Newsletter – No Fungus Amongst Us

10469335_861496693890399_5279793353104510201_nA clean brewery is a happy brewery!

Minnesota Cup Video

A huge thank you to all of our customers who sent in video clips for our MN Cup submission. We are in the process of getting the video edited and formatted, and will be thrilled to share it on our website and through social media once it is finished.

Ask the Brewer

What do brewers have nightmares about?

Well, to be honest, that could be a rather long list. Beer kettles boiling over, tanks overflowing, valves not being closed when they should be, employees getting doused in boiling caustic, equipment failing at a crucial moment – you get the idea. For true nightmare caliber occurrences though, I think that mold tops the list.

While we can’t go into species and genus of mold, we can tell you that any mold or fungus is every brewers worst enemy (and best friend). Breweries are, by their very nature, wet and humid locations, with an abundance of organic matter, which are prime growing conditions for mold. Cleaning must be thorough and frequent, with regular dis-assembly of hoses and clamps, filtration units, tasting ports, and tap systems. Why this incessant need for cleaning? Even a small growth of mold can infect a beer, causing off flavors and the need to dump full fermenters, which no brewery wants to do.

Luckily for modern day breweries, we have a host of mold prevention measures at our disposal, both in equipment and in cleaners. The prevalence of stainless steel in the brewing industry is for much more than good looks. Stainless steel provides a surface that is easy to clean, and free of pores that can provide places for bacterial or mold growth to start. Stainless steel also holds up well to the temperature fluctuations, liquids and cleaners of the brewing industry. Cleaners consist of acids, caustics and sanitizers, with fresh water rinses as needed.

So here’s to clean breweries and delicious beer!  Cheers!

Taproom Tidings

The taproom has its regular hours, with growler fills available all of the days we are open (including SUNDAYS)!

This weekends taproom highlights include:

  • Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
  • Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Chef T-Bone with Tollefson Family Pork Farm who specializes in made from scratch, farm fresh offerings, customized to your particular palette
  • Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Espresso Turtle, new this week!
  • Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey and our Parched Lime Shandy. On Friday we will tap our latest batch of our ever popular Blackstrap IPA. Growler and grumbler fills on everything.

Believe it or not, the Snelling Ave. bridge crossing Interstate 94 is STILL closed. One begins to wonder whether they realize the state fair is only weeks away. This means that access to the brewery from the I-94/Snelling ramps is difficult to non-existent, depending on which direction you are coming from. We recommend using the Cretin/Vandalia exit for the interim.

Final Thoughts

If you love the North Shore and beer, this weekend is for you! We will be in Duluth for All Pints North. Join us by the bay to meet the brewers and enjoy unlimited craft beer samples, local food vendors, beer-centered activities and educational components, live music and much more!

Questions? Drop us a note via Email, Facebook, MSDSTwitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Newsletter: BBB Taps on the Horizon

1a0e289f-44b5-426e-8412-bd58c21c10adMmmmmm… Wort. Delicious!

Burning Brothers on Tap?!

We are happy to announce that we are close to making kegged beer available to retailers. Tap handles have been designed and are in the production process and we have the kegs themselves queued up for sending the beer out in.

If everything proceeds as planned (which we know is often not the case, but hey, we can still dream!), we will start sending kegs out the last week of August. Check our website and social media to find out where our beer is on tap once that happens. If you want your favorite restaurant, bar or other watering hole to have our beer on tap, ask them. Customer requests can often be much more effective than our phone calls at getting beer into a specific location!

Ask the Brewer

What the heck is wort?

When on a brewery tour, you may hear the word “wort” (sometimes pronounced “wert”) being tossed around.  Wort (very different than warts) is the liquid that leaves the brew kettle prior to yeast being added. It is basically water mixed with malted grains, extracts, additional sugars or flavorings and the initial addition of hops. The sugars extracted during the brewing process are what feed the yeast and get converted into alcohol.

Experienced brewers can often tell what flavor characteristics a beer will have just by the smell of the wort. Tasting it can provide further confirmation that the beer is headed in the intended flavor direction. The wort is often maltier in smell, with a MUCH sweeter taste and thicker body due to all of the suspended solids. However, good wort produces good beer, and we all love a good beer!

Taproom Tidings

The taproom is back to regular hours, with growler fills available all of the days we are open (including SUNDAYS)!

This weekends taproom highlights include:

  • Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
  • Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Rusty Taco  and their fine selection of taco(ee) goodness
  • Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Lavender Black Bottom Cheesecake
  • Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey and our Parched Lime Shandy. Growler and grumbler fills on everything.

We have become very suspicious of what is actually happening on the south side of I-94.  Dale street is now closed at University, and Fairview is down to one lane going under I-94. What are they trying to keep from those of us on the north side?

That being said, note that the Snelling Ave. bridge crossing Interstate 94 is STILL closed. This means that access to the brewery from the I-94/Snelling ramps is difficult to non-existent, depending on which direction you are coming from. We recommend using the Cretin/Vandalia exit for the interim.

Questions? Drop us a note via Email, Facebook, Cryptic CluesTwitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Newsletter: Beer is not boring!

IMG_0789Relaxed planking as an anti-boredom tactic!

Stave off boredom?!

July is National Anti-Boredom month, and we here at Burning Brothers are experts on how not to be bored (I mean, it’s not like the beer makes itself… well, kind of, but you get what we mean). That being said, we can recommend all kinds of anti-boredom activities. You know like cooking out and having some beer… or going fishing and having some beer… visiting some friend in your local taproom and having some beer… I think you get the idea.

If you are feeling ambitious in your drive to fight-off boredom (and we know you are), you could make us a video clip of you saying something spiffy about our beer and send it to us! As most of you may know, we are semi-finalists in this year’s MN Cup, and as part of the next round in the competition, we need to build a 60 second video. Since we couldn’t sell beer without you, we are hoping you will help us demonstrate how we are an innovative company that touches the lives of our customers.

Email your testimonials (file or downloadable link) to info@burnbrosbrew.com by next Monday, July 13th. We will be putting together a montage of the submitted materials, so please just be yourself and tell us how you feel! Also, big thanks to those of you who have already submitted videos!

Ask the Brewer


How exactly does beer filtering work and why do brewers do it?

The main purpose behind filtration is to help provide microbiological stability as well as the brilliant clarity beer consumers expect. You see, mature beer (i.e., beer that has completed fermentation) still contains some yeast and haze particles which can allow further biological changes in beer. By filtering these elements out, we can improve shelf stability as well as the overall appearance of the finished beer.

The first beer filter was presented at a brewing exhibition in Munich in 1880 by German developer Lorenz Adelbert Enzinger. Bless those Germans and their love for beer! Beer filtering technology has continued to evolve since then and presents modern brewers with a variety of means to clarify their beer.

Their are a variety of methods used today in filtering (enough to make your eyes bleed), but here at Burning Brothers we use a diatomaceous earth (DE) system. Without going all beer geek on you, it basically makes use of powdery substances such as DE, perlite and/or cellulose to form a filter “cake” on top of a screened surface. We then take our batch of fermented beer and push it under pressure through the filter cake.

Once filtered, we carbonate the beer in the bright tank and then send it on it’s way to your pint glass!

Taproom Tidings

The taproom is back to regular hours, with growler fills available all of the days we are open (including SUNDAYS)!

This weekends taproom highlights include:

  • Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
  • Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Crazy Puppy and their oh-so delicious fair food
  • Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Lavender Black Bottom Cheesecake
  • Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Orange Blossom Honey Infused Pyro, Parched Lime Shandy and our Blackstrap IPA. Growler and grumbler fills on everything. UPDATE: Blackstrap IPA will be gone for the next couple weeks.

After much consideration, we have decided that road construction is better than potholes the size of craters. Therefore, note that the Snelling Ave. bridge crossing Interstate 94 is STILL closed. This means that access to the brewery from the I94/Snelling ramps is difficult to non-existent, depending on which direction you are coming from. We recommend using the Cretin/Vandalia exit for the interim.

Final Thoughts

Want to get out of town? Want to go to a beer festival? How about both at the same time? The Hopped Up Caribou festival in Lutsen, MN is a weekend long celebration of beer and features multiple breweries from throughout Minnesota along with live music. Come join us in the North woods!

Questions? Drop us a note via Email, Facebook, Enigma MachineTwitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Newsletter: We could use some “creative” help

e335de11-76a0-483f-94d3-df54e9a9c9acJuly 4th is this Saturday and everyone here at Burning Brothers wishes you a safe and enjoyable holiday!

We need your help!

As some of you may know, we are semi-finalists in this year’s MN Cup. As part of the next round in the competition, we need to build a 60 second video to demonstrate how we are an innovative company that touch the lives of our customers. Yeah, sounds daunting, doesn’t it? But guess what? You can help!

We humbly ask you, our customers, our inspiration, our believers, to submit a video (or audio file) to us explaining how Burning Brothers has helped, changed and/or touched your life. While we can not guarantee that we will use everything submitted, we believe this endeavor can help us to further demonstrate our understanding and impact to our customers.

Email your testimonials (file or downloadable link) to info@burnbrosbrew.com by next Friday, July 10th. We will be putting together a montage of the submitted materials, so please just be yourself and tell us how you feel!

Taproom Tidings

The taproom will be open on July 4th from 2-6 PM. After that, we are out of here to go party like rockstars! (Yeah right, more likely spending a quite evening at home with friends and family…. but you never know!)

Also, since Sunday growler sales start the following day, July 5th, we will be offering a free pint with each growler sold! Come on in to fill your growler and have a pint of recovery brew from the night before.

This weekends taproom highlights include:

  • Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
  • Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Chef T-Bone and his selection of Tollefson Family pork sausages, bacon and other delectable delights
  • Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Lavender Black Bottom Cheesecake
  • Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Orange Blossom Honey Infused Pyro, Lime Shandy and our Blackstrap IPA. Growler and grumbler fills on everything.

We are now several months into road construction and we are fully in support of the “end roadwork” signs. (“What do you mean those aren’t part of a protest movement?!”) With that being said, note that the Snelling Ave. bridge crossing Interstate 94 is STILL closed. This means that access to the brewery from the I94/Snelling ramps is difficult to non-existent, depending on which direction you are coming from. We recommend using the Cretin/Vandalia exit for the interim.

Final Thoughts

With the holiday weekend upon us and in the hopes that you might get some time to have a beer and read a book, we thought we would pass on the suggestion of the Minnesota’s Best Beer Guide. This book (hitting the shelves as we speak) takes you on a journey through the history of brewing and drinking in Minnesota and talks about many of the current breweries. It also contains special offers and signature pages that can be used at participating breweries. Furthermore, the author has already completed Best Beer Guides for Wisconsin and Michigan, so don’t let out home state pride get in your way of enjoying beer reading.

Questions? Drop us a note via Email, Facebook, DolphinTwitter or Google+.

Cheers!