Brewery Updates in Minnesota (2019)

Maple Island for the win. Worst beer, hands down. I would have chosen Wenonah Brewing, but they have been closed for some time.

 

Boy some solid choices for worst of the worst but there has been nothing as bad as South Fork before it closed. Not sure a homebrewer could purposely come up with beer that infected and bad.

 

Kinney Creek in Rochester was just horrid the one time I was there.

 

Are we getting a little off topic here?



Asking for a friend

 

You misspelled Flat Earth....

 

So.... Drastic Measures started brewing. Pretty excited to get up there once they are fully up and running.

 

I think this can be confirmed.

 

Mpls.St.Paul Magazine has a blurb on the upcoming Schram Haus Brewery in Chaska:

"Schram Vineyard and Brewery in Waconia is on the cusp of opening a new spot in Chaska. Schram Haus Brewery will open in the historic Carver County Public Works building this spring, just a stones throw from the site of the old Leiverman Brewery of 1875. Situated on the high bluff overlooking town, the new brewery will feature an outdoor patio and a small kitchen for servng beer snacks."

I think Schram quietly has been brewing some of the best beer in the area lately.

 

Apologies if this has been posted, though I think I would've remembered it:

Mat Waddell, the head brewer and titular "wild mind" behind Wild Mind Artisan Ales, is no longer brewing at Wild Mind as of a couple months ago. I was told he has returned to the corporate world. No word on whether the parting was amicable or whether he retains partial ownership. Former assistant brewer Ryan Placzek has taken over as head brewer. As to whether Wild Mind's creative direction will change, I'm told that Waddell was more wild and farmhouse-oriented and Placzek more controlled, but they still will be using the coolship and foeders. It's unknown whether they will continue to brew any Waddell recipes. Most of the beers on tap now still are Waddell-era recipes. There's been no formal announcement, but I'm not spilling any secrets. Please chime in with additional info or corrections if you've got any. Also, Mat, if you read this, I think I'm safe in speaking for a lot of people in this forum when I say we'd love to see you return to brewing.

 

Now they can officially change the name from Wild Mind to Wild Minds, because nobody could ever get it right before.

 

And Ryan if you’re reading this... get that grapefruit ipa back on tap on a consistent basis pronto.

Thanks

 

Not sure if this old news but Just Plain Wrong has some beers deldelive to Blue Maxx in Burnsville and a beer on tap at Turtles soon.

 

Should have posted this earlier, and sorry that I didn't, but Pantown in St. Cloud is having their official grand opening party today. Going along with their party is a release of RIS - Red Menace - in 4 varieties - Regular, Chili Peppers, Coffee, and Hazelnut.

 

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I would put them solidly above Enki and Excelsior, and about level with Lupine.But they lag far behind Waconia Brewing.

 

I actually meant the Twin Cities Area, not just the western exurbs. I tried Schram beers on two separate occasions in the last six months or so and was blown away both times after long thinking of Schram as a broadly middling brewery.

 

Looks like he might be looking to open up his own place

https://daily.sevenfifty.com/5-rising-stars-in-the-twin-cities/. (Bottom of article)

 

Quoting from the article:

"Looking to expand his efforts, Waddell is currently negotiating the purchase of a 40-acre plot south of the Twin Cities where he intends to build 'a true farmhouse brewery' in which, besides beer, he’ll begin delving into wine and spirits. He plans to grow grains and hops for beer, and corn for whiskey, and he’ll continue 'letting the native microbes do what they want.'"

Wow, that's ambitious. It sounds like Jester-King-Plus. It sounds great from a consumer perspective, but it also sounds potentially quite expensive (especially if he intends to invest in a coolship and foeders) and like a regulatory headache. Note that Schram is able to sell both beer and wine, supposedly on only a winery license, but, as Bartley Blume of Bent Brewstillery knows all-too-well, you can't have both a brewery taproom and a distillery cocktail room at the same producer under current Minnesota law (though Blume is campaigning to change that law). Also, I'd be very interested to see what styles Waddell on his own would choose to tackle, as Wild Mind only took off in popularity after it strayed from Waddell's original farmhouse-in-the-city vision and dove into trendy fare that I am quite certain didn't much appeal to him, at least initially. Best of luck to Waddell if this indeed is a brewery-in-planning, and I'll say it instantly rises to the top of my personal list of most highly anticipated BIPs.

 

I just drove by Caps Grille on Hiawatha today and made me remember that they were apparently going to remodel and add a brewery. Now it looks like they are just plain closed. Google shows them as "Permanently Closed".

https://growlermag.com/mill-caps-grille-in-south-minneapolis-to-rebuild-become-brewpub/

 

Oh yeah, they shut down completely not long after SB weekend last year.

 

I may botch this, but supposedly the son was running the business and had plans on the brewery expansion. The parents didn't like that direction and sold the place from under him! Now it just sits.