Vine Park Brewing Co.

Went here with my dad a while back, and made a return trip. He goes about every other month or so to brew beers. The deal with this place is, you set an appointment to brew your own beer.

For guys who don't know much about the process (like my dad, and to a certain extent, me), its a pretty sweet place to go, as they assign you a kettle, walk you through the whole process, and with a return trip two weeks later, you're bottling a few cases of beer your own beer. The recipes are easy to understand, and quite frankly I haven't come away with a beer that I didn't like from there.

The staff has always been professional, helpful when needed, not overbearing or condecending to anyone who didn't know much. Fun atmosphere, its all about the beer and having a good time brewing.

Basically, if you don't own your own brewing equipment, or if you don't feel like doing all the grunt work (ie cleaning, storing, cooking, buying ingredients, etc), this is a really good deal.

Brew your own location with a $7.50 tour that provides info on the process and info on their beers. Not much seating, but then again it is more of a brew space than taproom. Nice and knowledgeable staff.

Well, a lot has changed since the previous 2 Place Reviews; they are in a different location, and it's pretty much a brew your own beer (and wine) destination. Which also means they no longer serve food, and what they have on tap is only available for growlers (VPB's, no one elses). I went there last winter with some friends to brew up some beer with VPB's recipes, more on that in a moment. The building is smaller, everything you need to make beer is right at hand, and the staff is great at explaining what the different styles of beer are, the process of brewing the styles, and assisting as you're putting it all together. How it all works, how much beer do you get, costs, all of this you can find on their general information page http://www.vinepark.com/about/. The process does involve two different days/nights; one to make the brew, a few weeks later to bottle it. Makeing it doesn't take long, so you won't be there very long. But bottling could take you upwards of four hours depending on how many recipes you made. We all brought food and a small grill for use outside (it was about 18f and had snowed the night before, made grilling interesting!)
We made three styles, a Dopplebock, an Imperial Pale Ale, and a Dunkel Bock. All were good choices and tasted very good, but the Imperial Pale Ale was the favorite. We all ended up with several cases of beer that WE made and bottled ourselves, and had a great time doing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vine Park, a place that lets someone be a homebrewer without owning their own equipment.

The Good:
This is a great place for people interested in learning more about beer and enthusiatic to get a hands on experience. The staff was helpful and knowledgeable as well as able to quickly adapt to different levels of brewing background. They offer a pretty nice selection of beer styles that one can choose to brew. It can truly ease the apprehension of new brewers getting started.

The Not So Good:
Some of the styles offered are difficult to pull off due to Vine Park due to only allowing two weeks of fermenation time before bottling. Also, after our enjoyable breing experience and delicious beer on bottling day, the pale ale that we bottled has matured into a beer that tastes heavily of diacetyl....

In all, you can purchase growlers on site of fresh beer, and their root beer was especially delicious. A great gateway into homebrewing at home.

Vine Park is a good place to get introduced to brewing. I usually go about twice per year with a group of co-workers to make up some beer and be sociable.

The guys who run the place are great and have a lot of patience for all the strange people who brew beer there.

They have a pretty big selection of beer recipes to choose from and look to have added some new ones since the last time I brewed. My group has brewed about 10 different beers, I would rate them in the 3-3.5 range for the most part. The cost is very reasonable, it's usually about $2 per bomber.

It's like homebrewing without the mess.

Like McGoverns wich is across the street this place is busy during Xcel events but gathers more suburbanites with yuppy, preppy looking types who could care less about the brews they make there. The food is OK, some fufu stuff and alot of sandwiches that make for some interesting mixes. You can get a table outside as well, but who would want to with the traffic nearly a sidewalk away and in the back it is a smelly alley where they dump all the scrap food. Nice idea for a patio but doesn't fly on a majorly used street in the city. Now a deck from the second floor would be a step up, get it, a step up. Ha, ha. Anyway, the beers they brew aren't tops by any means. Some OK standards that were a little on the watery side and I know one of the plain lagers I had there once was a corn starched piece of crap rip-off of a try at Summit. The stouts I've had compare to brown ales and aren't thick enough for me. There was one for awhile they had there called Boom's X-mas that was a seasonal brew that was quite good, but I have no idea if they've made it since. That was back when it had just opened just a short time after the 'Brew your own' place closed. I'm not sure, but depending on who you talk to apparently they can get some brew equipment for the home. Don't go during lunch unless you like hearing cell phones from every corner. Lots of business types from the downtown region like the place.

I need to re-try the beers here, and I didn't take notes last time but the Pale and the Eelpout (that's a fish) Stout seemed a little on the middle-of-the-road side. Stout needed more coffee flavors as its an Irish. On hockey nights in St. Paul, this place is insanely busy. Very nice eating facility and outside tables. The food is not over-ambitious and is pretty good. A major plus is that this place started out as a "brew your own beer" facility, with varying amounts of help or equipment supplied for a fee. That's still happening.

Head Brewer: Brian Schiebe