Got Beer?

Gorgeous day to be out. Biked from my SIL to Wabasha Brewing in the afternoon (22 miles total) and then stopped at Venn when driving home. Shared three flights of some pretty solid beers. I forgot how good Venn is.

I need to add Venn/Arbiter to the places to check out this summer. My wife and I are planning to take a few Fridays off to hit some taprooms we haven’t visited

Yeah the People I was With continued to Arbiter, but I had other plans. Heard great things. Venn never seems to disappoint.

That one is wow. They really nailed it with that beer.

They do hide it well. A good pastry stout will do that.

Where/what should I drink in Portland, OR?

Beer and maybe a Pinot if you tire of beer

Yeah, add Northbound to the list in that area and a solid Sunday there

Gorgeous day to be out. Biked from my SIL to Wabasha Brewing in the afternoon (22 miles total) and then stopped at Venn when driving home. Shared three flights of some pretty solid beers. I forgot how good Venn is.

I need to add Venn/Arbiter to the places to check out this summer. My wife and I are planning to take a few Fridays off to hit some taprooms we haven’t visited

I just checked out Arbeiter this past weekend and was very impressed. They’re obviously German influenced, but they had some really interesting stuff. (Interesting in a good way!)

They had a “Cold IPA” which is a style they say originated in Portland. Very West Coast style, clean and crisp. In fact that’s exactly how I’d describe the beers of theirs that I had, clean and crisp. It was a nice changeup for me, because I’ve been so into the hazy New England style for the past year or so.

And agreed with @gopherguy06, I forget how good Venn is, and it’s right in my back yard.

Glad to see south Minneapolis upping it’s bre[mention]Gopherguy05[/mention]

Effed up the format, Sorry folks.

|Actually just tried that this weekend, a friend shared it. Despite me not generally liking West Coast Style IPAs, it was rather good. I actually had about 4oz. That’s saying something!

Sitting outside at Jack Pine in Baxter right now…it’s a beautiful evening and they have a pretty nice outdoor space.

They aren’t going to make my top 10 list of breweries but their Jalapeño Cream Ale is really tasty if you like heat in your beer. The Peach Mango Smoothie Sour I just had was excellent and the Dill Pickle Cream Ale might lead to a nationwide dill shortage

Edit: now some total stranger started walking around with free pint tokens and left two on my chair.

Sitting outside at Jack Pine in Baxter right now…it’s a beautiful evening and they have a pretty nice outdoor space.

They aren’t going to make my top 10 list of breweries but their Jalapeño Cream Ale is really tasty if you like heat in your beer. The Peach Mango Smoothie Sour I just had was excellent and the Dill Pickle Cream Ale might lead to a nationwide dill shortage

Edit: now some total stranger started walking around with free pint tokens and left two on my chair.

Make sure you make it to Roundhouse. Neat location.

And yes, the Jack Pine cream ale is delish!

If you can sneak a crowler of the peach mango home, I have space in my fridge. And can probably find $ or something else to trade.

We are planning to go to Big Axe and Roundhouse. Probably will hit the distillery in Brainerd too but we will see how the day goes.

We may stop back for some of the Peach Mango so I’ll let you know.

I just learned round barn brewery moved to the old gull dam site. Bummer as the roundhouse original location was a cool spot in the train station. It’s not really at the roundhouse anymore.

Indeed Brewing apparently has some issues:

https://www.andersonprintandpattern.com/craftbeercasualty?fbclid=IwAR0JXLlP2AFZQnosZ4AuZ01ckn0aiwjLiCbYa6JZSmZa4vDNf9kufb6n-Ec

Their response:

https://www.indeedbrewing.com/uploads/general/Public-Statement_TomW_525.pdf?utm_campaign=later-linkinbio-indeedbrewing&utm_content=later-17479579&utm_medium=social&utm_source=instagram

Tom is also the leader of the MN Craft Brewers Guild too I believe.

The reckoning on all of this is just starting and not just in MN if you read some of the stories Brianne has shared.

Had an annual beer share yesterday, and oof, it was amazing. My fave was probably the Anchorage Deal With The Devil Double Oaked Vanilla Bean (Barleywine aged for 7 months in Woodford Reserve double oaked barrels & 6 months in Elijah Craig barrels. Finished on Madagascar Vanilla Beans), which went rather quickly.

Be on the lookout for Straight Fyre by Blackstack, should be officially released this week. Double dry hopped double IPA, it was very good.

Tons of Forager, and even this year’s Toppling Goliath Assassin was cracked.

Had an annual beer share yesterday, and oof, it was amazing. My fave was probably the Anchorage Deal With The Devil Double Oaked Vanilla Bean (Barleywine aged for 7 months in Woodford Reserve double oaked barrels & 6 months in Elijah Craig barrels. Finished on Madagascar Vanilla Beans), which went rather quickly.

Be on the lookout for Straight Fyre by Blackstack, should be officially released this week. Double dry hopped double IPA, it was very good.

Tons of Forager, and even this year’s Toppling Goliath Assassin was cracked.

Your video of the bottles… maybe on fb… was amaze. As a parent… maybe those days of long, steady sampling might be behind me. I was impressed though! One of these days I’ll figure out how to try some of the rare TG or Forager beers, had a BA World Wide Stout this weekend 18.4% ABV– it was indeed a solid.

I use videos like that to prove to my wife I don’t spend too much on beer . The on,y time I get to do that these days is at a festival so I’m right there with you.

I cracked open my BCBS Anniversary beer (aged in Weller 12 year barrels)tonight. This is just a different level of silky smooth. I’m really thinking that I need to try and find Weller bourbon at some point because I’ve loved the two stouts I’ve tried aged in their barrels. I’m sure I’ll be retired though before I actually find it

Aslin Sprechen Sie Deutsch? (German Chocolate Cake Stout). To-go from Ansari’s. Had it earlier this week, holy sh* that’s a beer. Pint can, and 3-poured it, due to it being 15%+.

Also, due to hearing some talk from reps and distro people, somehow Blue Moon is having a shortage for whatever reason, statewide. Vanilla vodkas are harder to come by, due to breweries getting the vanilla beans for their beers, can’t even make that up.

Just got back from my first UP trip of the year, with a couple friends who had never been to the UP. Started Wed in Marquette (mainly just to check out breweries), then the usual Houghton/Thu and Eagle River Fri/Sat. I have been to the MQT breweries before.

MQT:

Drifa: Smaller space, kind of in an industrial area. Small taproom, decent grassy outdoor space. Standard “just a beers” where nothing really misses, nor nothing is ZOMG. They only opened up in March 2020 (so they were closed a couple months almost right away, but survived). Seem to be doing well, it was pretty busy, especially for early Wed evening. They do 16oz cans on-demand, which is great.

Blackrocks:

They own (we think) 3 houses (literally 3 formerly residential houses) for their brewery. One is a shop/ordering area, and the other 2 are for production. It looks like the main room in the 2 house is being turned into drinking area of sorts. Currently, a parking lot in the rear that spans the 3 houses is covered by a giant tent, and has tables for seating.

Love their beer. I think I have to give the nod to these guys as the best in MQT. Their Double BA Barbaric Yawp (Scotch ale in Rum/Bourbon barrels) is phenomenal. One drawback: parking nearby is a PITA.

Ore Dock:

Very large space (2 floors + small patio). I’d say these guys are really close to Blackrocks in quality. I have not had a bad beer from them. They also do 32oz crowlers on demand.

Houghton:

Keweenaw Brewing. It’s well-known around here, and they really haven’t changed a bit.

Calumet:

Red Jacket Brewing: I’ve only had a couple of their beers, and that was a few years ago, and I thought it was for a reason. It was. The oatmeal stout was a light and thin, and not much flavor. The IPA they had tasted like swampwater. One friend ordered it, and he couldn’t even finish it. I took one sip, grimaced, and that was that. Turns out I had the same reaction as the first time I had it (IIRC, friend found my check in on UnTapped in 2017). However, they do have darn good food there, plus other craft beer to order.

We also went beer-hunting, to get stuff we can’t get here, namely Old Nation Brewing. The M-43/Boss Tweed (NE IPA and NE IIPA) in particular. Hit up 3 places, and my 2 friends bought each of them out (about 3~ cases total). Also found:

Release 1 and 2 of Dragon’s Milk Reserve: BA Peanut Butter/Cacao Nibs and Double BA w/Madagascar & Indonesian Vanilla Beans

Minoqua Brewing: they had 4 different styles (the newer releases), you can look up the names yourself, b/c I don’t want to for reasons relating to board policies.

New Glarus Serendipity and Raspberry Tart

Pigeon Hill Donut Stop Believing: cream ale with a hint of chocolate

Founders Cerise cherry ale. MI only for distro. Econo Foods got theirs on Sunday, but we didn’t find it anywhere else until Copper Harbor at the general store of all places. They said they only got a case, sold 1 six pack so far in 2 days. Yep, we bought the other 3.

Old Nation is available in WI

Where?

Reason I ask is that I know for the New Glarus Serendipity and Strawberry Rhubarb, you have to go fairly deep into WI to have a chance at them upon release, since the MN people raid all the border town stores and pick them clean. Raspberry is even a little tougher to get. We found ours in a downtown Wassau grocery store (non-chain, I believe. The place was tiny).

Edit of sorts. Just checked the beer finder for Old Nation. Hudson and Eau Claire (so good luck) and Spooner (one might have a shot there).

Beechwood is their distributor which is decent sized. It’s just a matter of does the store order it. I’m sure someplace like Chicones would order in whatever you are looking for if they can.

I’ll agree that sometimes the super popular releases for New Glarus move quick in certain stores in Hudson, others have it longer and if you go a bit further in like Somerset or River Falls you’d find it more easily.

Edit of sorts. Just checked the beer finder for Old Nation. Hudson and Eau Claire (so good luck) and Spooner (one might have a shot there).

Beechwood is their distributor which is decent sized. It’s just a matter of does the store order it. I’m sure someplace like Chicones would order in whatever you are looking for if they can.

I’ll agree that sometimes the super popular releases for New Glarus move quick in certain stores in Hudson, others have it longer and if you go a bit further in like Somerset or River Falls you’d find it more easily.

I have heard Hayward is a gold mine, also, for the fruited NG. Just far enough from the border, but big enough to get some. I’m kind of happy that all the hype is on the brown water (whiskeys) now; secondary beer prices, and the beer-hunting has taken a major dip.

I’ve seen a fair amount of the fruited NG beers in Ashland, Washburn and Bayfield when I go up there every fall. I can’t rely on it but more often than not I find it.

Edit of sorts. Just checked the beer finder for Old Nation. Hudson and Eau Claire (so good luck) and Spooner (one might have a shot there).

Beechwood is their distributor which is decent sized. It’s just a matter of does the store order it. I’m sure someplace like Chicones would order in whatever you are looking for if they can.

I’ll agree that sometimes the super popular releases for New Glarus move quick in certain stores in Hudson, others have it longer and if you go a bit further in like Somerset or River Falls you’d find it more easily.

I have heard Hayward is a gold mine, also, for the fruited NG. Just far enough from the border, but big enough to get some. I’m kind of happy that all the hype is on the brown water (whiskeys) now; secondary beer prices, and the beer-hunting has taken a major dip.

I’ve seen a fair amount of the fruited NG beers in Ashland, Washburn and Bayfield when I go up there every fall. I can’t rely on it but more often than not I find it.

I was just in Hayward, stopped at Price Rite on Hwy 27 South — plenty of NG offerings and a sneaky good bourbon selection. They had Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel and Barrel Proof on the shelf, also a handful of other somewhat harder to find bourbons sitting out as well.

Same with the Econo Foods on US63 in Spooner. Great selection of seemingly everything.

Hammerheart is selling their taproom, going to contract brewing and distro only for the time being.

I just came to say something about this. Taproom’s last day is June 27th so I may have to make a trek up there one last time to fill a growler. They are easily a top 10 brewery for me in MN and probably right on the edge (or in) top 5 so I’m bummed by the news

I’ll be interested to see what they have planned for 2022. What they put on FB is intriguing.

Mole Darkness 2020…,delicious. Their Mole variants have been awesone over the years. The Mole Smoke in my opinion is borderline legendary.

The cellar is getting smaller. I think I’m down to 6 bottles that aren’t fitting into my wine fridge (the stouts work great in this along with our red wines) or the basement beverage fridge

Anyone been to Cuyuna Brewing? Thinking of stopping by on my way up North tomorrow.

Just want to make sure it isn’t a Kinney Creek or something…

I can honestly say I’ve never drain-poured a whiskey… no whiskey I’ve ever bought has been bad enough I couldn’t use it in a cocktail with enough mixer to make it acceptable.

Beer? Yeah, dumped plenty, and not just growlers that sat in the fridge for way too long, either. (And, by way too long, I mean… 18 months)

I can honestly say I’ve never drain-poured a whiskey… no whiskey I’ve ever bought has been bad enough I couldn’t use it in a cocktail with enough mixer to make it acceptable.

Beer? Yeah, dumped plenty, and not just growlers that sat in the fridge for way too long, either. (And, by way too long, I mean… 18 months)

I wish I coulda drain-poured Black Velvet (shot form). Took a shot of vodka to get rid of the taste (long story, short version was inexperienced whiskey drinker that gave a gift).

Hard to deal with in shot form, yeah.

If you take the quick sip and it doesn’t work… ask for a coke/ginger ale/etc… dump it in there and slug it down

I can honestly say I’ve never drain-poured a whiskey… no whiskey I’ve ever bought has been bad enough I couldn’t use it in a cocktail with enough mixer to make it acceptable.

Beer? Yeah, dumped plenty, and not just growlers that sat in the fridge for way too long, either. (And, by way too long, I mean… 18 months)

I wish I coulda drain-poured Black Velvet (shot form). Took a shot of vodka to get rid of the taste (long story, short version was inexperienced whiskey drinker that gave a gift).

Hard to deal with in shot form, yeah.

If you take the quick sip and it doesn’t work… ask for a coke/ginger ale/etc… dump it in there and slug it down

It was at a house, not a bar. Needless to say, never BV again.

Yeah… not much you can do there other than slam it and grab something else really quick.

Anyone been to Cuyuna Brewing? Thinking of stopping by on my way up North tomorrow.

Just want to make sure it isn’t a Kinney Creek or something…

We were there a few years ago. I think I had a fruit beer of some sort that was good. I don’t drink much beer so probably can’t say much about the normal fare. But as Brent said, you don’t know til you try!

If you went, how was it?

Went to Arbiter and Venm brewing this afternoon. I really liked the beers at Arbiter…all their lagers were very well made and the Roggenbier with Rye was excellent

I wasn’t that impressed with Venm. Tried a couple of their sours and the watermelon goose but they were just fine

Now we are at La Dona Cerveceria.

I was at Venn a couple weeks ago and really liked the beers I tried. But I never drink sours or watermelon flavored beers, so that might have something to do with it. 😉

I probably should have gotten something other than two fruit forward beers there. I got drawn into Cherry-Lime and Peach which happen to be two of my favorite flavors in beer.

I thought La Dona was pretty solid. Their Mescal BA Imperial Stout was quite good and even my wife really liked it

I’m guessing the adjuncts.

The process is probably the same but the pastry sour will have more sweetness

If you only knew someone who brews beer that could give you a better answer

🤔🤔🤔

Edit: “I don’t know” was the official answer. Some research is required. 😆

Speaking of Pastry Sours, Jack Pine just released a Key Lime Pastry Sour, supposed to hit stores next week. I’ll prob give it a shot, as I love Key Lime anything, and JP has not made a beer I don’t like…

We are going to be headed through Baxter is a few weeks so we may stop in there again. We may stop at Portage Brewing as well

I wouldn’t put Jack Pine in my list of Top 10 breweries but I’m with you in that I’ve enjoyed nearly everything I’ve had from JP

Speaking of Pastry Sours, Jack Pine just released a Key Lime Pastry Sour, supposed to hit stores next week. I’ll prob give it a shot, as I love Key Lime anything, and JP has not made a beer I don’t like…

We are going to be headed through Baxter is a few weeks so we may stop in there again. We may stop at Portage Brewing as well

I wouldn’t put Jack Pine in my list of Top 10 breweries but I’m with you in that I’ve enjoyed nearly everything I’ve had from JP

Agreed on that. They don’t even crack the top 15 in MN…off the top of my head, no particular order (groups of 5, simply for spacing/easy reading):

Barrel Theory

Back Channel

Modist

Bent Paddle

Forager

Junkyard

Drastic Measures

Lupulin

LTD

Stacked Deck (although this could change, since their head brewer left recently)

Ineffable

Portage

Blackstack

Schells

Summit

Went to Bauhaus again yesterday, given it was our wedding anniversary. We were married there (for the great space and great price) and the beer was drinkable at the time. It really isn’t now. I couldn’t finish my beer. Rube can tell you, it has to be absolutely terrible if I don’t finish it. Looking around, it seemed most people there were drinking the hard seltzers. I’ll admit those are pretty good if you’re into them.

A friend is out in CA for a job, got a case of Bottle Logic (Imperial Stout w/Orange), so I’ll be splitting that with him and one other. I am a happy camper.

My neighbor brought back a bottle of their imperial with vanilla from a few months ago. He didn’t like it but I loved it

Went out for dinner with friends tonight and they gave me a bottle of Dinner from Maine Brewing to try, I’m super excited to crack that open

Friend brought in a 1st Anniversary LTD Night Falls (so, 7 years old) today to share.

It. Held. Up.

We were very surprised, but also in total agreement that in another month, this beer is dunzo, and would taste like soy sauce or cardboard. We caught it in time. Given our experiences with verticals and such, we just knew.

Yay, science!

Anyone been to Cuyuna Brewing? Thinking of stopping by on my way up North tomorrow.

Just want to make sure it isn’t a Kinney Creek or something…

We were there a few years ago. I think I had a fruit beer of some sort that was good. I don’t drink much beer so probably can’t say much about the normal fare. But as Brent said, you don’t know til you try!

If you went, how was it?

Stopped by on our way up North for the weekend.

Did a flight of the Crusher IPA, Yawkey Red Ale, Hazy Hopricot IPA and Ranger Strong Pale Ale. All were fine any perfectly drinkable. The Crusher was most enjoyable – hoppy yet crisp and clean – very refreshing for the warm day it was. A nice “standard” IPA and departure from the haze craze. I didn’t care for their hazy IPA, it was a little too fruity for me, I think I read they added apricot puree or something, but still wasn’t a drain pour.

I wouldn’t make the trek up there just for the beer, but certainly worth stopping by if in the area.

A guy in the beer group(s) that I am in found this at Brickside Brewery in Copper Harbor MI, and is really confused as to who put that sticker there. I owned up. Too funny!:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E5fE64bX0Asu2my?format=jpg&name=large" />

This may be better as a dumb question. Am I the only one who finds crowlers (cans) impossible to pour without making a mess??!

The first pour, pour backwards (the opposite side of the mouth of the can). That’s the trick.