Alright everyone,
I’m in the process of cleaning up and getting back up and running, and with it, there are some changes that are going to occur. I’m here today to explain to you just what is going to change and how I believe each change will be for the better, Without further ado, let's get started:
Wine & Spirits - The biggest change here is that in addition to reviewing beer, I’ll also be looking at craft spirits & wine. My reason for this is that during my time running my old website, I visited quite a few distilleries & wineries and out their stories (and drinks) to be just as captivating as a brewery and their beer. Plus, it gives me a chance to explore other aspects of the craft alcohol industry in ways that would've seen foreign to me just a couple years ago.
No More Scoring System - The other big change I’m making is that I’m no longer going to include a score at the end of each review. Looking back at my old reviews, I feel that assigning a numerical score to a beer is quite subjective and, in some cases, overshadows the actual review itself. I’ll still be following the same format as before but there’ll be no score at the end; Just a summary of my thoughts on the beer itself.
Layout Changes - It's no secret to those who were once faithful readers that my formatting didn't change much during the four years that I did blogging. That said, I feel the look of the website feels dated and is in need of a face lift. I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to proceed with the final look but you'll know it when you see it!
Name Change (or lack thereof) - In my previous post, I mentioned that I was considering changing the name of this blog. I was tossing around names like Nick's Booze Blog or Nick's Boozy Blog. However, I have ultimately decided against this, in spite of the forthcoming of non-beer beverages that are to be featured on here. My reason is because this blog started out as Nick's Beer Blog and the fact that I have already established this website as such. Plus the aforementioned names just don't quite sound as catchy.
There you have it. While I'm looking forward to these changes, the thing I'm most excited about is getting back to writing on this website. It's been a couple of years but it feels good to be home!
Cheers!
- Nick
Showing posts with label Craft Beer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craft Beer. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
How I got into Craft Beer (Part 1)
**Since I will be busy with moving over the next few days, I will not the have time to do beer reviews. Instead of leaving you all hanging, I put together some materials in advance to hold you all over until I get settled in. Hopefully you'll like reading these as much as I enjoyed putting it all together**
Many of us fondly remember when we had our first beer, but some of us also remember our first time discovering the world of craft beer. For some, it was trying out something new at a friends house. For others, it came to us when we were out at the bar and were curious to try out the new draft offering.
I often get asked how I got into craft beer and the answer is...well, I always find myself having to explain how exactly I got into it. Usually I'll say it was a process of trial, error, and the perseverance of human will....but that usually leaves people with a look of confusion on their face. So instead of having to tirelessly explain my tale, I figured to myself "Why not put it in writing form?"
My journey began when I first turned 21 years old. I had just left the DMV, having updated my license and was looking to celebrate my new-founded perk of finally obtaining alcohol legally. Conveniently located right down the street from the DMV was a liquor store, so I made my way over there and spent about 20 minutes deciding what beer to get. Since I didn't know what quality beer was, I settled for a six-pack of regular Coors. It's what all the cool kids drink, right?
Upon arriving back at my dorm that evening, I chipped away at a couple of beers while playing Halo 3 online with a couple friends of mine. During my time getting run over by a warthog driven by the blue team I pondered over the rather subpar taste of Coors and figured it would take some getting used to. Over the next couple of years, I would occasionally dabble with other macro beers like Budweiser, Rolling Rock & Milwaukee's Best before settling for Canadian imports like Labatt Blue & Kokanee. The world of craft beer was, at the time, not yet known to me.
Fast forward a couple years to 2009, I was at Pizza Luce is South Minneapolis with a few friends of mine when it was suggested to me that I try out a certain craft beer. Not knowing what a craft beer was, it was explained to me that it was beer but independently made and it came in many different styles. At this point, buzzwords like Tripel, Dubbel, IPA, Saison & English Pale Ale were thrown at me like I was on the wrong end of a one-sided food fight.
I caved in and ordered a pint of Surly Furious much to the delight of my friends. Upon the initial sip, I almost immediately spit it out, much to the shock of my friends. My underdeveloped palate convinced me that instead of getting beer, I got a glass full of Pine-Sol. I immediately flagged down the server with the Salvador Dali mustache, asked him to bring me a tallboy of Grain Belt, and openly told him that drinking the beer I had was comparable to that of having my taste buds violated by industrial-grade cleaning chemicals.
The look on his face was that of disappointment, anger and disbelief, all rolled into one. It didn't help that, as he was walking away, I heard him say "I can't believe ANYONE would talk that way about Surly." To him, I was the worst human being to walk the face of the earth in his eyes; All because of my horrible taste in beer.
I could not figure out for the life of me why he had taken such offense to my comments. Well, the beer in question that I ordered at the urging of my friend was none other than Surly Furious, considered by many craft beer fans to be amongst the best IPAs in America.....and I had just compared it Pine-Sol. Looking back, I'm very surprised that I made it out of there alive that night.
And that, my friends, is my first exposure to the world craft beer!
Many of us fondly remember when we had our first beer, but some of us also remember our first time discovering the world of craft beer. For some, it was trying out something new at a friends house. For others, it came to us when we were out at the bar and were curious to try out the new draft offering.
I often get asked how I got into craft beer and the answer is...well, I always find myself having to explain how exactly I got into it. Usually I'll say it was a process of trial, error, and the perseverance of human will....but that usually leaves people with a look of confusion on their face. So instead of having to tirelessly explain my tale, I figured to myself "Why not put it in writing form?"
My journey began when I first turned 21 years old. I had just left the DMV, having updated my license and was looking to celebrate my new-founded perk of finally obtaining alcohol legally. Conveniently located right down the street from the DMV was a liquor store, so I made my way over there and spent about 20 minutes deciding what beer to get. Since I didn't know what quality beer was, I settled for a six-pack of regular Coors. It's what all the cool kids drink, right?
Upon arriving back at my dorm that evening, I chipped away at a couple of beers while playing Halo 3 online with a couple friends of mine. During my time getting run over by a warthog driven by the blue team I pondered over the rather subpar taste of Coors and figured it would take some getting used to. Over the next couple of years, I would occasionally dabble with other macro beers like Budweiser, Rolling Rock & Milwaukee's Best before settling for Canadian imports like Labatt Blue & Kokanee. The world of craft beer was, at the time, not yet known to me.
 |
| Me circa 2009 AKA simpler times |
I caved in and ordered a pint of Surly Furious much to the delight of my friends. Upon the initial sip, I almost immediately spit it out, much to the shock of my friends. My underdeveloped palate convinced me that instead of getting beer, I got a glass full of Pine-Sol. I immediately flagged down the server with the Salvador Dali mustache, asked him to bring me a tallboy of Grain Belt, and openly told him that drinking the beer I had was comparable to that of having my taste buds violated by industrial-grade cleaning chemicals.
The look on his face was that of disappointment, anger and disbelief, all rolled into one. It didn't help that, as he was walking away, I heard him say "I can't believe ANYONE would talk that way about Surly." To him, I was the worst human being to walk the face of the earth in his eyes; All because of my horrible taste in beer.
I could not figure out for the life of me why he had taken such offense to my comments. Well, the beer in question that I ordered at the urging of my friend was none other than Surly Furious, considered by many craft beer fans to be amongst the best IPAs in America.....and I had just compared it Pine-Sol. Looking back, I'm very surprised that I made it out of there alive that night.
And that, my friends, is my first exposure to the world craft beer!
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Macrobrewers & the Craft Beer Market Part 1 - Craft vs. Crafty
Macrobrewers & the Craft Beer Market Part 1 - Craft vs. Crafty
A couple weeks ago, a man by the name of Evan Parent, filed a lawsuit again MillerCoors. The reason? Because he alleges that Blue Moon's marketing, pricing & placement amongst other craft beers lead him to believe that Blue Moon was a craft beer. He also says that it violates California’s Consumer Legal Remedies Act and how it's misleading and a bunch of other legalese I'm not even going to bother with.
Point is that this whole lawsuit has motivated me to write a couple of pieces regarding the whole Craft Beer vs. Crafty Beer argument. I feel that I have enough experience and know-how to throw in my two cents about this topic. Plus I feel that this is an issue that will really start to take off over the next couple of years.
While the whole argument of Craft vs. Crafty has been on the minds of beers drinkers for quite a while, it was never really bought to the forefront and was, until recently, mostly commentary of a not-so-serious nature. That all changed when this commercial debuted during this year's Super Bowl.....
When this commercial was released, the responses were all over the place. Some took an analytical approach to it, other breweries decided to put together their own response and others took this as a declaration of war on craft beer industry. It's no secret that there are breweries out there that may seemingly appear as a craft brewery to the uninformed consumer but are, in fact, owned by a macro-brewer like MillerCoors or AB In-Bev.
Who is a craft brewer?
According to the Brewer's Association, they define a craft brewery as the following:
Annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less (approximately 3 percent of U.S. annual sales). Beer production is attributed to the rules of alternating proprietorships.
Independent
Less than 25 percent of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member that is not itself a craft brewer.
Traditional
A brewer that has a majority of its total beverage alcohol volume in beers whose flavor derives from traditional or innovative brewing ingredients and their fermentation. Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) are not considered beers.
These guidelines were created with good intentions as a means of helping beer drinkers tell the difference between an independent brewer and someone who was, well...............not. It seemed all clean-cut and such, but there was a problem.
A couple of years ago, there was a bit of controversy with what defined a craft brewer. One brewery in particular, August Schell Brewing, was "blacklisted" because the ingredients used their long-standing Grain Belt lager used adjuncts in the brewing process, which started out of necessity when the brewery first opened up and has been used still out of tradition. Even many thought they fulfilled the requirements of all three guidelines.
I remember when I first saw this news, I was shocked. I always have considered them to be the original Minnesota craft brewery, who will be celebrating their 165th Anniversary this year. Sure they make Grain Belt, which is their flagship beer, but they also make a ton of other styles and they aren't owned by any major corporations. In fact, I would even argue that Sam Adams is more along the lines of being big beer than Schell's is. Thankfully, a little over a year afterwards in early 2014, the BA changed their definition as to who was a craft brewer and August Schell's was finally considered to be a craft brewer again.
Compare that to the likes of Goose Island & Blue Moon, both of which are owned 100% by Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors respectively. Though Goose Island was considered craft prior to its buyout to Anheuser-Busch, Blue Moon was created specifically by MillerCoors about 20 years ago so they were never considered craft at any point of their existence.
Now here is where I become a Devil's advocate of sorts because while I do think companies like Goose Island and Blue Moon are trying to pass themselves off as crafty, isn't that really the point? If there is anything I have learned from marketing, it's that the whole idea behind marketing is so that a company can draw in and retain business long term. In fact, it's safe to assume that the vast majority of craft breweries on the market today owe their very existence, directly or indirectly, to Big Beer.
I've already explained in my review of Bud Light that the newer generation of beer drinkers, namely Millennials, are less likely to drink a Budweiser product because of lack of brand loyalty and a wider selection of beers to choose from than 20-30 years ago. One thing we can all agree upon is that macro-brewers are trying their hardest to appeal to a wider demographic and retain their share of the beer industry. Which is why Anheuser-Busch recently acquired well-known craft breweries like Elysiun Brewing & 10 Barrel Brewing.
This is, of course, something I will touch upon more in the next post.
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Announcing BradtoberFest 2014
BradtoberFest
Run/Rawk/Crawl to celebrate life in Duluth, benefit young musicians
September 18, 2014 – The Friends of Brad
Memorial Foundation (FOBMF) will channel the celebratory, community-minded
spirit of Germany’s Oktoberfest with an upcoming festival that connects Duluth
area music, craft beer, and running communities.
The
BradtoberFest Run/Rawk/Crawl will take place in Duluth on Sunday, October 5.
The event offers
participants a unique opportunity to listen to live music and taste 4-ounce
samples of local craft beer while traversing a path that links local breweries
and beer-centric venues.
Duluth’s burgeoning brewery scene provided
the impetus for BradtoberFest. For the first time, all 9 Duluth and North Shore
breweries will be united for a single community event. “When we noticed there’s
roughly a 5K route connecting all of Duluth’s breweries, we had to do something
about it," says Troy Rogers, FOBMF president. "We’re
a music-focused organization, but we appreciate the craft beer aesthetic that
is emerging in Duluth. It's a culture that encourages conscious, active
living. It embraces art and music. These are all elements our organization
seeks to cultivate in our community."
Participants can
either run or walk the approximately 3-mile route that begins at Bent Paddle
Brewing Company, stops at a number of breweries and pubs and finally culminates
at the Fitger’s complex courtyard in a finish line celebration featuring food,
music, games, and a silent auction. An after party with additional music will
follow at the Red Herring Lounge.
Events organized by
the Friends of Brad always include elements of humor and absurdity, in keeping
with the playful disposition of their namesake, Brad Rozman. Participants can
choose to be pied in the face at the finish line and are encouraged to wear
costumes and sport “tighty-whities” underwear.
Proceeds will benefit
young musicians, supporting programs such as the Duluth Music Resource Center
and FOBMF's scholarship, fellowship, and other charitable programs.
Ticket
information and further info:
BradtoberFest
Run/Rawk/Crawl
Sunday, October 5
Starting at Noon at Bent Paddle Brewing Co.
1912 W Michigan Street, Duluth, MN
Registration fee: $25*
Registration includes: a 4 oz. beer sample, live music at each stop and
entrance to the Red Herring Lounge after party. Early registrants also get a
BradtoberFest t-shirt (limited availability) and can sign up for add-ons like a
shuttle from the start to the end point through the Duluth Experience.
Performers: Black River Revue, The
Boomchucks, The Brothers
Burn Mountain, Mary Bue, Dedric Clark and the Social Animals, Preston Gunderson, Emily Haavik, Adam Herman (of The Slamming Doors),
Rich Mattson and Germaine Gemberling, Hannah Rey, Robot Rickshaw (Troy
Rogers walks the robots), Starling
of Athens (Toby Thomas Churchill), THUG (Two Harbors Ukulele Group), Tin Can Gin and Tribal
Alchemie featuring the Yabobo
drummers.
Participating breweries & pubs and major
sponsors: Bent Paddle Brewing Co., Blacklist Brewing, Borealis Fermentery, Canal Park Brewing Company, Carmody Irish Pub & Brewery, Castle Danger Brewery, Dubh Linn Irish Pub, The Duluth Experience, Endion Station Public House, Fitger’s Brewhouse Brewery and Grille, KUMD – 103.3 FM, Lake Superior Brewing Company,
the Red Herring Lounge and 7 West Taphouse.
Fun
video from the inaugural BradtoberFest Run/Walk/Crawl
About
the Friends of Brad Memorial Foundation
Bradley
E. Rozman’s life was tragically cut short in May 2009. The Friends of Brad
Memorial Foundation is a nonprofit organization that was created by a group of
Brad's family and close friends to honor his memory. The Foundation celebrates
and cultivates young Minnesota musicians through a variety of programs,
including BradFest, a music festival. For
more information or to contribute to the Foundation, contact info@friendsofbrad.org or visit http://www.friendsofbrad.org.
About Bradley
E. Rozman
Brad Rozman discovered a love for
drumming at a young age and pursued this passion with vigor for the rest of his
life. In the early days, he formed garage bands with his musician friends and
led the drum line in the VHS marching band. After high school, he went on to
study percussion performance at St. Cloud State University and the University
of Illinois-Urbana. When he returned to Minnesota from graduate school, Brad
became involved in many music-making endeavors in the Duluth area, most notably
as the drummer for the bands High Volt Rustler and Equal Exchange.
It will be tons of fun and I hope to see you all there
Cheers!
- Nick
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Minnesota Craft Beer Week 2014 - Day 2 (A personal account)
On the second day, it started out as a fairly uneventful day. In the morning I was at my fiance's house having some breakfast whilst her family catching up on the latest episode of India's Got Talent via online streaming on the living room TV. Let me tell you, if the American version was just as entertaining as the one I viewed that morning, I would probably be a regular viewer....maybe.
After me and my fiance left her house, we swung by Elevated Beer Wine & Spirits to take advantage of the discounted Minnesota Craft Beer promotion they were running in honor of Minnesota Craft Beer Week. When we were finished there, we deliberated as to where we would go first decided we would make our way to Great Waters Brewing Company located in downtown St. Paul. Like Dangerous Man the day before, this was my first time at the brewery.
Great Waters St. Walpurgis Night Maibock - Fairly light bodied with some light honey and pale malt flavors. The floral hop flavor is minor but it does help balance out the flavor profile a little bit.
Sadly that was the only beer I had there and in retrospect, I felt that I should've done a flight as they had quite a few selections on tap there. After finishing up there, my little brother messaged me to let me know that he was free to celebrate his 21st (belated) birthday in St. Louis Park. Since I was going to be in that area, our next stop was The Four Firkins to sample a pin of Surly Blakkr with Simcoe & Centennial hops.
After finishing up at The Four Firkins, we met up with my little brother at Bunny's Bar & Restaurant a few blocks over to celebrate his 21st birthday. When I was looking over the tap selection, I noticed their beer of the month was an offering from Enki Brewing, whom I've had just a couple of beers from before. The beer on tap was Ceili, an Irish Red Ale. It had been a while since I've had an Irish Red Ale so I ordered up a pint for myself.
Enki Brewing Ceili - A light bodied beer with some light floral hops, toasty barley, pale & munich malts with a lightly hopped aftertaste.
Overall it was a good day but it felt a bit underwhelming to me because I felt I could've tried more. Still it was awesome to try out some new beers and I knew the next day would be even better. Stay tuned for my next post as I think you will be in for a treat!
Cheers!
Nick
Thursday, May 8, 2014
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 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
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Interview with Dave Grandmaison: CEO & Co-Founder of The Duluth Experience
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.
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