Category Archives: Bars, Breweries, & Brewpubs

Write-ups and reviews of beer bars, breweries, and brewpubs.

An Interview with Dan Carey of New Glarus Brewing Company

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Dan Carey is a brewer I have always wanted to meet. Tasting his beers and hearing him talk I built an impression of him as an intelligent person and one who thinks deeply about beer. I like talking with such people. They challenge me. They expand my knowledge and push me to deepen my own perceptions of what beer is and can be.

Dan Carey founded New Glarus Brewing Company in 1993 together with his wife Deb, an outspoken powerhouse of a woman who handles the business side of the brewery. He has an extraordinary brewing pedigree. Carey started in the industry at the age of 20 working at a small brewery in Helena, Montana. He spent time as an engineer for brewery manufacturer JV Northwest where he built or consulted on the breweries for many of the 1980s craft-beer pioneers. Before starting New Glarus he was a production supervisor at Anheuser-Busch. He was valedictorian of his Siebel Institute class, did an apprenticeship a the Ayinger brewery outside Munich, and in 1992 became the first American since 1978 to pass the Master Brewer Examination of the Institute of Brewing and Distilling in London. He is one of the few American brewers who can rightfully be called a Brewmaster.

In June my book research took me to Madison, Wisconsin. I finally had the opportunity to sit down with Carey during my visit to New Glarus. It was a 30-minutes conversation that left me exhilarated and renewed my excitement about beer.

How do you approach making a beer? What is your process?

First of all the beer has to taste good. That is extremely subjective, tasting good. The beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t consider myself a microbrewer. I consider myself a brewer. I don’t belong to any school. I don’t try to make most outrageous beer. I just try to make something that tastes good.

The Second thing is that it has to be made well. So it has to be consistent and predictable. It has to have a reasonable shelf life. Part of the problem with small breweries is that our beer doesn’t move as quickly as say a suitcase of light beer in cans. We have to make a beer that has a better shelf stability than the large breweries do. So discipline and quality is important. How the beer is brewed is important. And then of course it has to be something that’s practical to make.

So I have an idea of what the beer should taste like that comes about through discussions with various people; Deb (Carey), my brewing team, and my lab team. We talk about what we want the beer to be and then we imagine that. It’s like writing music. People who write music write the music down and they can hear it. It’s the same thing with writing a recipe on a piece of paper.

Also, the machinery cannot be divorced from the process. For example, if you write a recipe and use the same exact ingredients, same yeast, same water, everything exactly the same and you bring it to various brewers you will always have different beer, because the machinery is extremely important. Machinery has its own personality, its own temperament, and its own foibles. So you have to work with the strengths and weaknesses of your machinery. So it gets very complex. In a lot of ways it’s like being a conductor in the sense that you have to write the music and then conduct it.

I like this analogy of making beer to making music. If you’re a good musician you have to have knowledge of fundamentals; the scales and all that. How does that translate into making beer?

It’s a beautiful analogy. The discipline of being a good brewer – let’s call it a Brewmaster. What is a Brewmaster? You have to be a manager of people, so you have to be a leader, which is not easy. You have to be inspired and well educated and really believe in your people for them to follow you. You have to be a scientist to understand the microbiology and biology and chemistry. You have to be an engineer because you have to understand physics; things like heat transfer, and motors, and pumps. You also have to be a little bit of a chef because you have to understand all the flavors that go into it.

You should be able to go into a brewery and the brewer should be able to tell you how many kilowatts or therms of energy they are using to make a bottle of beer, what their loss is in the process, what’s their extract efficiency. Those are all fundamental.

To make good beer is fairly easy to accomplish, especially in this modern age of the internet, and yeast suppliers, and malt suppliers, and equipment suppliers. There’s a whole infrastructure. To make good beer is fairly easy. It wasn’t that way thirty years ago, but nowadays it is. But to make great beer…First of all, what is great beer? When you drink a beer you instantly know a great beer from a good beer. Brewing a great beer is maddeningly difficult, because of all the tiny nuances that you never imagined. Brewing is all about the little subtleties. That takes a lifetime of continual learning and honing of process.

We are very much in the dark ages of brewing. We think that we’re very modern. I’ve even heard brewers at large breweries utter this, “We’ve got the beer nailed.” They know how to make a light lager. They know how to make an American style pilsner.  It’s absolutely and completely understood. It’s been well written about. But now we’re talking about dry-hopping and bottle conditioning and esoteric yeast strains. So all of a sudden we’re back into a world where we don’t really know what we’re doing. It’s maddeningly frustrating because there’s more unknown than there is known. It’s like the 1880s. As a small brewery it’s difficult to have the time and the skill and the laboratory available to do the research. The large breweries have been successful post-prohibition because the they have invested in top-quality scientists. They paid them to be in the laboratory doing silly experiments that really didn’t pay off for a long time. As a small brewer it’s very difficult to be able to do that.

You said that you know a great beer when you drink one. I have thought and written about what makes this so for me. Let me ask you, what makes a beer great?

Nobody really knows, but I’ll give you my opinion. First of all, your palate changes. It depends on how hungry you are. It depends on how thirsty you are. It depends on the mood cycle of your body. So that is important. You may taste a beer one day and it may taste great and the next day it may not. Something as subtle as when you brush your teeth can have a big difference on it. So there’s that.

But also, beer is not just about what’s in the glass. It’s also about the experience. For example, I remember reading a question sent in to I think it was Saveur Magazine. Someone said, “My wife and I went to Tuscany. We were in this beautiful castle on top of a hill. We were having this sangiovese wine, this Chianti. It was absolutely the most beautiful wine we’ve ever had. We bought a case and brought it home. Now we’re sitting in our kitchen drinking it and it’s not the same wine. We’re wondering if something happened with altitude, maybe coming across the ocean in the hold of an airplane. Will that affect the flavor of the wine?” It’s like ‘DUH’. You’re sitting on this beautiful hilltop, looking over Tuscany. So the mood is important. But that’s not really what you’re asking.”

That is exactly what I’m asking. I agree totally with what you are saying.

There’s nothing better than sitting in Bamberg and drinking a smoked beer. But you know what? If I took that bottle of smoked beer and gave it to one of my customers and they drank it in their kitchen they’d say “I can’t drink this.” But if you’re in Bamberg it’s nirvana

But what makes a great beer other than that? You know it because the glass goes empty. Sometimes when one of those awful shaker pint glasses gets put in front of you it takes a long time to finish the beer. Other times you’re talking and all of a sudden the glass is empty. That’s a great beer. So a great beer is drinkable. Whether it’s a light American lager or a double IPA it goes down quickly. The reason it goes down quickly is because it’s got a combination of the correct level of bitterness and the correct level of sweetness, nice condition, and good carbonation. It’s balanced.

Bitterness is not just IBUs. Bitterness is like Eskimos and snow. You know, they have all these words for snow. There should be more words for bitterness, because bitterness may linger. Bitterness may be harsh. Bitterness may be fast. I find that most people like bitterness in beer. Even people who like sweet beers like bitterness in beer. What they don’t like is that harsh and lingering bitterness, a bitterness that’s hard and bites, or a bitterness that lingers, that you taste minutes after you drink. So what you want is, you want the sweetness, you want the bitterness, and you want the bitterness to be quickly cleansed from your palate.  When the bitterness is harsh it makes the beer taste thin and it lacks body. So beer needs body. It needs fullness. It needs condition. It needs nice foam. It needs appropriate haze, or lack of haze. It’s all of those subtleties that come together to make a beer enjoyable.

When I taste a great beer, one of the things that I notice is that I can actually visualize layers of flavor.

Yeah, that’s true. Complexity.

There’s complexity, but it’s not all clumped together. There’s this flavor and this flavor and this flavor. Each one can be picked out, but then they all come together.

I know exactly what you mean. It’s like watching someone tell you a story; like a page turner. I know exactly what you mean. Like if you look at American lager. It is eminently drinkable. A well-made American lager served out of a clean draft line in an ice-cold glass on a hot day, it’s extremely drinkable. But it’s pretty dumb. It’s just kind of thirst quenching. It’s pleasurable that way. And then there may be other beers that are very complex, but they’re like drinking a brick. The idea is to have both. And that’s really hard to make. How do you make a beer that’s drinkable, but still loaded with that complexity where you drink it and you say, “Wow.” And you sip it again and say, “Wow,” and all of these new things happen. You’re 100% right. That’s what people want. That’s exactly what people want. They want to be wowed. They don’t want to be hit over the head with intensity. Bu they want to be wowed by subtlety. Like good music. Like a good singer. Like an orchestra. Like listening to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. You know, it’s like “wow.” And it just keeps getting more intense and more intense

That’s a great comparison again, because with a great piece of music you’ve got these layers. You’ve got the different sections of the orchestra doing different things. You can listen to each one individually or you can listen to the whole thing as a piece.

You’re right. But it’s extremely difficult because you have to have all of your ducks in a row. You have to have the correct yeast strain with the correct health. It has to be perfect wort with the right balance of ingredients and the perfect water and really good hops, and put together in just the right way. It has to be put into a bottle in a stable way. There are so many places you could screw up.

A really great beer like that, you don’t get it all that often.

No, that’s right. That’s right. But there are a lot of brewers out there that can do that. And that greatness does not seem to be tied to machinery. It has more to do with an innate talent, I think. And I think it has a lot to do with the ability to taste. People taste and they make subtle changes and they keep honing and honing. I notice that among a lot of brewers that are very creative.

Working on this book I have visited a huge number of breweries in a very short time. I feel like I’m getting a good overview of what’s happening in the upper-Midwest. Most breweries are making good beer, a handful is making great beer, and a few should do something else. Within that big middle, most breweries have at least one beer that rises above the rest and at least approaches greatness.

You’ve identified three groups. Is there a common thread among those three groups? Do you see any trends that make those that are up at the top better? Or do the differences outweigh the commonality?

At most of the breweries I talk to the brewers, so I’ve spent a good deal of time with brewers. I see a difference in brewers actually. I haven’t quite formulated this completely, but I have this sense that there are “brewers” and there are “people who make beer.”  It’s kind of like tasting a great beer. When you taste a great beer you know it. I have the same sense when I’m talking to a brewer. It’s like “Oh, you are a brewer.” And that tends to show up in the beer. They’ve got the ability to taste. They’ve got the technical know-how. They’ve got the process down. But they also think about beer in a certain way. One reason that I was interested in talking to you is because I have a sense that you think about beer.

All the time.

There’s also a broad tendency in the region toward sweeter, less bitter beers. It’s a general Midwestern thing that I think might be selling the Midwestern palate short. For instance there’s the Iowa Pale Ale (IPA). It tones the hops way down and pushes up the sweetness.

Well, you know that’s true, but you say that these brewers are selling their customers short. Obviously I pay attention to this. If I go to any town in California and go into a pub, there’s some local IPA, and it’s usually 60, 70, 80 IBUs. Big beers. Talk to Joe Sixpack, 20-something year old kid, and they’re sucking that stuff down like it’s going out of style. They love it. They can’t get enough of it. I think it’s akin to hot sauce. But you come to the Midwest and pick an average bar in Iowa, Wisconsin, anywhere, and you would never find an IPA. And if you gave one of these 40, 50, 60, 80 IBU California beers to somebody there, they wouldn’t drink it. They would not drink it.

So we as a brewery do not market, we don’t advertise, we don’t push. We are a pull brewery, which means that our customers pull the beer. We don’t push the beer. So we brew a whole range of beers. We don’t force one over the other. We don’t choose what people drink. We just make it. We make beers as high as 85 IBUs and as low as 8 IBUs and let the customers choose. In general most people will go toward the lower end of the spectrum in the Midwest.

So, when brewers say that, it’s not a grand conspiracy to dumb down beer, it’s what people want. It’s what sells. I mean if you write a book about types of frogs in the Midwest I guarantee you’re going to sell fewer copies than if you write about breweries. If I were a frog expert I would be turning my nose down about, “How could he write about beer? Frogs are more important.” But you know what? People who buy frog books; there ain’t a whole lot of them. And it’s the same with stronger beers.

However, the world is changing. And when you have these beers that are so big and so bitter like extreme hot sauce it brings the median up. Sierra Nevada pale ale 20 years ago was on the high end of the spectrum. Low 30 BUs was a big beer. Now that’s midstream. So when we make a beer that’s 30 BUs, that’s a comfortable session beer. So what the big beers have done is brought people up into a reasonable range, because 30 IBUs is probably appropriate for a beer. A 12 degree plato beer should be about 30 IBUs on average. That’s where beer has historically always been, for obvious reasons. Because it tastes good and you can drink more than one or two. So that’s the benefit of the stronger beers.

You said you think about beer all the time. Why?

I’m compulsive, frankly. That’s really the short answer. The other answer would be that it’s my business. It’s my life’s calling. I consider myself an artist, so I always want to be better. The pursuit of excellence is extremely important to me. And the last thing is that my mind always works. My mind is a very noisy place. Thinking about beer helps me to tone down the demons so to speak. And I like beer.

Steel Toe Brewing Nears Launch in St. Louis Park

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The snowstorms may be done for the year (with the emphasis on may), but Minnesota is experiencing quite a flurry of new brewery activity. Way up on the North Shore in Two Harbors, Castle Danger Brewery started selling beer in March. April 1st saw the suspiciously auspicious announcement of Pour Decisions Brewing Company, believed at first by most to be an elaborate April fool’s hoax. It was no joke. Co-founders Kristen England and B. J. Haun expect to have beer on the streets in July. Another up-and-comer planning a July release is Steel Toe Brewing. Husband and wife team Jason and Hannah Schoneman have been quietly building out a leased St. Louis Park industrial space since February. The brewery is in place, if not yet plumbed, and they expect to fire it up in June.

Steel Toe brewer Jason Schoneman isn’t just another homebrewer deciding to go pro. He brings years of professional experience with him. His career track started after a move to Boulder, Colorado from his native Iowa. While living the ski-bum life and sleeping in the back of his truck, he was exposed to the great beer scene on the Colorado Front Range. When he moved back home he missed the beer. “The big thing back then was Busch Light. I figured if you can’t find it, you’ve got to brew it.” He started homebrewing in 1997 and caught the brewing bug.

Hannah’s job took them to Bozeman, Montana where Jason was hired at Lightning Boy Brewery. In a story that seems common in the industry, he started out working 15-hour days washing kegs and filling bottles.  “That was the test,” he says. “If you still love it after that, then it’s the right fit for you. For me it was the greatest thing. It didn’t feel like work.” After a couple of weeks he was promoted to brewer.

Their next move took them to Wisconsin where Jason was unable to find a job as a brewer. Not wanting to give up the dream, he bit the bullet and enrolled in the Diploma Course at the Siebel Institute brewing school in Chicago. “I did the whole thing. Racked up the credit cards and took a leap of faith. We figured if you’re going to do it, do it right.”

Newly armed with Siebel credentials, he was hired at the Pelican Pub & Brewery in Pacific City, Oregon, where he once again started out washing kegs and filling bottles. Within four years he had advanced to the position of Head Brewer. The time at Pelican was formative. He learned there what it takes to make a brewery go, gaining experience in all aspects of brewery operations; wholesale distribution, dealing with customers, tours, brewery logistics and maintenance. “I had a great mentor there. He taught me how to stay really consistent every batch. That is so important. I don’t want to experiment on people. When somebody has our product and likes it I want to be able to give it to them again.”

The birth of their first child prompted a move back to the Midwest to pursue the long-held dream of opening a brewery of their own. The Schonemans feel that they are in the right place at the right time. “It’s been a lot of fun for us to come back here from the Northwest where there’s a great brewery around every corner, and hear people getting excited talking about really flavorful beer.” says Hannah. “The big hoppy beers. The Big malty beers. It’s fun to hear that conversation happening that we haven’t heard any other time that we’ve been up here.”

They are interested in starting small and staying small, keeping operations intimate and local. They anticipate limiting distribution to a small circle around the Twin Cities metro. Jason believes that their converted dairy tank brewery should allow them to produce around 3000 barrels annually. They have plenty of space to add additional fermenters as needed to keep up with demand. They are still working on securing funds for the start-up, creating a Kickstarter page where supporters can donate. If the licensing and such goes smoothly, they expect to be brewing by June and have beer out the door by July.

Jason doesn’t want to make beers that necessarily fit into any neat style category. He plans to launch with a light, summery ale. He describes it as a cross between cream ale and golden ale; unfiltered and cloudy with light malt flavor and floral hop aroma.  Within the first couple of months they also plan to release a big, west-coast double IPA, an imperial red, and a stout that falls somewhere between foreign extra and oatmeal. Longer range plans include barrel-aged barleywine and imperial stout and possibly some experiments with sour beers. But those can wait until they get off the ground. As Hannah put it, they will get done “when and if we are able to do them.”

The Angry Minnow Brewpub in Hayward, Wisconsin

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Traveling from Duluth, Minnesota to Hayward, Wisconsin takes you on winding two-lane highways through the beautiful northern Wisconsin landscape. It’s the kind of country that makes me want to pull off the road and head into the woods for a hike. The thick snow that blanketed the ground when I made the drive last December made it just that much more enchanting. But I didn’t have time to stop. Having spent the afternoon sampling beers at Fitger’s Brewhouse, I was on my way to do more sampling at the Angry Minnow Brewpub in Hayward.

At the Angry Minnow I was met by Jason Rasmussen, brewer and co-owner with his brother Will. While touring the brewery, located in the basement of the historic building that houses the brewpub, Jason explained the Angry Minnow’s development.  Will Rasmussen dreamed up the idea during a 2002 ski trip to Colorado. After visiting several of the state’s renowned brewpubs, he thought the concept might work in his hometown of Hayward, a center of outdoor activity in both summer and winter. He brought Jason on board, who at the time was an avid homebrewer, and in 2004 the Angry Minnow opened.

Jason started homebrewing in college, but never really thought of doing it professionally. When Will approached him about brewing at the Minnow, he left school and finagled an apprenticeship at the Great Dane Brewpub in Madison. The apprenticeship afforded him invaluable hands-on experience. From there he headed to Chicago’s Siebel institute for some deeper textbook knowledge.

Jason offers patrons a wide range of beers, from a “lite” golden ale to an imperial IPA. His personal taste is for big, hoppy beers, but he recognizes a need for easier-drinking session beers as well. He also tries to craft beers that will challenge the mostly lager-drinking locals and satisfy the palates of the steady stream of homebrewers that come through.

On my visit I sampled a very nice smoked porter, a medium bodied beer with smooth roast and subtle but noticeable charred-wood smoke character. The standout beer for me was Redhorse Ale, a seasonal “Midwestern” red ale, slightly malt-forward with toasty, biscuit flavors blending nicely with sweet caramel. Citrus and pine-resin hops offered a bright contrast to the malt, and moderate bitterness with a clean, light finish made it a delightfully drinkable beer. Angry Minnow’s year-round beers include Oaky’s Oatmeal Stout, River Pig American Pale Ale, Honey Wheat, Minnow Lite.

The food has an intentionally Wisconsin bent. Menu items include several varieties of freshwater fish from Lake Superior, wild rice, and locally grown pork fed on spent grains and food waste from the brewpub. Dishes are more upscale than traditional pub food, but still reasonably priced with entrees topping out at about $18. The cheese curds were spectacular with a light, crispy crust and firm texture. The only downside to the curds was their lack of a dipping sauce.

The atmosphere is decidedly different from the typical brewpub. High ceilings, exposed brick, and dim lighting give an elegant but inviting feel to the dining room. It is an ambience that would serve well for a romantic date or a round of drinks after work. The building itself has a unique and storied past, having served as the offices of the Northern Wisconsin Lumber Company, an auto body shop, and possibly a brothel. Windows in the walkway from the front to the back dining room provide a bird’s eye view of the basement brewhouse.

Hayward is an outdoor mecca. While you are there you have to check out the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame with its giant walk-thru walleye. During the winter there are ample opportunities for cross-country skiing. Every February the town hosts the American Birkebeiner Cross-Country Ski Marathon.

Old Chicago Restaurants Revive Old Chicago Beer

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In 1891 Prussian immigrant Peter Hand started a brewery in Chicago. The brewery’s flagship brands Old Chicago and Meister Brau carried the Peter Hand Brewing Company through prohibition and beyond, until it was sold in 1965 and renamed Meister Brau Inc. The brewery sold again in the 1970s, this time to Miller. I had Old Chicago cans in my childhood beer can collection. I drank more than my share of Meister Brau in college. But ultimately those once-strong brands were retired.
But classic (if you want to call Meister Brau a classic) beer brands die hard. Like others before it (think Schlitz, Grain Belt, and Pabst Blue Ribbon) the Old Chicago brand is rising from the grave. Craft Works, the parent company of the Rock Bottom and Old Chicago chains, has bought the rights to the brand from Miller and will be using it for a rotating seasonal series of in-house beers at the Old Chicago restaurants. This is a great idea…as long as the beer is good.
The first of the Old Chicago branded beers to debut in the Minnesota Market is good. Old Chicago Old Curmudgeon Winter Warmer Ale makes its debut today as part of the Winter Mini Tour at all Old Chicago locations. The beer is brewed at the Minneapolis Rock Bottom Brewery by Brewmaster Bryon Tonnis. It is apparently a tweaked version of a beer that has been in and out of rotation at Rock Bottom for a number of years.
Old Chicago Old Curmudgeon is a classic winter warmer in the English style. The creamy mouthfeel and malt-forward flavor make it smooth and easy to drink. Rich caramel and dark fruit sweetness is just barely balanced by subtle spicy hops. It has pleasing alcohol warmth that is surprising given its moderate 6.5% ABV. I was pleasantly surprised by this beer.
The full line-up for the Winter Mini Tour is a good one. In addition to the house beer are standouts like Chimay Red, Schell’s Hopfenmalz, Lift Bridge Chestnut Hill, Summit Winter Ale, and Odell Isolation Ale. Other decent beers on the list are Sam Adams Winter Lager, Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale, and Bell’s Winter White. The one odd-ball on the list is Stella Artois. I was stumped by its inclusion until I learned that Stella was originally introduced in 1926 as a Christmas beer. You learn something new every day. While I’m still a bit stumped by its inclusion in an otherwise “stella” line-up, at least I know there is a logic to it.
While the Blue Moon Winter Abbey isn’t a bad beer, it was interesting to taste it side-by-side with the Chimay. These two beers of the same style are very different, and the Blue Moon version is clearly, and not surprisingly, the inferior. Whereas the Chimay is sharp, dry, moderately bitter, with multi-layered complexity, the Blue Moon Abbey is overly sweet and somewhat one-dimensional. I wouldn’t turn the Blue Moon away, but it really can’t stand up to the real thing.
On the menu, Schell’s Hopfenmalz is called “miracle lager.” Every year Old Chicago includes a “miracle” beer in the Winter Tour list. A portion of the sales of this beer go to support the Miracle Foundation, a charity that is involved in several causes including homelessness and breast cancer. For every glass of Hopfenmalz poured, Schell’s Brewery is kicking in 25 cents toward the Foundation. A Miracle Day event, staffed by volunteers from the Rock Bottom and Old Chicago restaurants is held on Christmas Day at the Minneapolis Rock Bottom. Homeless people from local shelters are invited for a huge meal, with Santa Clause delivering gifts for the kids. Drink up the Hopfenmalz. It’s a great beer and you get to support a good cause as well.
The Old Chicago Winter Mini Tour kicks off today, December 1st, at 6:00 PM at all Old Chicago locations. It runs through January 2nd.

Fulton and Harriet Brewery Updates

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The Twin Cities metro beer and brewing scene continues to heat up. A while back I reported on the progress Lift Bridge is making with their new site in Stillwater. But Lift Bridge isn’t the only one moving into a space of its own. Both Fulton Beer and Harriet Brewing are pushing forward with their Minneapolis breweries. I had the opportunity to meet with Fulton’s Ryan Petz and Harriet’s Jason Sowards to get the low-down.

The Fulton space is on 6th Ave N in the shadow of Target Field. Looking out the front window in the future brewhouse area one can almost hear the roar of the crowd. The building is currently just a nearly empty industrial space. They have a long way to go before beer will start flowing. The equipment from the Fulton garage brewery has been moved in and the initial demolition phase is nearly complete. They still have to secure financing before a brewery can be ordered.

In the center of the space will be a tasting room and gathering spot with windows looking in on the brewery. The plans for the space include a 20-barrel Newlands Systems brewhouse and five fermenters. There is plenty of room to expand add fermenters for increased capacity. Rounding the corner from the brewery there is an area for keg filling and storage. Beyond that is planned the cool-room and distribution loading dock. Ryan showed me renderings for improvements to the outside of the building. It should be an attractive space once it’s completed.

For now the plan is to eventually move kegged production and small-batch, big-bottle beers to the new space and contract bottled production of their flagship beers at Sand Creek where they currently brew.

The Harriet Brewing space in the Seward Neighborhood is further along. Jason has moved the brewery in and is in the process of getting everything plumbed and electrified. Pipes, couplers, tools, and random bits of equipment are scattered all over the large brewery area. Jason bought a German-made Wachsmann system from a defunct brewpub in Japan. Two open fermenters came along with the brewhouse and additional closed fermenters are on the way. Before moving in the brewhouse, the entire floor was sanded and coated with epoxy paint.

The brewery is in the back of the building. As you move forward there are a number of rooms that will serve as tasting room and office. A while back Jason expressed an interest in having a small art gallery where local artists could display work.

Jason had planned to have his first batch brewed by now. Local bureaucracy and regulation has delayed that goal, but he still hopes to crank things up before the end of the year. Best of luck.

Fulton Photos by Mark Roberts.

Dry Dock Brewing Company Post-GABF Interview

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In the summer of 2006 I spent three weeks in Aurora, Colorado doing some theatre work with kids. Of course I used my off hours to explore the incredible Denver craft beer scene. One of the breweries that I found on Beermapping.com was Dry Dock Brewing. It was located in Aurora, just a few miles from my hotel. How could I not pay them a visit?

I jumped in the car and drove to the address. I drove up and down the street looking for any signs of a brewery, but found none. Frustrated, I finally decided to ask in the homebrew store that I had driven past. Surely they would know if there was a brewery in the area. That turned out to be a good call, as the brewery I sought was literally in the back-room of the store.

I went into the tasting room, a tiny, nondescript and somewhat makeshift bar area. It didn’t fill me with confidence about the beers I would find there. I took a seat at the bar and ordered the sampler tray. Out came six or eight beer samples representing a wide range of styles. As I worked my way through I was completely surprised. These were really good beers. I loved the vanilla porter. The hefeweizen was heavenly. There was an opulent old ale. But the best of all was the H.M.S. Victory ESB. I was surprised to learn that this beer had won a gold medal at the world beer cup earlier that year. They continued to win medals every since.

Having discovered all this great beer I spent a lot of time in that little tasting room during the rest of my Aurora stay. I was happy to go back to Dry Dock following this year’s Great American Beer Festival. Things have changed a bit since my visit four years ago. I got to speak and share a beer with owner and founder Kevin DeLange. Here’s the interview.

Check out other videos on the Perfect Pint You Tube Channel.

Lift Bridge Brewery Moving Into Stillwater Site

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Lift Bridge Brewery – Equipment Delivery from Lift Bridge on Vimeo.

Things are heating up at the soon-to-be Lift Bridge Brewery in Stillwater. The cooler is in place (and already in use). The brewhouse and fermenters are moved in. All that remains is to hook it all up, as if that’s a small task.  If all goes well, the Lift Bridge boys hope to be producing beer in their new home by the end of the year.

Dan Schwarz, one of the Lift Bridge partners, recently met me at the site and gave me the tour. Here’s what’s happening.

I walked through the front door into a spacious, sun-drenched front room. Every wall was windows, making it a cheery space. Although empty now, it will eventually become the brewery’s taproom. Schwarz says they hope to put in a bar space for sampling and growler sales. They want to make it “a place where people can hang out.” Don’t expect this space to be ready soon. As Schwarz explained, “It isn’t really the top priority. There are other things that are more important on the spend list.” Like a brewery perhaps?

Stepping through a door at the back of this room takes you to the brewery. It’s a large space, just under 10,000 square feet, offering plenty of room for the brewery, cooler, and keg storage; for now at least. The brewery sits to the left. On the right are the cooler, an office space and a workshop. Beyond the cooler on the left is space for keg storage and distribution. Delivery vans are currently parked on the other side beyond the brewery.

The cooler has capacity for 1000 kegs when stacked four high. Sampling taps have already been installed in the outside wall. You have to attend to the important things first. The cooler also has a historical pedigree. While moving it in, the guys discovered a plate identifying it as the property of the Grain Belt Brewing Company in Minneapolis.

The brewery itself, a 15-barrel Newlands Systems brewhouse and three 30-Barrel, glycol jacketed fermenters, sits on a specially installed floor with a curb to contain water. The floor is coated with a chemical resistant epoxy and has some grit to keep it from becoming slippery. Floor drains were already in place when they moved in. Schwarz says that running at maximum capacity they anticipate producing around 2000 barrels a year on the system.

2000 barrels leaves Lift Bridge with less capacity than their current annual output. They also will not have a bottling or canning line at first. Schwarz explained how they plan to deal with this. “At least for now the plan is to do a little bit more experimental and high-end specialty stuff here and continue to contract brew the other beers at Cold Spring. And we’ll see how it goes.” Draft production will also be moved to Stillwater. As business grows and they are able to expand, they may move all of their production to the new facility.

Expansion is built into the brewery plan. They have room in the current brewery space for 12 more fermenters and expansion of the specially-floored area would not be out of the question. Of course that is all in the future, but Schwarz says, “For now I don’t think we’ve overbuilt. But we haven’t boxed ourselves in either.”

To get thing off on the right foot in the new brewery, Lift Bridge is hiring a Brewmaster. Schwarz explained, “There is a significant difference between homebrewing and production brewing. We all realize where we are with that. And we realize that this is something that we could use some help with. We really wanted somebody to come on who could help insure the quality and the consistency of our beers and stay on top of production, especially now that we’re getting our own equipment.” Look for an announcement from the Brewery about this very soon.

At the end of the tour Schwarz said, “Brewing in Stillwater has been the goal from the very beginning. This is like a dream come true. We’re excited.”

Tallgrass Brewing Company at the GABF 2010

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Minnesotans’ first encounter with Tallgrass Brewing Company came at this summer’s St. Paul Summer Beer Fest. I spent a good deal of time at their booth sampling beers and talking with the brewers. Having family roots in Kansas, I had a special interest in this brewery located in the college town of Manhattan, Kansas. I found the folks in the booth to be very approachable and friendly. And their beer (especially Oasis, a sort of big ESB) to be quite tasty. When Tallgrass beers were released in the state a few weeks later they immediately became favorites in the Twin Cities beer scene.

I talked with co-founders Jeff and Tricia Gill in their booth at the GABF this fall. Here’s the interview.

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Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery at the GABF 2010

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The Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery is probably my favorite Twin Cities brewpub. This is in part because it is within walking distance of my home. It’s always nice to be able to have a brew (or a few) and not have to worry about driving. The main reason though is the beer. Brewmaster Mike Hoops and his crew craft a wide assortment of great tasting, ever-changing, and sometimes innovative beers. New releases happen every week.

I talked with Mike Hoops during the Saturday afternoon session of the Great American Beer Festival on September 18th. During the interview he talked a bit about trends he’s seeing in craft beer (herbal beers anyone?), as well as happenings at the brewpub, including an upcoming anniversary celebration and the opening of a new South Minneapolis taproom.

Here’s the interview.

Check out other videos on the Perfect Pint You Tube Channel.