MN Brewing Boom Continues...

A buddy had a bottle of Dyno that i tried. No aroma, no flavor, and a plastic aftertaste. There has to be some quality issues coming out of Lucid. Drainpoured 3/4 of the bomber.

 

Amen. The bottle of Camo I had was terrible & put me off the entire brewery. I won't try anything from them again until I hear some positive reports...I'm not keen on breweries "dialing in" their beers on the public. That's what test batches are for.

 

yeah i saw Dyno out at some stores i passed on it based on Camo that i had about 5 weeks ago

 

I like Fulton, love going to the brew pub. However, I will not be buying any of the stuff on the retail side. Something just seems off to me. I know they contract brew, or at least they did

 

They still contract everything in bottles. A means to an end for now, as I understand it.

 

I understand the bind. I really hope at some point they can bottle or can in Minneapolis. Love the tap stuff

 

For sure. War and Peace would happily join my cellar.

 

I completely agree with this. Some of them seem to be having particular trouble with quality of bottled offerings. I hope all of them last, but I suspect that won't be the case. Market seems to be getting crowded, and we already have a couple local heavy hitters that are pretty tough to compete with (the three S's: Surly, Summit, Schell's).

 

Wont help that their labels/logo look like they were designed in MS Paint. Marketing is getting more and more important the more crowded the shelves get...

 

Thats funny, I kinda like the Lucid labels.

 

I thought Lucid Camo was...ok, but easy to say it was not worth the price.
Summit will get more dollars this year with Saga and the Summer Ale, like Travis said above.

OK, so with the launch tonight of the Growler mag http://www.thebeerdabbler.com/growler/ I see they are serving Badger Hill beers at Amsterdam for the event. I had not heard of this brewery, but the Minnesota Special Bitter sounds promising. Apparently, these guys are sharing location and equipment with Lucid. What do we know about this one?

 

Badger Hill is brewed as a cooperative effort at Lucid -- or is it an alternating proprietorship?

Not too sure about Badger Hill's roots, but they seem to be another home brewer turning pro (see also: Last City, Tin Whiskers, Blue Wolf...)

 

It's an alternating proprietorship. Totally different owner, operator, brewer, same equipment.

 

Cripes, how does a guy even keep track!? I never heard of Tin Whisker or Blue Wolf. Blue Wolf has a website, and is looking for monies to start. Pretty soon there will be a brewery on every block.

 

And thats a bad thing ?

 

Heh, I can't be the only one with big ears!

It will be a happy day when the newest outfits come into their own, and hopefully that happens before the three dozen as yet unannounced ones announce .

 

True! I get a little more excited about the 'up north' type breweries/pubs(beer-cation!). My annual fall duluth stop should be a lot busier this year. Canal Park looks like it will be pretty snazzy. Borealis would be an interesting stop by the sounds of the building alone. Dubrue should have a tap room by then.

The 2nd addition of 'Land of amber waters' is going to need to add about 100 more pages of new breweires!

 

No kidding. Today, there are zero operating breweries in my area (nordeast mpls.) By years end we should have three.

 

I went to Duluth in May with feloniousmonk and we tried the 2 flavors of beer that Borealis had available. One was a straightforward Belgian Abbey Ale, and the other was a Belgian Dubbel with cherries that was simply divine. the actual location listed on the bottle is a PO Box in Knife River, which is near Two Harbors. A couple of Duluth bars and one Duluth liquor store had them in early May.

 

I tried the Mon Cherries in a bottle at Tycoon's in Duluth, and the Speckled Ghost on tap at ******s Central in West Duluth. Brought home bottles, too, look for reviews soon-ish.