Great Lakes Brewing News Archive

Minnesota Beer News

Originally Published: 12/97

By Jim Ellingson

Regionals/Nationals

And then there was one: Stroh Brewing Company closed its St. Paul plant on 26 November. Excess brewing capacity in the upper midwest and out-of-date equipment at the St. Paul plant were cited as the primary reasons for the closing. Leslie Davis of Minneapolis based Earth Protector Licensing Corporation hopes to acquire the plant and keep it open as a brewery or at least as a water bottling plant. Best of luck to the potential new owners and especially to the 200+ ex-empoyees.

Micros

Ambleside has revived their "Calibration Ale" and is selling it as a Cream Ale. You may recall that the "Calibration" was the first beer out of Dave's shiny new brewhouse, and was intended to benchmark the performance of the new system in terms of hop utilization, extraction, etc. The beer proved very popular, and so has been revived as the Cream Ale.

Ambleside beers are now available on draught and in bottles in the greater Twin Cities area. Look for the rich and malty Pale Ale, the refreshingly tart St. Cloud Wheat and now the lightly hoppy Cream Ale at your favorite offsale, bar and restaurant.

Lake Superior Brewing Co. provided two of the nine beers in the first annual cask conditioned ale tasting and dinner held in conjunction with the Minnesota Brew Fest. Their very Amercian pale ale was served on cask and from a keg.

Lake Superior Brewing Co. is an 8 bbl brewhouse in the historic Fitgers Brewery shopping complex in Duluth MN. LSBC's fine beers are available on tap (only for now) at bars and restaurants in the Duluth and Minneapolis areas. Five gallon Party Pigs are also available. Soon, they will be available in Wisconsin. The LSBC shop is open from 11-5 on Sundays.

Work continues on Summit Brewing Company's new brewery in St. Paul's Crosby Lake Industrial Park. The 5 vessels of the 150 bbl Zieman brewhouse, carefully transplanted from its former home in Ansbach, Germany, have been installed and the brewhouse structure has been poured and erected around them. President Mark Stutrud plans to begin testing in the spring and have the new plant on line by next summer.

Summit has introduced a 12 bottle "Sampler Pack". The pack contains 3 bottles of Summit's Great Northern Porter, Extra Pale, India and Winter Ales, hand packed at Summit. Variety packs are a great way to introduce your friends near and far to interesting beers such as Summit.

The other big news at Summit is the return of the richly malty winter ale. Winter warmers, typcially big, malty, brown ales and lagers, have a long tradition in Europe. These seasonal beers are perfect for relaxing by the fireplace on a cold winter's night.

Two big stories at James Page Brewing: First is the Gold Medal they earned in a specialty beer category and the Great American Beer Festival for their nicely nutty Wild Rice Lager. Second is their continued growth and expansion, doubling their production again this year, producing over 6000 bbls. Second, they've doubled their capacity, aquiring two of the adjacent buildings and adding six 100+ bbl lagering tanks. This remarkable growth can be traced to brewer James Hoeft's commitment to quality. The Burley Brown is everything an American brown ale should be�roasty, malty and hoppy!

Gluek's Brewery, in Cold Spring, is back on line making Glueks Pils and Glueks Dark.

Brewpubs

Town Hall Brewery opened its doors on October 24, at 7 Corners in the heart of the U of M's West Bank area. Proprietors Scott Maclure and Pete Rifakes have kept much of the charm of the old Cafe Espresso alive including the high, stamped metal ceilings and the warm pub atmosphere. The 10 bbl JV Northwest system is proudly on display behind the glass in the main dining room.

Brewer John Haggerty comes to us from Madison's Great Dane, and has his five regular beers on tap. The beers are lightly carbonated and served at a civilized 50ºF, allowing the flavors to come through. John uses US and Belgian malts from Schreier, hops from the Pacific Northwest and English and German yeasts. The Rising Sun Hefeweizen is a true Bavarian wheat ale, with the tart dryness of the wheat nicely supported by the clove and banana esters from the weizen yeast. Also very good is the Hope & King Scotch Ale, a 90 Shilling Scotch Ale with an elevated hop level which bears testament to the three years John spent brewing at Big Time in Seattle. Our favorite from the regular line-up was the Black H2O Oatmeal Stout. This stout is big, rich and well balanced with a very nice oat character. John's winter warmer will be a big, ruby colored ale spiced with coriander, cardamom and star anise in the Belgian style.

The food at the Town Hall is both very good and imaginative. Executive Chef Bruno Oakman returns to Minneapolis after serving as EC at the 4 star Canoe Bay Resort in Chetek, Wisconsin. Stop in at Minneapolis's newest brew pub, the Town Hall Brewery, 1430 Washington Ave S 55454. Phone 612/339-8696.

Great Waters Brewing Company participated in the second annual Real Ale Festival in Chicago. Jeff's St. Martin's Bitter and the perfectly balanced and roasty Pothole Porter were well received. The very tasty, slow burn Rasta Wings are only available at the restaurant, and are highly recommended.

By the time you read this, O'Gara's winter warmer will be back on tap. Stop in and see what Brian's brewed up for this year's holiday season. The Bitter is also recommended.

Mill Street Brewing has adopted and adapted the original name, and is now known as Green Mill Brewing Co., but is still located at the original Green Mill Pizza site on Grand Ave. in St. Paul. Head brewer Ron Flett presides over a wonderfully compact, direct-fired 10 barrel, 2 vessel brew house. Last trip, the American brown ale and seasonal Oktoberfest were both very good. We also sampled a variety of appetizers and the calamari were most impressive. Drop by and sample some of Ron's beers. You can meet also Ron on Thursday evenings from 6-8 PM.

At Rock Bottom Brewery, Todd and Jeff's seasonal beer for October was a bourbon brown ale. I'm not a big bourbon fan, but found the bourbon and rich brown ale flavors nicely mixed in this dark ale served on cask. Rock Bottom's clientele also enjoyed this beer, going through a cask of it every other day. The other beer on cask was excellent and highly recommended dry hopped Itasca Pale Ale.

Todd and Jeff are planning a Belgian-style dubbel for the December seasonal. If the big batch is anything like the rich and complex pilot batch, it won't last long. New seasonal beers are introduced on the first Tuesday of the month.

The Beer Hunter made his annual trek to Sherlock's Home and the 6th annual MN Brewfest, Scotch Tasting and 1st annual Real Ale Festival. The Cask Conditioned Ale tasting and dinner was a success. Over 250 beer enthusiasts braved the gales of October 12th to partake of the nine beers and the prime rib dinner. The sit down tasting was led by Micheal with comments and descriptions of the beers given by the brewers. The Beer Hunter discussed some of the misconceptions about cask ales. They are not warm, not flat, and especially not cloudy. He also pointed out the differences in the two markets. In Britain, 70% of the beer is served on premise, while here in the USA, we consume just 30% on premise. Plan now to attend next year's Brewfest. And stop by Sherlock's and sample some of the best cask conditioned ales available anywhere.

1st Annual Brewer's Ball a Success

The first annual Cystic Fibrosis Brewer's Ball was held on Halloween in the Wabasha Street Caves. A good sized crowd of costumed Halloween revellers danced the night away to the music of the Vibro Champs, and quenched their thirst with five local beers. Lightest of the beers was Glueks Pils from Cold Spring. Their classic American light lager was crisp and refreshing. Next step up the color ladder was Pig's Eye Amber from Minnesota Brewing, a very drinkable, malty beer with just a hint of roast malt flavor. The crowd favorite was the James Page Pilsener, a classic, crisply hoppy, German-style Pils. A close second in popularity was Karl Brehmer's St. Croix Maple Ale, a very solid steam-style beer with a nice kiss of maple syrup in the finish. Last beer on my tour was St. Croix's latest brew, Serrano Pepper Ale. I first tasted this assertively warming ale as the gold medal fruit beer at the first MN Brewfest in 1991. True to its roots, Karl's commercially brewed version begins with a wonderful pepper and malt nose and then delivers on the promise with a good balance of pepper and ale flavors and a nicely warming finish.

Chris, Peter and the crew at Northern Brewer have just completed their new catalog. New ingredients include English malts from Paul's and Crisp including Paul's Mild Ale malt. This dextrinous pale malt is ideal for making a malty English Mild. The store has been remodelled, allowing for an even larger inventory including a wide variety of keg fittings. Holiday gift ideas include starter, brew, and kegging kits and brew kettles. Why not give a gift that will keep on giving...beer!