BEER
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FOOD
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C U LT U R E
6
KIND-OF-A-BIG-DEAL NOMINATIONS
12
THE SECRETS OF SURLY
16
THE PACKAGING OF CRAFT BEER PART TWO: RETAILING
20
TO AGE OR NOT TO AGE?
24
CRAFT CULTURE: STUDIO ON FIRE
30
CHASING THE BEER SCENE: ALASKA
32 NOW OPEN (OR DAMN CLOSE): INSIGHT BREWING, EASTLAKE BREWERY, PRYES BREWING, WACONIA BREWING 38
STYLE PROFILE: BARLEY WINE
40
BREWER PROFILE: MIKE HOOPS, TOWN HALL BREWERY
43
HOMEBREW RECIPE: SAISON FATALII
50
FOOD MEETS BEER: 20 UNDER $2
54
EVENT CALENDAR
46
SLAY TO GOURMET: WALLEYE FISH TACOS
58 CRAFT COCKTAILS: AUTUMN SPICE DAIQUIRI 59 STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE: ON THE ROAD IN DELAWARE 60
BEER REVIEWS
64
NEW FROM THE BEER DABBLER STORE
65
COMICS & WORDFIND
66 CROSSWORD Issue 15 cover art inspiration brought to you by the Salo family cabin and the game of “Kubb.” For more information on this ancient lawn game and instructions on making your own Kubb (pronounced koob) set, visit growlermag.com/kubb
PUBLISHER Matt Kenevan
Casanova Liquor Haskell’s White Bear Lake
EVENT CALENDAR Ryan Anderson—ryan@mnbeer.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Joseph Alton
CONTRIBUTORS Michael Agnew, A Perfect Pint Michael Dawson Erik Eastman, Easy & Oskey Doug Hoverson Jeannie Kenevan Brian Martucci Megan Parker Jon Wipfli Jeremy Zoss
DISTRIBUTION distro@growlermag.com
MANAGING EDITOR Brian Kaufenberg CONTRIBUTING EDITOR John Garland DESIGNER Andrew Welyczko ARTISTS Kyle Coughlin Phil Juliano David Witt BEER REVIEWS Bacchus Wine & Spirits Booze Mart
www.growlermag.com
PHOTOGRAPHERS Aaron Davidson James Eastman Kristine Erickson Doug Hoverson Daniel Murphy
ADVERTISE Dena Alspach—advertising@growlermag.com Thank you to these distributors for their support in helping The Growler get off the ground: Capitol Beverage & Wirtz Beverage
Visit us online at growlermag.com
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 3
A letter from The Beer Dabbler ATMOSPHERE + SELECTION + EXPERTISE
TAKING THE MODERN LIQUOR STORE TO THE NEXT LEVEL ★ YOUR NEW CRAFT BEER AND WINE DESTINATION 4135 HIAWATHA + MINNEAPOLIS, MN 612.208.0973 elevatedbws.com Hear us on
THE BEER SHOW
Thursdays @ 7pm on ESPN 1500AM
2ND ANNUAL
BREWHALLOW celebrating local craft breweries: Halloween Style!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25 • 12–10PM at: The Hangar, American Sky Brewing Taproom
10
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featured Fall tap beers from these favorite local breweries: AMERICAN SKY • DAVE’S BREW FARM • JOSEPH WOLF • LIFTBRIDGE LUCETTE • MAPLE ISLAND • OLIPHANT • PITCHFORK • RUSH RIVER
•••
LIVE MUSIC ALL DAY • FOOD TRUCK ON PREMISE • COSTUME CONTEST HALLOWEEN MOVIES & THEMED GAMES • PRIZES
Thanks for picking up the latest installment of The Growler Magazine. This issue we are excited to announce the nominees for our third annual Kind-of-a-Big-Deal Reader’s Choice Awards. Each year our readers nominate the men, women, breweries, and beerfriendly establishments of our craft beer community. You decide who you feel are the best of the best in beer. This year we had more nominations than ever before thanks to impressive growth in not only our readership, but Minnesota’s craft beer community as a whole. Now, with the nominees chosen, it’s time for you to vote on who you think should be considered “Kind-of-a-Big-Deal” in 2014. Vote for your favorites at growlermag.com beginning on September 29th. Polls will close November 1st at 11:59 p.m. Another celebration of Minnesota’s craft beer community was our 6th Annual Summer Beer Dabbler. And it was awesome—if we do say so ourselves. We had more than eighty fantastic breweries representing on the field at Midway Stadium—many of whom brought with them some extra special beers. It was a truly perfect day at the perfect venue. Thanks to the St. Paul Saints for welcoming us to the ballpark. Though it has not been written in stone quite yet, we have a feeling you might be able to guess where we’ll be hosting next year’s summer event. (Hint: Not Uppertown.) I also want to say thank you to all of our brewery partners, sponsors, and volunteers. These people really are who make a successful event happen—in so many ways. Lastly, I want to thank all of you who attended as guests. I hope your dabbling experience was a wonderful one. We strive to make each event better than the last. Which brings us to the next big to-do. We are already gearing up for The Beer Dabbler Winter Carnival 2015. Hopefully it will be a while before the snow flies, but flip ahead in your calendars to January and save the date: January 24, 2015. Last year was epically cold and though we hope for better weather this year, we have precautions in the works in case we have another Polar Vortex laps us in the face. Some of you probably think we’re crazy for holding this annual event outside, but this event is part of the Saint Paul Winter Carnival—a celebration of winter in Minnesota. The Winter Carnival exists to show everyone that a little snow and cold won’t get in the way of hearty Minnesotans enjoying the Great Outdoors! As I say each issue, please don’t forget to support our advertisers and partners. Without them this magazine would simply not be possible, so remember to tell them you saw them in The Growler. Thanks for reading,
•••
750ML LIMITED SINGLE ENGINE SERIES RELEASE
PUMPKIN PROPAGANDA—PUMPKIN ALE
1510 Swasey Street ★ Hudson, WI americanskybeer.com 4 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
Matt Kenevan
Publisher of The Growler magazine and Founder of The Beer Dabbler®
www.growlermag.com
www.growlermag.com
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 5
It’s time to honor the men and women of beer with the 2014 Kind-of-a-Big-Deal Awards. You, the readers, nominated your favorite breweries, beer, and folks in the beer community. Now, you must determine who is the best of the best. Visit growlermag.com/vote now and cast your vote. Winners will be announced in The Growler’s December/January Kind-of-a-Big-Deal issue. Illustrations by Kyle Coughlin
BUSINESSES Brewpub
Happy Hour
MN Patio
Brewpubs are a boozy love letter to the neighborhood. They can’t distribute their beer, and, in fact, many of them don’t want to. They’d rather create a place for the block to relax, sip something they can’t find anywhere else, and eat some delicious food while doing it. Brewpubs aren’t out for world domination. They’re just trying to please the locals, and these are the ones doing it best.
Ah, happy hour—the great catharsis of capitalism. Ties are loosened, emails shut off, and a cold pint wipes away any worries about the upcoming quarterly report. Maybe you hit the Mexican joint across the street from your office where they serve killer margaritas and guacamole. Maybe it’s the posh cocktail palace downtown. Cheers to the best watering holes that happily complete a day’s labor.
A good beer is made infinitely better by the outdoors. When Minnesota offers that measly window in which to enjoy nature, we don’t need to be asked twice. The feel of a cool breeze, the sound of birds, the smell of hops, and the feel of a cold glass under a blistering sun. We feel free, and here’s to the patios that make it happen.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Barley John’s Brew Pub Day Block Brewing Fitger’s Brewhouse Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub Town Hall Brewery
MN Bar Recreation
(Games, Trivia, or other activity) What are we going to do tonight? Drink craft beer, obviously. But what else? Try to spell words in front of a hostile audience? Throw some balls at a target? Show off our deep knowledge of Cosby Show trivia? Cheers to the bars and organizations that make beer drinking even more fun by the extra amusements they provide.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Bocce at The Nomad World Pub Hammerschlagen at Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter (seasonal) Lawn Bowling at Brit’s Pub Skee-Ball at Pat’s Tap Trivia at Merlin’s Rest
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Blue Door Pub Groveland Tap Red Cow–Minneapolis Republic 7 Corners Tongue & Cheek
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Aster Cafe Butcher & The Boar Psycho Suzi’s Motor Lounge Sea Salt Eatery Sweeney’s Saloon W.A. Frost & Company
Craft Beer Bar (MSP 612)
Craft Beer Bar (St Paul 651)
On the west side of the river, craft beer presents itself in many personalities. Bars might be striking and cosmopolitan, or they could be dives with some great taps. They could be tourist attractions or neighborhood joints. Either way, they always have the pulse of the state’s best brew. Here are your favorites.
The Capital City just feels like a beer drinking town. Whether it’s cask-conditioned pints before a Wild game, a Summit over a game of curling, or an esoteric new Belgian import on a cozy sidewalk patio, St. Paul offers a wide array of interesting venues to imbibe. Here’s to the best beer bars in the 651 making old “Pig’s Eye” Parrant smile down from above.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Buster’s on 28th Grumpy’s Northeast Red Cow–Minneapolis Muddy Waters Republic 7 Corners Zeke’s Unchained
6 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Blue Door Pub Groveland Tap The Happy Gnome The Muddy Pig Red Cow–St. Paul Ward 6
www.growlermag.com
V O T E F O R Y O U R F AV O R I T E S AT G R O W L E R M A G . C O M Craft Beer Bar (Suburbia)
Craft Beer Bar
Minnesota Brewery
Beer drinking in the suburbs is getting better every year. With so many fine breweries taking root out there, it’s no wonder that thoughtful beer bars are doing the same. They may be in a strip mall or an office park. But they all have great beer, and that’s what matters. And they probably have a huge free parking lot, so cheers to that.
Good beer bars have exploded outside the Metro. The demand for great suds extends far outside the suburbs, and bars are happy to meet the demand. They might cater to cabin traffic, or happily souse the locals. Either way, they’re evidence of a craft beer scene reaching every corner of the upper Midwest.
Here they are—the best of the best. These breweries are the standard bearers, the benchmarks, and the power players. They’re the ones whose special releases draw huge lines of thirsty craft beer enthusiasts. They’re OLIVER the ones the newbies hope to TOWNE emulate, and the ones we hope to find in our friend’s fridge when we come over. Simply put, these breweries define Minnesota beer.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
3 Squares, Maple Grove Grumpy’s Roseville Stout’s Pub, Falcon Heights Washington Square, White Bear Lake Yard House, St. Louis Park
(Greater MN/Western WI)
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
7 West Taphouse, Duluth, MN The Nova Wine Bar, Hudson WI Old Capitol Tavern, Sauk Rapids, MN Tycoon’s Alehouse, Duluth, MN Stone Tap, Hudson, WI
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Dangerous Man Brewing Indeed Brewing Summit Brewing Steel Toe Brewing Surly Brewing Urban Growler Brewing
New Minnesota Brewery
Out-of-State Brewery
Homebrew Store
Now that the first wave of local breweries has established itself, newcomers have different choices to make. They need to find a niche—be it a style, a neighborhood, a business model. These dynamic newcomers have zeroed in on something special and made our beer scene all the richer. So here’s to the newest wave of entrepreneurs making
We get excited about the state of local brewing because we look around the country and dream of what we might become. There are metro areas that have a decade-long head start on craft beer, and the national power players from those towns are stoking the craft revolution. Here’s to San Diego, Portland, Boulder, Nashville, Boston, and the best out-of-state breweries we love to see on our local shelves.
Passionate homebrewers have made the Twin Cities one of the best metros in America to do-it-yourself. We pick up Surly clones, stock our kegerators, and invest in plumbing hacks that drive our spouses crazy. But all this trouble allows us to create something special, and we rely on some terrific suppliers to make that happen. Here are the best places to feed your homebrew obsessions.
(open after 10/1/2013)
the Twin Cities a brewing destination.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Bauhaus Brew Labs LTD Brewing Sisyphus Brewing Sociable Cider Werks Tin Whiskers Brewing Urban Growler Brewing
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Bell’s Brewery Deschutes Brewery Founders Brewing Stone Brewing Odell Brewing
★ ★ ★ ★
Bottle Shop (MSP Metro)
Bottle Shop (Suburbia)
At a certain point, a bottle shop has to make a choice. With thousands of breweries and only a few hundred square feet of shelf space, a good bottle shop must use expert palates, trend forecasts, and keen organization to tailor the best in craft beer right in our neighborhoods. It’s a great time to be a beer drinker in the Metro, and these bottle shops are a big reason why.
The craft beer boom isn’t limited to the Metro. Breweries are popping up in Shakopee, White Bear Lake, and Waconia. And these bottle shops are making sure the shelves of suburbia are just as interesting as those in the heart of the city. Thanks to these shops, our mothers are drinking Fulton now.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Ale Jail Elevated Beer Wine & Spirits France 44 Zipp’s Liquor Stinson Wine, Beer, and Spirits
www.growlermag.com
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Blue Max, Burnsville Dennis Brothers Liquors, Cottage Grove The Four Firkins, St. Louis Park Heritage Liquor, Maplewood Northgate Liquor, Blaine U.S. Liquor & Wine, Minnetonka
Brew & Grow Midwest Supplies Northern Brewer Still H20
Bottle Shop (Greater MN /
Western WI)
There’s no part of the state the craft beer hasn’t reached. A few years ago, the stores out by the cabin might have only stocked pallets of Keystone Light. Now, thanks to them, we’re heading out to the lake with sixers of Bent Paddle and a lambic from New Glarus. Cheers to the best shops way outside the Metro for ensuring we don’t have to stock a bunch of coolers before heading out of town.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Casanova Liquor, Hudson, WI Hanover Wine Spirits, Hanover, MN Keyport Liquor, Superior, WI Warehouse Liquor, Duluth, MN Westside Liquor, Albertville, MN
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 7
V O T E F O R Y O U R F AV O R I T E S AT G R O W L E R M A G . C O M V O T E F O R Y O U R F AV O R I T E S AT G R O W L E R M A G . C O M MN Craft Distillery
WI Craft Distillery
Brewery Tour (By A Brewery)
Operating a distillery isn’t easy. It requires years of planning, organizing, and paperwork. Distillers must have all their equipment set up and a federal license before they can make even the first drop of booze. Despite that, 2014 was a boom for local craft spirits. Here’s to the distillers who took the leap of faith to keep us in good spirits.
When Minnesotans consider our own spirits industry, we need not look very far for a state to emulate. Wisconsin has been sending gorgeous booze our way for a number of years. Some Wisconsin distilleries are run by Minnesotans, who began over there for cheaper licensing. So cheers to the Sconnies making some of the best hooch in the Midwest, and in fact, the country.
You might not know about decoction mashing, glycol jacketing, or six-row barley. But our local brewers do, and they’re eager to explain. An essential component of the craft beer revolution is public education. So here’s to the brewers that go out of their way to open their breweries to let us in on the secrets of craft beer.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Du Nord Craft Spirits Far North Spirits Millers & Saints Distillery Norseman Distillery Vikre Distillery
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
45th Parallel Death’s Door Great Lakes Distillery Infinity Beverages Old Sugar Distillery
MN Craft Spirit
WI Craft Spirit
The first wave of local distillers are defining what it means to be a Minnesota spirit. We’ve been treated to a wide variety of botanical mixes in gin, all sorts of grainy flavors of vodka, some whiskies, and even rums. It’ll be a while before aged spirits come out of Minnesota in full force. So let’s toast to these preliminary runs, a fine mix of spirits indeed.
Wisconsin produces all manner of wonderful distilled products. It might be a brandy from a winery. It might have Door County cherries steeping in the bottle. It might be whiskey—and their industry is old enough that it will probably be aged. These spirits give us great hopes for our own distillers, and here are the finest.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Du Nord L’Etoile Vodka Far North Ålander Rum Far North Solveig Gin Millers & Saints Vodka Vikre Boreal Cedar Gin
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
45th Parallel Border Bourbon 45th Parallel Vodka Great Lakes Rehorst Gin Death’s Door Gin Old Sugar Distillery Americanaki Ouzo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Bent Paddle Brewing Flat Earth Brewing Schell’s Brewery Summit Brewing Surly Brewing
Multi-Brewery Tour (By a Tour Company)
With so much fine craft beer to sample, how can a person experience it all? That’s where our favorite boozy tour guides come in. They scout, organize, prepare, and keep up to date, so all we have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. Cheers to the tour guides for taking our keys and giving us the opportunity to see a wider swath of the fermented city.
★ Bitter Minnesota Brewery Tours ★ The Duluth Experience ★ GetKnit Events
INDIVIDUALS Bartender
Homebrew Club
MN Beer Writer
Good bartenders wear many hats. They can be salespeople, a traffic cops, psychologists and comedians, all within the span of a single order. They’re also arbiters of taste— the last line between the consumer and the booze—giving expert opinions on their available stocks. They can mix a fine martini with one hand and ring up a check with the other. These are the folks you want behind the bar.
The Twin Cities brewery boom didn’t happen randomly overnight. It percolated in basements and garages, where a few beer drinkers considered what was available and tried to do better. These like-minded individuals began congregating, sharing, and collaborating. They exchanged notes and more than a few pints, and democratized the beverage we love. So here’s to the best homebrew clubs, fermenting the creativity of Minnesota’s future commercial brewers.
Writing about beer isn’t easy. It may be fun telling friends that our job demands a multiflight beer tasting at 11am on a Tuesday. But it also demands patient, thoughtful consideration, the ability to prognosticate and contextualize, and the composure to cheerlead an industry we love while still maintaining an objective opinion. Here’s to the best local writers who have taken the challenge and succeeded with aplomb.
★ Broc Allen, Fitger’s Brewhouse ★ Chelsea Carlson, Steel Toe Brewing ★ Erica Christensen, Urban Growler Brewing ★ Grant Fabel, Red Cow ★ Ian Lowther, Solera ★ John Pflaum, Pub 500
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
MN Home Brewers Association Nordeast Brewers Alliance Northern Ale Stars Primary Fermenters St. Paul Homebrewers Club
8 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Andrew Schmitt Doug Hoverson Michael Dawson Michael Agnew Paige Latham Ryan Tuenge
www.growlermag.com
V O T E F O R Y O U R F AV O R I T E S AT G R O W L E R M A G . C O M National Beer Writer
Beer Blog
Beer Artist
If there’s anything tougher than keeping tabs on the beer industry of a certain region, it’s keeping your finger on the pulse of the entire nation. These dogged beer writers are the best in the business. They know the BJCP guidelines back and forth. They’re industry insiders giving us a unique take on all things fermented. They’re basically who we hope to be when we grow up.
It’s all over but the shouting, the old saying goes. Our local populace is so ramped up about beer that we can’t help but take to the Internet and let people know our thoughts. We may not all be Cicerones, but a few passionate observers have taken the time to lay out a well-reasoned thesis on local suds. So here’s to the bloggers— keeping the beer industry honest and keeping the conversation lively.
The creativity of Minnesota’s brewing scene isn’t just inside the bottle. It’s on event posters, labels, and branding. It’s painted on the sides of breweries. MSP is renowned for its art community and craft beer has given them a brand new canvas. Here’s to the artists who bring local craft beer to life.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Doug Hoverson Garrett Oliver Gordon Strong Michael Agnew Michael Tonsmeire
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Alcohol by Volume Beerploma Minnesota on Tap MN Beer MN Beer Activists
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Adam Turman David Witt Chuck U Jake Keeler Jeff Nelson
Beard (MN Beer Community)
Beer Tattoo
Here in the state of Paul Bunyan, beards have become as ubiquitous as IPAs. Besides the important face insulation for half the year, beards give our community its personality. And some are as wild as an imperial chocolate hefeweizen. Here they are, the best beards in local brew.
Tattoos are an indelible statement of personality. They’re conversation starters. They’re memories made permanent. The brewers and servers of the Twin Cities have some most impressive body art. Here are your favorites.
Bob Roepke
Brian Schanzenbach
Bjorn Erickson
Bryan Buser
Paul Wentzel
Bryan Campbell
BEERS Belgian Style Belgians are the explorers of the mash tun, the fermenters of (stylistic) freedom, the experts of esters! In Belgium, beer is something sacred—I mean, monks are still brewing beer there. The styles range from light abbey ales, to dark dubbels, to fruity witbiers, and the accompanying glassware is just as varied. Here are the beers doing Belgium justice.
Lager/Pilsner An excellent Pilsner is difficult to make. The delicate flavors and aromas leave little room to hide flaws, and being a lager, it takes a bit longer to make. Originally made in 1842 in the Czech town of Plzen, this is the beer that would change the world. While there are a number of acceptable variations, there are also many more poor imitators. The best of these beers are golden colored with balanced malt and snappy hop aromas and flavor, with a bitter yet clean finish. Hard to do, but oh so good when done right. www.growlermag.com
MINNESOTA ★ Boom Island Brimstone Tripel ★ Boom Island Hoodoo Dubbel ★ Flat Earth Belgian-Style Pale Ale ★ Harriet West Side IPA ★ Surly Cynic Ale
OVERALL ★ Brouwerij Bosteels Tripel Karmeliet ★ Brewery Ommegang Rare Vos ★ Brewery Ommegang Three Philosophers ★ Goose Island Matilda ★ Goose Island Sofie ★ St. Bernardus Abt 12
MINNESOTA ★ Bauhaus Wonderstuff Pilsner ★ Bent Paddle Venture Pils ★ Schell’s Pils ★ Summit Pilsener ★ Surly Hell
OVERALL ★ Bent Paddle Venture Pils ★ Bauhaus Wonderstuff Pilsner ★ Lagunitas Pils ★ Oskar Blues Mama’s Little Yella Pils ★ Schell’s Pils ★ Victory Prima Pils
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 9
V O T E F O R Y O U R F AV O R I T E S AT G R O W L E R M A G . C O M V O T E F O R Y O U R F AV O R I T E S AT G R O W L E R M A G . C O M Fruit/Spice Beer Fruit and spiced beers scoff at the Reinheitsgebot. Instead, they welcome all spices, fruits, and strange yeast strains to the brewing mix in a quest for the perfect flavor combinations. Here are the adventurers brewing up the best beers made with fruits or spices.
IPA We love our hops. IPAs continue to be one of the fast-growing styles in the craft beer community and Minnesota is no exception. All across the state breweries are churning out many fine examples of the style, which obviously tipped towards the hop side of the scale, but should still have a malt backbone to support those bitter hop notes that we love so much.
Wheat Beer As Michael Agnew observed in Issue 13, it’s hard to find a better balmy-weather brews than wheat beers. Hefeweizen brings effervescent carbonation and the sharp, cracker-like taste of wheat for a most refreshing quaff. Yeast is front and center for many wheat beers and contributes flavors of gumball, banana, and cloves to the nose. Here are your favorite wheat beers in Minnesota and in all of craft beer.
Porter A style of much debated history, but clearly a style that would beget many others. Porter originated in England, and has been around in some form for nearly 300 years. There is still much variation within the style, but one thing is clear—it’s some shade of brown, and should be lighter than a stout (a heftier offshoot of porter). As for its flavor, look for a range of roasted malt character with possibly some chocolate, and the varied hop profile depending on the brewer.
Stout As dark as night and as variable as the people who create it, the stout porter has traveled the world and back, largely overtaking its predecessor in availability and popularity. It has prospered throughout the globe in various export/imperial/sweet/oatmeal/and dry versions of itself. Naturally, we had to make an American version too. Always a deep dark and roasty beer, the best stouts should awaken the darkness inside us all… or just be a deliciously roasty beer that goes great with a steak, oysters, or a warm blanket on a cold night.
Sour Say it with me now; “brett-TAN-oh-MY-sees.” Brettanomyces or “Brett” as its often called, is a cousin of Saccharomyces, and can be both a friend and a foe to brewers. Creating what would be considered “off-flavors” in most beer styles, the funky characteristics of “wild yeast” adds the complex sour notes you’re familiar with in lambic, gueuze, oud bruin, or a Flanders red ale. Sour beers are finding a spot in the limelight these days, not only as a ‘next step’ for advancing palates, but also as a beer bridge for wine drinkers looking to find a craft beer they enjoy. 10 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
MINNESOTA ★ Fitger’s Apricot Wheat ★ Indeed LSD ★ Indeed Sweet Yamma Jamma ★ Third Street Jack’d Up Autumn Ale ★ Urban Growler Rhubarb Wit
OVERALL ★ Lakefront Pumpkin Lager ★ New Glarus Belgian Red ★ New Glarus Serendipity ★ New Glarus Raspberry Tart ★ Schell’s Black Forest Cherry ★ Southern Tier Pumpking
MINNESOTA ★ Bent Paddle Bent Hop ★ Fulton Sweet Child of Vine ★ Steel Toe Size 7 ★ Surly Furious ★ Summit Sága
OVERALL ★ Ballast Point Sculpin ★ Bell’s Two Hearted ★ Deschutes Fresh Squeezed ★ Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA ★ Russian River Pliny the Elder ★ Surly Furious
MINNESOTA ★ Boom Island Witness Wit ★ Fitger’s Apricot Wheat ★ Indeed Shenanigans ★ Schell’s Hefeweizen ★ Tin Whiskers Wheatstone Bridge
OVERALL ★ Bell’s Oberon ★ Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat ★ Fitger’s Apricot Wheat ★ Lagunitas Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ ★ New Belgium Snap Shot ★ Three Floyds Gumball Head
MINNESOTA ★ Bent Paddle Black Ale ★ Dangerous Man Hazelnut Porter ★ Flat Earth Cygnus X-1 ★ Indeed Hot Box Imperial Smoked Pepper Porter ★ Summit Great Northern Porter
OVERALL ★ Deschutes Black Butte Porter ★ Founders Porter ★ Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald ★ Odell Cutthroat ★ Stone Smoked Porter ★ Tallgrass Zombie Monkey
MINNESOTA ★ Big Wood Morning Wood ★ Brau Brothers Moo Joos ★ Dangerous Man Chocolate Milk Stout ★ Surly Darkness ★ Summit Oatmeal Stout
OVERALL ★ Bell’s Expedition Stout ★ Deschutes Obsidian ★ Founders Breakfast Stout ★ Goose Island Bourbon County ★ Left Hand Milk Stout Nitro ★ North Coast Old Rasputin
MINNESOTA ★ Bent Brewstillery Acclivity ★ Bent Brewstillery Acerbity ★ Brau Brothers Bancreagie Sour No. 26 ★ Surly Pentagram ★ Schell’s Star of the North
OVERALL ★ The Bruery Sour in The Rye ★ Cuvee des Jacobins ★ New Belgium La Folie ★ Odell Friek ★ Rodenbach Grand Cru ★ Schell’s Star of the North
www.growlermag.com
V O T E F O R Y O U R F AV O R I T E S AT G R O W L E R M A G . C O M Pale Ale/Session Ale Seasonal Good pale ales and session ales are quaffable companions for nights spent cozied up at the bar of your local pub. The hops’ bitterness and aroma and the caramel flavors from the malt in pale ales wake up the palate with each easy-drinking sip. Session ales are becoming more flavorful without weighing in at a heavy ABV, allowing you to enjoy two, three, or even five pints at a sitting. In the past the styles were not the biggest or boldest of craft beer, but these breweries are making pales and sessions that truly pack a flavorful punch.
Spring Seasonal After several months of hibernation indoors, sipping on a stash of boozy Imperial stouts and roasty porters next to the fire, spring arrives and with it come our favorite spring seasonal brews. The spring seasonals you’ve nominated will brighten up your beer fridge from the darkness of stout season and are perfect to celebrate the warm days ahead.
Summer Seasonal Summer is a chance to get outside and thaw for a few months, and Minnesotans take that opportunity very seriously. Naturally, the beer that accompanies such a season should be consumable in quantity, yet have actual flavor. Usually the best summer seasonals are golden colored lagers or ales that have some malty flavor and enough hops to be refreshing, and low enough alcohol to keep you functioning, but the possibilities are limitless. Just think about which craft beer you want to drink while out on a lake in July.
Fall Seasonal The only thing better about fall than breaking out your favorite sweaters and enjoying the colorful foliage are the bounty of fall seasonal beers that make their way to local taps and store shelves. These are the malty festival beers of Oktoberfest and the harvest ales using the fruits of the growing season. Their higher ABVs that will keep you warm on a cool fall evening spent watching playoff baseball or the start of the football season. Here are your favorite fall seasonals.
Winter Seasonal Minnesota winters can be harsh, but winter seasonal beers make it bearable. They evoke feelings of the holidays, and typically are made using ingredients or techniques to bring out the caramel, nutty, spiced, earthy, or citrusy flavors associated with the season. Typically a little higher in alcohol, these beers are designed to celebrate the season, be it the beginning of your favorite or end of your most dreaded time of year.
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MINNESOTA ★ Bent Paddle Daypack Pale ★ Fitger’s Starfire Pale Ale ★ Indeed Day Tripper ★ Steel Toe Size 4 ★ Summit EPA ★ Surly Bitter Brewer
OVERALL ★ Ale Asylum Hopalicious ★ Founders All Day IPA ★ Oskar Blues Dale’s Pale Ale ★ Sierra Nevada Pale Ale ★ Three Floyds Zombie Dust ★ Toppling Goliath’s Psuedo Sue
MINNESOTA ★ Fulton Expat Rye Saison ★ Indeed Let It Ride IPA ★ Schell’s Maifest ★ Summit Frost Line Rye ★ Summit Maibock
OVERALL ★ Capital Maibock ★ Founders KBS ★ Great Divide Orabelle ★ Indeed Let It Ride IPA ★ Lagunitas Undercover Investigation Shutdown ★ Summit Maibock
MINNESOTA ★ Bent Paddle Paddle Break Blonde ★ Indeed Shenanigans ★ Schell’s Goosetown Gose ★ Steel Toe Sommer Vice ★ Summit Summer Ale
OVERALL ★ Bell’s Oberon ★ Brooklyn Brewery Summer Ale ★ Indeed Shenanigans ★ New Belgium Summer Helles ★ Schell’s Zommerfest ★ Sierra Nevada Summerfest
MINNESOTA ★ Indeed Sweet Yamma Jamma ★ Schell’s Oktoberfest ★ Summit Oktoberfest ★ Surly Darkness ★ SurlyFest
OVERALL ★ Ayinger Oktober Fest Märzen ★ Dogfish Head Punkin Ale ★ Furthermore Fallen Apple ★ Millstream Great Pumpkin Imperial Stout ★ New Glarus Staghorn ★ Southern Tier Pumking
MINNESOTA ★ Fulton Worthy Adversary ★ Indeed Stir Crazy ★ Schell’s Snowstorm ★ Summit Winter Ale ★ Steel Toe Size 11
OVERALL ★ Anchor Christmas Ale ★ Bell’s Hopslam DIPA ★ Deschutes The Abyss Imperial Stout ★ Great Lakes Christmas Ale ★ Lagunitas Sucks ★ Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 11
THE SECRETS OF
SURLY TODD HAUG TALKS
ABOUT THE BREWERY’S LIMITED RELEASE BEERS By Jeremy Zoss
The last year has been a busy one for Surly Brewing. Obviously, the company’s biggest project has been its new brewing facility, which is scheduled to open next fall in Minneapolis’ Prospect Park neighborhood. The new brewery alone would be enough for most companies. But, as founder Omar Ansari once said, “The Surly way is not the easy way.” Over the last year, Surly Brewing has also undertaken a number of smaller projects, including an unprecedented number of collaborations. The Growler sat down with Surly Brewing’s Head Brewer Todd Haug to get the lowdown on the brewery’s recent collaborations and how they relate to Surly’s other limited release beers.
12 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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SURLY’S
‘YEAR OF COLLABORATIONS’
In the last year, Surly teamed up with a number of outside partners to create beers for special occasions. The brewery worked with metal bands, restaurants and, of course, other breweries for limited collaborative beers. According to Todd Haug, the appeal of collaborative projects is the chance to experiment and try something new. “It was the year of collaborations, apparently,” said Haug. “It wasn’t part of the plan, but it just kind of happened that way. We started the year out with Blakkr, which was a collaboration with us, Three Floyds, and Real Ale. Then we did the Amon Amarth one. We did what we call a Viking IPA. We tried to “rustic up” beer making as much as we could. We fermented it on oak, which we don’t usually do, we put oak in the fermenter, and we tried some different traditional English malts to give it a more rustic ‘I’m making my own malt, I don’t really know what I’m doing’ kind of feel, like a Viking might be doing.” The Viking IPA was Surly’s first formal collaboration with a metal band, but not the last. The brewery has announced a bottled collaboration with the band 1349 and a draft-only collaboration with Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats. “We brewed the 1349 beer collaboratively with Lervig, a brewery in Stavanger, Norway. The band is very involved in the recipe and how they want it to taste. It’s going to be a beer that we’d like to make and release every year.” The Uncle Acid beer is called Devil’s Work Porter and will clock in at a Satanic 6.66% ABV. “That’ll be awesome,” said Haug.” I’ve been in contact with the lead singer and he’s all for it. It’s gonna be a black licorice molasses porter.” In a slightly less sinister pairing, Surly partnered with Chipotle on a farmhouse ale brewed exclusively for the Chipotle Cultivate Festival in late August. For the event, Haug created a completely hop-free beer with dandelion greens, which he said was inspired by travel and the turning of the seasons. He and his wife spent a lot of time in Europe during the early part of the year and saw spring in Belgium and Germany. But upon returning to Minnesota, winter lingered on. “I was like ‘When the hell is spring gonna come?” said Haug. “And all of the sudden my yard was full of dandelions.” He said the project was a good excuse to steer away from the main trend in beer right now—hops. “Craft beer has gotten so centered on IPAs, hop-forward beers, and everything that’s been
changed into a hoppy version,” said Haug. “We’re guilty of it too. Enough already. I want hoppy beers and I want malty beers, and I want beers that don’t have any hops.” Other projects, like the recent rarity Long of Tooth, are more traditional brewery collaborations. “Lanny Hoff, who is the local guy that runs Artisanal Imports and imports a bunch of cool beers, they do a brewmaster’s collaboration every year with De Proef. This year was the Midwest and they picked me, which was awesome,” said Haug. “I brought an ingredient from Belgium that no one really thinks about for Belgian beer and that’s chocolate. It’s aged on cacao nibs and oak and finished with Brett. And I’d like to brew it again next winter. A couple things I wanted to do processwise that didn’t happen, so I’m going to try them here.” Another recent collaboration pays homage to Haug’s other work as a guitar player. The collaborative brew Todd the Axe Man was created with Amager Bryghus of Denmark. “We went to the Copenhagen see SURLY page 14
Todd Haug
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 13
SURLY from page 13 Beer Fest and met some awesome brewers like Amager. They really wanted to know about some ingredients that they don’t have access to. One of them is Golden Promise, the malt we use in Furious. The popular thing now is a single hop beer. This is a single malt beer. It’s all Golden Promise. And two trendy American hop varieties, Mosaic and Citra. So it’s a single malt, West Coast American IPA. We’re going to brew that too, so you should be able to find it here.”
S E L T T O B 5 2 R OVE F F U T S D O O G OF THE g n i t s a t r o f open See our fantastic selections of beer and high-end whiskeys; bring your tough questions and special requests for our knowledgeable and helpful staffs; and enjoy our open bar with an unimaginable number of bottles, there for you to try new arrivals or to sample the good stuff before buying.
SURLY
BY THE NUMBERS
Surly’s tradition of anniversary beers was born from the same place as the collaborative beers—a desire to experiment. Haug gave us the lowdown on each of the anniversary beers so far. “The anniversary beers spun off from Darkness and quickly became a challenge of ‘Hey let’s do something that’s a crazy idea,’” said Haug. “Something that we don’t want to do more than once.”
ONE
The annual anniversary beer might have been Omar’s idea. At the time it was just me brewing. We’d just brewed our first twelve barrels of Darkness, and then I made this kind of hybrid Belgian Quadruple German Doppelbock kind of thing. That was One. We only made like 12 barrels of it. Omar was like ‘What are we going to do with 24 kegs of this beer?’ There was nothing like it in the market. No one was drinking 9% lagers that are malty and sweet. But that winter, Beer Advocate was just really taking off and Darkness started to get some traction online.
TWO
Two, we bottled. Two was a Cranberry Milk Stout. My wife’s dad has friends who have a cranberry bog up in Wisconsin, so I had access to a pickup load of cranberries at harvest. Literally drove up into the brewery in this pickup full of 1,200 pounds of cranberries. I didn’t expect them to completely cook down, but they went through the sieve and clogged the heat exchanger. It was a nightmare. I think I called Linda at 3am and said ‘I’m not done yet. I just hope I didn’t break the brewery.’ In hindsight it’s a beer that we’d probably never brew again.
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Three was a braggot. Half honey, half malt. Basically a mead. Not many people make a braggot. It’s like a weird hybrid. It was a pain in the ass, the honey. That sounds like a good idea, until you try to figure out how you get the honey out. Three, we didn’t end up selling that, because that was right when we couldn’t sell growlers anymore. We didn’t do any bottles of Three because we didn’t have a bottling line yet and we couldn’t sell them ourselves. www.growlermag.com
FOUR
Four was the espresso milk stout. That one, we wanted to bring coffee into the kettle, not post fermentation like we do with coffee bender. Which is a great idea until, you know, you do the recipe and you’re like ‘holy sh*t, that’s a lot of coffee.’ We basically took a French press approach. The coffee bags floated in the wort.” Haug said the experience of making Four prepared him to make Cultivate Farmhouse ale, as floating dandelion greens presented a similar challenge.
Haug said there are already ideas being discussed for Nine, possibly playing off the German word for no, “nein.” Additional specialty beers are already in the works, such as the recently announced collaboration with California’s Stone Brewing. He hinted at additional collaborations with bands and said that the brewery expansion will allow them to brew bigger batches of the brewery’s special releases. However, the brewery plans to expand distribution in Chicago and add accounts in Wisconsin and Iowa, so future Surly limited releases will probably still continue to fly off local shelves.
FIVE
Five was what we always wanted to do with our sour beer program and that’s what started Pentagram. That was the first Brett beer that we did. We’ve learned a lot about processing, the fermentation, and the barrel aging with Five, and we translated that all into Pentagram.
SIX
Six was an interesting one. One through Five, they were all dark. Six to Ten are pale. Six was our first pale anniversary beer. We wanted to make a higher alcohol beer than we ever had. It was 14.9% ABV. Bone dry, zero residual sugars left, so the hops and some of the wood tannins really come across. Probably not the most balanced beer, but still interesting nonetheless.
SEVEN
We’d never done any traditional Belgian high-gravity beers, so that was a Belgian Strong Ale finished on Brett. I’ll open one this fall. I think it’s about time. It’s like a Belgian Trappist ale. Not dark, not hoppy, although with some traditional hop aroma, but not American hops.
EIGHT
Eight is an oat wine aged in rye whiskey barrels. I’ve been hesitant to do whiskey barrel aging because everyone does it. Stick it in the barrel and it makes the beer good. I don’t necessarily agree with that. Sometimes it works out. So this beer was engineered to be aged in rye whiskey barrels. Fifty percent oat, 50 percent malt. It’s almost like a barleywine made with oats and barley.
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 15
The Packaging Of
Part Two: Retailing By John Garland Images courtesy Duffy & Partners
Last issue, we discussed how breweries approach their package design. In Part II, we find the beer on shelves. But where? In the cooler or on the warm floor? How does a package influence what a retailer will stock? “Every brewery wants you to put all their beer in the cooler,” says Todd Taylor. “It just can’t happen.” He manages seven locations for MGM Wine & Spirits. Even with massive cooler space—upwards of 40 doors in some stores—he has to scrutinize planograms like a battlefield general. “We do an initial cooler set, everything looks great, and we pat ourselves on the back,” he says. “But it degrades over time. It’s
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good for about six or nine months. New things come along, and it’s important to get them cold for consumers to try new things.” For retailers, organizing a cooler is a never-ending struggle between what’s new and what sells. And it’s in that tug-of-war that a brewery can do itself a huge favor with good branding. Most retailers will attempt to stock an interesting new six-pack in their cooler initially. Whether it stays there is a matter of sales. We asked retailers how much faster the same package would sell at eye-level in a cooler, as opposed to a prime spot on the sales floor. The answers ranged from five or ten times faster, up to “like a million times faster.” It’s also an extraordinary expense to power a large cooler. So SKUs with slow turnover won’t be tolerated for long. Successful beer packaging, therefore, should begin with the view from the cooler. It will consider the inch-tall lip on the bottom of
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the shelf. It worries about package dimensions in an environment where millimeters quickly add up to dollars. Wider bottles or taller longnecks can easily lead to spatial headaches. Brewers should also pay special attention to the short side of their package. “We don’t necessarily look at the broad face,” says Taylor. “In a cooler, you have five slots across a 30-inch door, and it’s all end-facing six-packs. I would think that should be the most important thing to a brewery because that’s what the consumer will see.” Even though many consumers still make purchase decisions on aesthetics, retailers ultimately don’t care what a package looks like. If a beer came in a blank cardboard box, but it turned over a couple cases a day, it would be stocked in every cooler in America until the end of time. “We don’t hold up two packages and decide which looks better, we’d rather get both in the cooler,” says Jeffrey Abbott, VP of Beverage Display Company, a marketing partner with MGM. “We look at what customers buy, what the style is, what the trends are. In my time as a beer buyer I have never looked at a package and thought this needs to go eye-level mid-center. Rebranding can help drive sales to the consumer, but it doesn’t necessarily affect where we place it.”
Even though many consumers still make purchase decisions on aesthetics, retailers ultimately don’t care what a package looks like. If a beer came in a blank cardboard box, but it turned over a couple cases a day, it would be stocked in every cooler in America until the end of time. With the influx of local craft beer in the last four years, the puzzle of fitting together a cooler set has become more difficult. Thankfully for consumers, it’s often the macro beers that suffer. “It’s about being wise with the space for domestics and imports,” says Abbott. “So when there’s a new local package, it’s not about which New Belgium pack we’re going to eliminate. We go seven coolers down and rearrange the Heineken. So something moves down a door, and another and another, until we’ve freed up space where we need it.” To accommodate more craft selections, retailers will try to expand their number of doors, convert wine doors for bombers, and bring in more freestanding coolers. But along with craft beer, there are other emerging categories that will make the cooler space shuffle even more difficult for AB-InBev and MillerCoors. “Cider and mead haven’t really touched Minnesota yet,” says Guy Gardner, corporate beer coordinator for Haskell’s. “Eventually, we’re going to want them cold, so stores are not going to have as much Red Dog or Steel Reserve chilled in every format. The
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Todd Taylor on “The door has a handle and a hinge, and every brewery wants to be on the handle. That’s where you’ll find the flagships and stuff that moves fast.” “We don’t like to ‘billboard’ the 12-pack, because there’s nothing on that side to grab. It takes two hands. The three-bottle side has that handle, we make sure to punch it out so the consumer can easily get it out.” “Yes, eye-level is buy-level.”
PACKAGING from page 17 customer base that will sustain a store over the next five years is looking for more esoteric items. The domestic end of the cooler is going to lose out.” It’s easy to send those macro brands to the warm floor. When a new local brewery needs to be chilled, the six different containers of Bud Light seem ripe for consolidation. But things get tricky when it’s craft breweries extending their lines. “Everyone is digging on 16-ounce cans, and we like those,” says Taylor. “But the most challenging thing in the coolers right now is fitting in the new 12 oz 12-pack cans. Everyone is putting them out now—Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, Founders, the list goes on.” The growing popularity of craft cans is perhaps the primary way that a packaging shift has helped retailers. “We’ve seen far more sales of Summit EPA in cans that we ever did in six-pack bottles,” says Michael Wagner, Cicerone at The Four Firkins. “Bottles of EPA are ubiquitous, but this is enough of a ‘different’ product.” Mark Sobolik, beer buyer at the Ale Jail, concurs. “For our store, anyways, almost across the board when something gets canned we sell more of it,” he says. “Maybe it’s that we get a lot of younger kids in here, and they don’t have memories of how disgusting some
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Brewing is easy as 1, 2, 3! 1 of those old canned beers were.” Sobolik tries to chill mainly local brews but has to recognize the tried-and-true winners. “We try to keep as much Minnesota stuff in the cooler as we can. But the big national brands—Odell, New Belgium, Deschutes—those guys put up numbers you can’t deny. There’s a little give and take that way.” Perhaps with increased competition for cooler space, new breweries need more than ever to find their niche. “We have Bent Paddle all over the cooler, because their beers operate in a space where there’s not really anything else like it,” says Wagner. “And they’re local, and the beer is stellar. They win on multiple levels. It’s the same thing with Surly. They’re all terrific examples of their styles, so that justifies seven spaces in the cooler.” “Beers end up earning their spot in the cooler,” Wagner continues. “A great example is Fresh Squeezed from Deschutes. That beer was new and it was fantastic—a game changer in the IPA category. And it’s still in the cooler six months later because its turnover rate is so valuable, there’s nothing that can replace it.” Another packaging issue retailers face is the emergence of 22-ounce “bombers,” 750mL corked-and-caged Belgian bottles, and other large formats. Steel Toe Brewing earned their cooler space by offering a different package at a new price point for local beer— around $4–5 for a bomber. Retailers say it was tough for the first few months, when consumers couldn’t find a hot new local brewery among the six-packs. Now many newer breweries are following suit—NorthGate, Bent Brewstillery—and cold space for bombers has expanded in kind. Though a potential problem for large format bottles is getting stuck among the imports on the warm floor. “You already have that import/750 shelf, for Duvel and the Belgians,” says Abbott. “They just sit on the floor, and nobody minds that they sit, and that’s probably never going to change.” When people expect to find those beers on the floor, chilling Rochefort 10 is hard to justify, at the expense of something that’s proven to move more quickly. Joe Pond from Olvalde Farm and Brewing Co. knew that’s exactly where his bottles could be pigeonholed, so he chose his distribution strategically. “Initially, I stuck with the premier sellers that do a good job with import beers—especially Belgians,” he explains. “I’ve only been adding accounts since that contact me, so they know what they’re getting ahead of time.” “But that’s a very small fraction of overall liquor stores,” Pond continues, adding that this knowledge affects how he brews. “Most don’t have a good spot. Most coolers aren’t set up well for large bottles. So, I wanted to make sure my beers aged well when they’re warm. I can’t get cold space anyway, so it just made sense to make them that way.” When a new brewery considers its packaging and retail strategy, a common refrain from the sellers we interviewed was to imitate Fulton. They offer two six-pack SKUs in the cooler, never more, never less, always in ready supply. Both Sweet Child Of Vine and Lonely Blonde have appealing packaging and have proven their turnover rate. And, of course, they taste great. “Just make awesome beer,” Sobolik counsels. “That’s what it’s all about.”
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TO AGE NOT TO AGE? or
By Michael Agnew, A Perfect Pint All over this country good beer is dying. These are not dramatic or heroic deaths, not the explosive demise of dropped bottles nor the panicked jerk of clumsily overturned pints. These are slow, invisible deaths, stretching over weeks, months, and years, hidden out of sight and mind in dark basements and cramped closets across the nation. Although the outcomes are unintended, the conditions that result in such ignominious endings are often intentionally created. This is the tragedy of aged and cellared beer. Beer is fragile and perishable. Like a new car, it begins losing value as soon as it leaves the brewery. In nearly every case it is best consumed fresh. And yet, the notion of keeping beer has gripped the minds of beer fans, leading to often irrational behavior. Would-be cellar masters purchase caseloads of this or that rare beer with no intention to drink it. Bottles and boxes pile up in caves, cubbies, and closets. Special beers wait for special moments that never arrive. This phenomenon isn’t new, nor is it exclusive to beer. During the seventeenth century, English aristocrats on their country
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estates engaged in friendly competition over who could serve the oldest beer, popping the cork on bottles that were ten and even more years old. These same strong beers, after enduring a five-month sea voyage to the Indian subcontinent, are believed to be the original source of what came to be called India Pale Ale. Wealthy wine connoisseurs amass cellars containing thousands of bottles, sometimes purchased for eventual consumption, sometimes as investments. I might as well admit right now that I am not immune to this behavior. My basement is full of boxes that are full of beer. While some of it was put there intentionally, most of it came there accidentally. Bottles purchased and not immediately consumed were stashed away never to be seen again. I don’t even really know what’s down there. What I do know is that much of it is dead. I sometimes retrieve a bottle or two, mostly to be disappointed that I let this one or that one slip through the cracks. Aging beer is a crapshoot. Although the odds of success can be improved by selecting the right beer, the actual shelf-life of
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a particular example is unknown. Will this one improve for ten years? Or will it fade and die after five, or one? The only way to know is to amass multiple bottles and open one every so often to evaluate. Even beers reported to have a long shelf life may succumb in a shorter time due to less than optimal storage conditions. Improvements gained by aging develop slowly, but when a beer turns, the decline is quick. There are many agents that bring about age-related changes in beer. The main ones are oxidation and microbial activity. Oxidation is a chemical reaction involving the exchange of an electron between an oxygen-based molecule and another molecule. This molecular rearrangement does four things in beer. It creates new compounds with molecules from kilned malt. It degrades the bittering alpha acids from hops. It causes the development of new
A ging beer is a crapshoot.
Although the odds of success can be improved by selecting the right beer, the actual shelf-life of a particular example is unknown. Will this one improve for ten years? Or will it fade and die after five, or one? flavors from fruity esters and spicy phenols, by-products of fermentation. And it breaks down higher alcohols into other flavoractive chemicals called aldehydes. Hops are the first beer component to fall victim to oxidation’s electron axe. Bitterness drops quickly, leaving behind an unbalanced beer. Those lovely citrus, floral, and spicy flavors and aromas so dear to fans of the IPA fade into oblivion. The beer that remains will seem thin and characterless—a mere shell of its former dank glory. As oxidation continues it breaks down various chemical elements from hops, leading to a variety of unpleasant off-flavors. With rare exceptions, beers that showcase hops really aren’t meant for aging. When oxygen interacts with malt it can go two ways. Oxidation of melanoidins—chemicals associated with kilning that create browning and toasty flavors—result in pleasant sherry and port wine-like flavors. If however, the oxygen grabs onto malt’s fatty acids, the resulting flavor is that of wet cardboard. Oxidation also causes malt proteins to coagulate and drop out over time, robbing beer of body and character. A beer with badly oxidized malt just tastes “stale.” When yeast ferments wort it creates CO2 and alcohol, but it also produces a slurry of other flavorful by-products including fruity esters and spicy phenols. Oxidation of these chemicals has the effect of concentrating them. In young beer, esters may give the juicy impression of fresh fruit. With age they take on the character of dried or candied fruit. The clove and pepper flavor of phenols become more intense and add vanilla and tobacco notes, sometimes bending over toward smoke. If they get too intense the flavors become unpleasant and the beer loses balance. The degradation of higher alcohols is one aspect of oxidation see AGING page 22 www.growlermag.com
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 21
AGING from page 21 that is almost always positive. In fresh beer these alcohols can feel hot or have a harsh solvent flavor. Interaction with oxygen results in sweet flavors of amaretto, almond, treacle, and toffee. While these notes are tasty, it should be remembered that with enough time, these and all other positive oxidation flavors will be destroyed by the very process that created them. The microbiotic effects of aging come from both yeast and bacteria. On the positive side, yeast present in bottle-conditioned beers absorbs oxygen, slowing the effects of oxidation. The flip side is that yeast cell walls will eventually burst, spilling the contents of the cells into the beer. This process, called autolysis, results in flavors like soy sauce, ink, and meat. They are decidedly unpleasant. Bacteria and other wild agents can give lovely earthy and fruity flavors, pleasant tartness, and lend the beer a refreshing dryness. They can also result in beers that taste of vinegar and rancid butter. Most beers have received all necessary aging at the brewery. The brewer has brought the beer to the state desired and sent it out to you in the form they wish for it to be experienced. Rare is the beer that is intended to be aged. But if you simply must try your hand at cellaring, first ask yourself why. What are the flavors you hope to gain from letting the beer age rather than drinking it fresh? Knowing what you are aiming for and which beers are likely to deliver it will greatly improve your chances of success. Let’s look at beer selection. High alcohol is a must. Alcohol is a preservative. It creates a hostile environment for beer-destroying microbes and slows the effects of oxidation. And you just might
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get some of those pleasant flavors that come from the degradation of higher alcohols. For the most part don’t even think about aging beers under 8% ABV. Full-bodied, malt-forward beers with some roasted or toasted character and a lot of residual sugar will fare better than lighter, hoppy beers. As mentioned above, hops fade quickly, but
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Let’s look at beer selection.
High alcohol is a must. Alcohol is a perservative. It creates a hostile environment for beer-destroying microbes and slows the effects of oxidation. And you just might get some of those pleasant flavors that come from the degadation of higher alcohols.
melanoidin-rich kilned malts can blossom as they age. Thinning of body from the precipitation of malt proteins is offset by the presence of sugar, helping an aged beer retain a more satisfying mouthfeel. If you really feel compelled to age a hop-forward beer, certain hop varieties will do better than others. There are two kinds of bittering acids in hops—alpha and beta. Alpha acids oxidize into undesirable off-flavors. Oxidized beta acids yield subtle fruity notes that extend the life of hoppy beers. High-beta hops like Hallertau, Mt. Hood, and Saaz will fare better than the citrusy, highalpha hops like Centennial and Simcoe. Ales do better than lagers because of higher levels of fermentation-derived esters and phenols. Unpasteurized and bottle-conditioned beers do best because live yeast will scavenge oxygen, slowing oxidation. Likewise, the continued actions of various microbes make sour beers good candidates for cellaring. Stay away from wheat beers. Wheat is a high-protein grain. Those proteins give wheat beers their characteristic mouth-filling texture. As they coagulate and drop out, that luscious wheat beer will become thinner and thinner. Proper storage is also crucial to saving your aged beer from tragedy. Cellared beer must be stored cooler than the temperature at which it was fermented. This generally means below 68°F for ales and below 55°F for lagers. Warmer temperatures accelerate oxidation and yeast activity, causing unwanted flavors. Also avoid wild temperature swings. Maintaining a constant temperature of around 55°F will keep things cool enough to slow the process, but not so cold as to stop it all together. Light is the enemy of beer. It is the source of those skunky flavors familiar to drinkers of green-bottle imports. Keep your cellared beers in the dark. Boxes work, as do closets and cabinets. Store your beer upright. This allows yeast and coagulated proteins to settle on the bottom of the bottle. Nobody wants a glass full of floaties and tired yeast. Though the results are sometimes lovely, I remain a skeptic about cellared beer. I’ve tasted too many examples of great beer gone bad. Left too long, they died alone, neglected, or mistreated by those who claimed to love them. I say put an end to this travesty. A beer not consumed is a beer wasted.
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the art of letterpress igners? If you Do you know any graphic des iness card. bus ir the do, ask them to see ’s card end fri r Odds are high that you ck paper thi on d nte looks stylish, is pri to it. ity til tac n tai stock, and has a cer
24 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
its surface, If you run your thumb over ght indent in sli a l you can actually fee and text are cs phi gra the paper where the friend’s card r you e aus printed. That’s bec was printed on a letterpress. By Jeremy Zoss stine Erickson Kri Photos by
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Letterpress is a printing technique using a printing press. Invented by Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century, it is a mechanical printing process that was the primary printing technology until offset printing was developed in the second half of the twentieth century. The letterpress operator locks a plate into the bed of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer ink from the type, which leaves an impression on the paper. Some simple letterpress machines can print a single piece of paper at a time, while more advanced models can print hundreds or even thousands of sheets per hour. But even these more advanced machines are still analog devices and cannot match the printing speed of today’s digital printers. And yet, letterpress has not died. The printing technique has developed a whole new generation of devotees who appreciate
everything from the final product to the physicality of the process. “I love letterpress, but then again I love all things printing and all things that require a little bit of manual labor,” said Kristilyn Vercruysse, who studied letterpress at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. “Those presses can really be a workout. The end product is just so satisfying. It’s really all about making something with your hands—really your entire upper body.” Today, one of the most prominent letterpress operations is Studio on Fire, located in the basement of a nondescript building in Northeast Minneapolis. Studio on Fire is a 12 person operation with 40 to 50 projects at any given time, which range from printing labels for small artisan products to all business cards for cutting see CRAFT CULTURE page 26
Social Science
An adult-only night at the Science Museum of Minnesota.
Undead:
Explore the creepier side of science.
Thursday, Oct. 9, 6–11 p.m.
smm.org/socialscience
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 25
CRAFT CULTURE from page 25 edge technology companies like Kickstarter. The company prints on multiple Heidelberg presses from the 1950s–60s, which are considered the height of letterpress technology. When you walk into Studio on Fire, it is alive with the sound of these vintage machines. But it began, as so many companies do, as a passion project in a basement. After graduating from the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Ben Levitz found work as a designer. Like many designers, most of his work was digital, and he noticed a major difference between what he had trained for in school and what he was actually doing. “What I loved about that place (College of Visual Arts) was the foundation program that put you through drawing, painting, sculpture, photography,” said Levitz. “You got a broad exposure to so many different things, and it was all about making something. And I think the computer removed a lot of that from my daily process and left me kind of wanting to do something that was more similar to my college experience.” Levitz purchased his first letterpress in 1999 for about $300 and started doing odd jobs for some of his designer friends. He researched the craft of letterpress, reading and participating in online letterpress discussion groups. It was, he said, a very selftaught effort. As he honed his skills, his business grew, and in 2006 he left his agency job to run Studio on Fire full-time.
26 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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“I love letterpress... those presses can really be a workout. The end product is just so satisfying. It’s really all about making something with your hands—really your entire upper body.” Levitz said that letterpress does not make sense for every client or every project. It is neither the cheapest nor the fastest printing method. “A lot of the printing industry is a race to faster, cheaper,” said Levitz. “We’re trying to do things that are very distinctly the premium side of things. A lot of our clients are design firms, agencies, business owners that are doing a premium product and need premium printing to go with that.” Like good design itself, the letterpress printing style is eye-catching. In the past, Levitz said, letterpress operators tried to leave as see CRAFT CULTURE page 28
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 27
CRAFT CULTURE from page 27 little of an impression in the paper as possible. Now, a deep impression is desirable. Not only does a deep impression make it obvious that letterpress was the printing method used, it adds an almost sculptural element to the project. Business cards are one of Studio on Fire’s most common projects, and Levitz believes that the right business card can give people an advantage. “I don’t think it’s because they expect people to use that business card for the contact information,” he said. “It’s a formality of introduction. It’s a way to introduce yourself that sets you apart from everybody else. It’s a little bit more a fashion accessory than it is a piece to communicate your contact info. I can get your contact info out of my phone anytime I want to.” In addition to traditional letterpress, Studio on Fire has expanded its offerings to include foil stamping and engraving. As the name suggests, foil stamping presses foil onto paper to add a metallic sheen. “Engraving is how money is printed,” said Levitz. “The detail that printing process yields is just unmatched. It’s sort of the weird second cousin of letterpress. Letterpress is pushing a plate down into the paper. Engraving is pushing the paper down into the plate. When you feel that little bit of a raised surface, that’s the opposite of what letterpress is.” While you may be able to feel indented areas when running your thumb over a letterpress project, with an engraved project,
28 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
Ben Levitz
you can actually feel raised elements. The results are extremely eye-catching. What is even more impressive are projects in which
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“People want to go nuts when they get a cool print project to do, but don’t really understand what the production process will yield. That’s what I love with what we do: pairing it up with someone’s design vision, saying here’s how to marry that with production.” letterpress, foil stamping, and engraving are combined. Levitz showed us one label that had gone through printing presses five separate times to achieve the desired effect. “We’ve had a lot of fun with combining this stuff in-house,” he said. “There are only a few shops in the whole state that still do engraving. Trying to route a project through multiple shops to try to get something done is a big part of why we tried to make sure these niche things exist for us in-house. You can combine things that continue to make it more custom and unique.” “Custom and unique” are obviously goals designers have for many of their projects, but today’s young designers who grew up in the digital world don’t necessarily understand exactly how their creations will translate to the physical world. “People want to go nuts when they get a cool print project to do, but they don’t really understand what the production process will yield,” said Levitz. “That’s what I love with what we do—pairing it up with someone’s design vision, saying here’s how to marry that with production.
More and more that’s a hard thing for designers to do, because so much design relies on interactiion. I feel weird as a guy in my 30s saying, ‘Oh those youngsters these days,’ but it is increasingly true that as more and more print is ‘push the digital button on the digital press’—which is probably a gross simplification—there’s not a lot of limitation there. But when you step into a physical impression-based process that require copper plates, counter dyes, and everything else, there’s some real limitations there that you have to understand. You know, sheet size limitations, limitations of the process, solid colors not lying down the same way, there’s a lot of considerations you have to think about as a designer. And if the designer doesn’t know, you have to convey that as the printer.” While today’s design students many not receive the foundations training Levitz had in school, he’s optimistic about the future of letterpress. Classes in the technique are becoming more common in colleges and at programs like the Minnesota Center for Book Arts. The act of running a letterpress machine is something that can hook students and really draw them into the craft. “The contemplative quality of running a machine like that and getting into the rhythm of production is something that I really love,” said Levitz. “I don’t get to do a lot of that anymore, running the business side of things. But I can’t imagine doing anything else. It’s fun to have something grow from something that you loved as hobby to something you do every day. It doesn’t seem like a job.”
Your attitude adjustment place 205 central avenue • osseo, mn • 763.425.7400 www.dicksbarosseo.com www.growlermag.com
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 29
DENALI BREWING COMPANY TALKEETNA
CHASING THE BEER SCENE IN
ALASKA
By Brian Martucci
A L A S K A
To the south, near the other main entrance to Denali National Park, you’ll find the appropriately named Denali Brewing Company. It’s been a Talkeetna mainstay since 2009, and its more popular creations are available on tap at restaurants and brewpubs around the state. Its headquarters includes a full-service restaurant and tasting room, with a separate tasting room on nearby Spur Road just added. For a brewery that also caters to Lower 48 tourists, Denali takes a surprisingly risky and experimental approach to its craft. The four tap mainstays—well-balanced Mother Ale, rich Single Engine Red, savory Twister Creek IPA, and warm-but-not-toowarm Chuli Stout—are accessible enough. But creations like I Squared (a 9.6% ABV, 122 IBU hop blast that sits you down and keeps you there) and Branwen’s Union Welsh Style Braggot (a 9.1% ABV honey-malt hybrid that truly toes the line between mead and beer) may leave you scratching your head in a hazy reverie. If you’re going to stout town, try the hearty TKA Ribeye Dip, or pair your Mother Ale with a (locally sourced) blackened Alaskan cod sandwich.
Even if you’ve never been, Alaska needs no introduction. With dark, impossibly bitter winters, majestic spruce forests, and countless lakes, streams, and marshes, it’s like an uberMinnesota. Of course, Alaska also has thousands of miles of saltwater coastline and several towering mountain ranges that make the North Shore’s Sawtooth Range look like a collection of molehills. And like Minnesota, Alaska has recently gained a deserved reputation as a craft beer destination. Sorry, Russia: We’re keeping this rugged, beer-soaked wilderness to ourselves. At least until the last keg is tapped. Let’s chase the beer scene in Alaska, shall we?
49TH STATE BREWING COMPANY HEALY Our first stop is 49th State Brewing Company, a touristfriendly outpost near the northern entrance to Denali National Park. Like most businesses in the town of Healy, it’s strictly seasonal: “We’re open from May until the snow starts flying in October,” says Kyler Chavez, the general manager. 49th State makes the most of its limited season, throwing several huge parties each year—including the annual Summer Solstice celebration, when you can watch the 1:00am musical act without the aid of floodlights, and Augtoberfest, a self-explanatory festival that’s forced forward on the calendar by the region’s unpredictable fall weather. 49th State has 12 taps, so there’s always something good on offer. During the warm months, they push lighter favorites—yes, even Alaska’s interior gets warm enough to shake the appeal of a stout or porter—like the airy, fruity Baked Blonde and the classic Vienna Lager. Rotating taps are a big deal here, too. Try the Dubbel on Tundra, a relevatory lager that pairs locally produced birch syrup with Belgian yeast, or the Equinox D.I.P.A., an end-of-summer beer that’s not for the hops-averse. And the Hibernation Series includes ambitious barrel-aged selections like the mega-malty Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, the chocolaty Imperial Stout, and the faithful-toa-fault Marzen. 30 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
Denali National Park
Hungry? 49th State is attached to a full-service restaurant that specializes in beer pairings and regularly changes up its menu. Locally sourced meats including yak and reindeer feature prominently on the menu, as do organic greens and root veggies from a nearby farm. You’ll need all the calories you can get. 49th State is a relative stone’s throw from Denali National Park. For a day trip, try the Mount Healy Overlook Hike, a four-hour round trip that gains 1,700 feet of elevation and provides breathtaking views of the surrounding peaks, river valleys, and lowlands. Denali itself is some distance to the southwest, and it’s not advisable for anyone without years of high-altitude mountaineering experience to attempt the peak. But the park’s interior does have a decent trail system that can support three-or-four day wilderness backpacking trips. Check with the National Park Service for details. www.growlermag.com
MIDNIGHT SUN BREWING COMPANY ANCHORAGE Anchorage isn’t quite on the Arctic Circle, so the sun “sets” here on even the longest summer day. But the few hours of not-quitedarkness that passes for a summer night in this part of the world is enough to absolve Midnight Sun Brewing Company of any false advertising allegations. Tucked into a neighborhood in southern Anchorage, Midnight Sun cans brews for distribution across the state and entertains diners, revelers, and passers-by alike in its on-site taproom. For a solid IPA experience reminiscent of Summit Brewing Company’s Saga, take a trip to Pleasure Town. If you’re feeling more ambitious, try the dense, woody Gluttony Triple IPA. And for the best bourbon stout this side of Founders’ KBC, you can’t beat BarFly Imperial Smoked Stout. Midnight Sun also boasts a food menu that rotates daily, often in alliterative fashion. Taco Tuesdays need no explanation, Worldly Wednesdays incorporate exotic flavors into traditional bar food, and so on. The brewery is a huge patron of local charities and arts organizations, so chances are good that your Midnight Sun foodand-beer pairing will benefit a cancer survivor, farming collective, or aspiring installation artist. And, like every brewery on this list, Midnight Sun is just steps from some of the world’s most stunning sights. For maximum efficiency drive down the mountain-lined inlet to nearby Seward where you can check out the Alaska Sea Life Aquarium, view the terminus of the Exit Glacier, and walk the first mile of the Iditarod Trail.
a small, isolated town that also happens to be a port of call for glacier cruises, so it can overflow with visitors on summer days. The smoked salmon plate paired with the Boom Town Brown is good enough to warrant an off-hours trip to the pub. You can also get salmon—or Alaskan halibut, which is just as fresh and tasty—in sandwich form. Once you’ve tucked in and knocked back a brew or two, set off on the famous boardwalk streets of Skagway in search of locally crafted kitsch. For an unforgettable experience in any season, except for the area’s six-month winter, drive along Alaska Highway 98/Klondike Highway into the rugged, glacier-strewn mountains that separate Alaska and the northwestern fringe of British Columbia.
These aren’t the only five breweries in Alaska. If you’re serious about making it up to the Last Frontier, squeeze every last drop out of your visit (and tastebuds) by planning your trip around the complete list of breweries from the Alaska Brewers’ Guild at brewersguildofalaska.org.
ALASKAN BREWING COMPANY JUNEAU The granddaddy of Alaskan craft brewers needs no introduction, but that’s all the more reason to visit its out-of-the-way taproom in the country’s most geographically isolated state capital. Alaskan is the only brewery on this list that distributes to Minnesota—though hopefully that will change soon. But if you think its story begins and ends with inoffensive, straight-ahead Alaskan Amber, you’re dead wrong. Visit its taproom to try hoppier offerings like the Icy Bay IPA and the HopThermia Double IPA. And, if you visit during Juneau’s relatively mild (by Alaska and Minnesota standards) winters, try the spruce tip-flavored Winter Ale. For a heavier—understatement—experience, Barley Wine is the way to go. Before you leave the brewery grounds, see if you can attach yourself to one of the public tours that Alaskan offers. It’s an experience to rival the Summit Brewery tour, and the view of the area’s towering mountains is hard to beat. Elsewhere in Juneau, admire the utilitarian Alaska State Capitol building or drive along the scenic Lynn Canal. If the weather is right, gear up for a heli-skiing experience in the interior or a glacier cruise around the area’s countless islands and inlets.
SKAGWAY BREWING COMPANY SKAGWAY Last up, Skagway Brewing Company. The original incarnation opened in 1897 during the Klondike Gold Rush and the current taproom-restaurant iteration started serving in time for Skagway’s 110th anniversary. The frontier spirit is alive and well here with Prospector Pale, a sessionable, judiciously hopped copper ale, and Chilkoot Trail IPA, an aggressively hoppy ale that’s informed by citrus and sturdy malt, evoking historical places and figures. If you visit during the winter, give the Blue Top Porter a try, too. Its chocolaty and warm aftertaste will set you right in any weather. Skagway also boasts a full-service restaurant that’s affectionately known as “the best bar in Skagway.” A word of caution: Skagway is www.growlermag.com
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(OR DAMN CLOSE) NEW AND RECENTLY OPENED LOCAL BREWERIES BY BRIAN KAUFENBERG Photo by Brian Kaufenberg
Insight Brewing
Ilan Klages-Mundt, head brewer and co-founder of Insight Brewing, describes the new 30 bbl brewery located on Hennepin Avenue in Minneapolis as globally inspired. A look at their beer list, which features beer styles originating from Japan, Denmark, the UK, and the US, confirms this on a surface level—but there is more behind the beer than their historic origins that makes Insight truly globally inspired. Klages-Mundt’s interest in beer began when, on a trip to Denmark in 2007, he had the opportunity to taste Westvleteren 12, a Trappist quadrupel consistently ranked among the top beers in the world. “Instantly, I wanted to know what is beer made from, who makes it, what’s the history, how’s it made today, who drinks it—absolutely everything,” said Klages-Mundt. His insatiable thirst for knowledge about beer and brewing led 32 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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him to apply for a Watson Fellowship, a grant for graduating seniors to pursue a year of independent study outside the US. Though he didn’t win the grant, he decided to pursue the plan he put together to work at breweries around the world on his own, tapping into his savings to fund his travels. He spent time in England picking hops at a hopyard in West Kent and brewing at Fuller’s Griffin Brewery learning the intricacies behind English ales. Then moved to Kiuchi Brewery in Japan where he worked 20 hours a day brewing sake, beer, and distilled spirits. He brewed at two small breweries in Demark, Fanø and Søgaards Bryghus, then cycled around Belgium and France soaking up as much beer culture as possible. When he returned, Klages-Mundt knew he wanted to start a brewery, so he joined forces with Brian Berge, and the two solidified the business plan. A fellow homebrewer and aspiring brewery owner who will be in charge of marketing and branding for Insight Brewing. The team grew to four when an acquaintance of Berge, Kevin Hilliard, came on board to head up sales and Eric Schmidt left his position at Ameriprise to manage the brewery’s supply chain and help with sales. The team is close to opening the doors of their 20,000 sq ft brewery, which includes a 3,000 sq ft taproom where patrons will be able to “travel the world through beer without even leaving your neighborhood,” said Schmidt. “Hey, want a taste of Germany? We’ve got a rauchbier. Hey, want a taste of Japan? We’ve got a yuzu fruit pale ale.” “That’s something we’re bringing back, authenticity,” said KlagesMundt. “I’ve been there and I’ve brewed the beer with some of the best brewers in the world… We’re bringing back global experience.”
Brewer: Ilan Klages-Mundt Beer: Chiswick Porter, Curiosity IPA, Lamb & Flag English Premium Bitter, Saison de Blanc, Yuzu Pale Ale, and rotating seasonals. Visit: 2821 East Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis, MN Hours: Wed & Thu 4–11pm, Fri 3pm–12am, Sat 12pm–12am, Sun 12pm–11pm Online: insightbrewing.com
East Lake Brewery
Ryan Pitman had driven past the Midtown Exchange Building on East Lake Street thousands of times over the last 13 years before it hit him—the Midtown Global Market is the perfect place for his dream taproom. The idea struck him with such force that he decided throw it all on the line, cash in his pension, and start Eastlake Brewery. Pitman was a longtime homebrewer with a voracious appetite for reading materials on brewing. He developed an all-electric, computerized homebrew system, which will operate much like the 7 bbl electric brewhouse at Eastlake Brewery that reportedly will be powered by wind-sourced energy. Pitman had considered Minneapolis’ Eat Street to build his brewery because of its great food culture, but he was drawn to Midtown Global Market because its diverse group of food vendors and restaurants offer a similar culture, all in the same building. “I’m going to do a lot of stuff […] to match the food,” said Pitman, whose 1,600 brewery and taproom is near Manny’s Tortas, see NOW OPEN page 34 www.growlermag.com
Considering Starting A Brewery? C A L L F O R A F R E E C O N S U LTAT I O N UNDERSTANDING CRAFT BEER, BREWERIES, BREW PUBS, MICRO-DISTILLERIES, AND THE LAW IN MINNESOTA
BRYAN R. BATTINA
TREPANIER MACGILLIS BATTINA P.A.
www.MNBeerLawyer.com OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 33
Photo by Brian Kaufenberg
NOW OPEN from page 33 El Burrito Mercado, Hot Indian Foods, and Sonora Grill. “I’m going to get in trouble here because everyday I come [to the Market], I’m hungry,” he joked. The Midtown Global Market is an indoor public market that, according to its website, “gives new and emerging entrepreneurs, many of them low income and recent immigrants, a prime location and support to build a business and a future.” Midtown Global Market offers assistance in creating business plans for new entrepreneurs—something Pitman took advantage of in drawing up the plan for Eastlake Brewery. Entrepreneurs like him have brought East Lake Street into a new era of development and business. “The community has come a long way the past 13 years,” Pitman recalled, adding that the neighborhood’s diverse culture has grown with it. With the necessary capital secured from bank loans, private investments from family and friends, as well as his pension, Pitman is excited to bring craft beer to the East Lake neighborhood and integrate into the culture. The brewery will produce “post-modern American and traditional English ales” according to its website, and Pitman said there will be several experimental beers utilizing traditional Mexican and Vietnamese ingredients to pair with the food at the Midtown Global Market.
Ryan Pitman
“We want it to be a fun place,” Pitman said, adding that—like the Market—the taproom will be a family friendly environment. In addition to pints of beer and growler fills, visitors can order kombucha and craft sodas. Eastlake Brewery is also currently offering a deal on their stainless steel growlers, which if you purchase before its grand opening includes five free fills. Otherwise feel free to bring in any growler and Eastlake Brewery will fill it up with a taste of the post-modern.
Brewer: Ryan Pitman Beer: IPA, Pils, Stout, and rotating selection of “Post-modern” ales Visit: Midtown Global Market, 920 E Lake St, #123 Minneapolis, MN Hours: Sun 11am–6pm, Mon–Wed 11am–8pm, Thu–Sat 11am–11pm Online: eastlakemgm.com
Pryes Brewing
Jeremy Pryes, CEO and head brewer of Pryes Brewing, spent the past few years assembling the best team possible to help him get the company off the ground. Pryes has been homebrewing for 12 years and is currently taking courses at the American Brewer’s Guild in brewing science and engineering, but he knew he needed help with the marketing and business aspects of the brewery. To tackle the marketing for the company Pryes recruited his chief marketing officer Ben Schuster, a graduate of Minnesota College of Art and Design who had worked at ad agencies and computer technology firms. Schuster is responsible for the artistic direction of the company’s brand. Pryes quickly added Allan Flinn to the team to manage the books for the business. Flinn’s experience in public accounting and financial analysis makes him a great asset to the company. In January 2014, the team added Mike Corneille whose experience with helping two tech start-ups will provide key insight in running a new business. Pryes is confident that his fellow co-founders see NOW OPEN page 36 34 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
www.growlermag.com
www.growlermag.com
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NOW OPEN from page 34 and business partners are the perfect fit for Pryes Brewing. “These are the people who are the best at what they do,” he said. The original business plan called to build a brewery space, but as they began to raise the necessary funds they decided to take a different tactic instead of compromising their vision. “As we raised money, different investors had different expectations,” explained Pryes. Instead they pursued an alternating proprietorship model, most notably used by Lucid, Badger Hill, and Bad Weather. An alternating proprietorship would allow Pryes Brewing the opportunity to test a brewing system, get beer in market faster, and generate a cash flow before investing in building its own brewery. During their search for a brewery to partner with Jeremy ran into Jon Messier of Lucid Brewing at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival and got some great news—one of Lucid’s partner breweries was moving into its own brewery and Lucid had space for another brewery partner. Pryes and the team accepted the offer and moved into the Minnetonka-based brewery. The arrangement gives Pryes the chance to tap into the knowledge and experience of Lucid’s team. “The cool thing about working with Lucid is working next to Brian [Lucid’s head brewer],” Pryes said. “It’s not just a landlord-tenant situation. It’s kind of an incubator.” “They have a depth of talent there that’s amazing,” added Mike. The partnership with Lucid made it possible for the company to be licensed by August and launch their first beer, Miraculum IPA, in the Twin Cities this September. The beer is made to complement
food and can be found in several “craft food” restaurants and bars around town, according to Pryes.
Brewer: Jeremy Pryes Miraculum IPA Beer: Online: pryesbrewing.com
Waconia Brewing
When Bob and Pete DeLange open the doors of Waconia Brewing Company this October they, like their brother Kevin, will officially hold the title of “brewery owner.” Perhaps partially spurred by a little sibling rivalry with Kevin, the co-founder of Colorado’s awardwinning Dry Dock Brewing, Pete and Bob are bringing brewing back to a town that hasn’t had a brewery in operation since at least 1890. Pete, a homebrewer, has been living in Waconia for 20 years and Bob, who worked in fermentation science at Cargill, moved to Minnesota from Iowa recently. The two hired Tom Schufman, who was the assistant brewer at Fulton for the past two years and previously worked at Northern Brewer, to head up the brewing operations at Waconia Brewing. “I think that Waconia is really a blossoming city,” Schufman said. And in the realm of beverages, it certainly is—the city currently has three wineries and a distillery. “I think it’s becoming a destination.” The Waconia Brewing team hopes to attract people from the community as well as visitors to town into the 5,000 sq ft brewery, which includes a 2,500 sq ft taproom where pints and growlers will be available for purchase. Kevin DeLange’s expertise along with Schufman’s experience at Fulton Brewing during its recent brewery expansion has helped in getting Waconia Brewing set up to brew. “I learned a lot from [Fulton’s] ever-changing 414 brewery […] and watching what’s happened at the new brewery,” said Schufman, “I’ve brought that knowledge to Waconia.” Schufman began homebrewing ten years ago while at college in Bemidji and would make trips to the Twin Cities to buy ingredients. After earning a degree in Environmental Science, he took a tour of Summit Brewing and volunteered his time packaging their sample packs. From there he worked at Northern Brewer and ended up as the assistant brewer of Fulton Brewing. He will be at the helm of a 10 bbl brewhouse equipped with four 20 bbl fermenters and eight brite tanks to serve their “approachable ales for approachable people,” according to Schufman. The brewery will have several flagships including a Kölsch, witbier, amber ale, and a west coast IPA. In addition to the flagships he plans to rotate many different styles to find out the tastes of the town. The brewery is in the heart of Waconia, which has a vibrant downtown district, a big lake culture, and several bike trails. They will add a patio next spring or early summer to enjoy pints outdoors. Patrons will be able to get the beer in growlers at the brewery and on draft at local establishments in the West Metro.
Brewer: Tom Schufman Beer: Kölsch, Witbier, Amber Ale, West Coast IPA, and rotating seasonals Visit: 255 Main St W, Waconia, MN Online: waconiabrewing.com 36 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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STYLE PROFILE
Barley Wine
By Michael Agnew, A Perfect Pint Illustration by David Witt
As much as many of us wish it weren’t so, winter is on its way. Already there is a chill in the air and the long days are quickly losing their battle with the night. But the inevitable arrival of bitter cold and snow isn’t just a reason for despair. It’s also an excuse to break out the really big beers—those snifter-sippers that offer pleasing warmth to ward off the frost. Among the biggest of these is barley wine. Rich and complex, with alcohol percentages soaring into the teens, barley wine provides the perfect antidote to coldweather cabin fever. The beer that we today call barley wine has its historical roots in England. The brewing of strong beer on the Island goes back at least to the 15th-century. When hops were introduced there in the 1400s, their preservative qualities allowed the landed gentry to make high-alcohol brews on their estates that were meant to
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be kept, often for several years. In villages and towns, commercial brewers sold strong versions of all kinds of beers from pale ales to porters. The term “barley wine” was variously applied to all of them through the centuries, indicating that it originally referred simply to beer that achieved wine-like alcoholic strength. The first beer to be labeled barley wine by its producer was Bass No. 1 in 1870, a hefty version of that brewery’s famous Burton ale. The early production of barley wine–type beers was linked to the English parti-gyle brewing method, in which successive runnings of wort from the grist were used to make beers of different strengths. The first running produced a thick, high-sugar wort appropriate for making strong beers. With each successive
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running the grains were re-mashed with water, creating more dilute worts that could be used to brew small beer or blended back to make beers with various alcohol contents. Today, “barley wine” has come to mean a particular style of beer. No longer is it simply wine-strength beer. For example, we don’t call imperial stouts or Belgian strong dark ales barley wine even though they are nearly identical in strength. In the current conception, barley wine is essentially a very strong pale ale of either the American or English type. The grain bills for pale ale and barley wine are similar—basically two-row pale malt with small amounts of caramel or other character malt to add complexity. The relative bitterness of the two barley wine sub-styles falls within a fairly narrow band, though each fills out the extremes on either end. BJCP guidelines define two types of barley wine—English and American. The English version is a true showcase for malt. Aroma and flavor features intense and multilayered malt character that spans from bread and biscuits to dark caramel, deep toast, and toffee or molasses. Hop bitterness can range from just enough for balance to firm, but it never overpowers the malt sweetness. Herbal and grassy flavors and smells of English hops have a similar range from low to moderately high. Notes of dried, dark fruits fill out the bottom. These are strong beers, so alcohol will make itself apparent in flavor and aroma, and through a pleasant warming as you swallow. True to the American brewing aesthetic, American barley wine features hops. Bitterness can range from moderately strong to aggressive. Hop flavor and aroma—usually showcasing the citrus and resin of American hop varieties—is similarly high. All those hops need a counterpoint, though. Malt sweetness is moderately low to moderately high, but never tilts the balance away from bitterness. Malt flavors include bread and caramel. There may be some fruity notes, although fermentation character is usually fairly neutral. Like its English cousin, American barley wine has noticeable alcohol in the aroma, flavor, and mouthfeel. English and American barley wine can be cellared. In aged versions both hop and malt character can become muted. Oxidative notes of sherry and port wine may begin to appear along with subtler notes of tobacco, leather, and soy sauce. Barley wines are popular for barrel aging. Barrel aged versions may exhibit woody or vanilla notes along with the flavors of whatever was previously in the barrel. While I think barley wines are best enjoyed on their own sipped slowly from a snifter after a meal, they can be great dessert beers. Try them with rich, sweet deserts like pecan pie, hazelnut torte, or caramel pot de crème. English varieties are especially good with salted caramel desserts. www.growlermag.com
about barley wine Vital Statistics English Barley Wine OG: 1.080–1.120 FG: 1.018–1.030 ABV: 8–12% IBUs: 35–70 SRM: 8–22 American Barley Wine OG: 1.080–1.120 FG: 1.016–1.030 ABV: 8–12% IBUs: 50–120 SRM: 10–19
examples English Barley Wine: J. W. Lee’s Harvest Ale, Thomas Hardy’s Ale, Weyerbacher Old Numbskull, North Coast Old Stock Ale, Lift Bridge Commander, Steel Toe Lunker American Barley Wine: Sierra Nevada Big Foot, Great Divide Old Ruffian, Victory Old Horizontal, Rogue Old Crustacean, Anchor Old Foghorn
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NAME: Mike Hoops HOMETOWN: Glencoe, MN
WORKS AT: Town Hall Brewery 1430 Washington S Minneapolis, MN 55454
Brewer Profile TURN-ONS: Integrity, a daybreak in the woods, and ladies driving motorcycles
TURN-OFFS: Gutterballs, brewery floors, -20°F
By Brian Kaufenberg Photos by Aaron Davidson
The Growler: What’s in your fridge right now? Mike Hoops: Summit Sága, Schell’s Hefeweizen, New Glarus fruit beers, various hard ciders, Coors Banquet, Pilsner Urqell, some Belgian sours.
G: Other than Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery, where is your favorite place to put one back? MH: Nearly any dive bar that has clean beer lines and a good bourbon selection.
G: What was your path to brewing professionally? MH: Like many I started as an avid homebrewing geek, which led to knocking on brewery doors until one opened. I worked for free until I was offered the head brewer position at an upstart brewpub—Fitger’s Brewhouse in Duluth. An Internet search for used brewery equipment and a truck trip to Colorado was all it took and we had an operating brewery. Three years and a little wanderlust later, I landed in Minneapolis at Town Hall Brewery. My formal brewing training was Brewlab located at the University of Sunderland in the U.K.
G: Who has been your biggest individual influence in brewing? MH: I had a couple brewers that shared their knowledge and taught me the Brewer’s Code to which I still subscribe. Bob Dromeshauser, who took his passion for beer to commercial status as one of the original founders of Lake Superior in Duluth, MN, in 1994. He later left the company and no longer brews beer. The other who took me under his wing was Ken Jones of Glenwood 40 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
Canyon Brewing in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He graciously offered assistance for the first few years of my brewing career. When I asked Ken how I could ever repay him for what he had done for me, he simply stated, “Do it for someone else someday.” Ken is still with Glenwood Canyon Brewing. Watching the pioneers (the Sierra Nevadas, New Belgiums, Anchors, Alaskans, etc.) do it right has also been instrumental in my belief of what brewing is.
G: What are your other passions in life? MH: I love crafting beer and when I am not in the brewery most of my passions lie outdoors. I love touring the open road on my adventure bike, fishing with my lady, making maple syrup, just to name a few. Harvesting wild rice is the next thing on my list.
G: What would you be doing if you weren’t brewing professionally? MH: I would probably be working in GIS (Geographic Information Systems). My college degree is in geography and international relations and I had aspirations of being an international cartographer although working for the DNR or USGS also had appeal.
G: What keeps you inspired? MH: I love to create and that keeps me rolling. Every once in a while some crazy beer idea that turns into a pretty damn good pint still brings a tear to my eye.
G: What is the most gratifying part of your job? MH: I always enjoy seeing our customers enjoying the beer. As I grow older, I really think it is seeing young eager passionate kids www.growlermag.com
turn into great professional brewers right before my eyes.
G: Is there a beer that changed your perspective on what craft beer could and should be? MH: Fear of sounding like a homer does not supersede truth here… Summit EPA. Think about it, they were doing it locally in 1986.
G: What’s the brewing philosophy of Town Hall Brewery? MH: Never stop learning, always strive to make better beer, never take the shortcut.
G: Town Hall’s barrel-aging program has an avid following in the Minnesota beer community and has won multiple awards. When and how did it start? MH: We bought our first whiskey barrel in 2000 on a tip from our assistant brewer that had just been to the Craft Brewers Conference. That barrel created Czar Jack in 2001. Currently we have whiskey, bourbon, and wine barrels stuffed in every corner we can find. We now travel to hand select our barrels annually and have developed some great relationships with distillers. They all have their own tricks, which are great to learn.
G: What’s the toughest part of barrel-aging beer? MH: Patience.
G: What sorts of adjustments did you have to make in the brewery with the opening of Town Hall Tap and Town Hall Lanes? MH: Every brewery has the same goal—sell beer. With current see BREWER PROFILE page 42
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BREWER PROFILE from page 41 Minnesota law we can only sell our beer at our own restaurants, so that is why we continue to open them. I will say it would be much easier to open a facility designed to spit out kegs of beer efficiently than try and shoe horn additional equipment and workers in a facility designed 17 years ago as a small brewpub. Town Hall Brewery has invested in equipment and people in order to grow in the manner we can. As for the brewers, we have worked endlessly on quality. We believe you only one chance to make a good impression and competition is fierce these days.
G: Any exciting new recipes you are working on? MH: Always. Currently most of our emphasis is centered on barrel aging.
G: What about beer means so much to us as a society? MH: Society is nothing without interaction… What is more social than sharing a pint?
G: What do you see as the “next big thing” in the craft beer world? MH: Quality-made, flavorful low alcohol ales, lagers, and sours will continue to grow.
G: Favorite beer and food pairing? MH: IPA and Spicy Curry.
G: What are you reading right now? MH: Big Sur by Jack Kerouac and IPA by Mitch Steele.
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By Michael Dawson
Fatalii peppers
At this time of year, as I sit to write this month’s installment, a pumpkin ale would be an obvious choice. The seasonal synchronicity—not to mention those nutmeg-cinnamon aromatics—would go down nice and easy. But, as Tina Turner said in her talking intro to “Proud Mary,” we never do nothing nice and easy. This spring, I brought home a fatalii pepper transplant from Seed Savers Exchange in Decorah, Iowa and put it in the garden. Now that it’s bearing fruit, I’m of the opinion we should be looking to tailgate chili, not pumpkin pie, for an inspirational fall seasonal. We never do gourds, either, Tina Turner. This harvest-beer season, we bring the capsicum, citizens
Bucking the trend of amber-colored and clean fall seasonals, our base beer will be a pretty simple black saison, with lots of fruity yeast character that can trade riffs with the pepper, and enough heft and gravity to balance the zing of the capsaicin. As to replacing a pumpkin pie-spice profile with that of chili pepper, I agree with Scott Russell, who, in an article on the topic in Brew Your Own magazine, wrote: “First and foremost, a chili beer www.growlermag.com
must be a beer. The chili is secondary. The beer itself must be sound, solid, balanced and worth brewing.” Fatalii is an heirloom chili pepper native to Africa and they bring up to 400,000 Scoville units of mouth-hurt close behind a bright citrus flavor. So in keeping with Mr. Russell’s precepts, a little will go a long way and discretion is the better part of this saison. Plus, we don’t need any repeats of Homer Simpson’s Guatemalan insanity pepper-fueled vision quest. We’re going to look for a citrus pepper flavor integrated with yeast esters and a background murmur of chili heat amidst the soft roastiness of dehusked Perla Negra malt (or at least I am—you can dial it up in your batch, it’s your damn beer). Fataliis are similar in both flavor and heat level to habaneros, which would probably be the closest substitute, but feel free to use whatever chili variety looks good in your garden, root cellar, or co-op. Dried chilis could be utilized here too—the raisiny quality of pasilla or ancho would go nicely with the dark malt, while the sweet cherry tones of tien tsin or chipotle morita would interplay with the yeast for this recipe. see HOMEBREW page 44 OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 43
HOMEBREW from page 43
5 GALLONS, TARGET OG: 1.050, TARGET IBU: 26–28
GRAIN • 9 lbs Belgian Pilsner malt • 8 oz Patagonia Perla Negra or Weyermann Carafa I
HOPS • 1 oz German Perle, or the equivalent Hersbrucker, Tettnanger, or Spalt
YEAST • Wyeast 3711 French Saison—chosen specifically for its tropical fruit/peachy esters to partner up with the bright citrus of fresh fatalii
OTHER • One (1) fatalii pepper (or the equivalent of your choice)
• Less can become more, but not vice versa. We’re starting with just one pepper because it’s always possible to add more chilis or extend the secondary to extract more heat, but it’s impossible to undo a chili addition so high it makes the beer undrinkable. • Pepper sources. Farmers markets and co-ops are a good source for heirloom varieties like fatalii. For dried peppers— including the aforementioned pasilla, ancho, and tien tsin— I’m a fan of Penzey’s Spices.
Note: these steps are general guidelines and assume you’re already familiar with the all-grain brewing process. Refer to the instructions for your brew system, and adjust as needed based on experience with your own particular equipment.
PREP 1. Prepare a yeast starter prior to brew day. 2. On brew day, collect strike water (I use 1.3 quarts per pound, YMMV) and heat to approx. 165°F. 3. Mill the grains, or have it done for you at the shop.
MASH & SPARGE 1. Add all grains to strike water and mix to achieve a uniform temperature of 151–153°F. Rest the mash at this temperature for 60–90 minutes. 2. While the mash rests, collect and heat sparge water. 3. When the mash rest is complete, heat it to 170°F for mashout. 4. Sparge and collect the wort in the boil kettle.
BOIL 1. Bring the wort to a boil. Add 1 oz Perle hops (or your choice) when the wort begins to boil, and boil for 60 minutes. 2. Cool it!
FERMENTATION AND BEYOND 1.Transfer the cooled wort to a sanitized fermenter, aerate well, and pitch yeast. 44 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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2. Aim for a maximum fermentation temp in the low to mid 70s°F. 3. When active fermentation is complete, prepare the chili pepper: wash to clean, then make a small incision in the side of the pepper. Soak in 1/3 cup vodka while you sanitize the siphon equipment and secondary fermenter—this will sanitize the pepper, as well as solubilize the hydrophobic capsaicin oils. n.b.—if using a wrinkly dried pepper, such as ancho or chipotle, allow for a bit longer soak in the vodka to ensure adequate contact with the surface. 4. Dump the pepper, along with the vodka, into the sanitized secondary fermenter, and siphon the beer in after. Wash your hands and don’t touch your eyes with your fingers. 5. Sample the beer frequently—at least once a week—and siphon it off the pepper as soon as the heat level is to your liking. Stored cool and dark, this beer will drink well for several months, but the pepper flavor will be more apparent while fresh. Until next time: Drink it like you brewed it.
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SLAY TO GOURMET
Walleye Fish Tacos As the sun starts to hit the tree line, I can feel a noticeable change in the boat. Rod tips start to bounce more frequently, the bait cache is depleting more rapidly, and walleyes start to fill the live well. After a day of musky fishing with minimal action, it’s nice to end a warm summer evening sipping a few good brews and jigging for a walleye dinner. As the daylight begins to drain out of the sky, I’m transported to my childhood where the simple task of lifting a few fish out of the water was the most important check on my to-do list. Now, in the dawn of my 30s, the apple juice has been replaced by beer and the to-do lists are quite a bit longer, but the serenity I find on the lake has endured. This is a common scene anytime I pay a late summer visit to my For more locally based food ideas, flavor combinations and recipes follow @jon_wipfli on Instagram
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By Jon Wipfli
good friend Ben Michlig in Northern Wisconsin for a weekend of fishing. We’ve got a perfect arrangement—Ben runs the boat and puts us on the fish, and back at the cabin I turn our catch into a feast. Over the last few years, we’ve fondly come to refer to this beloved pastime as ‘Slay to Gourmet,’ and with any luck this will be a trade-off we make for many years to come. As the seasons change, so does the haul. The walleyes of summer become deer and grouse in the fall, while the fat slabs of winter crappies lead to a turkey-filled spring. Ben finds them. I cook them. For the first official installment of ‘Slay to Gourmet,’ I opted to go with one of my favorite foods—fish tacos! Fish tacos are so good, especially on corn tortillas with tomatillo salsa, pickled jalapeños, a quick guacamole, sliced radishes, cilantro, and hot sauce. It makes for a great spread on the table and also provides a fun, interactive meal for guests. see SLAY TO GOURMET page 49
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Photos by Jon Wipfli
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SLAY TO GOURMET
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Photos by Kristine Erickson
SLAY TO GOURMET from page 46
Tomatillo Salsa 8 Medium tomatillos, peeled of shell 2 cloves peeled garlic, soaked in the juice of 1 lime Salt to taste Preheat your oven to 425°F. Place the tomatillos on a baking sheet and put them into the oven until the start to char and get mushy. Once cool, combine the tomatillos, garlic, lime juice, and salt in a food processor and blend until you have a salsa consistency.
Guacamole 3 avocados, pits removed and scraped out of the shell 1 medium tomato, diced 1 clove garlic, minced and sitting in the juice of 1 lime salt to taste In a mixing bowl, mash all of the ingredients together using a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Pickled Jalapeños 10 jalapeños, seeds removed and thinly sliced 1 cup champagne vinegar 1 cup water pinch of sugar pinch of salt In a small saucepan, bring the vinegar, water, salt and pepper to a boil. Put the sliced jalapeños in the pan, return to a boil and then take off heat. Keep the jalapeños in the warm pickling liquid until ready to serve.
Other Garnishes Thinly sliced radish Cilantro leaves Hot sauce
Walleye 8 walleye filets lightly covered in olive oil Salt and pepper to taste Turn the oven down to 350°F. Place the walleye filets on baking sheet with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake until cooked, about 8 minutes.
TO SERVE: Char the tortilla shells on a gas flame on a stovetop or just warm them in the oven. Wrap them in a clean towel and serve on the table with the rest of the accoutrements and enjoy!
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Food Meets Beer
2O UNDER 2 $
By John Garland Photos by Daniel Murphy
The small bites at Tongue In Cheek are both impressive and inexpensive. We run the menu and consider a few other great tastes on a skimpy budget.
1-12 Teasers at Tongue In Cheek It’s Thursday afternoon in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood of St. Paul and we’re on a mission to drink six cocktails. At Tongue In Cheek that’s not an unusual strategy. We find general manager Ryan Huseby behind the bar. He smiles
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as we order the full happy hour flight. A passion fruit/cayenne chelada while we wait makes lucky number seven. He lines up six petit martini glasses, each of them able to hold about two ounces. He begins with garnishes—an orange wedge, a lemon twist, a cornichon—and on down the line until each glass is adorned. He then produces bottles of six pre-batched cocktails and, two at a time, fills the flight to the brim. They’re an enticing set of targets
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arrayed in front of us, and this is our kind of shooting gallery. “We thought it would be a fun way to do happy hour,” says Huseby. “We didn’t know of anyone else doing it. We want people to sample a wide variety of things without having too much to drink.” All the mini-drinks are also available in full-sized versions or in flights of three during non-happy hours. We dive in. Jack’s Pool is a classic mai tai, fruity and sweet. Why Not Minot is a tasty gimlet made with white whiskey from Iowa. When In Rome is like a Minnesota Negroni, with aquavit, Cynar, and sweet vermouth. “For a couple of these, I just played with some fun flavors,” Huseby explains. “The Mother Of Dragons is jalapeno infused bourbon with peach liqueur and orange juice. The Cross Eyed Mary is gin that’s infused with bloody mary flavors. That’s something Chef
Leonard [Anderson] had done years ago at W.A. Frost. Back then, it was a sauce. We just revived it as a cocktail.” The happy hour menu lists the mini-libations under the heading “COCK(tail) TEASERS” (which, for a place called Tongue In Cheek, seems woefully above-board.) But we’re willing to overlook the kitsch, considering the Tickle My Tiny Pickle is the most adorable little martini you ever did see. The restaurant is humming. Most patrons have congregated near the bar and nearly all are drinking the teasers. There are roughly twenty-five diners present and we estimate eighty cocktail glasses among the tables. Anderson then emerges from the kitchen with our food teasers. see FOOD MEETS BEER page 52
{ MACKENZIE } THE ORIGINAL DOWNTOWN
CRAFT BEER BAR 24 Craft Beers and Imports on Tap
Expanded food menu with signature burgers Check our website for Fall beer events
918 Hennepin Ave, Mpls, MN 55403 612-333-7268 • mackenziepub.com www.growlermag.com
READY TO PROVIDE ENTERTAINMENT FOR YOUR NEXT EVENT CALL MIKE AT 612.619.7988 est. 1994
AVAILABLE FOR HOLIDAY PARTIES! OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 51
FOOD MEETS BEER from page 51 “Our main focus is sustainable meats,” he explains, “and after that it’s casual fine dining. We want to have it be interactive and fun for the guest without it being pretentious.” We head straight for the salmon gravlax with horseradish and avocado. There’s an endearing creaminess, and the addition of salmon roe casts a terrific textural contrast. We move on to a scallop crudo—basically an herbal-tasting ceviche with wasabi, granny smith apple, and fried garlic. It’s gone in mere moments. We can’t help it. We’re six cocktails deep at this point. Then the Berries & Bubbly throws us a curveball. A strawberry sphere, “like a house-made Gusher” as Anderson describes it, rests at the bottom of a cocktail glass filled with ginger simple syrup and champagne. So weird, so tasty, and it’s basically an extra cocktail to boot. We move on to a pair of cubes. First, torched feta cheese with a smoked sweet corn coulis, dill, and radish. Second, pressed watermelon vacuum-packed with ginger syrup, topped with tiny blue cheese crumbles, and ending with a pronounced balsamic vinegar tang. Finally, the best seller—braised pork belly with sesame aioli, sriracha, sesame seed, and crushed peanuts. The idea of eating only one of these is pure lunacy. “We’re relatively new, and we’re doing high-end food, more refined than the area is used to,” says Ashleigh Newman. “But then look what’s around—Cook St. Paul, Ward 6, Strip Club—people are really starting to get what we’re doing.” She’s eating a terrific looking goat cheese risotto that Anderson introduced at W.A. Frost back when he was executive chef. It’s still on Frost’s menu to this day. Huseby gives us a taste of the Posca Rustica Gruit from among his unique beer selection. Then we see a rectangle of beef tartare appear on a pink salt block with potato chips and immediately realize we need one of our own. Spending $10–12 dollars for a craft cocktail in the Twin Cities is becoming ever more common. So downing a line of six small ones for the same price feels positively princely. Newman reports that a majority of customers begin their meal with one (or likely more) of the small bites or sips. “People order them thinking they’re going to share,” she says. “But they usually end up ordering more.” She’s read our minds. We need one more Cross Eyed Mary to accompany the last bites of tartare. 52 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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“People order them thinking they’re going to share... But they usually end up ordering more.”
13 Taco al Pastor at Tacqueria La Hacienda $1.85 for the finest taco on Lake Street could potentially be the best food value to be found anywhere in the Metro.
14 Puppy Dog Tail at Isles Bun and Coffee What could possibly be better than starting the day with a cinnamon-laced, icing-bedecked twisted string of doughy heaven? The fact that one of these plus a black coffee will set you back less than you latte at Starbucks.
15 Scones at Allie’s Deli and Catering Allie’s could be the Minneapolis skyway spot that combines the highest traffic with the least amount of general buzz. Their scones are cult favorites—baked fresh daily in multiple varieties, they’re more a crumbly muffin-top than your crusty English hockey puck variety and always piping hot on the counter.
16 Skewer of The Day at Terzo Vino Bar Would you like a bite of juicy, salty meat on a stick with your glass of Sangiovese? Yes. But for a buck apiece, make it two.
17 1/4 lb. of Char Siu Pork at Unideli The best way to wait for your ramen or bibimbap to come steaming out of United Noodle’s deli is to savor a few slices of their barbecue pork. With a sweet char and just the right amount of fatty cap, we’ve even ordered a few just to munch as we browse the aisles.
18 Pork Belly Steamed Bun at Masu Sushi & Robata Okay, this one’s technically $2.50 on happy hour. But, seriously, a gorgeous slab of pork belly, with hoisin and house pickles in a pillow-soft steamed bun for that cheap? Masu needs to open a bao bun shop in the skyways immediately.
19 Meat Pie at Emily’s Lebanese Deli Another $2.50 item, but you’ll happily fork over the extra quarters for a rich, crispy triangle of ground lamb, onions and pine nuts. Hell, the pine nuts alone would probably cost $2.50 at Lunds.
2o Happy Hour Tecate at Nico’s Tacos We’re still pretty bummed about Birdhouse closing. But at least we can drown our sorrows in some cheap Mexican lager on the patio. www.growlermag.com
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2
PINTS AND PLATES
Turtle’s 1890 Social Center • 112 S Lewis St, Shakopee, MN $45–50
The Scott County Historical Society is partnering with Turtle’s 1890 Social Center and Badger Hill Brewing for “Pints & Plates,” an event in support of the Scott County Historical Society. The event includes a complimentary pint of your favorite select beer, a three-course meal prepared by Turtle’s and paired with a Badger Hill brew, a beer and food themed silent auction, and more. OCT
3-4
TWIN CITIES OKTOBERFEST
Minnesota State Fairgrounds Progress Center • Randall Ave between Snelling and Cooper Ave, St. Paul • $25
Beer, music, stein-clinking, and more? Yes, please. Jump into your favorite dirndl or lederhosen and get your German on at the Twin Cities’ Oktoberfest. Zicke zacke zicke zacke! Hoi! Hoi! Hoi! OCT
3
FARGO BREWER’S BALL
Hilton Garden Inn • 4351 17th Ave S, Fargo, MN • 7pm • $50–75
The Fargo Brewer’s Ball is back for it’s fourth round this year, once again in support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. This fest promises to be a celebration of craft beers and gourmet pub food and will also include a silent auction. OCT
3
TAPPED & UNCORKED
Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval • 2661 Civic Center Dr, Roseville • 5–9pm • $30
Friends of Roseville Parks has assembled some great breweries, wineries, food trucks, and restaurants for what looks to be a fun beer and wine event. The event promises special releases and casks from local craft breweries, a variety of wines (including many from Minnesota), food, games, and live music.
OCT
4
MOONDANCE HARVEST MOON FESTIVAL
Moondance Jam Fairgrounds • 7050 Turtle Lake Township 46, Walker, MN • $30–35
The Moondance Harvest Moon Festival a truly unique beer and wine tasting festival with a wide range of events that include things like wiener dog races, “redneck games,” cooking demonstrations from Minnesota native Amy Thielen, live music from The Bellfast Cowboys, and of course lots of great beer. OCT
4
SCHWANDTOBERFEST
Bauhaus Brew Labs • 1315 Tyler St NE, Minneapolis • 12pm • $30
Bauhaus Brew Labs gives you yet another reason to pull the trigger on those goofy lederhosen hanging out in your Amazon shopping cart. Gear up for a day of brats, pretzels, music, and steins of Bauhaus biers. Entry price includes a collectable stein and three beer fills. Music by Patty and the Buttons, Viva Knievel ,and perhaps others. Prosit! OCT
5
BOARFEST
Butcher & The Boar • 1121 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis 12–8pm • Free
If previous years’ celebrations are any indication, Boarfest 2014 should be nothing short of awesome. Featuring tons of great fall beers, bands, brats, and bourbon, plus music from Communist Daughter, Curtiss A, 3 Dillmans, and Kent Burnside & the New Generation. OCT
5
BRADTOBERFEST RUN / RAWK / CRAWL
Bent Paddle Brewery • 1912 W Michigan St, Duluth, MN • 12–8pm
This event connects local music, craft beer, and outdoor culture in a fun-filled fall fest benefiting local musicians. Sample and experience a variety of local
Ticket your next Craft Beer Fest with
- Online, mobile and full box office sales - Ticket security and fraud prevention - Comprehensive marketing support with social media outreach www.extremetix.com 54 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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VIEW MORE EVENTS ONLINE AT GROWLERMAG.COM craft beer and live music while traversing a path connecting local breweries and beer-centric venues on foot. Participants can either run or walk. The event starts at Bent Paddle Brewing and finishes at the Fitger’s courtyard overlooking Lake Superior. OCT
10-12
ST. PAUL ART CRAWL
Multiple Venues, St. Paul, MN • Friday 6–10pm, Saturday 12–8pm, Sunday 12–5pm
Head over to St. Paul for the annual St. Paul Art Crawl—a multi-venue, weekend long, open-studio event. On Saturday, October 11, Tin Whiskers Brewing will feature the Short Circuit Stout– and Wheatstone Bridge–flavored gelato from Geno’s Gelato, as well as a special firkin. Stop by downtown St. Paul’s newest brewery to check it out. OCT
10
NORTHGATE GRAND OPENING
Northgate Brewing Co. • 783 Harding St NE, Minneapolis 4pm • Free
Northgate Brewing is opening the doors to its new brewery and taproom on Harding St in Northeast Minneapolis this October 10. Started in 2012 inside an 800 sq ft brewery space, the new location quadruples the brewery’s size and adds—wait for it—a brand-spanking new taproom for your beer drinking pleasure. Stop by at 4pm for their brewery-warming party. OCT
11
SCHELL’S OKTOBERFEST
August Schell Brewing Co. • 1860 Schell Rd, New Ulm, MN 11am–4:30pm • $5
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate fall in Minnesota than to spend an afternoon in New Ulm at Schell’s Oktoberfest. Sing and dance with Schell’s Hobo
see EVENT CALENDAR page 56
www.growlermag.com
OCT
9
SOCIAL SCIENCE: UNDEAD
Science Museum of Minnesota • 120 W Kellogg Blvd, St. Paul $12–17
The first Tuesday of each month the Science Museum opens their doors to adults interested in sipping suds while learning about science. This Social Science explores the creepier side of science! Find out how rabies is related to the mythologies of vampires and zombies, satisfy your urge for real human brains, explore reanimation through electrical shock and stop-motion animation, learn how to mummify a chicken, taxidermy a squirrel, oh, and watch out for the flesh-eating beetles.
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 55
VIEW MORE EVENTS ONLINE AT GROWLERMAG.COM EVENT CALENDAR from page 55 Band and Alpensterne, build bicep definition with your liter stein of Oktoberfest, and grab a brat (with lots of ‘kraut, of course) before taking a tour of the historic brewery. Then, dance your last polka and head into New Ulm to celebrate the season in true German fashion. OCT
11
HULLABALOO 2014
Indeed Brewing Company • 711 15th Ave NE, Minneapolis 12–10pm
Indeed celebrates the fall season with an all-day event featuring rootsy music, plenty of Indeed beer, craft stations, and a “cask wagon.” The event also serves as the launch party for Rum King—an imperial stout aged in Jamaican rum barrels. Go check out what all of the hullabaloo is about! OCT
11
GUZZLE ‘N TWIRL BEER COLLECTIBLES SHOW Aldrich Arena • 1850 White Bear Ave, Maplewood, MN 9am–3pm
Guzzle ‘n Twirl is the largest beer collectibles show in the upper Midwest and will feature thousands of beer-related antiques and collectibles like signs, bottles, cans, etc. With nearly 300 tables for displays, you know there’s something you want at the show! OCT
11
PITCHFORK BREWING HARVESTFEST
Pitchfork Brewing • 709 Rodeo Dr, Hudson, WI • 2–6pm
Cross the border into Wisconsin and celebrate the harvest season with Pitchfork Brewing Co. They’ll be featuring beers made from locally harvested pumpkins and maple syrup. Live music & local food as well.
56 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
OCT
14
SAUSAGE FEST
Digby’s Plymouth • 16605 Country Rd 24, Plymouth, MN 7–10pm • $49
Digby’s and Bent Brewstillery are teaming up for a sausage-centric event featuring a four-course house made sausage dinner paired with tasty brews from Bent Brewstillery. Yes, folks, even the dessert course includes a sausage. Curious? Check it out! OCT
18
FRESH HOP FEST
Town Hall Lanes • 5019 34th Ave S, Minneapolis • 1–6pm • $7–10
Fresh. Hop. Beers. Need we say more? Town Hall Lanes will feature a variety of fresh hop beers on top in an expression of hop-loving solidarity. If you know anything about Town Hall and their love of fresh hops, they’ll do this right. Look for fresh hop beers from Town Hall, Deschutes, Indeed, and more! OCT
18
WHERE THE WILD BEERS ARE
Republic, Uptown • 3001 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis • 12–4pm $20 and one or more wild, sour, or farmhouse ales to share
Where the Wild Beers Are is a beer tasting like no other. Born in the spirit friends getting together to share great beers, WWBA is a collaborative beer tasting event that focuses on wild side of the beer spectrum, attracting fans of the funk and the “bacti-curious.” Not to be missed. OCT
18
NORDEAST BIG RIVER BREW FEST
East Side Neighborhood Services • 1700 2nd St NE, Minneapolis • 1–4pm • $25–30
Now in its fourth year, the Nordeast Big River Brew Fest is moving to accommodate a larger audience. Head ‘nordeast’ for an afternoon of craft beer sampling benefiting East Side Neighborhood Services. This year they’ll have over
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VIEW MORE EVENTS ONLINE AT GROWLERMAG.COM 200 beers available as well as great food. And, bonus, you’ll be supporting the local community! OCT
18
TRAPPIST PAINTING RAFFLE & TASTING
The Ale Jail • 1787 St. Claire Ave, St. Paul • 12–4pm • $20–40
Visit the Ale Jail for a chance to win a rare painting produced by Brother Wolfgang of La Trappe Trappist Brewery and other cool prizes from the brewery. This is the first time art produced by a Trappist monk will be made available to the general public. Raffle ticket proceeds support La Trappe’s charitable efforts in Uganda. OCT
18
FALL FEAST FOOD TRUCK RALLY
Harriet Brewing • 3036 Minnehaha Ave, Minneapolis • 12–10pm
It’s food truck time, baby! The Minnesota Food Truck Association is gathering its members once again for the fall rally. Seventeen food trucks will unite for a fall feast at Harriet Brewing. In addition to great mobile food, the event will feature live entertainment, and of course great beer. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to KFAI to support Fresh Air Radio. OCT
NOV
29-1
HOPPY HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE
Howard Johnson Inn • 301 3rd Ave N, Fargo, ND • $7 per entry
Fargo-Moorhead’s Prairie Homebrewing Companions pay host to their annual Hoppy Halloween Challenge in late October each year. This year’s homebrew contest includes the traditional BJCP categories as well as a couple of unique categories like “Halloween Themed Beers” and my personal favorite—“Fresh Killed Hop Beers.” Don’t miss the awards banquet. In addition to costume contests, this year’s event includes speaker Russ Karasch from Black Swan Cooperage in Park Rapids.
OCT
24
DARKNESS DAY EVE
Stub & Herb’s • 227 SE Oak St, Minneapolis • Free
True to form, the fine folks at Stub & Herb’s have promised to play host to a “Darkness Eve” celebration at the bar. If history is any indication, you can expect a ton of great Surly beers (common and not-so-common) as well as a ton of big, dark, badass beers of varying vintages. Reports from Stub & Herb’s suggest that Surly is going above and beyond this year! OCT
25
SURLY DARKNESS DAY
Surly Brewing Co. • 4811 Dusharme Dr, Brooklyn Center, MN Free
The pinnacle event of beer geekdom in Minnesota, Surly’s Darkness Day is right around the corner. Last year, the first 1,500 people in line at the brewery had first dibs on a bottle of this legendary imperial stout. Hope you’re an early riser because it takes serious dedication to secure a good spot in line. Expect great beer, live music, food, and of course Darkness! More details are available at Surly Brewing’s website on this year’s protocol: surlybrewing.com. NOV
9
BRAU BROTHERS BREWMASTERS DINNER
Signature Café • 130 Warwick St SE, Minneapolis • 4:30–7pm $35
Signature Café and Brau Brothers chief, Dustin Brau, will collaborate on a beer dinner that incorporates Brau beer into the menu both by adding to recipes and serving alongside the dishes. Reservations required. NOV
16
MICHIGAN TAP TAKEOVER
Butcher & The Boar • 1121 Hennepin Ave, Minneapolis • Free
Featuring 30 taps of rare Bell’s and Founders brews, including Dissenter, Dark Penance, Black Note, The Oracle, and many, many more! Drink up, get down!
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OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 57
s l i a t k c o C t f Cra EY BY E A SY & O S K
IN THIS ISSUE
AUTUMN SPICE DAIQUIRI FEATURED FLAVOR
autumn spice
By Erik Eastman, Easy & Oskey www.easyandoskey.com
AUTUMN SPICE DAIQUIRI
Photos by James Eastman
While many of us consume clear spirits regardless of the season, that familiar dip in the mercury can bring about a craving for richer, darker flavors. From crisp to funky, dry to sweet, smoky to clean, rum has a plethora of flavors, uses, and personalities. Rum is brilliant in a Martinez, savory in an Old Fashioned, but my favorite application is the classic Daiquiri—strawberries and whipped cream not required. Or actually, prohibited. With such a wide swath of rum flavor profiles available, we recommend stocking your home bar with several different rums (see our Hot Toddy recipe). A few of our favorite rums are Wray & Nephew—which at 127 proof can be used to make bitters, Smith & Cross—a beautiful, rich, full bodied beauty, and Neisson Agricole Blanc—a Rhum Agricole from Martinique that is slightly sweet with a very pleasant organic component. A Rhum Agricole is distilled from pressed sugar cane juice instead of molasses and offers more variability than traditional rums, since the resulting spirit will have a sense of “terroir” depending on the land where the sugar cane was grown. Since autumn is upon us, we infused our simple syrup with a healthy dose of crushed allspice berries and fortified the fall flavors even further with several dashes of Easy & Oskey Autumn Spice bitters. 58 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
1 ½ 1 ¾ ¼
oz Smith & Cross Rum oz Neisson Rhum Agricole oz freshly squeezed lime juice oz allspice simple syrup oz Easy & Oskey Autumn Spice bitters
METHOD Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with clean ice. Shake vigorously to combine, 20 seconds or more. Strain into a cocktail glass.
ALLSPICE SIMPLE SYRUP
Combine 1 cup sugar with 1 cup water in a pan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, and add ¾ cup crushed allspice berries. Let mixture steep off the heat for at least an hour. Strain, discarding allspice. Allspice simple syrup will keep refrigerated for several weeks.
Play around with different rum proportions, perhaps even add a splash of smoky Del Maguey Vida Mezcal, and embrace the chill (at least for now). www.growlermag.com
STRAIGHT FROM THE SOURCE:
ON THE ROAD IN DELAWARE
By Doug Hoverson
Even a column intended to celebrate beers of the Minnesota region only available at the brewery has to go on vacation occasionally. So when looking for a seminar to advance my scholarship for the day job, I found one in Lewes, Delaware. The name sounded familiar and, sure enough, it was right down the road from Dogfish Head, the creative brewery whose beer hasn’t been available in Minnesota for many years. So the airline tickets were purchased and the family dragged on yet another history and beer quest questionably sold as a vacation. Dogfish Head’s original brewpub location is not just a pilgrimage shrine for beer geeks. It’s in the popular Atlantic resort town of Rehoboth Beach. You should expect the restaurant to be crowded every night of the week during the summer season, to park several blocks away, and to wait 45 minutes for a table. Luckily, they will send you a text message when your table is ready, which gives you time to walk down to the beach and back. Once finally seated, look at the chalkboard and try to make a decision. How about one of the archaeological beers, like Etrusca or Midas Touch? Well, you can get those in bottles—in fact right outside at the attached retail store. Instead, how about trying the couple of beers on the list that are brewpub-only specials. 75 Minute IPA on cask is a wonderful pint—both malt forward and hop forward in perfect balance with a bit of maple syrup. It’s available in bottles, too, but it’s just not the same. But for something never bottled and only brewed on the original brewpub system, we turn now to Choc Lobster. This is a recipe that even a brewery dedicated to “off-centered ales” calls “weird” www.growlermag.com
Photos by Doug Hoverson
on its website. It starts as a robust porter, but then adds live lobsters to the boil. Well, they had to boil them for the kitchen anyway, so why not throw them in the brew kettle? They then add six pounds of dark cocoa power to the whirlpool and a basil tea. It ends up tasting like a chocolate-y porter with a bit of herb flavor and a distinct salty character. I finished my 12 oz pour, but that was all I really needed. Back to the cask 75 Minute. Most craft beer lovers, myself included, would like to have Dogfish Head available locally. But one of the things that makes the current craft beer movement special is the return of the idea of true local beer, something you can’t just get anywhere. We encountered other regional treasures, like Firkin Fridays at Oriole Park and the Iron Hill Brewery in Wilmington, Delaware, which sold a very nice classic rauchbier weighing in at a sessionable 3.8% ABV. Discoveries like this make travel rewarding. Choc Lobster will never be bottled, and since it is not sold in growlers, the only way you will be able to sample this unique beer is Straight from the Source. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 59
REVIEWS BY BACCHUS WINE & SPIRITS bacchuswineandspirits.com W A 1077 Hwy 96W, Shoreview, MN 55126 P 651-494-3930
Bacchus Wine & Spirits. The one, the only. Providing you with a carefully curated selection of exceptional beer, wines and spirits. And though Bacchus was the Roman god of wine, we’re pretty sure he enjoyed a great beer now and then, and this store is packed with them including those hard-to-get new releases that will impress your friends. But if he fancied a cocktail, he would love the wide variety of spirits packing the shelves. And he would applaud the outstanding collection of wines in every price range, most hand picked by a certified sommelier (that’s almost as high as a god), who is a Sherlock Holmes of finding hidden gems that other stores are content to ignore in favor of mass produced alcoholic grape juice… (oops, did we really say that?) Bacchus Wine & Spirits—not a superstore, but a superior store.
SAND CREEK BREWING
OSCAR’S CHOCOLATE OATMEAL STOUT 4.5% ABV I love when you can get a big, full bodied stout under 8%—that way you can enjoy a few with reduced guilt. Sand Creek from Black River Falls, WI, has a 4.5% chocolate oatmeal stout that is deep black with a luxurious tan head. Roasted malt, cocoa nibs, and coffee beans flood your nose when you inhale. Much like a babushka doll, wave after wave of rich, dark chocolate, robust bitter coffee, and velvety smooth malt sweetness are uncovered in every sip. Try serving with desserts like cookies and bars or with char grilled burgers or ribs.
DESCHUTES BREWERY
CONFLUX SERIES #3 DOPPLE DINKLE BOCK 10.7% ABV Pour this bomber into a good, clean glass and marvel at its deep reddish-Amber hue underneath the caramel-blonde head that is as thick as cool whip. I would call it a “Big Ol’ Frothy” head. Inhale and your nose is filled with intense aromas of banana, bubble gum, nail polish, clove, and spice. I noticed a bit of alcohol on the nose, but nothing to indicate the 10% range. This is a malt bomb! Your tongue is bombarded with the beer’s dense malt sweetness. The spices on the nose are also on the tongue and waves of warming alcohol tie all the deliciousness together. This reminds me of dunking banana bread into a chai tea latte. I would serve this with hearty spicy dishes like andouille sausage gumbo, hot buffalo wings, or blackened catfish.
WOODCHUCK
HOPSATION HARD CIDER 6.9% ABV Beer drinkers, your cider is in. Yep, Woodchuck hopped up some cider for you. It pours a light strawyellow, much like a pilsner, but the head does not linger long. Tight tiny champagne like bubbles continue to be released as you sip and agitate your glass. On the nose it seems more like a riesling then a cider. Citrus, pine, and a mild sourness are the predominant scents along with traces of green apples and sour grapes. Sweet but not dense or offensive, Hopsation give you hints of pears and apples. Then the hops saunter in and bring an enjoyable pine resin finish with a touch of rosemary and sage. Enjoy this crisp refreshing cider on a hot day, or with grilled chicken fajitas, walleye fingers, and even eggplant parmesan.
NEBRASKA BREWING
BRUNETTE
4.8% ABV, 15 IBU You want something with body, but that is not heavy, something flavorful but not overpowering, and you want to be able to have a few. Then you want Nebraska’s Brunette Nut Brown Ale. This is a great version of the English-style browns. It pours a deep caramel brown color (brunette) with lower than average carbonation. Only a slight hop aroma on the nose allows the nuttiness of the toasted malts to permeate your nostrils. On the tongue toasted bread, roasted pecans walnuts, and a dab of malt sweetness co-exists in harmony with the mild bitterness of the hops. I would pair this with any of your pub favorites, a grilled chicken sandwich, or Fresh and Naturals bacon cheddar beef brats.
OSKAR BLUES BREWERY
OLD CHUB NITRO 8% ABV “Brilliant” is the best adjective to describe this beer. Crack the can, pour vigorously, and be entertained as nitrogen bubbles meander to the top, swirling like a huge school of ocean fish swimming in unison. Once the head settles the beer is so black it actually absorbs light, dimming your surroundings and adding ambiance. Initially on the palate you notice the sweetness. It’s not nearly as dense and heavy as one would expect out of a Scottish strong ale. A very smooth and creamy mouthfeel complements the malty and maple syrup sweetness. Then a faint hint of coffee bitterness takes over, making this a well-rounded treat. There is a wee hint of smokiness in the background and it made me want to pair this with grilled turkey, gyros, and salmon. 60 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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REVIEWS BY BOOZE MART W boozemartmn.com A 1673 Robert St West St Paul, MN 55118 P 651-457-6111
Established sometime during the Triassic Period when cavemen and dinosaurs and stuff roamed the Earth, Booze Mart has been a West St. Paul institution for millennia. We’ve come a long way since we were selling beer that was brewed in the ground and we’re pretty sure we’ve got everything you could possibly ask for. Well, most of it. Whether it’s the new hotness or the cheap beer you buy when your in-laws are coming over, we got you. Stop in on Fridays for beer tastings, when we remember to set them up, and try out things that you possibly might be interested in. If you’re unsure of what you might be diggin’ on, inquire the minds of out resident booze aficionados and experience our world-class service. Booze Mart: Lots of beer and other stuff.
EVIL TWIN
VICTORY
11.5% ABV Pours a jet-black allowing no light to come through the brew and produces a tight mocha head. The huge roasted malt bill gives it a sharp astringency, while further sniffs give way to notes of dark chocolate, a little bit of sweetness, and the hefty ABV. Upon sipping this monster the mouthfeel is deceivingly light, while the malt bill immediately floods you with exactly what your nose was leading you to believe. The 11.5% content is masked incredibly well and it finishes pretty sharp and dry. Another great offering from Evil Twin. Pair with vanilla ice cream or German chocolate cake.
6.7% ABV Still a pretty young beer and already popping its cork with some diabolic authority! Pours a light amber with a frothy eggshell head, compliments of the Brett. The nose picks up an awesome bouquet of lemony citrus, fresh vegetal grassiness, and already a little bit of tart funk. What’s wild here is that while the hop aroma you expect from their HopDevil is almost completely masked, it takes the forefront on the palate in it’s typical floral fashion. This quickly gives way to those grassy notes and tart lemon zip. It would be interesting to see what happens to this brew with some time; however, it’s drinking pretty swell right now. Pair with spring rolls or a chicken and almond salad.
IMPERIAL DOUGHNUT BREAK
WILD DEVIL
LAGUNITAS
IMPERIAL RED 7.8% ABV Making its return to stores is the first ale Lagunitas ever brewed, this time reincarnated in bomber format. The Red One pours a deep, vibrant copper and a lazy carbonation produces a pillowy, biscuit-white head. Never disappointing on the hop bill, the aroma is dominated by dank resinous hops with a slight bit of piney-ness, only leaving a little room for the bready malt to come through. Taste follows the nose here quite closely and those oily, juicy hops are kept in check nicely by the large malt bill. Pair with barbecued ribs, burgers, or frozen pizza.
INDEED
DOUBLE DAY TRIPPER 8% ABV, 90 IBU The dudes over at Indeed have now shown us time and again that they know how to construct a hoppy brew, and this is another one that will not disappoint. Pouring a deep amber with an eggshell head, this one just has the look of a serious hop bomb. The west coast aromatic trifecta is complete as you get copious resinous notes in addition to good amounts of citrus and pine. Taste follows the nose pretty closely as your palate gets worked by the oiliness, leaving a dry finish. Pair with spicy stir-fry or steak. www.growlermag.com
SOUTHERN TIER
WARLOCK
8.6% ABV Making its second bottled release is the darker variation of Southern Tier’s popular Pumking. Billed as an imperial stout, this newfound holiday favorite pours a cola-colored brown with an off-white, thin head. The aroma is quite similar to that of Pumking— baked, sweet pumpkin that’s heavy on nutmeg and cinnamon with small appearances of cardamom and faint coconut. The malt profile is completely overtaken with regards to the aroma and the taste. Sipping on it feels like you are drinking a pumpkin pie with a lingering finish of myriad spices. Drink at a witch burning or with your Thanksgiving dinner. OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 61
REVIEWS BY HISTORIC CASANOVA LIQUOR W casanovaliquor.com A 236 Coulee Rd Hudson, WI 54016 P 715-386-2545
A small family owned and operated craft beer and specialty wine store. Casanova Liquor is known not only for being the closest liquor store to the Twin Cities on Sundays, but now they are a destination for all things craft beer. They pride themselves on selling great beer to their loyal customers and bringing the newest products to the market. You can stop by 7 days a week and fill your growler with their 22 rotating draft lines and enjoy a pint of the newest brew in their eclectic wine bar The Nova.
DOGFISH HEAD
ALESMITH BREWING
7% ABV, 28 IBU Named after one of the greatest events on TV, and I’m not talking about the super bowl or Olympics. This is Punkin Chunkin, a festival in Delaware where groups of people try and see how far they can launch pumpkins across a field. This pumpkin ale won first prize at this event back in 1994 and has been a standard ever since. Punkin ale is brewed with pumpkin meat, brown sugar and spices, and is so well balance it leaves you wanting another four pack.
10% ABV, 26 IBU The wee smell of booziness, a wee caramel sweetness, and some wee fruitiness are noticeable right off the bat. This wee heavy Scotch ale from Alesmith Brewing is brewed year-round and has won many accolades for the style. The large ABV that comes with this beer offers a little burn down the hatch. It pours a deep brown and has some spiciness with brown sugar and caramel sweetness. Chomp on some robust cheeses, or grilled/roasted meats with this beer.
THE BRUERY
TOPPLING GOLIATH BREWING COMPANY
PUNKIN ALE
(FAMILLE RUE) WHITE OAK WHEATWINE 11.5% ABV, 20 IBU Barrel-aged blended beer, say that five times fast. The Bruery’s take on this style of beer is sweet and fruity taking on characters from the bourbon barrels in which it was aged. Notes of vanilla and dark fruits rub off on this blended wheatwine. The Bruery has been around for almost seven years now and they are taking chances all the time, redefining many styles and brews. Strong cheeses with fruit and even desserts pair well with this beer.
WEE HEAVY SCOTCH ALE
PSEUDOSUE PALE ALE
5.8% ABV, 50 IBU She’s got a big head, and little arms, and giant citrus hop aroma and profile. PseudoSue was named after the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever discovered. With a solid white foam head and wonderful juicy nose, this single hopped American pale ale hits the spot with a smooth body and slight hop bitterness in the finish. Toppling Goliath astounds with all of their beers and this flagship is on the mark for sure. Drink cold and fresh with spicy food or pub grub.
NEW GLARUS BREWING
THUMBPRINT SERIES APPLE ALE 4% ABV, 15 IBU ONLY IN WISCONSIN! That’s right, the New Glarus distribution ring is limited to Wisconsin and Wisconsin only. With apples harvested in Wisconsin and every piece of this brew being sourced locally, you begin to see why the “Drink Indigenous” label on these bottles makes sense. With a dusty, strong apple nose and juicy apple cider color and mouthfeel, this beer drinks like a great fall cider, but it’s a beer. Sweet and easy to drink, the Apple Ale pairs with pork, some nice aged cheddar, or a fruity dessert like sorbet or sherbet.
62 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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REVIEWS BY HASKELL’S WHITE BEAR LAKE haskells.com W T @WBLBeer A 1219 Gun Club Rd, White Bear Lake, MN 55110 P 651-426-0022 BLACKLIST BREWING
IMPERIAL HEFE WITH GRAPEFRUIT ZEST 8.0% ABV Yearning for summer, you say? If Blacklist had a vote, it would be year round with their Imperial Hefe with Grapefruit Zest (they say so themselves). Get your corkscrew for this one, per warning on the bottle, as Blacklist doesn’t joke around with the cork and seal. Also recommended is a weizen glass for maximizing your experience. A slow pour gives the orange to hazy golden body a billowy head. The lead aroma on the nose is banana, but you will get some softer citrus and bubblegum. After a few sips, the initial sweetness gives way to spicy notes then to the grapefruit at the finish. So grab a glass and dream of clear roads to the beach, a warm inviting sun, and remember summer is always around the corner.
DORTMUNDER ACTIEN-BRAUEREI GMBH
DAB DORTMUNDER EXPORT
5.0% ABV This isn’t your dad’s beer, but once you introduce him to it, it may well be. This Dortmunder Export is a great offering to challenge any of your light-beer drinking relatives or if you need a break from the big stouts. Upon pouring you will get a yellow, straw haze color and small light head. Take a nice whiff and you will get a light but sharp hop noise, reminiscent of Saaz or something similar. Crisp upfront but not harsh or large bite, the finish is a smooth trail inviting you to take the next sip. One of the best things is this beer will never hurt your budget. Suggest pairing with events such as ice fishing or sitting in front of the TV watching the Wild. If food is your desire, go with a tater-tot hot dish.
Haskell’s has been local family owned and operated since 1934. Our White Bear Lake Store offers the finest selections of wines, spirits, and beer available. Unique to our location amongst the Haskell’s stores is one of the broadest craft beer selections in the Twin Cities. From the obscure and esoteric, to mead and artisan ciders, we strive to be your destination craft store. Product aside, we have three genuine beer geeks (each with their own cellar) who are more than happy to help out the novice and beginners or debate the tasting notes (and benefits!) of a dry-hopped brew. Consider this your formal invite to stop by!
AGAINST THE GRAIN BREWERY
RICO SAUVIN
8.2% ABV, IBU 70 While Rico looks like he belongs in a gang from The Warriors, the beer label that features his face belongs in your fridge. Against The Grain have created a Double IPA from the Nelson Sauvin hop. The smell and tastes are quite the journey. A soft yellow-orange color on the pour eventually evens out to bit of haze. The expected characteristic of tropical tastes aromas combine against what is a slightly sweet hazy body. Grapefruit, pineapple, and white grapes send you on a mental trip to New Zealand. Pair with biscuits or crackers and soft goat cheese spread and you can keep the Kiwi imagination going. For the truly ambitious, try this with your white wine friends and ask them, can you dig it?
PREARIS
GRAND CRU 2013 9% ABV If brewers are authors and beers are their stories, then we have a wonderful sipper for your fireside reading. The Prearis Qaudrupel, having been aged in whiskey barrels, brings a wonderful complexity of flavors. At first it looks more like a dark brown ale; however as the aroma opens up, the smoked characteristic flares the nose. After a couple sips the tastes become apparent: a traditional quadruple body, faint banana peel/ lemon taste, surrounded by herb and spice notes of bay leaves, vanilla, and bark, all wrapped by peat and charred wood. The finish has a dry, yet slightly oily mouthfeel leaving you wondering if you should be pairing with a cigar; however should you prefer food a nice peppery pot-roast will do the trick.
BRASSERIE ARTISANAL DE RULES
LA RULES FESTIVAL
5.2% ABV If you have decided baking is a great way to lower your heating costs, but are scratching your head on a beer to pair with your baked goods we have a candidate for your consideration: La Rules Festival, a Belgian pale ale. With hops from America, yeast from Oral, and a low ABV, La Rules offers a session-style beer with much more complexity than one would suspect. Smooth pour this one as a large, foamy head will build quickly. Upfront aromas of funkiness from yeast disappear quickly after a swirl or two leaving a welcoming citrus and herbal hop element. The presence in the mouth is soft, and you get flavors of lemongrass and other fruit notes; plus the pale ale malt does a good job of balancing everything out. This could make for some great pairing with bread and cheese, or a roasted game bird. Cheers! www.growlermag.com
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 63
Beer Gear
From The Beer Dabbler Store 1095 7th St W St Paul 651.528.8752
THE BEER DABBLER LIBRARY | The Oxford Companion to Beer $65 Edited by Garrett Oliver, with foreword by Tom Colicchio The Oxford Companion to Beer features more than 1,100 A–Z entries written by 166 of the world’s most prominent beer experts. Attractively illustrated with over 140 images, the book covers everything from the agricultural makeup of various beers to the technical elements of the brewing process, local effects of brewing on regions around the world, and the social and political implications of sharing a beer. Entries not only define terms such as “dry hopping” and “cask conditioning” but give fascinating details about how these and other techniques affect a beer’s taste, texture, and popularity. Cultural entries shed light on such topics as pub games, food pairings, and the development of beer styles. Readers will enjoy vivid accounts of how our drinking traditions have changed throughout history and how these traditions vary in different parts of the world (Hardcover, 868 pages).
store.thebeerdabbler.com BENT PADDLE BREWING COMPANY LEATHER COASTER SET | $34 This isn’t college anymore—you have nice furniture, and if you want to keep it that way, you can’t be making drink rings on your nice coffee table. That’s where these come in—six leather coasters in a finely crafted ‘nest’ to keep ‘em neat and tidy when you aren’t using them. Made by Frost River Trading Company in Duluth, Minnesota and cut from the same harness leather used for their canoe pack back straps—they’re made to last. Toast with your friends, and then set your drinks on these lovely coasters like the responsible adults that you are.
LEATHER BICYCLE CAN CAGE | $118 From Walnut Studiolo: A flat can of Coke has been called the racing cyclist’s “secret weapon”—the quick jolt of sugar and caffeine is perfect to get you up the last few hills. Bring a can of soda (or beer, or juice) along for the ride. This design is a light yet rigid can cage for your bicycle, made out of leather, with a snug fit. The leather is hand-stitched together to be structurally sound. Cans stay snug in the can cage even after a rugged off road tour. Designed to fit a standard can size, it also fits tallboys. Comes ready to install with three clamps to connect the cage to the bicycle— two on the handlebar and one around the stem spacers. Please ride responsibly.
HANDCRAFTED WOODEN 6-PACK CADDY | $75 These six-pack caddies make a beautiful gift for the serious beer enthusiast or anyone who appreciates the beauty of finely-crafted wood. Each caddy holds six 12 oz bottles. Made by the Woodshop at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota, from sustainably harvested timber from the Abbey’s own forests where the woodworking tradition spans 150 years.
ENJOY MN CRAFT BEER T-SHIRT | $28 Originally used as cover art for Issue #10 (Dec ’13/Jan ’14) of The Growler, artist David Witt has revised the work to celebrate Minnesota’s broad great craft beer culture. If you enjoy Minnesota craft beer, then look no further than these soft, comfy Alternative Earth t-shirts to show your love. What we’re saying is, if you like MN and you like craft beer, and maybe you’re a bit of a locavore, then this is the shirt for you.
64 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
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GROWLER COMICS
Find all words below. Words can be found across, up and down, diagonally and reversed.
AUTUMN BONFIRES CALDRON CRISP EASTLAKE HALLOWEEN HAYRIDE LEAVES POTLUCK
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RAKING SPOOKY WACONIA BARLEYWINE BOO CHILI CROWS FERMENTATION HARVEST
HOMEBREW MOONLIGHT PRYES SMOKED THANKSGIVING WINTERIZE BLACK BREW CIDER
DARKNESS FOOTBALL HAUNTED INSIGHT MUMMY PUMPKIN SPICES WITCHES
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | 65
GROWLER CROSSWORD PUZZLE Puzzle created by Jeannie Kenevan
ACROSS 2 BAD WEATHER BREWING IS MOVING DOWN THE ROAD FROM THE BEER DABBLER STORE IN THE CITY NAMED FOR THIS SAINT 3 THE GROWLER MAGAZINE’S ALTERNATIVE PEDAL POWERED DELIVERY VEHICLE 6 FLAVOR KNOWN AS BLACK LICORICE 8 THIS HOOPS BROTHER IS CURRENTLY HEAD BREWER AT TOWN HALL BREWERY 12 A COUSIN TO HOT MUSTARD SEED AND WASABI, THINK EQUESTRIAN + ROOT VEGETABLE 13 MAKER OF BARRELS 17 STYLE OF DANCE THAT GOES WITH ACCORDION MUSIC AND BEER HALLS 18 AN ENGLISH STYLE STRONG ALE, E.G. BASS NO. 1, DATING BACK TO 1870 20 TO SOAK IN WATER OR OTHER LIQUID, TO EXTRACT SOME CONSTITUENT E.G. TEA 21 NEW BREWERY IN THE MIDTOWN GLOBAL MARKET BUILDING ON E. LAKE STREET IN MINNEAPOLIS 23 49TH STATE 25 INVENTOR OF THE LETTERPRESS 27 A NEW BREWERY IN A TOWN IN MINNESOTA THAT HAS NOT HAD A BREWERY SINCE AT LEAST 1890 28 FRENCH TERM FOR PRESSED SUGAR CANE JUICE RUM 29 FACING THE BROADSIDE OF A 12-PACK OR CASE OF BEER, E.G. AT A LIQUOR STORE, OR A BIG ADVERTISEMENT ALONG A HIGHWAY 31 CHEMICAL REACTION OF THE EXCHANGE OF AN ELECTRON BETWEEN AN OXYGEN-BASED MOLECULE AND ANOTHER MOLECULE DOWN 1 A STATE, A RIVER, AND A HOME TO DOGFISH HEAD BEER 2 IN THIS ISSUE’S HOMEBREW RECIPE, “FATALII” IS THIS TIME OF HEIRLOOM 4 THE ABILITY TO DISCERN THE TRUE NATURE OF A SITUATION, ESP. BY INTUITION—NEW BREWERY IN MINNEAPOLIS WITH THIS NAME 5 DEAD IRISH POET BEER 7 CITY OF MIDNIGHT SUN
Solved puzzle posted at www.thebeerdabbler.com/crossword
9 MIRACULUM IPA WILL BE THE FIRST RELEASE OF THIS NEW BREWERY IN THE TWIN CITIES 10 1ST ANNUAL DACHSHUND RACE AT THE MN RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL OKTOBERFEST: COMMON NAME FOR THIS BREED OF DOG 11 A SLOW-POURING, THICK SYRUP MADE FROM RAW SUGAR, USUALLY BROWN OR BLACKISH IN COLOR 14 CONTRARY TO BOTTLES OF WINE, CICERONE MICHAEL AGNEW ADVISES TO STORE YOUR BOTTLED BEER THIS WAY 15 BREWERS OF THE IMPERIAL HEFE WITH GRAPEFRUIT ZEST
66 | THE GROWLER MAGAZINE | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2014
16 TYPE OF FERMENTATION TANKS SCHELLS BREWING COMPANY IN NEW ULM, MN IS REFURBISHING FOR MAKING SOUR BEER 19 THE NEXT NUMBER IN THE SURLY ANNIVERSARY BEER SERIES. HINT: A HOMOPHONE OF THE GERMAN WORD MEANING “NO” 22 ORIGINS OF THE PARTI-GYLE BREWING METHOD 24 NICKNAME FOR A 22-OUNCE BEER 26 A SORT OF MEAD THAT IS HALF HONEY, HALF MALT 30 PAIRS WELL WITH BEER
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