Archive: Year: 2015

<Insert your own caption here… No, really!>

Ask the Brewer

Where does India Pale Ale get it’s name from?

There are a few theories, but the most popular stems from the 19th century when India was still a British colony. In order to keep the troops stationed there content, English brewers created an extra hoppy, high alcohol pale ale specifically designed to weather the months-long journey with no refrigeration. The soldiers loved it, and upon returning home, continued to ask for it. Hence, the IPA became it’s own style.

Since then, especially in America, IPA’s have become the signature style for many craft beer drinkers. Recent statistics from the Brewers Association show that current IPA sales account for more than 25% of craft beer sales, up from just 8% in 2008.

Taproom Tidings

The taproom has its regular hours, with growler fills available all of the days we are open. Highlights include:

• Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
• Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Hot Indian Foods who’s mission is to add spice to peoples’ lives. Are you down with brown?
• Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Espresso Turtle. Chocolate espresso cake with chocolate mousse, whipped cream, toasted pecans and an espresso caramel sauce.
• Tap selection includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey, Parched Lime Shandy and our ever popular Blackstrap IPA. Growler and grumbler fills on everything.

In case you missed the news last week, the Snelling Ave. bridge is OPEN! Just in time for the Great MN Get Together. Woot!

Final Thoughts

This Saturday, August 22nd, we will be hosting a fundraiser for Twin Cities R.O.C.K. (Raising Our Celiac Kids), a non-profit group that provides information and support for families whose children have Celiac disease. The event is from 1-4pm at the Burning Brothers taproom and we’ll be donating $1 to the cause for each pint sold. So come out, bring the family, and support a good cause.

As always, if you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook, Hydraulic Telegraph, Twitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Canning beer… everyone has their own way of coping.

Ask the Brewer

Why the heck is half a gallon of beer called a growler?

Back in the late 1800’s, beer was often carried home from local brewers in a small, galvanized pail with a lid. Rumor has it that the term “growler” comes from the sound that the CO2 made escaping through the lid of the pail, as the beer sloshed in time to the steps of the person walking home with it. During the 1930s, young people would carry buckets of beer to workers on their lunch breaks, and home to their parents for dinner, and that practice brought the term “rushing the growler” into use. By the 1950s, waxed cardboard containers were used, switching over to plastic in the 60’s. Soon after that, the use of growlers died out.

The renaissance for growlers came about in 1989 when Charlie Otto and his father wanted to offer their local customers beer in “to go” containers, yet were not in a position to begin bottling their brew. Charlie’s father remembered “growlers” from his youth, so they updated that packaging, started silk-screening their logo onto the bottles and the modern day growler was born.

Taproom Tidings

The taproom has its regular hours, with growler fills available all of the days we are open. Highlights include:

• Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
• Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Rusty Taco, with their perfect pairing of taco(ee) goodness to go with your favorite beer
• Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Espresso Turtle. Chocolate espresso cake with chocolate mousse, whipped cream, toasted pecans and an espresso caramel sauce.
• Tap selection includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey, Parched Lime Shandy and our ever popular Blackstrap IPA. Growler and grumbler fills on everything.

This would typically be the spot where we wax eloquently about the Snelling Ave. bridge STILL being closed. But wait! Rumor has it that our favorite exit off of I-94 will once again be usable no later than midnight this Friday. A whole week ahead of schedule!

If you are coming this Thursday or Friday, 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. Starting Saturday, you should be able to take the more direct route from the Snelling Ave. exit. Cheers to that!

Final Thoughts

The 7th annual Summer Beer Dabbler kicks off this Saturday from 5-9pm at the St. Paul Saints new home of CHS Field. We’ll be there along with over 100 other craft breweries sampling beer, enjoying live music and just generally having a good time. Join us for one final hurrah to the summer beer season.

As always, if you have questions, drop us a note via Email, Facebook, Ouija, Twitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Dane – the guy who creates all those delicious beer recipes, posing with the Golden Firkin!

Golden Firkin

We are thrilled to have won Best in Show at the 2015 Border Battle in Somerset Wisconsin this past weekend! Yes, you heard that correctly. BEST IN SHOW! WOOT! The Golden Firkin (our lovely trophy) is proudly on display in the taproom.

Water Quality Month

August is National Water Quality Month, and nothing is more important to good beer than good water! Since beer is over 90% water, the quality of the water drastically affects the quality of the beer.  When you look at the areas that have a large number of breweries, you will find that they also have plentiful, high quality sources of water. So raise and pint and say a toast to water, buz you ain’t gonna have good beer without it. Cheers!

Ask the Brewer

So, who makes your beer?

While there are several people at Burning Brothers who brew the beer, the recipes are created by our (sometimes) illustrious Co-Founder Dane Breimhorst, pictured above.  In order to give you, our loyal followers, a little insight into what makes him tick, we did a short interview with him:

What do you do at Burning Brothers?
As little as possible (with a big grin)!  Seriously though, recipe development, running the brew floor and getting injured on a regular basis (at which point there was a cataloging of the most recent injuries).

What’s the best part of your job?
The reaction from gluten-free people when they try the beer for the first time – it’s very gratifying!

What’s the worst part of your job?
Being torn between the brewery and my family.  The brewery is a huge time commitment, and it pulls me away from my family.  I used to want to go and do things like disc golf or hanging out with friends. Now, with the hours we put in here, when I am done, I just want to go home and hang out with my kids, and see my wife for more than 5 minutes.

What’s your favorite Burning Brothers Beer?
It changes, right now it’s the Blackstrap IPA.

What is your favorite other beer?
Triple Karmeliet… (insert heavy sigh) This was before the Celiac diagnosis of course.

Pirates or Ninjas?
Ninja Pirates, Arghhh – shhhh! (This was said with a laugh)

If you could add one thing to the brewery/taproom, what would it be?
Nitro taps (said with a glint in his eyes).  They would allow us to put Stouts and similar styles on tap with that a wonderful mouth feel.

Taproom Tidings

The taproom has its regular hours, with growler fills available all of the days we are open. Highlights include:

• Thirsty Thursdays is your chance for $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
• Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Crazy Puppy with their gluten-free fair food that you DON’T have to die for – because it is all gluten-free!
• Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Espresso Turtle, delectable!
• Tap selection includes Pyro APA, Roasted Coffee Ale, Fused Orange Blossom Honey, Parched Lime Shandy and our ever popular Blackstrap IPA. Growler and grumbler fills on everything.

The Snelling Ave. bridge crossing Interstate 94 is STILL closed. Someday…it will re-open… maybe. We are beginning to lose hope.

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.

MN Cup Video

Our MN Cup Video is done and submitted, a huge thank you to Adam, who edited all of the video clips to put together something that really reflects who we are.  Follow this link to take a look!

Final Thoughts

This weekend has the Brew at the Zoo event to tempt people into heading out and having a good time with fellow conservationists and beer enthusiasts.  This is drinking beer for a good cause!  Happening on Friday, the 7th of August, we hope you will join us!

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

Cheers!

A 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, MSDS, Twitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Mmmmmm… 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 Clues, Twitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Relaxed 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 Machine, Twitter or Google+.

Cheers!

July 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, Dolphin, Twitter or Google+.

Cheers!

Legendary Beer for a Minnesota Legend!

June 28th is Paul Bunyan Day and while we know that it doesn’t fall on the weekend, it was too good a holiday to pass up! Paul Bunyan is “credited” with creating the Mississippi River as well as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. His era was also the first heyday of craft brewing in Minnesota, which we talk about in today’s “Ask a Brewer”.

But before we get to that, we’d like to remind everyone that on Friday, June 26th we will be participating in the Beer Dabbler at Twin Cities Pride. Held in Loring Park from 5:30 to 9:30pm, over 30 breweries and food trucks are paired with each other for a brew and food extravaganza. We are being paired with Cool Jerk, so prepare yourself for gluten-free deliciousness in both hands! There will also be live music, a silent disco (not-so-live music), and many other fun activities.

Also for consideration in your weekend plans is the Blues & Brews celebration at the Nicollet Island Pavilion on Sunday, June 28th from 4 to 7pm. We’ll be participating in this event which includes live music (guessing there might be some Blues), craft beers (hence the Brews), and a ton of tasty appetizers paired with different beers. All proceeds benefit Canvas Health.

Regardless of where your weekend plans take you, we hope that you find some time to relax and enjoy a tasty beverage (like beer) with friends. Sláinte!

Ask the Brewer

Does Minnesota have more breweries now than it did prior to Prohibition?
(i.e., Do you think we are reaching a bubble in the craft beer industry?)

Minnesota has a long and varied beer history with our first brewery opening in 1849 close to the current site of the Science Museum. The brewer was a Bavarian native named Yoerg and he produced a lager and a bock from recipes he brought from back home.

As we headed into the 1870’s, the population had increased as well as the railroads beginning to push into the area and this drove the demand for more beer (music to this brewers ears). As of 1875, there were over 120 breweries in Minnesota before a slow but accelerating decline in those numbers leading up to Prohibition in 1919. A few breweries managed to keep their doors open by switching to making sodas or near beer, and were therefore in a good spot to begin production of alcoholic beers when Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

The second surge in brewery numbers occurred shortly thereafter with just over two dozen breweries calling Minnesota home in the late 1930s. This didn’t last though as by 1970 we were down to just 4 breweries in the state (and that is how it stayed until 1985… Bonus points if you can name the 4 breweries…).

Fast forward to the end of 2014 and you find that there were over 70 breweries operating in Minnesota and licensing officials predict over 110 by the end of 2015!

While some people may speculate that the craft beer bubble is close to bursting, think about how many breweries there once were and then think about how much the population has grown since those glory days. These brewers think there is still plenty of room for more delicious craft beer!

Taproom Tidings

A huge thank you to our taproom guests for their patience as the most recent batch of Roasted Coffee Ale finished up. We are happy to say that it is ready and will be back on tap for this weekend!

Furthermore, in celebration of Sunday growler sales starting on July 5th, we will be offering a free pint with each growler sold on that day! Mark you calendars folks (and maybe have some hair of the dog that bit ya the night before).

This weekends taproom highlights include:

• Thirsty Thursdays – $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
• Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Moondog and his gluten-free selection of German-style bratwursts and dawgs
• Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Lavender Black Bottom Cheesecake and is available all weekend (while supplies last… no seriously, you all ate them by Friday last week….)
• 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.

Our errands, unfortunately, take us across I-94. With the Snelling Ave. bridge being the most direct route, we can tell you from personal experience, that the bridge is still out. {insert long string of expletives here} 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.

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

Cheers!

Two fine fathers feeling frisky!

First off, we’d like to take a moment to wish a great big Happy Fathers Day to all of the fathers out there. No, seriously. Go pour yourself a pint right now, you deserve it!

We know that the support and encouragement that ours have provided has made a huge difference in our lives. That being said, the BBB Taproom will be closed this Sunday, Fathers Day, so that we can take some well deserved time with our families, and celebrate our own fatherhood.

Sill looking for a gift idea for you pop? Want to ensure your place as the favorite child? Skip the tie and get dad a Burning Brothers Gift Pack which includes 2 BBB pint glasses and a growler full of you favorite taproom selection. Still can’t decide? We also have gift cards available.

Also, we have teamed up with our friends at Chocolate Celeste to bring you Orange Blossom Honey Bonbons, just in time for Fathers Day. Sixty-four percent (64%) dark chocolate and infused with Burning Brothers OB Infused Pyro APA, they provide another opportunity to treat dad with a new twist on craft beer flavor. Available this Saturday from 10-5pm at Chocolate Celeste, 652 Transfer Road,Saint Paul, MN. (It’s just around the corner from the brewery!)

(The management at Burning Brothers or Chocolate Celeste can not be held responsible for any inter-sibling conflicts caused by your awesome gift giving-ness!)

Lastly, we are thrilled to say Happy Summer, as this Fathers Day is also the first day of summer! Summer is prime beer drinking weather, which brings us to our ask the brewer segment!

Ask the Brewer

What is the best temperature to serve beer at?

As a general rule, beers with lower alcohol content are typically drunk at colder temperatures than beers with higher alcohol content. Not surprisingly, there is a correlation between which beers are most popular during the summer, and the temperature those beers are served at, compared to the beers that are drunk during the fall and winter.

The outline below lists the “ideal” serving temperatures for different styles of beer:

Cold: 40-45 degrees

• Pilsner, Light-bodied Lager, Kolsch, Belgian Wit, Hefeweizen, Berliner Weisse, American Wheat

Cool: 45-50 degrees

• American Pale Ale, Medium-bodied Lagers, India Pale Ale (IPA), Porter, Alt, Irish Stout, Sweet Stout

Cellar Temp: 50-55 degrees

• Sour Ale, Lambic/Gueuze, English Bitter, Strong Ale, Baltic Porter, Bock, Scotch Ale, Belgian Ale, Trappist Ale

Warm: 55-60 degrees

• Imperial Stout, Belgian Quad, Belgian Strong Ale, Barley Wine, Old Ale, Dopplebock, Eisbock

While these guidelines are a good starting point for optimizing the flavor and aromas of these beers don’t get hung up on them. If you find that you prefer a beer at a certain temperature, that is how you should drink it. Don’t be afraid to go against the grain. 😉

Taproom Tidings

The day is getting closer. Staring July 5th, you will be able to buy beer in growlers on Sundays from St. Paul taprooms. Finally, we won’t have to make that run to the border!

This weekends taproom highlights include:

• Thirsty Thursdays – $1 off pints and $2 off growler fills
• Food on Fridays (FoF) brings us Chef T-Bone and his tantalizing selection of pork sausages, bacon and assorted sides.
• Our featured cupcake from Groundswell is their Lavender Black Bottom Cheesecake and is available all weekend (while supplies last)
• Tap selection for the weekend includes Pyro APA, Orange Blossom Honey Infused Pyro, Lime Shandy and our Blackstrap IPA. Growler and grumbler fills on everything
• Taproom is closed on Father’s Day (just in case you missed it above)

Since we live in Minnesota, and Minnesota has road construction, we’ve realized that you’re just going to have to take the long road. Even a one mile trip seems to require a detour of some sort. With that being said, note that the Snelling Ave. bridge crossing Interstate 94 is 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.

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

Cheers!