“And Lo! Brothers bearing the name Brau shall be spawned in the Weste,” quoteth the great Prophet Burpe-n-urpe, “And they shall smite thee with their Feste of Hoppes and Drink from Thy Horne of Some-Other-Guys-Brew. Behold!!!” Courtesy their e-mail update!

Well, this is it – tonight someone’s homebrew will be crowned best of show for this year’s South Dakota Homebrew Challenge. The winner will be brewed here at Brau Bros and available on tap at all participating bars and restaurants. Meet us at Sully’s in Brookings tonight, where the champ will be announced! I’ve got a firkin of Fresh Hopped Sheephead for the event as well. A big thank you to all that participated and helped judge.

A couple other quick notes…

This year’s fresh hop has been brewed. It’s the first time we’ve done a fresh hopped Lager. Think Munich Dunkel – type lager. Should be interesting, I’ve tried it while fermenting and it should rock. Also, we’ve begun brewing Ring Neck for this fall. Ring Neck’s official release date is Oct 10, look for it in stores around then. Speaking of October 10…

HopFest is back and better than ever. October 10th is the date. Chris Laumb will be back with his band, Cannery Row. They did a fantastic job last year, you couldn’t ask for better beer drinking music. So far on tap we’ll have our usual year-rounds as well as – Fresh Hop Lager 2009 on cask and tap, Fresh hopped Sheephead (FreshHead) on cask, Lemongrass infused Purple Sting on cask, and lots and lots of RingNeck! Come check out the new pond, and as always, plenty of free parking. I’ll send out more detailed info in the very near future.

If you haven’t been out to see the hops, time is running out. We’ve already begun to harvest some of the falling vines (note for next year, heavier twine) and we plan to harvest en masse sometime in the next two weeks or so. Waiting for the Sterling and Liberty to catch up. Drop me a line or give a call and set up your tour of beautiful Southwest MN.