Twin Cities Bottle Hunt

heritage posted they got it today

 

LOTS at elevated liquor in white bear lake

 

Saw some at my local store (Mendota Liquor Barrel) .. Oct 23 was the date on the bottle.. So i snagged a few

 

Just got home - my bottle says 26/Oct/15 on it.

 

there was an 11/11 bottling of Sue, but it was bombers. dont believe MN will see them. otherwise, 10/23-10/26 is our freshest batch.

 

I'm in, but it's going to be a bit awkward when we message @mingo to ask where we can find the beer for the care package.

 

Death by Coconut is at Marshall Liquors.

 

Hi all,

I'll be in the Twin Cities over the weekend and rather than make a new thread I figured I'd ask here... Are there any brewery-only bottles worth picking up locally? Not really interested in growlers, just bottles. Also we are staying just west of downtown MLPS just off of 394, if we were to hit only one or two breweries which would you recommend? Also I've been to Zipp's before and was planning on hitting it again, unless there is something better nearby? Thanks in advance

EDIT: I suppose I should also ask what store shelf beers are available and worthy of purchase

 

Most breweries here don't regularly have bottles on hand, they mostly just do growler sales. Bottles usually are for a special release and most of the time are gone quick. Lunker from Steel Toe comes to mind just because is has seemed to stuck around for a while, but it can also be picked up in stores. Dangerous Man recently start selling crowlers if you are not looking to add to your collection of glass and Sisyphus has been doing crowlers for a while as well.

As far as breweries to visit, if you haven't been to Surly, their new brewery is worth going to and also has some food options (you can even try to get in at their fancy restaurant there, Brewers Table, where you may be able to buy a vintage bottle of Darkness or anniversary beer). I would also recommend Dangerous Man just because you can only get their stuff in the tap room. Fair State and Indeed are also solid options.

 

Thanks for responding so quickly! I'll def look for Lunker as I love English barleywines. As far as crowlers are concerned, as I've never actually bought one, do they keep for a while or do you need to drink them within a short time? I also see on Dangerous Man's facebook that they have bottles of a cabernet BA Belgian Dark, I'll definitely check those out. Thanks for the tips! Anyone else have stuff to add I'd appreciate it!

 

Lunker is a very solid barleywine, may want to check out the brewery as they may still have 2012 Lunker on tap. Sadly, they didn't have much 2014 Before the Dawn when they put it on tap last Friday and I have heard, it is long gone. Before the Dawn is probably one of my favorite Minnesota beers.

For crowlers, I have heard people say about 2 weeks, but I think your mileage will very. I had a crowler from Sisyphus that was a couple months old that I opened at Darkness Day Eve with the brewer. He warned me it would be oxidized, but we were surprised that it wasn't. I am assuming it comes down to the seal. I have had some other crowlers that have been a month or two old with out issue, but like I said, I really think your mileage will vary.

Sorry, I didn't think Dangerous Man still had those bottles around, otherwise I would have mentioned it.

 

I suppose there's a chance the bottles at Dangerous Man are gone, that FB post was from yesterday. Before The Dawn does sound pretty good, sad I won't get to try it, though it seems like there should be plenty of other stuff around. Thanks for the crowler tips, I had planned on maybe getting one or two for a bottle share in a few weeks but maybe I'll just get one for personal consumption.

 

Insight is releasing BA Gravity Well this weekend. No idea if it's worth picking up or not, but it is a brewery-only bottle.

 

Ah very cool thanks! Added to my list. I saw some talk about that somewhere, is the consensus that bottles will stick around for a little while? No idea when we plan on getting into town tomorrow because Chicago/Southern WI is supposed to get a huge snowstorm. Are you guys expecting any up there this weekend?

 

No snow in the forecast here for this weekend. It's supposed to stay south of the Twin Cities metro... Iowa is supposed to get significant snow.

 

Shot in the dark here... Anybody know if Sosus is around?

 

It was taproom only, I believe. Haven't heard either way if they have some or sold out already and I've been watching TG's twitter.

Might have to make the dreaded phone call to the taproom if someone else doesn't chime in with actual info.

 

They had tweeted "no" when someone asked about distro.

 

Anyone go down to Insight for the Gravity Well bottle release today? I'm curious how it was. Saw pics on Twitter of the line & well, I was shocked there were that many people waiting for it before noon. I mean their beer was good when we swung by a couple weeks ago, but it looked like there were 100 people or so in line before the doors opened.

 

I'll stop by and grab one next week if the reviews are good, I'm done rolling the dice on $20 bottles.