Breweries opening in Minnesota 2015/2016

I'll be taking the long 10 minute drive to Bad Habit in a bit. Can't wait to try their brews.

 

Oswald Brewing Company (Blue Earth) opened yesterday (November 7th). Their regular hours are not yet listed, but they had a soft opening on Halloween.

 

We dropped in after the Kickstarter hours, and the vanilla oatmeal milk stout was on by that point last night. It reminded me a lot of vanilla bean buffalo sweat (which is a good thing!), just a bit lacking in the body. You can taste the oats, but they didn't add much to the fullness of the mouthfeel. However, it's only 5%, so I'm not sure that aspect can be improved too much. Most folks were drinking the hefeweizen, which had zero head or lace, but did have the color and opacity of orange juice. The "IP-Eh" was pretty solid, as you said.

I'll be doing a short review of the place, and will expand on it after giving them a few months.

They also had water listed on their digital menu, but it was $1. Did you see if they had free water on site? If not, that's certainly a knock against them.

Very slick place, and the service last night was wicked fast.

 

Was down at u4ic yesterday helping them clean up the place. They hoping to get some inspections in the next 10 days.

 

I've been wondering what was going on with those guys......

 

What's this about a Woodbury brewery?

 

One of the principals at Tamarack Tap Room is looking for a brewer. And since there has been a plan in the works for Woodbury listed on the Brewers Association's BIP list for Minnesota, it seemed to follow that his plan was for Woodbury.

There have been a couple of other Woodbury plans prior to this one. One (North Star Brewing) was never followed through with. The other may still be in the works, only with progress taking place very far behind the scenes.

 

Wicked Wort (Robbinsdale) - Fermentation tanks have arrived.

It's worth noting that a couple of "older" (open for a couple of years or more) plans are expanding:

Bemidji.
Enki.

 

I hope they somehow keep the old brewery open...Enki. That is one of the best brewing spaces around

 

I think Enki is one the few Breweries located in the satellites that really has something going besides just being a watering hole for the locals. If they were located in a 'hip' Minneapolis neighborhood they would have as much beer geek cred as Bauhaus and Fair State. And that's no knock on either.

 

I like Enki. And their current building is pretty cool. I also hope they keep it somehow.

 

Only been go ENKI once, and their beers are top notch.

 

How was Bad Habit?

 

I only had two of thier beers.

The Milk Stout was amazing. The Red was not good. It really reminded me of a sour. Way off the mark. Next time I'll try the others.

 

I'm curious which Enki beers people like? I've been there several times and found their beers to be fine but nothing that would get beer geek cred. None of Enki's beers are rated that well on BA either. I'm happy Enki is expanding and doing well. Thanks.

 

Cacao Porter, hands down. Right up there with Surly's in my book. It's always an easy extra I try to thrown in when swapping beers with folks.

 

I remember the Mocha Porter being phenomenal last winter.

 

Lakes & Legends is open

 

They are open officially? Kind of flew under the radar...I had heard nothing about them opening!

On a side note, Lake Monster set to launch Dec. 4th.