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Date

July 28 2012

Written By

Maxwell Arndt

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BrewDog: Never Mind the Anabolics

Written By Maxwell Arndt - July 28 2012

The boys over at Scottish Craft Brewery BrewDog (who are famous for their gimmicks) have released their response to the 2012 London Olympics, in the form of a beer. 

A jab at olympians who endorse fast-food companies and sugary drinks, the beer is loaded with "performance enhancing" ingredients like creatine, coffee, guarana, ginseng, gingo, maca powder, matcha tea and kola nut. The base is a 6.5% abv India Pale Ale.

Did you catch the reference to the 1977 Sex Pistols album, Never Mind the Bollocks?

See the video below for BrewDog's take on the olympics, performance enhancing drugs, and their new beer.


Date

July 10 2012

Written By

Maxwell Arndt

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Hops: America's New Cash Crop

Written By Maxwell Arndt - July 10 2012

Lots of Americans are converting land into hop-growing fields in order to cash in on the demand for locally produced Humulus lupulus, one of the four main ingredients in almost every single beer.

According to St. Louis Today:

"Many of the new hops growers are idealistic first-time farmers who are passionate about beer, and some are lured by the fact that hops are a high-cash crop that can be grown on a relatively small piece of land. (An acre can produce 2,000 pounds, enough for about 2,000 barrels of the average craft ale.)"

Could Hops be the next big cash crop? With breweries popping up left and right (and with people now offering hop-infused soaps), domestic demand for hops will only continue to grow. As homebrewers and backyard hop growers ourselves, we're hopeful that the scent of fresh hops could one day permeate the country air from coast to coast!

Date

July 06 2012

Written By

Maxwell Arndt

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Suds and Sun - 5 Craft Beer Styles to Help You Beat the Heat

Written By Maxwell Arndt - July 06 2012

Thanks to this wonderful gift of sun and humidity, we're hot right now. Really hot. So hot that we've swapped our t-shirts for beer, in fact. Since the shirts are off and the beers are in hand, we thought we'd throw together a list of 5 craft beer styles that pair perfectly with heat and sun. Put these on your to-drink list for the summer!

American Pale Lager

Sometimes referred to as "all-malt," this category of beer refers to lagers brewed without cereal adjuncts (mainly rice or corn). Though often still yellow and fizzy, these beers will display a broader depth of malt flavor and a more complex bitterness vs. their adjunct counterparts (like those produced by Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, etc.). A lot of these beers are known as "gateway" beers for their ability to convert people into craft beer drinkers!







Cream Ale

Spawned from the American light lager style, cream ales are brewed as an ale (using top-fermenting ale yeast) but are often cold-conditioned like a lager. Adjuncts (as would be used in a lager) such as corn or rice are used to lighten the body. It is not uncommon for smaller craft brewers to brew all malt Cream Ales. They are often pale straw to pale gold in color with low hop bittering and some hop aroma though some microbreweries have given the style more of a hop character. They should be well attenuated and highly carbonated.




American Wheat

These beers range within the pale to golden range in color and are reminiscent of a Hefe Weizen in appearance, unless filtered. They typically have a long-lasting head with a light to medium body with higher carbonation. Often served with a lemon wedge (popularized by Americans) to either cut the wheat or yeast edge, which many either find to be a flavorful snap ... or an insult and something that damages the beer's taste and head retention!

Examples: Bell's Oberon, Magic Hat Circus Boy, Smuttynose Summer Weizen


Fruit Lambic

Fruit beers can include a wide range of styles and brewing processes, from American wheat beers with fruit additions to Fruit Lambics. In the case of Fruit Lambics, whole fruits are traditionally added after spontaneous fermentation has started. Kriek (cherries), Frambroise (raspberries), Pêche (peach) and Cassis (black currant) are common fruits, all producing subtle to intense fruit characters respectively. Once the fruit is added, the beer is subjected to additional maturation before bottling. Malt and hop characters are generally low to allow the fruit to consume the palate. Alcohol content tends to be low. 


Saison/Farmhouse Ale

Saison (French for season) is a farmhouse ale that was traditionally brewed in the winter, to be consumed throughout the summer months. Not long ago it was close to being an endangered style, but over recent years there's been a massive revival; especially in the United States.

This is a very complex style; many examples are very fruity in the aroma and flavor. Look for earthy yeast tones, mild to moderate tartness. Lots of spice and with a medium bitterness. They tend to be semi-dry with many only having touch of sweetness.







Date

June 08 2012

Written By

Maxwell Arndt

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Kare 11 weighs in: Tapping into the booming craft beer business

Written By Maxwell Arndt - June 08 2012

How many breweries do you think Minnesota had before prohibition...90? ...100? Nope, not even close: 400! Although Minnesota's current brewery count is just over 10% of what it used to be, at 43 breweries (and counting), the craft beer revelucion is manifesting itself all over the state and across the country.

Kare 11 recently did a piece on the growing interest craft beer which brings to light more interesting facts about brewing in Minnesota. Take a looksie:


My question for you: Does it really matter how many craft breweries we have in MN or across the U.S.? Or do you just care about drinking good beer no matter the variety of breweries?

Either way, breweries like Lucid and Boom Island Brewing are offering up more and more opportunities to drink locally in Minnesota. And, with the successes of specialty beer stores like Four Firkins and pubs like  Barley John's Brewpub and The Republic that are committed to selling nothing but the best craft beers, we can all rest well tonight knowing that good beer is here to stay! 

Date

June 01 2012

Written By

Maxwell Arndt

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Taste of Summer: Our Favorite Pizza and Craft Beer Pairings

Written By Maxwell Arndt - June 01 2012

Do you like pizza, good beer, or both? So do we. We're thinking summer, and summer to us means awesome food and awesome beer. Check out some of our favorite pizza and craft beer pairings. Why not try one of these combos tonight?

Hawaiian Pizza + Unfiltered Wheat Beer
The savory Canadian bacon and sweet and acidic pineapple flavors pair well with the light wheat and tropical notes of the Columbus, Tomahawk, and Zeus hops in Tallgrass Halcyon. Other wheat beers suggestions: Bell's Oberon and Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat.

 


Jalepeño Bacon Pizza + IPA
The grapefruit notes and assertive bitterness in a beer like Summit's Saga IPA help cut the heat and savory fat flavors in the herby and zippy jalepeño bacon pizza. Other IPA suggestions: Surly Furious and Founders Centennial IPA.

 


Vegetable Pizza + Bock Beer
Sweet, earthy notes in a mushroom and pepper vegetable pizza compliment the light sweetness, caramel, and low bitterness of a beer like Alaskan Birch Bock. Other bock suggestions: Anchor Bock and Shiner Bock.

 


Margherita Pizza + Belgian Tripel
Creamy fresh mozzarella, meaty tomato, and spicy basil are well complimented by the smooth sweetness and peppery fruit notes of a Belgian Tripel like the Westmalle Tripel. Other Tripel suggestions: La Trappe Tripel and Leffe Tripel.



Date

April 16 2012

Written By

Maxwell Arndt

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BREAKING NEWS: Beer Makes You Smarter!

Written By Maxwell Arndt - April 16 2012

Einstein drinking craft beer

According to some researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago, having a few pints increases creative problem-solving abilities.
By developing a word association game and boozing up half of their male test subjects, the researchers were able to find a correlation between having a buzz and being faster at solving brain teasers.
Our take? We’ll let you know after we finish our beer.

Date

April 03 2012

Written By

Brett Bartley

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Minneapolis Brewpub Releases Monster 23% ABV Beer

Written By Brett Bartley - April 03 2012

Toripuru, Japanese for “liquid soul slaughterer”, is a beer crafted by the Herkimer, a German brewpub in the Lyn-Lake neighborhood of Minneapolis. It follows the craft beer microtrend of “bigger is better” that has yielded extreme beers like Sam Adams Utopias (27%), BrewDog Sink the Bismarck (41%), and Brouwerij ‘t Koelschip Start the Future (60%). Are these beers actually enjoyable, or is this just a ploy to attract attention for the breweries and brands that brew them?


How it actually works

A handful of these gargantuan beers do not use the traditional brewing method to achieve such high levels of alcohol. In many cases they brew as high of ABV beer as they can then freeze the final product and allow all of the alcohol to drain out of the solution, greatly increasing (sometimes doubling or tripling) the ABV of the final product.

Is it really beer?

Technically, yes. Although the alcohol is boosted by using non-traditional brewing methods, the base product is indeed a high-gravity beer. The alcohol for this “base beer” is obtained by fermenting higher-than-normal amounts of sugars that are extracted during the “mashing” of the beer brewing process.


Is it worth trying?

Big beers are big beers. If you like them, you’ll keep trying them. If you don’t, you won’t. This particular beer might be slightly different than its most recent boozy predecessor, but ultimately it will taste nothing like beer. Rather, it will taste like some combination of wheat wine, cordial, and hard alcohol. In short, if you like gimmicks, flavors of the week, or want a novelty gift for that beer geek in your life, then yes it’s probably worth it. If you’re in search of good craft beer, however, this might not be the best place to start.


Oh and, Toripuru is actually Japanese for “triple”. Gotcha.

Date

March 25 2012

Written By

Shopify

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Breckenridge Brewing tells it like it is

Written By Shopify - March 25 2012

We've all seen the latest beer commercials where the nation's largest brewers showcase their latest gimmics. Breckenridge Brewery created a campaign that takes a shot or two at these gimmics in their campaign of tv commercials called "Truth in beervertising."

Now, we can't knock on big brewers too much. Many of us have probably had a beer with "light" in the title more recently than we'd like to admit, so we can't help but laugh at these clever commercials. Which is your favorite?





 




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