Thoughts on Excelsior Brewing?

I tried the beer they did with Goose Island at the Prop event at Stub and Herbs. It was their standard Minne-gose infused with lime and cucumber. I've never had the non-infused version, but the collab beer tasted like dirty mop water. We passed it around the table and I tried to keep drinking some, but even with that, more than half of the pint was left. And that is huge, coming from this Midwestern boy that was taught not clearing your plate is wasting and a terrible thing to do.

 

I live a couple of miles from Excelsior Brewing too but don't go there often due to their quality of their beers. Excelsior's location is keeping them in business. I hope the new head brewer will help but Excelsior is not a brewery I would recommend. They have miles to go to get to a level close to Indeed, Dangerous Man etc.

 

They have a couple beers that I enjoy if that particular batch turned out good. Been about a year since I have been to the taproom. I understand it is jam packed as always. Cool place to hangout. I heard they are doing double batches on their 20bbl brewhouse 5 days a week. So some people really enjoy their beer.

 

I think location plays a huge part in them being packed.

 

Blah, meh, blah...

 

FTFY Andrew!

Hope all's well with the family, especially Lil.

 

Ha, I was trying to be nice and haven't been there in a while and haven't tried anything with the new brewer.

Lil is good, surgery on the 25th to remove the fixitor!

 

Excellent - best wishes!
Love the tribute avatar, btw.

Now I'll just go crawl back into my retirement slumber...lol

 

IIRC, their head brewer left about 8 months ago, they promoted their assistant brewer to head brewer, and brought on a new assistant brewer.

 

Their assistant came from Surly.

 

I have tried to like Excelsior, but they have failed me time and time again. I feel like Charlie Brown and they are Lucy holding the football.

 

I've never been impressed by any of their offerings.

 

Thoughts: I'm the beer purchaser at a West Metro store. I carry Excelsior beers in my store, because they sell. They sell in large part to the audience that likes to drink Leinenkugel. It allows me not to carry Leinenkugel. I'd rather have that portion of the public's beer money staying local as opposed to being sent off to MillerCoors.

Personally, however, their beer does nothing for me.

 

I recently had their blonde ale on tap and found it to be perfectly fine.

 

Yes I'm aware, and I know him - I just didn't want to point that out. The people on these forums don't always have the highest opinion of Excelsior and their brews, this thread included. Chances are, there are more than a handful of folks on these forums who know who this former Surly brewer is...just thought I would leave him out of it.

 

He could be known as a savior if he can help bring new, quality beers to Excelsior. Depending on how well you know the assist. brewer & are allowed, can you share any challenges or future plans for Excelsior you have heard from him?

 

I don't know much about the day-to-day operations at Excelsior, but I know that Excelsior had asked him to come up with the recipe for an Imperial Stout based on his experience brewing Darkness. If/When/How that is happening, I do not know, but it could be interesting.

I'm not sure if hoppy beers do well at Excelsior or not, but I would bank on the assistant brewer's experience brewing Furious, OverRated, Wet, and Todd - and come up with a good IPA to get the beer geek community on board. But that's just me.

 

Never been a fan of Excelsior, although I did recently try the Minnegose and found it to be a decent example of the style. Not the best goes I've had by any means, but not bad on a hot patio in the summer.

 

I'd agree with this, anything I've had on tap from them has ranged from acceptable to good.

Those bottles of Bitteschlappe however...someone should be flogged for those abominations.