Brewery Updates in Minnesota (2019)

Since it worked so well last time it was done...

 

...and because everyone is clamoring for more DayBlock beer.

 

Sounds like something management anywhere would do.

 

We hit 100% funded on our Indiegogo today. Thanks to all who have contributed! If you haven't yet, take a look at FallingKnife.Beer/perks to see if something catches your eye.

If you're interested, follow our social media pages to see an update in the next few weeks about how remodeling is going. I'd venture to guess you won't recognize the spot anymore!

We're doing a collaboration beer release party next Friday at Venn Brewing. If you can't make that, we'll see you all later this summer!

 

Aitkin's brewpub Block North released their first beer Nerf Herder a saison and are going to have a cream ale, chocolate stout and hazy ipa release this weekend

 

Local press coverage:
https://www.messagemedia.co/aitkin/...198-70dc-11e9-96b7-d3a9a9893f32.html?mode=jqm

 

From the article: "Sable Institute in Chicago". Ha ha ha ha.

 

After being plied with four house-brewed hazy IPAs, the reporter’s ears started to hear things in a funny way.

 

I was under the ASSumption that all the beers being brewed at The Lab were other breweries beers without labels and we/ us/ the consumer, were to give feedback on them and then the brewery of the original recipe were to either go ahead with said beer or axe it. So technically The Lab isnt making their own beer they are just doing what they are told to make.

 

Perhaps, but a contract brewery needs clients, and I'm not convinced that The Lab actually has any yet; I wouldn't be surprised if the initial round of beers are in-house, proof-of-concept recipes. If someone from The Lab is reading this, feel free to set the record straight. Regardless, the contract brewer often matters greatly to how the final product tastes. That complication challenges The Lab's entire concept, since any recipe tested at The Lab is likely to taste different when later brewed elsewhere. It'll be interesting to see how much house character seems to be present in The Lab's beers going forward. That said, you make a good point that The Lab's unique business model gives it the luxury of not being judged like most other breweries are; it may be able to get away with blaming unflawed but untasty beer on the client.

 

Perhaps, but that doesn't seem like a good way to attract clients!

 

FYI on Pig Ate My Pizza: It has a 21% mandatory "Service & Wellness Charge" ("18% for service and 3% to help support employee health benefits & wellness") on both food and drink. Absurdly, the bill rolls this charge together with actual taxes into a "Total Tax" figure. I didn't realize that PAMP had the power to issue taxes. I'm a buck-a-beer tipper, so this increased my intended tip from $1 to $1.47 on a $7 12 oz. IPA (which cost me $9.32 total in the blue-collar suburb of Robbinsdale after $0.85 of actual taxes). And then they're audacious enough to have a tip line on the credit card payment slip, which I'm sure some people absent-mindedly and reflexively utilize, which would result in a double tip. I received no verbal warning of this strange structure; perhaps there was something buried in the menu. I'm not looking to generate a thread-derailing debate about tipping or beer prices but rather just giving everybody a heads up on an unusual and not exactly customer-friendly practice that I've never previously seen at a brewery. A 21% mandatory gratuity is the largest I've ever seen at a restaurant (it's usually 15% or 18% in the rare cases that it exists at all), and that it applies to alcohol -- which traditionally uses a non-percentage-based tipping structure -- as well as food also is inordinate.

 

Duly noted, no additional tip is required at Travail or PAMP. Thanks! Once the "living wage" law takes effect, I won't tip in (insert city here) either since it would be moot at that point.

 

The Strib gives an update on Surly. There's not much of note in the piece save for some updated barrelage figures. In partial correction to an Ansari quote in the article, I'll note that Surly released its first lager (One, a doppelbock) a year into its operation in January 2007 and its first fruit beer (Cranberry One) in April 2007.

 

From the article...

"The rise of craft beers has produced a Surly in almost every state. Oregon has Deschutes, Delaware has Dogfish Head and Wisconsin has New Glarus."

Really? Surly was started in 2005.

Deschutes in 1988
New Galrus in 1993
Dogfish Head in 1995

Yeah. They are the "Surly" of their states alright....

 

The Lab is reading this, feel free to set the record straight. Agree @islay Visited this weekend ,all brews are named by style with a #101 for batch. No indication of Brewer, and the 3 employees were very coy of intent of The Lab moving forward. The Layout of the Taproom is nice an investment was made for sure as is the proximity to both cities.

 

Thanks for the headsup. We're going there soon and will tip accordingly. People should be made aware of this so thank you for doing so.

 

In the beginning of the Surly article, it says 80% of Surly is sold in MN, WI and IL and Surly will focus of those markets and not expand nationally. Then the end of the article states Surly will test the markets of Nevada, CA & NY. Omar said he is considering opening a brewery in another state. That sounds like expanding nationally is not out of the question to me since I doubt Surly needs more capacity for the WI & Chicago markets.

 

A little birdie tells me that Lake of the Woods Brewing Company should be kegging their first two beers in the next day or so.

Check out their social channels for an upcoming opening date if you are up on the big pond fishing