the parlance of the event). While we enjoy all beer festivals, this one was especially fun for us, because we came home with some serious hardware: The Lord Dabbler Cup!

Nice Write-up in Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine
The great people at MSP Magazine did a feature on the top 52 people, places, and things (nouns?) in the Twin Cities food scene, and were nice enough to include us! For those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s in the August issue. Look for Andrew Zimmern on the cover.

And one more piece of great news: Brew Beer Here passes!
Thanks to the efforts of the Minneapolis City Council, especially Gary Schiff, it is now legal for packaging breweries (instead of just brewpubs) to sell growlers in Minneapolis! The whole beer community is excited about this, but we are especially so. Growlers are vital to the success of any small brewery, and they’re the best way for a customer to get the freshest beer possible, right from the source. We believe the passage of this law will in time help bring forth new breweries all over Minneapolis–including one of our own. For more on that, you’ll have to stay tuned…

Keep In Touch
Don’t miss critical (what could be more critical than news about beer?) Fulton updates!
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www.fultonbeer.com
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And of course, tell a friend. Extraordinary beer is meant to be shared.

Cheers,
The Fulton Guys

Some of this is a repeat from earlier news shared by the gang at Brau Bros. (that did not get posted on MN) and some of this is new.

Here’s what’s going down in Southwest MN, We’re just about ready to start hop harvest! Early hops, like Centennial and Hallertaur are just about ready to pick. Later hops, like Cascade and Sterling are anywhere from flowering to decent size cone. We’ll have enough to start brewing this year’s Fresh Hop in the next week or two. This year we anticipate a large enough yield to bottle and distribute the wet hop ale! It won’t be much, probably under 2000 cases. It will be called…drum roll…Hundred Yard Dash Fresh Hop Ale. Literally, it’s about 100 yards from the hopyard to the brew kettle. We pick our hops minutes before they are introduced to wort or beer. Not sure what final IBU will be; I’m not even sure we’ll test them this year. However, the plan is to use up to 100lbs of fresh hops per batch! (unless we get tired of picking them).

Barley is swatted and is resting in windrows right now in the barley patch. After a few dry days, it will be combined, cleaned, and ready for malting. As always, our two-row barley is malted and blended into all Brau Brothers Beers. Not sure if we’ll have time to do an estate beer this year. Hopefully next year we’ll have more time on our hands. The experimental barley patch has been a huge success, and we look forward to expanding its footprint and our usage of locally grown raw materials.

Now to the big news, the Brau Family is growing! Daniel Stavig has agreed to join us here at the brewery and will be brewing full-time here in Lucan! We’ve been extremely behind for months, and we found a sucker – I mean motivated individual – to join the team. Many of you know Dan from the Four Firkins, and are well aware of his knowledge and genuine interest in beer and brewing. We’re excited to bring his experience with unique styles to the brewery, and hope to expand our pilot- and R&D- brewing in an effort to create new and exciting beers and experiment with funky brewing techniques. Fresh eyes and ideas are always a positive! I suppose we’ll have to change to Lucan Minnesota, Population 222.

 Finally, this is a great time to come out and visit. If you haven’t already been out to see the brewery, just give a call or send an email mary@braubeer.com and schedule your tour. No hired tour guides, no script, and no hourly schedules. Just a personal, guided tour through the brewery and hopyard.

Take care, and thanks for supporting the brewery!

Dustin