Blacklist Peach Hazy Review

Name: Blacklist Peach Hazy
Style: India Pale Ale (Hazy/New England style)
ABV: 6.3%
IBUs: 28

It’s been well over five years since I reviewed anything from Blacklist Artisanal Ales. The last time I reviewed anything from them, they were contracting brewing at the old Dubrue facility before settling into their current spot in Downtown Duluth, which I'll cover in a future article!

In fact, my first post about Blacklist was 6 years ago this month! I recall they were packaging their beers in 750ml bottles and topping it off with corks that were too big for their own good. I remember coming home from work with a bottle of their Or de Belgique and spending upwards of 10 minutes trying in vain to pull out the cork with both my hands and corkscrew, all whilst swearing up a storm in an attempt to get at that "Gold of Belgium."

Going through my unused photos for my Or de Belgique article from 6 years ago, I took this photo after managing to finally to uncork this monstrosity.

...And here's me expressing my hatred and frustration at the cork which I had spent what seemed forever trying to open.

After what seemed like forever in my attempt to open it up, it finally popped out and I was taken aback by how good it was; It made all my efforts worth it! A year later, when I was helping promote & organize Bradtoberfest in Duluth, I actually met one of the former owners, Jon, at Endion Station since Blacklist was one of the sponsors of the event.

I recall shaking Jon’s hand and telling him how awesome Blacklist’s beers were before immediately mentioning the corks. A look of resignation came across his face as he was fully aware of the cork issue since the ones they ordered ended up being a millimeter too big from what their initial measurements were.

Nowadays, they utilize cans which are much easier to open. Which brings us to Peach Hazy, their own version of the Hazy IPA and one that was teased by one of my friends who works at Blacklist back in June. Since there was so much hype surrounding it, you know I have to check it out.

Appearance – Hazy dark orange color with no visible carbonation. The head is quite foamy in appearance but there’s no lacing to be had here.

Aroma -  Strong peach and citrus hops permeate throughout the nose. It’s like someone sliced open a fresh apricot and stuck it in your face. Sure there’s some mild maltiness in here but it’s pretty much all apricot.

Taste -  Much like the nose, the palate is dominated by the peachy sweetness and citrus hoppiness, both of which linger in the aftertaste along with a light bitterness. There is an encompassing mild maltiness in here but that is secondary compared to the peach and citrus aspect of the flavor.

If you enjoy hazy IPAs and/or in-your-face fruity beers, this beer is pretty much a love letter to you. The peach and citrus hop aspects of the flavor work in-tandem with each other to create a rather memorable drinking experience. That said, this one is definitely worth picking up should you see it!

Nick of the Northland

When I first started this blog last year, my intention was to make it an outlet for my thoughts about the different craft beers I tried out and nothing else. To me, there was nothing better than coming home from work, sitting down at my desk, cracking open a beer, and writing my thoughts about it.

A few months after my blog started, my job brought me to Duluth. It was when I moved here that I discovered that the craft beer scene in this area had a lot to offer and I tried covering it to the best of my abilities. However with all the writing that I was doing, I still considered it to be a hobby, went about my daily routine and gave it no second thought.

Then earlier this year, Dave Grandmaison from The Duluth Experience contacted me to help promote the North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable, to which I was more than happy to help with since I knew just how vibrant the craft beer scene in Duluth-Superior was. After the first Roundtable event, I drove home with my notebook full of notes sitting in the passenger's seat and was thinking of ways I was going to present my notes in a blog post. It was during this time I was hit with a realization that came out of nowhere: I wanted to make a living in the craft brewing industry.

Back in 2012, during my last semester in Augsburg College, I along with other seniors had to take a Keystone course prior to graduating and the purpose of the class was meant to make us reflect on our college experience as well as our respective career paths we had carved out for ourselves. Now when you take a bunch of graduating seniors and put them in a room once a week for 2-3 hours to talk about their college experience, chances are that their attention span will be like that of a five year old who just drank a can of Mountain Dew.

For all the times we brushed off the lectures, one of the professors talked about finding our personal vocation and how some of us will realize our calling when we least expect it. It took me two years after taking that course to figure out what exactly he meant by that, so perhaps he knew what he was talking about after all.

After this actualization, I began to take myself as a writer seriously. Suddenly my writing was no longer about beer reviews. As I continued to do more promotions for The Duluth Experience, I started conducting interviews with figures in the craft brewing industry. I was even taking time to attend craft beer-related events as well as visiting different breweries that were either well-established or that were just starting out.

Then this past June, I met a gentleman by the name of Lee Witte, who runs NorthlandBeer.com along with his partner, Marissa Sauer. I told him about my blog and offered to help promote events that Northland Beer was organizing, of which you have probably seen posts on this past summer.

Recently I was given the opportunity to become a major contributor for Northland Beer as a columnist called Nick of the Northland. It is a position that I am very honored to have and I'm excited to bring my knowledge and expertise to a wider audience. My duties will be mainly covering the craft beer and events in the Upper Midwest, as well as doing special interest posts (i.e. Seasonal recommendations, Q&As, etc.) as well as highlighted beers that I feel should be shared with readers.

Never in a million years would I have guessed that when I first started this blog that it would've taken me here! From all the awesome people I've met to all the fun times that I've had (as well as many more I'll have down the road), I cannot wait to see what the future holds for me.

Now before you start getting any ideas, I'm going to get this out of the way right now. This blog isn't going anywhere. I will still be posting on here as usual. After all, it has been good to me and I still feel there is tons of ground to cover both on the local and national level.

Thank you all for your support & remember.....

"Good people drink good beer."

- Hunter S. Thompson

Cheers!

- Nick

Northland Beer presents the OctoberFest Local-Motive

As we make the transition from summer to fall, not only do the color of the leaves change but also the beer that we drink. That is why it's my pleasure to announce the OctoberFest Local-Motive brought to you by Northland Beer.

The OctoberFest Local-Motive will take passengers on two and a half hour train ride up Lake Superior's North Shore Scenic Railroad, all while being treated to a dinner courtesy of Duluth Grill.

The dinner will be paired with local craft beer from Blacklist Brewing, Bent Paddle Brewing Company and Lake Superior Brewing . Keeping in the spirit of eating and drinking local, the event will also feature local Twin Ports-based musical acts.

The train will depart Saturday, October 11, 2014 at 5:30 to 8:00PM from the Historic Depot located at 506 W. Michigan St. in downtown Duluth. Tickets are $60 and you must be 21 or older to attend. To register, you can sign up at Duluthtrains.com or by calling 218-722-1273

Come celebrate the fall season with Northland Beer and have a great dinner paired with locally-made beer that perfectly showcases Duluth's vibrant craft brewing community. This is truly an event that can only happen along Minnesota's North Shore.

Northland Beer Presents The Duluth-Superior Pride Fest Craft Brew Tent

In a couple of weeks, the 28th annual Duluth-Superior Pride Festival will kick off August 28th thru August 31th and will feature a wide range of events and activities to choose from. That is why it is my pleasure to announce the first ever Duluth-Superior Pride's Craft Brew Tent, sponsored by Northlandbeer.com.

Northland Beer will be running the very first Pride Festival Craft Beer Tent during the Pride Festival in The Park on August 30th from 11am-7pm in Bayfront Park in Duluth. Featured will be beer from Duluth's very own Bent Paddle Brewing and for the first time ever in the Twin Ports, Sociable Cider Werks, Minnesota's very first producer of hard cider.

Come on down to the festivities in Bayfront Park on August 30th, support the GLBTQ community and have some good beer and cider at the same time, courtesy of Northland Beer.

I hope to see you all there.

Cheers!

- Nick

Bent Paddle Daypack Pale Ale Review

Name: Bent Paddle Daypack Pale Ale
Style: American Pale Ale
ABV: 4.7%

It's been over a year since I've reviewed anything from Bent Paddle Brewing, despite the numerous new beers they have made since I reviewed their Black Ale and Bent Hop IPA last year. Since writing those reviews, they have made tremendous strides and have grown beyond even my wildest expectations. To give you idea, they started distributing to the Twin Cities at the end of 2013, something which I didn't expect would happen until around this summer.

With all this growth, it makes sense that they would want to diversify their portfolio. Earlier this summer they released their Paddle Break Blonde (fantastic, by the way), which was featured in their taproom last year as a draft only release. Now they have given us their Daypack Pale Ale, which is their proclaimed sessionable American Pale Ale.

Daypack Pale Ale pours a fairly hazy orange color with a head that has a very thin appearance. The lacing is quite abundant

The aroma has a nice subtle scent of citra hops, grapefruit and with a moderate caramel sweetness. For a sessionable APA, this smells quite sweet.

The flavor has some mild citrus & floral hoppiness, a bit of yeast esters and some caramel maltiness, all of which seem to hit the palate at once. There isn't really anything in the aftertaste so it's very dry.

The palate is very light in both body and carbonation, so it's very easy to drink. Given the flavor, it fits very well.

All and all, it's standard session ale that has some good flavor that isn't complex by any stretch of the imagination. However, if you're outside doing yardwork or out on a hike and are in need of a refreshing beer, Daypack will definitely hit the spot.

Bent Paddle Daypack Pale Ale - 8/10

Weekly Duluth Beer Roundup for 7/27/2014

This will be my last roundup post for the next couple of weeks as I will be at my wedding next weekend. Before I head off to tie the knot, I figured I would sample some beers from around the Twin Ports area. This week was a special one because the new Fitger's Tide House called Endion Station opened in Canal Park this weekend.

Of course, the big event that was held in Duluth this weekend was the All Pints North festival, which is a beer festival held at in Duluth every year at the end of July. Now I was not able to go due to other obligations but I did meet up with a few friends from down in the Twin Cities whom were up for the festival itself at Thirsty Pagan Brewing in Superior before making the rounds around Duluth.

Thirsty Pagan Cracked Pepper Pils (5.5% ABV) - A very interesting specimen of a Pilsner. It's got a nice lemon zest, grassiness and Pilsner malts but it also has an encompassing pepperness (as implied by the name.) A nice and crisp beer to say the least.

Thirsty Pagan Voyageurs Black Ale (5.5% ABV) - This starts out with a typical roasted barley and a smoke chocolate maltiness but it has a very prominent sweet spruce finish. That's because this beer is brewed with spruce tips, a theme that I hope catches on up here. It's not often I see Black Ales do anything different so this is a nice change of pace.

After we finished at the Pagan and visited Funkytown, we stopped by the Fitger's Brewhouse for a beer before making our way to the Rathskeller at Tycoon's Alehouse, which serves as a tide-house for Fitger's. Usually they'll have something different (and tasty) on tap and that night they had two very high profile IPAs from the Brewhouse that I decided to try out.

Fitger's Hoppelujah IPA (6.5% ABV) - This IPA is pretty much a mixed bag of an assortment of hops, but definitely not in a bad way. You've got citrus hops with notes of oranges, grapefruit and mango and some bitter hops that linger throughout the taste and it ends with a dry bitter hop finish with some caramel malts. With it's robust flavor, it's easy to see why Dave Hoops, the brewmaster of Fitger's, brought this with to a beer festival in Oregon.

Fitger's The Mayor (8% ABV) - A beer brewed in honor of Duluth's mayor Don Ness, who declared Duluth to be Minnesota's Craft Beer Capital and has been extremely supportive of the craft beer scene here in Duluth. It starts off with a very robust citrus hop and grapefruit notes with a solid caramel malt backbone. Interestingly enough, it finishes with a rather piney/resin hop bitterness that lingers on the palate for quite a while. I would definitely take this home with me in a growler if only I could find one but I'll settle for just walking to the brewpub to have this for the time being.

The following day, I decided to make my way down to Canal Park to visit the Endion Station Public House, the newest Fitger's Tide House that just opened this past Friday. The building itself is actually over 100 years old and was actually an old passenger train station that was used during the first half of the 20th Century. I really love what they've done with the place and I like that it's one of those bars that you can just walk in and sit down or opt to sit on the patio overlooking Lake Superior.

Now I'm going to break my rule of reviewing just beer because Endion Station has been touted as Duluth's first cider house in addition to serving craft beer. We're not talking mass produced ciders from the likes of BMC but craft ciders.  Since I had arrived just before the end of All Pints North (i.e. The calm before the storm), I decided to try out one of their offerings.

Julian Cherry Bomb (7% ABV) - This is the first cider I've had that isn't made solely with apples. Maybe it's just me not being used to ciders, but WOW, this tastes great! While the apple flavor is still there, it takes a backseat to the rich cherry flavor. If this were to be available in bottles in my area, I would most certainly buy this on a regular basis.

Fitger's Back End Wee Heavy (9% ABV) - A beer that I actually had back in February when it was featured as part of Fitger's Sochi Series to commemorate the Sochi Olympics; Frankly I was shocked to even see it there! It possess a very strong roasted barley flavor upfront with some lightly smoked malts and a nice peated scotch finish. I remember this being a little more maltier and having a strong peated scotch taste but I'm guessing that having it age has evened things out a bit more. Either way, it still tastes very good.

It's kind of weird knowing that the next time I do a write-up post that I will be a married man. I guess it's moments like these that you truly savor......or some meaningful saying like that. In any case, here's to my last days as living as a bachelor.

Cheers!


- Nick

Weekly Duluth Beer Roundup for July 20, 2014

The countdown is officially on. In exactly 13 days, I will be a married man so I'm trying to enjoy my last days of bachelorhood by having some good beer........but that's not going to change either even after I am married. Since I have been busy working, writing and planning the wedding amongst other things, I have not been doing my Weekly Beer Roundups as much as I would like so imagine my surprise when I found out I had time this weekend.

Thursday Evening, I met up with my old man at Fitger's Brewhouse for some dinner and discussion about my upcoming wedding. Since it was a fairly hot day outside I opted for something a bit lighter when it came time to order....

Fitger's Yellow Jersey Ale (5% ABV) - Brewed every year (with a different style each year) to commemorate the Tour de France. This year it's a Cream Ale style of beer. The flavor is fairly reminiscent of New Glarus' Spotted Cow; You've got some pale malts, flaked corn, barley and even a bit of sweetness thrown in for good measure. The Brewhouse also is offering to pour this beer with 25% lemonade (thus making it into a pseudo-Radler) so I had it with that for my second pint and it certainly hits the spot. Whether or not you choose to get it with lemonade, it tastes refreshing either way.

Yesterday evening, I paid a visit to Canal Park Brewing for a pint after a long day. Despite the hockey tourney that was in town this weekend, I was able to find a parking spot right next to the brewery. Amidst all the breweries in town, I was in the mood for something a bit darker so I settled on the Nut Hatchet Brown, which had been out of rotation for a few months and it was the darkest thing they had.

Canal Park Nut Hatchet Brown (5.7% ABV) - A bit of roastiness and a good serving of chocolate malts on the front of the flavor, the maltiness stays throughout while the roasty flavor opens up to more of a nutty taste. The aftertaste is surprisingly dry for what it is with only a very slight roastiness and chocolate sweetness. Maybe it was the weather, but this also had a suspiciously crisp and refreshing taste to it. Overall, it's a very solid Brown Ale.

Earlier this afternoon, I decided to pay a visit to Burrito Union, which serves as a tied-house for Fitger's Brewhouse. Sometimes they will have a limited release beer that the Brewhouse doesn't have and that makes it worth visiting. Plus it's just a few blocks from my new humble abode.

Fitger's White Knight Wit Noir (6.2% ABV) - A dark witbier that hasn't been made by the brewhouse for a while now. It's got a nice malted wheat flavor with some chocolate and roastiness. There's also a bit of fruitiness to it as well as a touch of spice. In my search for a good darker beer, I think I found my outlet for the time being.

Hopefully these next 2 weeks go smoothly and I will try to go another Round up post if my schedule permits. Even though we are still very much in the midst of summer, I'm looking forward to the fall seasonals as those tend to have some real gems. Until next week....

- Nick

The Duluth Experience Saturday Evening Brewery Tour Review

For this post, I'm not looking at any sort of beer (sort of.) Instead I'm doing a review of my Saturday Evening Brewery I did with The Duluth Experience a couple of weeks ago. You'd think that will all the contact I've had with these guys that I would've been on a tour of theirs. In reality, I had been meaning to go on a tour for some time but obligations kept getting in the way. Finally a couple of weeks ago, I found myself free for a Saturday night and signed up for a brewery tour.


Our tour group met at Fitger's Brewhouse where Tim, our tour guide and all-around awesome guy, discussed our itinerary for the evening:

• Vikre Distillery - A distillery that recently opened in Duluth
• Bent Paddle Brewing - Duluth's newest production brewery that has experienced exceptional growth since opening last year
• Fitger's Brewhouse - Synonymous with the term "Duluth Beer", it is considered to be the benchmark of brewpubs in the State of Minnesota 
• Lake Ave Cafe - Restaurant located in Canal Park for dinner

Our first stop for the evening was Vikre Distillery, which opened it's doors in Canal Park earlier this year. I did find it a bit funny that we started a brewery tour by touring a distillery, but what better place to see yet another emerging growth in the Minnesota distilling industry than here?

During the tour, we were shown the equipment used to make their gin & aquavit and I have to say, I was surprised as to how much work had to go into making it. We also got a whiff of the heads, heart and tails of distilling and man, that was strong! We were even told that drinking the "heads" could cause us to go blind if consumed. They also showed off the barrels they were using to age their single malt whiskey and I cannot wait to try it out when they bottle it 10 years from now.

Afterwards, we got to sample some of the gin and aquavit in the tasting room and by far, my favorite was the Cedar Gin; It was nice, smooth and the best way to describe the flavor is that it tasted like Christmas!

I know I run a blog about beer, but the tour of Vikre really gave me a great appreciation of Minnesota's growing distilling industry. I will definitely be paying more attention to our state's distilling industry in future, I think it's the next big thing honestly.

After leaving Vikre, we drove up to the Enger Park Skyline where we learned more about the history of Duluth and we were able to catch a gorgeous view of the Twin Ports. Nothing like a little education in-between drinks!

After taking in the sights, we made our way down to Bent Paddle Brewing (which you can actually see from the skyline) to take a tour of the brewery.  Before walking in, we each received a nice souvenir glass that we would using for the remainder of the tour. Now I've been to the Bent Paddle taproom many times before but I have never  been beyond the giant door on the north side of the taproom so I was very eager to see what the actual set up looked like.

While the Bent Paddle tour guide was giving us a tour and telling us a detailed story about Bent Paddle's history, I was absolutely floored with how big the set-up looked. From the kettles to the fermentation tanks; From the canning line to the wall of cans and stacks of Jack Daniels barrels, I felt really small compared to everything else. The best part was when I ran out of beer to drink, one of the Duluth Experience guys was quick and prompt to refill our glasses.

After we concluded our tour, we made our way to what I consider to be ground zero of the Duluth Craft Beer Scene: Fitger's Brewhouse. Now considering the fact that I live literally a few blocks from the Brewhouse and consider myself a frequent patron, I wasn't expecting too much; I was wrong. From the get-go, we learned about history of the August Fitger Brewing Company, it's closure in 1971, and it's revival in 1994.

Just by looking at the set-up, you could see all of the organic growth the Brewhouse had experienced over the past 20 years and it was really awesome to see where my favorite brewhouse beers were made. It really made me proud to have such a great brewery just a short walk from my place of residence. And of course, the tour guides were prompt with refills as well.

Finishing up at Fitger's, we made out way to the Lake Avenue Cafe for a wonderful dinner paired with Blacklist Brewing's Or De Belgique Verte where we talked amongst ourselves amidst the evening storm raging outside. After dinner, we went back to Fitger's to conclude our evening tour.

I knew Duluth was a great city for beer before, but this tour was an absolutely wonderful insight into just how passionate this city is about their beer. In fact, tours like these are one of the reasons why I am proud to call Duluth my home!

If you are a beer geek or have a passing interest in craft beer in general, then you absolutely owe it to yourself to go on a Duluth Experience tour. You will learn so much and gain a much greater appreciation of all the hard work that goes into a wonderful beer that you drink. As such, I would highly recommend The Duluth Experience Brewery Tour to anyone who either lives in Duluth or anyone who is just visiting. 

If you'd like to book a tour, simply visit www.theduluthexperience.com to set up a brewery tour. If brewery tours aren't your thing, they also offer history and kayaking tours just to name a few. The guys at The Duluth Experience are proud of what this great city has to offer and it really showed throughout the entire tour.

Weekly Duluth Beer Roundup for July 7, 2014

These past couple of weeks have been a busy one for myself between work, wedding planning and the 4th of July Weekend. As such I was unable to get out until this last Thursday when I made my way over to Fitger's Brewhouse which is conveniently located just a few blocks from my place of residence.

When I made my way there, I ran into an acquaintance of mine, Ellipsis, from The North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable event along with a couple of her friends. While we were out on the patio, I sampled a to a couple of beers that had just been added to the Brewhouse line up.

Fitger's 1100 Wheat Wine (10% ABV) -  It's a barleywine but brewed with wheat. It's a good thing that I was given this in a 10 oz. snifter because this is a powerful beer. The flavor starts out with some strong toffee sweetness and malted wheat. From that point on, it opens up to a rather strong hoppiness along with some vanilla bourbon booziness and just a bit of heat on the back end of the tongue. Despite the intense flavor, the overall palate is surprisingly mellow. The last time I had this was in the fall of last year so be sure to check it out while it's still on tap.

Fitger's Highland Fling Scottish Ale (5.8% ABV) - A clear brown color upon pouring, the flavor has a nice caramel maltiness to it along with some roasted barley and a light hoppiness. For a Scottish Ale, it's quite lighter than what I am used to in terms of appearance (brown) and overall flavor.

Later that evening, my future brother-in-law and his girlfriend made their way into town to spend the 4th of July here where we feasted on dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, whose local selection I still find a bit lacking sadly. If they were to feature more local beers on tap (Bent Paddle, 612, etc.) I would be visiting there more often.

The following day we made our way to Canal Park Brewing where I had the Resonation Belgian IPA while my fiance had the Ankle Deep Pilsner and my future brother-in-law's girlfriend had the 40 Acre Saison, to which she found quite enjoyable. I was a bit shocked she enjoyed it since she later told me that it was not only her first craft beer but her first Belgian-style ale ever.

After having lunch, we made our way back to Fitger's specifically to try out their Red, Wheat and Blue beer, which was brewed specifically to commemorate our nation's birthday. It was not on tap the day before yet I wanted to try it out to see how it was since it was one of the reasons why we decided to pay a visit to the Brewhouse for the second day in a row.

Fitger's Red, Wheat and Blue (5.7% ABV) - The first thing that popped into my head was how much it reminded me of New Glarus' Raspberry Tart. Pouring a bright ruby red color, you've got a very strong raspberry flavor with some wheat notes. Not overly complex but extremely vibrant in terms of flavor. If you're a fan of fruit beers, this is a love letter made specifically for you. It makes wish the Brewhouse did fruit beers more often.

While I would've liked to have sampled more beers this past week, time constraints left my hands somewhat tied. Hopefully this week I'll be able to get out more and sample some more local beers. Until next week!

Cheers!

- Nick

The Northland Beer Dinner Train

As the North Shore Craft Beer Scene grows with each passing day, with it are the ways we can enjoy what is has to offer. That is why it is my pleasure to announce the Dinner Train from NorthlandBeer.com.

The train ride will take you up the picturesque Lake Superior Shoreline along the Northshore Scenic Railroad onboard the Lake of the Isles Dining Car. While you take in the beautiful sights of Minnesota's North Shore, you will be treated to a first class dinner courtesy of Executive Chef Richard Salz from JJ Astor Restaurant in Duluth. The dinner itself will feature beer pairings from Duluth's very own Lake Superior Brewing Company. There will also be beer available from Bent Paddle & South Shore Brewing as well as a cash bar for patrons.

Departure is on July 5th, 2014 at 6:30 PM from the Historic Duluth Depot located at 506 W. Michigan Street in Downtown Duluth, MN.

Tickets will be $59 and you must be 21 or older to attend. To reserve your spot, you can register at www.duluthtrains.com or you can call at 218-722-1273.

Spend the 4th of July weekend in style and join Northland Beer for this exciting and unique experience that can only happen here along Minnesota's North Shore.

The Duluth Experience Craft Beer Roundtable - Women of the North Shore Craft Beer Scene

Yesterday marked the end of The Duluth Experience North Shore Craft Beer Roundtable and what a series it was! The final event in the 4-part series focused on the role of women in the North Shore craft beer scene. I have mentioned before that this roundtable event was the one which I had been looking forward to the most. My reasoning for this is because that I think women are very underrepresented in the craft beer industry. Ironic when you consider that women were the primary brewers of alcohol for thousands of years up until roughly the 1800's when to become a male dominated profession.

Moderated by Elissa Hansen with the Duluth/Superior Chapter of Barley's Angels, the forum featured 5 women who play a big part of the North Shore craft beer scene:

·      Allyson Rolph – Thirsty Pagan Brewing

·      Jamie MacFarlane – Castle Danger Brewery

·      Liz Gleason – Carmody Irish Pub & Brewing

·      Laura Mullen – Bent Paddle Brewing Company

·      Melissa Rainville – Fitger’s Brewhouse

At the start of the discussion, the audience found out how each panel member was drawn into the industry In the case of Liz Gleason of Carmody, the idea to start brewing their own beer came from her husband. With Melissa from Fitger's it was her hobby of homebrewing would take her to Flat Earth Brewing and, ultimately, to Fitger's Brewhouse. Allyson, Brewmaster with Thirsty Pagan, it was meeting with Jamie Baertsch, brewmaster of Dells Brewing Company (and the only other female brewmaster in the State of Wisconsin) during the Dells On Tap Festival. With Jamie, it came from her husband's passion for homebrewing and her background in Accounting that led them to open Castle Danger. Finally with Laura from Bent Paddle, her company had helped organize a brewfest down in the Twin Cities and she met her husband Colin, through Midwest Supplies one of the companies she worked with while organizing those events.

The next topic that was covered was trends in the craft brewing industry that they noticed were gaining steam. The responses ranged from using cans as a means of packaging craft beer to localized production breweries such as Dangerous Man Brewing, whom only sell their beer on premises, to the rise of session beers, sour ales, ciders and even the number of people homebrewing.

They also touched upon some of the challenges that they face on a daily basis and the big one was securing the raw materials needed to make beer as well as the difficulty of obtaining certain types of hops and how the weather can affect all of that. On the business side of things, the biggest hurdle was dealing with the growing pains of an expanding brewery and anticipating the unknown.

It is worth noting that when the topic of competition came up, they didn't really view each other as rivals. In fact, Laura even coined the term "Coopertition" because everyone seems to help everyone out should the need arise. In fact, they welcomed it because it allows everyone to keep making good beer.

When asked how they constantly stay on par with their beer, the responses were varied but all pieces of the big picture. Things such as taking criticism, being patient with the process, making a commitment to the product and even turning to other brewers for help. The term "Coopertition" from the previous paragraph applies yet again and it was even touched upon that helping each other out is what makes the North Shore craft beer scene so unique.

The last piece, and arguably the most important I thought, was the role of women in the craft beer industry. It was unanimously agreed upon that women will play a bigger role in the brewing industry in the very near future and they even cited Urban Growler Brewing as an example. For those of you not familiar with the brewery, Urban Growler is a St. Paul-based brewery that will be the first in Minnesota which will be owned by women and brewed by women.

All and all, it was another fine event put on by The Duluth Experience. I would like to extend my personal thanks to Dave Grandmaison and The Duluth Experience for giving me the opportunity to help promote this event and raise awareness of the craft beer scene here along the North Shore. I hope I get the opportunity to work with such a great organization again in the near future.

If you'd like to find out more about The Duluth Experience, you can visit them at www.theduluthexperience.com. They have everything from brewery tours to history and even adventure tours!

Cheers!

- Nick

Weekly Duluth Beer Roundup for June 22, 2014

Since the reception to my weekly round-up posts have been very positive these past couple of weeks, I've decided to make these posts a regular addition to my blog. That and I think this will be a good resource to those looking to try out something new in terms of craft beer.

This week certainly has been a busy one in terms of doing my weekly survey of Duluth/Superior's craft beer, thanks in part to my mom and stepdad visiting for Grandma's Marathon this past weekend, for which my mom was running. Before I get to that, I'll be going over a couple of beers that I had the chance to check out prior to this weekend.

Since I moved into my new place, my proximity to the brewpubs located in Duluth is close enough to the point where I don't have to drive 20-25 minutes to get to where I want to be, let alone drive at all. So that's why I decided to walk to Fitger's Brewhouse after getting off of work to check out a couple of new offerings which they added to their tap lineup.

Fitger's Finn's Finest (6.3% ABV) - This beer has a very nicely balanced citrus & piney hop profile with some very mild bitterness and a rather sweet malty finish. I'm honestly not 100% sure what exactly this beer is. Beer Advocate calls it an American IPA whereas the Fitger's website suggests that it's an American Pale Ale. I can see characteristics of both present in here but either way, it's quite delicious!

Fitger's El Diablo (9% ABV) - Fitger's Belgian Strong Ale. Despite it's rather pale yellow appearance, El Diablo possesses a good Belgian yeast, banana and clove flavor profile that comes together perfectly with a solid malty backbone. I'm not sure how long this will be on tap for, so be sure to check it out!

Now earlier, I mentioned that my mom and stepdad were in town for Grandma's Marathon. Since they both happen to be fans of craft beer, we decided to goto Thirsty Pagan Brewing after the race to load up on some carbs and to drink some beer. After running 26.2 miles, I'd want a beer and some pizza too! While we were there, I recommended a couple of beers to my mom and step-dad from my previous recap post and sure enough, they enjoyed them! As for me, I decided to have something new.

Thirsty Pagan Troublemaker Tripel (9.1% ABV) - The second locally brewed Belgian Tripel that I have ever had with the first being from Canal Park Brewing. This beer has some nice Belgian yeasts, candied caramel malty sweetness, clove and subtle dark fruit flavors with just a hint of spice. When I was there, I noticed they had added the Tripel to their regular lineup list as opposed to their seasonal list. If this is indeed going to be part of their year-round lineup, I think it would be a very welcome addition.

Thirsty Pagan Angela Merkel Chocolate Dunkel (5.5%) - A Dunkelweizen which is named after the German Head of State. This possess a fairly roasty and almost chocolate-like flavor with some dark fruitiness, wheat malts and a mildly bitter hop finish; All of which are nicely balanced and come together quite well. It's not too often that I see a Dunkelweizen on tap anywhere and it's nice to see a traditional German beer style being showcase locally.

After our meal, we decided we would meet up later that evening for dinner so I headed home and I did something I haven't done since I was 8 years old: I took an afternoon nap. I had been walking and running around since 7am that morning and I can only imagine how the runners must've felt.

A few hours after I had gotten home, I received word that we were going to Canal Park Brewing to have some dinner and, of course, more local beer. While I made my recommendations to my mom and step-dad, I took this opportunities to try out some offerings which I had previously neglected to take a real close look at.

Canal Park Mindblock Double Honey Maibock (7.5% ABV) - A spring/summer seasonal Maibock offering. Being that this is a Maibock, it's very malt forward with a pale malt, toffee and honey sweetness before ending with a mild floral hoppiness. Maibocks are always a seasonal favorite for myself and this is no exception.

Canal Park Ankle Deep Pilsner (5% ABV) - I actually had this because the menu said it paired well with their Beer Cheese n' Mac entreé, which is what I was having. For the most part, it's pilsner malts with a light earthy/grassy flavor with just a touch of bitter hoppiness at the end. It's pretty light and possesses a nice crisp feeling. Not overly complex by any means, but it did pair wonderfully with my dinner and I could see myself drinking a couple of these after a long day doing yardwork.

After dinner, we bid our goodbyes and went our separate ways. Overall, it was a very fun weekend. Stay tuned in the near future for my post regarding the final Craft Beer Roundtable Event from The Duluth Experience. That in and of itself was a lot of fun to attend and I cannot wait to share with everyone what was discussed.

Cheers!

- Nick

Weekly Duluth Beer Roundup for June 15, 2014

Since the my last post regarding the Duluth Craft Beer Scene received was mostly positive, I will continue doing these Roundup posts every week if I'm able to do so. This week was a busy one for me and I'm still in the process of getting everything unpacked and set up from my move a couple weeks back. Between work and all of that, I was only able to venture out to one brewpub this week and that was Thirsty Pagan Brewing over in Superior, WI.

Since I was last there they have added a ton of seasonal beers to their lineup. Around September of last year it was around maybe 3-4 seasonals but this time around I counted 9 and a couple of which caught my eye to the point where I just had to try it out.

Thirsty Pagan Rauchbier (5.5% ABV) - Finally, a Rauchbier (smoked beer) that is locally made and it has been a long time since I've had a good Rauchbier. It starts out with a solid smoked malt flavor followed up with some mild but nice hoppiness before ending with some lightly toasted barley. Definitely lighter in terms of appearance, body and even a little bit in the flavor than what I'm used to seeing in Rauchbiers but I would still highly recommend checking this out!

Thirsty Pagan India Pale Lager (6.7% ABV) - It's nice to see that the IPL-style is starting to gain traction amongst the craft beer crowd. This starts out with a nice citrus and piney hop profile with a solid pale malt base and a bitter resiny aftertaste. I usually see IPLs come out around the springtime so this makes for a very nice seasonal.

Thirsty Pagan The Patriot (4.8% ABV) - A Pilsner made with All-American malts and hops, hence it's name. This has a nice floral hop profile backed up by a Pilsner malt base with a hint of oakiness thanks to the hops used in this beer. The light body and relatively mild carbonation give this a nice crisp and clean finish.

I hope you all enjoyed reading this. Hopefully I will have inspired some of you to go out and try these beers out if you get the chance.

Cheers!

- Nick