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 5 (A personal account)

Early Saturday morning while I was running out to grab some breakfast, I made the startling discovery that my car had been leaking transmission fluid for the past couple of days. I say couple of days because we had been driving my fiance's car as a means of getting around because of gas mileage. Fearing the worst, I made a stop at AutoZone to get some sealant for my transmission (Spoiler Alert: It didn't work but that's another story.)

In the meantime, we decided that day that we weren't going to be doing too much on account of us being burnt out from driving everywhere. We ultimately decided we were going to the Food Truck Rally over at Harriet Brewing.

Once we arrived, I was taken aback by how nice it was outside, a nice balmy 72 degrees Fahrenheit. After the long crappy winter we had endured, it was like I was below the 45th Pararell...oh wait, I was! We dined on the finest cuisine known to man: From Mac and Cheese Sandwiches to Philly Cheese Steak; From fried Mac & Cheese balls to probably the most outlandish of the bunch..

Behold! Probably the most unhealthiest food that I have eaten outside of the Minnesota State Fair! I present to you a chocolate chip cookie covered in Nutella and topped with bacon. Did I shorten my lifespan by 5 years simply by eating this? Probably. Was it delicious? Of course!

However, I didn't make this post to talk about food, I'm here to talk about the beer. Since flights were not an option I decided to have a couple of pints so I had to choose carefully! In the end, I ended up having 3 of them and here are my thoughts on the ones that I had.

Harriet Brewing West Side IPA - Their Belgian Style IPA. This beer possess a strong Belgian yeast character with some nice citrus hops and a strong candied caramel malty backbone. It was quite a tasty beer! Even my fiance, who generally tends to avoid anything remotely related to IPAs, had a sip of this and liked it so much, she ended up buying a pint for herself!

Harriet Brewing Saison Nourrice - Like their West Side IPA, this had a fairly strong Belgian Yeast characteristic to it. However, it had a fairly strong sour flavor to it by Saison standards along with some pale malts and floral hops. With that said, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's definitely a different take on the Saison Style but it works out surprisingly well.

Harriet Brewing Sour Barrel Aged Divine Oculust on Raspberries - A take on their regular Belgian Golden Strong Ale and part of their sour barrel aging program. This beer has a very strong fruity-raspberry profile along with some nice sour notes that are actually fairly mild and approachable and there are some light citrus notes to top it all off. If this is what the sour barrel program is aiming for, then I think it's done it's job quite well.

Even though our day was relatively short, between the great beer, food and surprisingly good live music, we still had an absolutely fun time. Anyone visiting Minneapolis who is into craft beer owes it to themselves to check this place out. I would definitely visit this place again if I were given the chance

Minnesota Craft Beer Week 2014 - Day 1 (A personal account)

A couple of months ago, I requested this week off as a means for a little vacation. So yesterday I headed out from Duluth to make my journey down to the Twin Cities. Since I moved up to Duluth last July, I feel like a lot has changed in terms of the craft beer down in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area just based on what I have been reading and sure enough, there has been quite a bit of growth and selection expansion since I was last here.

On my way in to town, I swung by Elevated Beer, Wine & Spirits to stop by to say "Hi" to some of the people who worked there and to grab a couple of bombers from Bent Brewstillery. Prior to me moving to Duluth, this would be the place I'd go to grab my beer mainly because of the selection, service and atmosphere. Also, they have a pretty good radio show on the local ESPN affiliate that is worth listening to if you get the chance. It was also very nice to see both Blacklist Brewing and Bent Paddle Brewing represented quite well on the shelves, which to me is a testament to the rapidly expanding craft beer scene right up I-35 in the Duluth-Superior-North Shore Area.

After picking up my fiance and having some lunch over at Parkway Pizza, we headed over to Dangerous Man Brewing Company. I had been hearing quite a bit about Dangerous Man, namely with everyone giving very high praises to their Chocolate Milk Stout. Alas, we do not get them in Duluth because the only way to get Dangerous Man is by going to the actual taproom.

We arrived about 10 minutes after they opened up and it was already pretty busy but we managed to grab a couple of seats at the bar. I will say one thing about the atmosphere: it perfectly captures the spirit of Northeast Minneapolis; From the music playlist featuring local music artists to the overall artwork/architecture of the room. Since I didn't happen to have my laptop with me, I just have tasting notes. So be prepared, these aren't going to be full on reviews but you get the general idea.

Dangerous Man Chocolate Milk Stout - I wanted to get right to the beer which Dangerous Man is most well known for which is their Chocolate Milk Stout. I'm glad to say that this is one of those beers that live up to the hype which I have been seeing. It's got a very creamy and smooth palate with some strong chocolate & lactose notes followed by roasted barley and coffee. The aftertaste is also pretty sweet & chocolatey with only some minor roastiness. I can definitely see why people flock back to the taproom time and time again to have this beer.

Dangerous Man Cara Cara Wit - I decided to switch it up a bit afterwards and go for something a bit lighter. Witbiers are typically hit and miss for me but I found this beer to be quite very enjoyable. It's a fairly light bodied beer but it's got that distinct berry and lemon zest tart-sweetness that blended quite well with the malted wheat profile.

Dangerous Man Session Hefe - For my last beer, I went with something a bit more sessionable so I decided why not get into the spirit of spring with a Hefeweizen. Like the Cara Cara, it had a fairly prominent but not quite as strong malted wheat profile. It also had a distinct grape-like fruitness to the overall flavor. Still, I thought it was pretty good, even by session-ale standards

After finishing up at Dangerous Man, I met up with a couple of friends over at Northbound Smokehouse over in South Minneapolis, where we watched the Minnesota Wild bring the pain to the Blackhawks. While I was there I helped myself to the Light Rail Pale Ale, which I've already done a review on. However that night they were releasing their Buckwheat Honey Porter as part of Minnesota Craft Beer Week. Intrigued I decided to give it a go...

Northbound Smokehouse Buckwheat Honey Porter - Fairly typical roasted barley/chocolate profile which can be found in a porter. With that said, the honey used in making this beer helps offset that roastiness to give it a sweeter and approachable flavor. My fiance, who is not typically into dark beers, actually enjoyed this quite a bit which is saying something right there.

All and all, it was a great first day to try out good local beer. I'll have more posts coming this way so sta tuned.

Cheers!

- Nick