A visit to Wild Mind Artisan Ales

These past few days have been busy for myself, mainly due to work, school, and taproom travelling. So this past weekend, I visited a few breweries since so many have been popping up recently. The first brewery I checked out is a relatively new brewery in South Minneapolis by the name of Wild Mind Artisan Ales.

As you may have guessed by the name, Wild Mind specializes in mainly wild ales along with traditional Belgian styles and the first brewery in the Twin Cities to have that be their primary focus; With maybe the exception of Fair State, who are known around here for producing exceptional wild ales,

It was noontime on Saturday with an overcast sky. Since it had just opened up 20 minutes prior, the taproom was rather quiet, which was good for me because I was operating on a timed schedule that afternoon. As I sat down, something happened to me that had never happened to me before: The gentleman running the bar (Jason, I believe his name was), recognized who I was through this website. I had only mentioned that it was my first time there and he right away knew who I was. So much for keeping a low profile, oh well!

Since I was running on a limited time frame, I wasn't able to sample all the beers they had there but I decided to select those which I felt best reflected the spirit of the brewery.

Double Dry Hopped Saison (5.5% ABV) - Nice Belgian yeast and clove notes with some nice citrus hops and honeydew melon sweetness, all back up by a nice pale malt backbone. It's nice and refreshing and the honeydew melon aspect really puts a different spin on what is otherwise a traditional Belgian style.

Rye Wild Ale (7.5% ABV) - Nice sour tartness that lingers throughout which is balanced out by some citrus hoppiness and solid rye bill, along with some mild toffee maltiness. In terms of taproom sours I've had before, this one is definitely one of the more balanced ones that I've come across and it's a very good one at that too!

Motueka Wild Ale (6.8% ABV) - Slight tartness with some floral & light citrus/kiwi hops along with some mild earthy pilsner maltiness. Much like the Rye Wild Ale, this one was also quite balanced and definitely had a refreshing quality to it.

Photo Credit: Growler Magazine

Overall, I was very pleased with what offerings I was able to try out and I'm very excited to see what these guys are going to be able to do, so I'll be keeping my eye on these guys, particularly in the barrel aging department since I saw some pretty large oak barrels/casks in the main entryway. As for everyone else, this is certainly worth checking out and while their focus is on wild ales, I spotted some more mainstream craft beer styles while I was there, so there's something for everyone.