Minnesota Craft Beer Week 2014 - Angry Inch Brewing Company

Sunday morning had come around and I woke up to the realization I would have to go home soon. It had been a fun filled week full of many different kinds of beers but I realize that all good things have to come to an end eventually.  Before I made my way back to Duluth, there was one final stop I had to make...

Earlier this year, I got in touch with the guys from Angry Inch Brewing Company, based out of Rosemount, Minnesota and have been keeping in touch with them in regards to their beers and plans for a commercial brewery. A few weeks ago, I was invited by to try out some of their beers at a private tasting and since I am always looking for new beers to try out, I gladly accepted. And frankly, what better way to end Minnesota Craft Beer Week than with beer from an up-and-coming brewery?

Now a little background about the brewery. First off, the guys from Angry Inch are still technically considered "Homebrewers" but they are looking for a place to set up a production brewery. When they set up shop in the Rosemount/Eagan/Apple Valley area, they will be the first production brewery in the Southeast Twin Cities Metropolitan area, to my knowledge.

Secondly, the brewery name comes from the movie title "Hedwig and the Angry Inch", a musical about a rock band whose lead singer is an East German Transvestite. It was a film that Jon's old roommate once recommended to him and it would later serve as the basis for the brewery's name.

Lastly, Jon and Josh recently took home first and second place in the Belgian Category at The Beer Dabbler festival for two of their beers, which I will be looking at.....

So you probably are wondering to yourselves: How is the beer? Well, thankfully for you I have alot to say about it. That's because I had not one, not two, but twelve different beers from these guys!

Solar Eclipse White IPA - The first beer that we started out with in our tasting. It had a very nice and lightly tart citrus hop flavor with a solid malted wheat base. Very smooth texture and easy to drink.

Speedy's Lager - Named after an old foreman of Jon's who passed away a few years ago. The plans for this beer are to donate a portion of the sales of this beer to charity. This is a darker amber lager with some light hoppiness and a chocolate malt finish. Nothing complex, but what a great way to honor someone!

Easy Amber - Both a deliberate use of a double entendre and it's considered the easiest beer to brew according to both Jon & Josh. It's got a surprisingly fruity nose that smells like strawberries, but upon drinking it, you're treated to a pretty smooth and tame amber ale.

Easy Amber on Strawberries - On the other hand, the nose in this beer is actually pretty tame and barely shows any fruity characteristics. Once you drink it, the strawberries really start to shine through which compliments the flavor nicely.

Angry Inch Pale Ale - An APA with some nice citrus hop and yeast notes. APAs don't tend to break the mold much but this was very tasty! Not overly complex but still a very easy to drink beer.

Nyctophobia Black IPA - A beer which derives it's name from a fear of the dark. This Black IPA has a fairly strong roasty characteristic but also a strong citrus and cascade hop flavor. Quite tasty I might add, especially since I'm seeing Black IPAs slowly gaining traction in terms of popularity 

Nyctophobia Black IPA w/ Cold Pressed Coffee - A variation of the original brew. This definitely is dominated more by the coffee and roasted barley flavor but the citrus hops still manage to poke their head though. I'd say resembles a cross between an IPA and a Porter.

You can also follow Angry Inch on Facebook and Twitter

Smoke Signals IPA - A smoked IPA and definitely more of an offbeat IPA-style. Starts out with a pretty citrus/fruity flavor with a lightly smoked oak/rauch malt flavor on the back of the palate.

AiB Milk Stout - Very nice lactose and chocolate flavors along with moderate roasted barley. I homebrewed a milk stout earlier this year and thought it was pretty good. However after having this, I think mine paled in comparison to this!

Four Horseman IPA - Another IPA offering which uses 4 different types of hops. This IPA has a little bit of everything: Citrus Hops, Piney Hops, Floral Hops, and a nice malty backbone. I found this to be very flavorful and well balanced.

Daddy's Honey Pot Saison - The first place winner of the Belgian Category at The Beer Dabbler and derives it's name from friend of Jon's. This is an incredibly smooth and well put together Saison. Everything from the Belgian Yeasts to the sweet honey used in making. I was told that this was a crowd favorite at the tasting events and I can totally see why!

Dubbel Trouble - The second place winner in the Belgian Category at The Beer Dabbler. There is one way to describe this beer: Lots of stopping power. Rarely do I stop drinking mid-sip because of the sheer intensity of a beer flavor. It's got it's share of booziness but it also has some very strong and vibrant dark fruit and candied caramel malt notes.

After having their beers, I can honestly say that I am very excited to see how their brewery unfolds in the future. Though they may not considered "professional" brewers as of yet, these guys make some really tasty and flavorful beers.

What I originally thought was going to be a 1 hour get-together turned into a 3 hour discussion about their beer, their experiences as well as sharing our knowledge of brewing and beer with each other. I could've been back in Duluth in the time we were talking. You know what, it was totally worth it! Jon and Josh are fun guys to talk to and I can safely say that I had alot of fun at the tasting event.

It was a fun week and I think my visit really helped it end on a fitting note. Thanks to Angry Inch Brewing Company for having me over, I cannot wait to try your beers again!

Minnesota Craft Beer Week 2014 - Day 3 (A personal account)

Day 3 started out on a rather low key note: Me and my fiance had woken up a little later than usual after sleeping in a bit longer than we would have liked and ended up just making it to make the payment for our wedding venue. After our appointment, we were presented with an interesting conundrum. It was too late in the day for breakfast food, but not early enough to start lunch.

Looking at our itinerary for the day, we noticed that The Herkimer Pub & Brewery had a breakfast menu, so I opted to have lunch there while my fiance decided to wait until after we were done there to go to lunch. So with our decision made and we made our way over to The Herkimer.

When we arrived, I was presented with a very interesting question: Do I want beer with my breakfast? It had been something which I had never done before. After scanning the tap selection, I decided to get their lightest beer available: Jeffery Kream Ale along with a platter of pancakes. It's about as close as one can get to having a true "Breakfast of Champions."

Jeffrey Kream Ale - Wow, this has got to be one of the creamiest beers I've ever had! I'm tempted to say that I had this on nitro but even if I didn't, it's still an incredibly smooth beer! It's got a relatively simply flavor, consisting mainly of pale malts, flaked corn and barley and tastes pretty similar to Spotted Cow. However the overall texture and body is just so creamy and easy on the palate that I say that alone is worth checking this beer out. And yes, it went very well with the pancakes.

After I finished up breakfast, me and the future Mrs. Nick's Beer Blog headed to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. While we were there, we debated amongst ourselves where we would go next amongst the denizens of lunch hour patrons eyeballing the upcoming NFL Draft.

During our conversation we plotted our next course of action when "Hudson, Wisconsin" came up in our conversation. It was at this point that we came to a sobering realization: Decisions had to be made. Do we stay in Minnesota and check out some of the other various breweries around the Twin Cities area? Or do we break our vow of drinking nothing but Minnesota-based beer, commit the ultimate act of betrayal, make the journey across St. Croix River and sample some Wisconsin beers DURING Minnesota Craft Beer Week?

We thought long and hard while the Twins struggled to keep up with the Cleveland Indians before we decided that we would make the 15 minute drive from Maplewood to Hudson. However, Mother Nature was a bit tempermental that afternoon and proceeded to give us a whooping of the thunderstorm. Our 15 minute leisurely cruise turned into a 30 minute game of "Don't hit the poor soul who decided to ride his motorcycle during a severe storm."

Before we decided which brewery to visit, I paid a visit to Casanova Liquor which has become a favorite destination of mine when passing through Wisconsin. It's a great place to visit for those beers that aren't available in Minnesota or pretty much anywhere in the Midwest.

After I was finished, I made the choice to visit Pitchfork Brewing, going off of the recommendation of a friend of mine to try out their Maple Maibock.

Picture courtesy of Ratebeer

As you can see in the photo above, it doesn't look like much, just a sign that says "Pitchfork Brewing." The interesting thing about this place is that it's located in a strip mall, which is probably the last place where you'd expect to find a brewery. In fact the strip mall itself is pretty new but it's surrounded by a grassy field and the road leading up to building is a dirt road. I was wondering if I had gotten lost but my trusty GPS assured me I was going in the right direction and sure enough we arrived safe and sound.

Once we did arrive, we were treated to a very roomy taproom. Mike Fredricksen, who I believe is the brewmaster there, was manning the taps that day. I'll throw this out there right now that Mike was an incredibly awesome guy to talk to! He talked about experience in brewing and how each beer is made with care. That alone made it worth the journey to the brewery.

For this trip, I decided to start out with a flight as you will see in the photo above. I figured that since I was there, I might as well try a few of their offerings. So we grabbed some popcorn, pulled up a stoll and sampled some beers.

Pitchfork Porch Swing German Alt - An Altbier style ale. The flavor consisted mainly of offee, pils malts, a hop/spicy bitterness with a sweet malty finish. It was also a fairly smooth beer in terms of drinkability and texture.

Pitchfork Munich Dunkel - Very Clove & Banana flavor forward flavor with a strong caramel malty backbone. Like the Porch Swing, this was also a very smooth beer to drink!

Pitchfork Barndoor Brown Ale - Very strong chocolate malt character, but the light hoppiness & roasted barley flavors really helped even things out overall.

Pitchfork Outwitted - A Witbier style beer. Strong malted wheat notes with some fruity sweetness & light floral hoppiness. The texture is also very light, creamy, and very easy to drink!

Pitchfork Pale Ale - An APA style beer. Fairly potent citrus hop flavors mixed in with notes of rum raisin and maltiness. Very tasty beer to drink.

Pitchfork Maple Maibock (Not Pictured) - The beer which drew me to Pitchfork in the first place. Nice maltiness and a robust maple profile. Much like Tommyknocker Legend, this is an example of maple being used correctly in a beer. This is a good beer that pairs wonderfully with a raging spring severe thunderstorm.

All and all, I had a great time at Pitchfork Brewing. Anyone who is passing through the area and has even a slight interest in craft beer should check this place out!

After we were done, we made our way back to Minnesota through the pouring rain and back to my fiancé's place where we feasted on Carbone's Pizza and Surly Hell for dinner. Despite the severe weather, it was a good day!

Interview with Dave Grandmaison: CEO & Co-Founder of The Duluth Experience

The Duluth Experience is the organization behind the North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable, which I have been writing extensively about recently. However, the main focus of The Duluth Experience is offering tours of the many breweries and brewpubs in that dot the Duluth-Superior/NE Minnesota area.

Last week, I had a chance to sit down with Dave Grandmaison, CEO & Co-Founder of The Duluth Experience to share his thoughts about the origins of The Duluth Experience & it's role in promoting North Shore-based beer, as well as what the future holds for the Duluth craft beer scene.


So Dave, tell me a bit about yourself. What is your background?

Well first and foremost, I'm a Duluthian; Born and raised. I'm actually a 4th generation Duluthian as far as I can tell. I've not lived in Duluth my whole life but I recently returned to Duluth about 2 years ago. Luckily found a job up here that brought me back to Duluth and shortly there after, I got together with my cousin and started The Duluth Experience with a couple other guys.

My education is in Biology. I'm a trained wildlife biologist, so that's currently my day job. I work for the agency doing wildlife monitoring and wildlife analysis and I moonlight on the side running a brewery tour business.


What inspired you to start The Duluth Experience? What gave you that spark that made you say "We should start this business?"

Actually, my cousin sort of came up with the idea and it happened probably about a year before I returned to Minnesota at the end of 2012. He had been kind of watching these breweries open up around Duluth then was thinking "Wow, why isn't someone connecting the brewery scene and taking these beer consumers and craft beer appreciators to the different breweries?" He was tied up in some other side businesses while bartending at Fitger's Brewhouse and really didn't have a chance to do it. When I moved back to Duluth, he told me about the idea and we got together with two other guys that had been involved with discussions and we just decided that there was no reason why we shouldn't give it a try.

You look around the United States and there are brewery tour companies springing up all over the place and kind of following the wave of expansion of the craft beer scene. I was actually kind of surprised there wasn't anybody in Duluth running brewery tours. There's a couple breweries in town that actually do their own tours but nobody was really tying them all together, no one was telling the stories about Duluth with it's brewing history and the history of Duluth in general; It's a very interesting place. So we bought a bus and decided that we would be the guys to tell that story.


What was it like at the beginning when you first started The Duluth Experience? 

Well it was chaos because we had a really good idea from our prospective. We had four, very enthusiastic team members and we didn't really know how to get started so we started doing a lot of research on other brewery tour companies, on the tour industry of Duluth and we started gathering information & compiling information. We really got serious after our first meeting, we started having specific agendas for our weekly meetings every Sunday. We'd have an agenda, we'd take up minutes and write down what we discussed, we'd walk away with action items that we had to accomplish by the next meeting so we had a flurry of "Here are our big action items, let's get them all done." So we were working really hard to sort of pull a lot of information together to write a business plan.

Simple things that really not that simple: Insurance, getting loans, and figuring out the legal framework for driving a bus with passengers and there are all these things we had to learn on the fly. We asked alot of questions and met with alot of people to get that information but it was chaotic at first and then we started to get into our groove and we kind of got into our stride and things started to come together. So we did our first business meeting in February of 2013 and we incorporated in the beginning of March as The Duluth Experience LLC and then in May we bought our bus. By the middle of June, we were doing practice tours and then in Mid-July we launched our first brewery tours.


And were there any other challenges associated with running The Duluth Experience once it was up and running?

Oh yeah, there's always challenges with continuously looking to refine and improve your systems. I mean, we're a very new company, we've been around for around a year and a half and only been operating tours for not even a year yet so we are learning as we go and of course we do as much as planning ahead of time and try to anticipate things that we are going to need to do but there's always the "Unknown" unknown that you don't see coming. We are always trying to improve our system and improve our efficiency and improve the tour content and improve our delivery of the information to our guests. We're looking at developing a whole new line of tour products so there is alot of challenges associated with that; There's definitely no lack of challenges to attack and to hopefully, at the end of the day, overcome.


Since starting The Duluth Experience, what changes have you seen in the Duluth Beer Scene in general? 

That's a good question. You know, one of the big striking changes that I've seen in our short history so far is that there's been substantial expansion of the craft beer scene in the Twin Ports and on the North Shore. Even within the last year, we've seen Bent Paddle open their doors; They've gone through 2 expansions already...Or they've gone through one expansion at least and are looking to for a second expansion. You've got Thirsty Pagan that has expanded to a 7 barrel system, which is a substantial increase in their production capacity. Canal Park Brewing open their doors just before we incorporated and got started. Well then of course you know that Castle Danger Brewing is building a huge brewery right now in Two Harbors so it's a very exciting time to be a beer drinker.

There's alot of really good beer and you can tell that the industry is doing well because there is this expansion in the brewing capacity; I hope to see that continue. Some of the other breweries are going to expand and invest in their systems....but yeah, I think that is probably the biggest thing I have noticed is that it's rapidly expanding and that's really exciting. I think that is probably the biggest thing that comes to mind right now....and it's a great time to be a beer drinker; that's for sure.


Do you see The Duluth Experience playing a bigger role in sort of the....expansion of the craft beer scene here in Duluth? Or a bigger role overall one day?

I would like to see us do as much as we can to promote the craft beer scene in this region. Certainly we love craft beer. We have personal relationships with the local breweries; We want to see them be successful. We want to really be....right now I really see us a cheerleaders and promoters of the excitement surrounding craft beer and we recently launched this Craft Beer Roundtable series which you've been to both of the events we've had so far and those have been really fun, they focus on different aspects of the North Shore Craft Beer Scene and we're releasing video so that hopefully people outside of Duluth will be able to see the content that was developed in those conversations and really it has been extremely exciting for me.

I remember walking into the first craft beer roundtable after being out in the hallway selling tickets and getting people beers. I walked about 10 minutes into the event and I could not believe my ears and my eyes; It was amazing that we had helped facilitate this really interesting conversation between these brewery owners and then last weekend we had a group of master brewers that got together and talked about new trends in brewing and the challenges of working in the craft beer scene and the opportunities. I see us continuing to promote the craft beer scene.

I see us adding additional aspects to our brewery tours. We will be including some stops in our tours that aren't necessarily breweries but are.....we're working with Harbor Hops to going to the hop farm on one of our tours and that's really exciting. We goto the Vikre Distillery, so we're sort of....we're into the brewery tours but we're also....diversifying but looking at related businesses that are tourist attractions in terms of people wanting to learn more. You know for us, a tourist is somebody who appreciates craft beer and wants to learn more about it and why there is so much excitement going on. So I like to call them "Brewery Tourists." I think we'll expand the diversity of where we go and I'm sure we'll come up with other crazy ideas that will revolve around beer because we like beer so much.


On the topic of the North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable, did you anticipate that it would get as much coverage as it has been getting? 

Every time that I see people arriving to go and sit down and to listen to these conversations, I get really, really excited. I thought initially that when we came up with the idea, it would be pretty popular. I figured that there was enough excitement in the Twin Ports among locals because I think it's primarily locals that are attending the events and I felt pretty strongly that it would be a great turnout for the events...but yeah, I get super excited; Like at the time it happened, I can't believe what's happening. The first time I saw the TV press show up from the local television stations, I just couldn't believe it..it was awesome! It also takes alot of hard work to do that.

I spend alot of time before each one of those events contacting the press and spreading the word and working with folks like yourself and other bloggers and people on Twitter, Facebook, our affiliates, the breweries. Trying to get the word out to as broad an audience as possible, sending press releases to the newspaper and to the newspapers down in the Twin Cities and The Growler. So it takes alot of work but it's really exciting. It's a long answer to your question but initially yes, the reason we did this is because we were like "There is going to be alot of people interested in this." Even though we kind of anticipated, it's really exciting to see that. It's really encouraging and it's fun...it's super fun!


Where do you see the Twin Ports brewing scene 5-10 years down the road?

I see Duluth as a bright shining beacon of the best beer in the Midwest. We're got Lake Superior which is a huge resource of very clean, beautiful, delicious water. As long as we continue to take advantage of that resource in the beer-making, you're going to see a quality of beer coming out of Duluth increasing and it's kind of setting the bar for brewing. I don't know of anywhere that has the water that we have. I mean, I'm sure there are places that have great water but Duluth's is an amazing water resource! Just on that alone, you know water is 95% of beer and you can't get around the fact you need good water.

I think the Twin Ports/ North Shore craft beer scene will expand, I think there will be more breweries. I think there will be more production breweries and then exporting beer from this area. I really don't have a whole lot to base it off of other than the fact that the water resource is hugely important for the beer making and that alone should support the foundation for major brewing industry in this town.


....And would you say the water is what makes Duluth unique for brewing?

Yeah, I think so. The quality of our water is the big driver but then you got all these really interesting people that are crafting the beer and we've got some great brewers that are winning awards. That's the main thing too, we're lucky to have the caliber of brewers that we do in this town and having good brewers helps to spur some friendly competition to make better and better beer and I think it's great for the consumer.


What is your favorite style of beer?

Right now, I'm drinking a lot of rye-based beers and I like a nice proportion of rye in the grain bill. There's not a whole lot of Duluth breweries that make ryes so to the brewers out there: Let's make some rye beers. So yeah, Ryes and I like...I sort of gotten more into session beers whereas I used to be a bit into the bigger body, heavier alcohol beers. In fact, I brewed this winter a couple of Russian Imperial Stouts that turned out pretty good for an amatuer but they were warm. Hopefully if spring here arrives sometime soon and then more of the lighter, session beers. I love rye beers, I like sipping on sours when I can. I've never made a sour but there are some breweries in town that have some good sours or happen to be making some good sours.

You know, my favorite style of beer is local to be quite honest. Most of the time when I go into a place unless I know there's going to be something with rye, which nobody is brewing yet. Normally, I just usually order what catches my fancy that's local to be honest. Like right now, I'm having the Oatmeal Stout from Lake Superior (Brewing) and it's delicious. And that't the fun part about living in Duluth right now, you don't even need to drink imported beer, you can just drink local beer and there is a lot of different styles.

I think Minnesota is lucky to have such great beers!

You know, I lived in Arizona for 8 years and I've been a craft beer lover for a long time since '97 when I first started homebrewing and down in Arizona, you have Four Peaks Brewing Company and they make pretty good beer but it's just not the same as up here. I really believe it's the water, I really do. I believe the water is so much better.


One final question, let's just say I'm beer tourist and I want to come to Duluth. What is one thing that I should know before coming to Duluth when I'm coming to try out beer? Why should I come?

Duluth is a very welcoming city. It's very, very easy to visit a number of craft breweries on-foot, using a cab, using The Duluth Experience tour bus. I mean you can get around Duluth very easily. You can park your car and not have to get back in it what I'm saying. You can go and have a good time: Canal Park, Downtown Duluth, even the breweries that are on the west side of town, I mean it's not that big of a stretch to get out there and hit the taprooms, so it's pretty convenient. The actual answer is that Duluth is a very convenient city to drink in for craft beer and it's good beer! People should come here and drink more beer.


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A big Thank You to Dave Grandmaison for braving the weather to sit down with me at Sir Benedict's to talk with me about the his business and the North Shore Craft Beer Scene.

For more information about The Duluth Experience, you can visit their website at www.theduluthexperience.com 

You can also follow them on:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/TheDuluthExp

Facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/TheDuluthExperience

Lake Superior Old Man Winter Warmer Review

Name: Lake Superior Old Man Winter Warmer
Style: Barleywine
ABV: 10.3%

Today I received word that we are on track to have the coldest winter on record here in Duluth, as it is already the 2nd coldest on record at the time of writing this. I certainly picked a good year to move here, as my co-workers have told me and I have to agree with them. Oh, and schools around the state have been closed for the second consecutive day in a row. I think school has been closed more times this year then I had during the entire time I was in K-12 schools.

To honor this occasion of cold temperatures that Siberia would consider "too much", I've decided to review a local seasonal beer from Lake Superior Brewing called Old Man Winter Warmer, which is their Barleywine style ale, which clocks in at a healthy 10.3%.

Old Man Winter Warmer pours a black color which gives off a nice crimson hue when held up to a light.  The head retention is decent and the lacing also has some mild retention to it as well.

The nose has a nice aroma of caramel, licorice, vanilla and chocolate. There is an encompassing oak-like characteristic which gives it an almost "bourbon barrel" like quality to it.

The flavor has surprisingly smoky quality to it, which was not present in the nose. Along with that are notes of licorice, chocolate, oak, hops, roasted barley and vanilla. The oak/bourbon characteristic is still pretty much here and it's a very nice touch. The aftertaste is a very chocolate & vanilla finish.

The palate is surprisingly lightweight and the carbonation is also very mild as well. The overall feel of the palate works tremendously with the flavor.

I have to hand to Lake Superior Brewing, this is a very smooth (and not overpowering) tasting barleywine. The best part? It's very affordable and priced about as much as the other selections from Lake Superior. It won't be around for too much longer so pick this up while you can!


Lake Superior Old Man Winter Warmer - 9/10

Brau Brothers Moo Joos Review

Name: Brau Brothers Moo Joos
Style: Milk/Sweet Stout
ABV: 5.8%

It's time to review another offering from Brau Brothers Brewing Company. I've reviewed a couple of their beers before and enjoyed them quite a bit. Since I am currently homebrewing a milk stout and finished transferring the beer to the carboy for secondary fermentation, I decided I would review their Moo Joos Oatmeal Milk Stout.

Moo Joos pours an opaque black color with a khaki-colored head. The lacing is fairly abundant and the carbonation is very faint which is probably thanks in part to the color of the beer.

The nose has a nice oatmeal scent mixed in with some lactose and sweet chocolate. The floral hops provide a nice foundation along with notes of roasted barley, malt and yeast.

The flavor is very oatmeal and chocolate forward with some malts and a hint of caramel and hops to help even things out.

The palate is on the heavier side and some rather mild carbonation. This gives the the beer a nice creamy texture which compliments the flavor nicely.

All in all, I really enjoyed having this.It's got a great flavor and a nice creamy palate to boot. I would happily recommend this to anyone looking for a good milk stout

Brau Brothers Moo Joos - 9/10

Blacklist Spruce Tipped Imperial IPA Review

Name: Blacklist Spruce Tipped Imperial India Pale Ale
Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 9.5%

Today I have another beer from Duluth's very own Blacklist Brewing, and this time it's their Spruce Tipped Imperial IPA. I'll admit that that I was sold solely on the fact it's an Imperial IPA with Spruce in it, though they aren't the first Minnesota Brewery to do a strong spruced beer as that honor goes to Olvalde Brewing with their Ode to a Russian Shipwright.

This time around, I didn't make the same mistake of using my hands in an attempt to open this up. Instead I used a corkscrew and after about 20 seconds, it popped off. So when you have this have a corkscrew handy, I mean it...

Spruce Tipped pours a very hazy dark orange color. The head is pretty creamy & filmy in appearance which leaves behind no lacing and there also isn't any visible carbonation here.

The nose is pretty citrusy and sprucey upfront, with caramel malts, oak, and raisin/dark fruity notes. Both citrus and spruce notes in particular are both equally strong and almost overshadow everything else.

The flavor is a bit more caramel malt forward with citrus/piney hops, spruce, oak and rum raisins. Not too different from the flavor except with more of a malty backbone. If I could sum up the flavor in one way, it would be that it tastes like Christmas.

The body is fairly moderate in weight but feels pretty thick at the same time. The carbonation is also very mild and creamy, so it's pretty easy to drink for an Imperial IPA.

It's a different take on the Imperial IPA style and I think Blacklist has pulled it off rather well. It's more of an "off-the-beaten-path" style of beer so it isn't for everyone. However those looking for something a little different yet tasty will find this to be an enjoyable beer.

Blacklist Spruce Tipped Imperial IPA - 9/10

Brau Brothers Bancreagie Review

Name: Brau Brothers Bancreagie Peated Scotch Ale
Style: Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy
ABV: 7.6%

As I mentioned in an earlier review; Brau Brothers has been steadily growing over the past couple of years. Today I'm gonna review Bancreagie which is pronounced "Bohn-Cree-Gee"; And before you look it up, no could not find the meaning behind the name. If someone reading this is fluent in the Scots Language, feel free to educate me

This is their scotch ale and the first beer that I tried from them when I first got into craft beer. In fact, this was probably the first scotch ale that I had....ever! It'll be interesting to see how it holds up after a couple of years.

Bancreagie pours a mildly hazy gold color with a soapy head and some moderate carbonation.

The aroma has a distinct vanilla, chocolate, oak, caramel and bourbon smell. Caramel maltiness is there along with that vanilla bourbon/scotch scent.

The flavor has a fairly strong oak, smokey, vanilla, caramel and roasted barley flavor with a faint floral hoppiness. If I didn't know better, I'd say this was barrel aged! A little too smokey but good!

The body has a heavy feel to it with some moderate carbonation. Not exactly smooth but the heavy body does help ease the blow of the carbonation a bit.

Bancreagie is a pretty solid Scotch Ale that's unique enough to stand out yet good enough to enjoy. The taste is a bit too smoky for my liking when you consider the style but I'll gladly have this one again!

Brau Brothers Bancreagie Review - 8.5/10

Surly Wet (2013) Review

Name: Surly Wet (2013 Edition)
Style: India Pale Ale
ABV: 7.5%

Every fall, Surly releases their seasonal wet hop beer properly titled "Wet", it's a beer that usually flies off the shelves as quickly as it arrives. Even on the can it clearly states that this is a beer not meant to be aged. A couple of years ago, you would've been hard pressed to find this anywhere outside of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, but thanks to the booming market here in Duluth I was able to find some at the first place I stopped by.

I was surprised to even to find it in Duluth in first place because production of Wet was reduced to 1/2 of what it normally is this year because of space limitations to make room for Surlyfest (Surly's Oktoberfest Beer) but the more likely culprit is Darkness, Surly's highly-regarded Russian Imperial Stout. Hopefully once the new destination brewery opens up, space limitation won't be an issue. Since their original Brooklyn Center brewery will still be open, I'm guessing it'll be used solely for their speciality beers.

Every year, Wet uses different hops in it's recipe. Back in 2011 when I first had this, it used all Citra hops. Fast forward 2 years later, it used 75% Cascade Hops and 25% Centennial Hops. Let's see how this affects the flavor. I also want to note that the beer was canned on 9/12/13, a little over a week ago at the time of writing this.

Wet pours a clear orange color with a high amount of visible carbonation, foamy head and good lacing retention.

The aroma is made up of citrus hops, yeasts, biscuits, and malts. There's also a noticeable earthiness to the aroma as well. For some reason, it doesn't smell as strong as I remember it.

The flavor has a bitter resin hop flavor that hits the palate upfront followed by yeasts, buttery biscuits, light caramel and malts. The flavor is also not as vibrant as I had expected.

The body is moderate in weight but lightly carbonated. It's pretty easy to drink and it doesn't have an uncomfortable mouthfeel.

It pains me to say this but I'm disappointed in this year's release and I don't think it was worth the money I paid for it. Keep in mind, this isn't a bad beer but I've had better Wet Hop IPA offerings. Also I really can't pin the blame on Surly fully because of this year's hop shortage and the need to improvise. I hope next year that Surly Wet will have higher output and better quality thanks to their destination brewery, which will hopefully be open by the time the next Wet release comes out.

Surly Wet (2013) - 7.5/10

Blacklist Or De Belgique Review

Name: Blacklist Or De Belgique
Style: Belgian Strong Ale
ABV: 9.5%

Blacklist Brewing Company is a relatively new brewery here in Duluth....well not quite a brewery. Right now they rent out space at other breweries to brew their own beer; Or as they call it "Gypsy Brewing" according to their website. While this beer was brewed BY Blacklist, it was brewed AT Dubrue Brewing which is another microbrewery here in Duluth. They plan on setting up shop permanently in the future in either Northern Minnesota or Wisconsin, but for right now it's strictly rental.

Right now, I have only seen their Belgian Strong Ale: Or De Belgique, which means Gold of Belgium in Dutch(?). According to their website, they have a rotating lineup for each month of the year.

The beer pours a hazy dark yellow color with a fizzy head that becomes permanently filmy once it settles down but the lacing retention is surprisingly good. The carbonation activity visible is pretty high according to what I can see.

The aroma takes on a lemon zest, clove and pepper character upfront, followed by some bananas and pale malt sweetness.

Yeasts, cracked pepper, cloves and lemon zest start off the flavor before settling into a sweeter banana, bubblegum, and malt sweetness.

The body has a moderate weight to it but the carbonation is actually quite light and allows one to savor the flavors that this beer has to offer.

It's worth noting that while getting this beer open was like trying to pull a sword of a stone, the sword in this case is Excalibur. This is my way of saying that even though it's incredibly difficult to open, the great tasting beer that is contained within is well worth the effort to get it open.

Blacklist Or De Belgique - 9/10

Lift Bridge Hop Dish Review

Name: Lift Bridge Hop Dish IPA
Style: India Pale Ale
ABV: 7.5%
IBUs: 70

As I sit here waiting for Grand Theft Auto 5 to install, I figured I would take this time to review a beer. This one is Lift Bridge Brewing's first venture into the IPA market called "Hop Dish", a tongue-in-check acknowledgement to the casserole called "Hot Dish." According to Wikipedia, the Hot Dish is a popular dish here in the state of Minnesota, which is news to me because it's absolutely disgusting and shouldn't even exist to begin with.

With that said, let's hope that this is alot better than it's namesake "food" which it's named after.

Hop Dish pours a hazy golden color with a semi-foamy head and great lacing. There's some moderate carbonation visible inside of the glass.

The nose starts off with a good mixture of citrus & piney hops along with grapefruit, peach and caramel. Has a nice mixture of both fruity and sweetness.

The flavor starts out with some prominent piney hop and resiny notes before revealing the citrus hop, peach, and caramel malt finish.

The body is light in weight and the carbonation is rather mild, making this an easy to drink IPA.

As expected, Hop Dish beats out a Hot Dish in pretty much every category, including the "Possessing a great flavor that doesn't suck" category. Lift Bridge's first shot at an IPA is a great one and I'm glad to see this one is becoming a regular offering instead of a seasonal.

Lift Bridge Hop Dish - 8.5/10