Brewery Updates in Minnesota (2020)

And their pizza is damn good!

 

Heard Arbeiter Brewing will have their crowlers in stores next week and also be able to buy at the brewery on December 11th?

 

Beer Dabbler just posted its story on Bricksworth yesterday: https://beerdabbler.com/bricksworth-beer-co-opens-burnsville/

 

Wayzata Brewing announces its closure: https://www.facebook.com/wayzatabrewworks/posts/2900741890200276

 

Sad to see a brewery close, but their post is pretty bad.

 

Can't wait to see what this thread turns into now.....

 

They will be the first of many that will shutter during the upcoming winter. For what it's worth, their beer was subpar at best in my opinion. If it wasn't for the lakeside setting, I don't think anyone would be seeking them out.

 

A buddy and I stopped in there during the summer and it was dead in there. The beer has always been subpar and it wasn't any better on that last visit.

 

Only got out there once, a couple of years after they had opened.

I felt that their range and execution of ales was at least average for new breweries, nowadays. On the other hand, they had on a great Vienna style lager and a better than average Helles. As someone whose taste in beer is strongly in favor of lager, I was impressed!

Nice space, and a great location, too. They even had a distillery component which was (please correct me if I’m wrong) unused, in a separate area of the space.

Shame to hear, and I’m sure they dropped a good deal of $$$$$$$$$ into the taproom, distillery, and everything else.

 

Honestly never heard of Wayzata Brew Works. If they aren't making beer as good at Barrel Theory, Forager, Blackstack, Fairstate, or Modist on opening day.....BYE. Why would you open a brewery with the most important part of the business (the beer itself) being subpar in today's market?

 

Lakeside, live music and oh yeah beer. In that order

 

Yeah Ive never had any of their beer, I actually didnt even know where the brewery was located.

 

I counted six times they referenced the governor in their post but lost track of the count in the comments.

 

I'm surprised Wayzata didn't close way before the shutdown to be honest. I visited a number of times and it was always dead. Maybe a handful of people on the patio but never anyone inside. The owner never wanted to brew beer and it showed, it never improved. Seems they couldn't form a solid business plan and never bothered to brew beer people wanted to seek out. Shame to blame Walz and COVID on a business that was bound to close anyway.

I do like how their letter states no one got COVID from their business. Yeah, that proves the effectiveness of the closures, restrictions, and limits.

 

Chaz..as a fellow lager head...who do you think are the best lager brewers in Minnesota. I'd toss these out there for consideration.

Hoops
Town Hall
Schell
Fair State
Lupulin
Utepils
Waldmann
Indeed
Bad Weather
Bemidji
Portage
Beaver Island
Earth Rider (OK Wisconsin)
Fitgers (Improved again in recent trip)
Summit (can do them as well as anyone when they brew them)

 

Going off-topic (not as if that’s anything new, here), but I’ll rank those I’ve had:

1. Schell
1. Summit
1. Fair State
2. Waldmann
3. Utepils
3. Town Hall
3. Fitgers

Basically, I reckon there are two, three-way ties and one interloper. Fitger’s was always on-point (although I haven’t visited in fifteen years), Town Hall is no slouch, and Utepils has been consistently good. Waldmann came out of nowhere (if you can call fifteen million dollars of revitalization “nowhere”) and their lagers are some of the best in town.

Fair State has done a bang up job with those I’ve tried and rated, and Summit has been consistent for long enough that they’ve kind of dropped off the map for a lot of people, but their Keller Pils is a regular for me.

August Schell is a national treasure.

The following is a list of breweries I can’t objectively rate or rank on the criteria of their lager styles and execution, mainly because I either haven’t tried any (I don’t get out much, and I am not “hunting” for beer like a newly baptized beergeek — not for many years).

- Indeed
- Lupulin
- Hoops
- Bad Weather
- Bemidji
- Portage
- Beaver Island
- Earth Rider (OK Wisconsin)

Speaking of Wisconsin, there are dozens of Craft and Microbreweries knocking out clean lagers and with great stylistic interpretations (or even staid and boring in their interpretations, whichever the case may be).

To that end, Wisconsin (yes, even Souptown) might need to be considered separately from Minnesota where lager is concerned. And these days, Minnesota has more breweries than ever, and even to the point that brands and entire portfolios of Wisconsin breweries have been knocked-out of cold boxes and off of dry shelves all around the state.

Strange times, made stranger by the fuckery of COVID-19.

 

Awesome list right there.

I need more experience with Waldmann. Only have been there once.

 

On the topic of German styles, anyone tried any of the crowlers from Arbeiter? Looks like they have a great space that is primed to open when allowed to.

 

Space is nice (Harriet Brewing) saw the whole line up of crowlers at Elevated today, need to buy one.

 

I see a Pilsner dry hopped with Kazbek on their menu, so that's awesome. It's a collaboration with Falling Knife and seems to be available for pickup at the Falling Knife brewery. Is that the case for all of their beers? What's the branding on the crowlers?