City Pages article stating half of MN breweries may close http://www.citypages.com/restaurant...lose-in-under-6-months-due-to-covid/570014741
For the past weeks, all of my beer purchases have been either directly from the brewery via delivery or curb-side, or if from the liquor store have been MN distributing breweries (with only a couple of exceptions for a non-MN beer to compare with the MN versions for online tastings). But, I'm just one guy who drinks very much in moderation. I read an article today (or perhaps yesterday) that said city-owned liquor stores were setting records for sales, but that people were shifting from beer to wine and liquor in a major way during the shut-down. (IDK why the article focused on the muni's, but it did.) Given MN's nutty beer regulations, we MN beer advocates should shift our buying to be even more focused on buying local, direct from the brewery for the small guys, and from the liquor stores for the ones that cannot sell directly to consumers (I know that is more than Surly, Schell's, and Summit, but it is at least them and IDK who else, Lift Bridge maybe, and probably others.)
I placed an order $100 order with a semi local to me - Spilled Grain - to be delivered Saturday. I've been placing multiple orders from Pantown over the past month. I'm doing what I can to help my locals.
From the City Pages article: "Fifteen percent of respondents anticipate they will close forever within the next four weeks...." From a Pioneer Press article this afternoon: "Walz to extend Minnesota stay-at-home order two weeks, until May 18"
I don't usually get involved in the political talk but Walz is in la la land. Has no idea what is going on with these places. The things the Guild requested this week to help stay in business should have been done that day. Nothing dangerous to the society about it (or the less than 1% not in nursing homes at risk I should say). Just do it and help these places out. Goes for anything that can be done to help businesses in a safe way. Nothing they were requesting was "not safe" or crossing the line....just common sense things to help them. · Temporarily allow all breweries to sell beer in 12-64oz containers for safe, at-home consumption · Suspend all Regulatory Fees through December 2020 · Waive Sales Tax Payments for Hospitality Businesses through October · Establish a 90-day Forbearance and Rent Abatement Program · Expand the Small Business Emergency Loan program through the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development by $500 Million · Delay May 15 Property Tax Payments for Businesses Impacted by the Pandemic
Doesn't all this need to come from the legislature? IIRC allowing alcohol to go sales from restaurants had to pass through the legislature first as well so I don't see how this would be different. Unless walz has emergency powers he can use to push through sales of 12-64oz containers direct from the producers.
Do you think all MN businesses should have no 2020 regulatory fees, waived tax payments & rent abatement? I'm sure if these are given to breweries, many more business will say why are these given only breweries? I think the MN guild should have asked for less now (smaller serving sizes) and went for the rest later with the support of other business organizations.
I think Walz can do just about anything he wants right now although he does push things toward the legislature to vote on instead of just doing emergency orders.
You know that is a good question. I'm not an expert on the state budget so I could certainly be wrong in the impacts this would have but my gut is "yes..extraordinary times call for measures like this for all to eventually get back to life the way it was."
Yeah, I agree about the lager comment. I have always liked Lupulin for Hooey and Blissful Ignorance, but their only so much haze I can stand. Their Dortmunder proved to me that they are actually great brewers. And all of Indeed's recent "taproom" beers have cemented my feelings that they are outstanding brewers, who simply like to play around with honey and spices quite often.
From Wild Mind: "Ball Canning (that company that makes all those glass jars but also makes crowlers) is shifting their production of 750ml crowlers to make more 32oz crowlers...we were able to secure a max per customer of 2 more pallets that will help get us through May but after that, we are likely out of luck until August and that is a big IF Ball decides to start producing 750ml crowlers again at that time." https://www.instagram.com/p/B_5AmGaJCBt/ Someone posted a form letter in the post comments you can copy/paste to use to contact your rep in support of temporarily lifting these size restrictions.
How many people are walking through Lowe’s / Home Depot’s / Targets in a day??? If breweries / restaurants / bars had to limit number of occupants - what do you think the ratios of big box retailer to brewery imbibers would be in a day (5,000:200?) Now ... walk me through the logic ... 1000’s of people go through a Home Depot in a day (go to any one, parking lot is full all day) - you’re what, magically safer walking through Home Depot because a light bulb is essential? But not sitting with 30 people in a brewery?
10,088 confirmed cases in MN with 534 deaths. 449 of those deaths are from elderly in long term care facilities over the age of 70. And they are also in constant quarantine since they too old/sick to leave regardless.
Good read on the current situation https://www.forbes.com/sites/kennyg...e_80dWpxdk2rbEgt62ldUrEaqVLazzVM#14c2b1af187d
If we are going to allow politics in a Beer forum. (Which I disagree with.) Could we avoid sad attempts at wittiness like "the social studies teacher"? I don't like President Trump, but I don't refer to him as "the reality TV host." It's just an ad-hominem, and honestly weakens the argument rather than strengthening it. https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ad-hominem Ick. Now that I've almost talked politics, I think I need a shower. But I'll settle for a beer.
Did an order for Barrel Theory and Modist pick up on Friday. I have done an order for 56 Brewing pretty recently as well. Nice to see some breweries are getting after it with their crowler releases and infusions. 56 offers a different mixed crowler 3 pack each day for $25 and are frequently selling infusions of their stouts and Ipas.
Was thinking of getting some food and beers from Tamarack Taproom. (No... I'm not independently wealthy) When I got to the beer section, it looks like you can't buy a specific beer. You can only choose from a variety of 6-pack samplers from various style groups chosen by their bar manager. Hard Pass.
Ugh, politics in rhe regional forums now? Anyone else in the TC metro find Bitburger Triple Hop'd Lager? Total Wine in Bloomington got only a single case. (I grabbed a sixer btw, delicious). Anyone else seeing it here?
So, for those of you hitting the various breweries for pick up. Who's doing curb-side or has a window vs. those making you come inside?
I've been using both Blackstack and Modist and they have delivery. Blackstack is more generous with a 10 mile radius.
I have been using TownHall and have the crowlers delivered to my door, up to 10 miles. there close to me. Northbound has 750ml cans now. I will use them next maybe, not sure how it works yet.
Dangerous man has both options. Done a couple of pickups there and it's pretty smooth. On the north side Hammerheart and Invictus are pickup only. Wish Hammerheart did crowlers because 64oz is just too much to drink by myself
Northbound does great beer but I've always shied away due to their archaic growler fill policies (but ironically due to covid every place has to do it that way due to pre-fills) which I understand...now that they are doing crowlers I may make a trip out of my way to that place as do like it a lot and the brewer is talented.
You guys with your cushy delivery options. I live in Maple Grove. In fact, I live 6.3 miles from the only brewery in Maple Grove, Omni. And they have a 5 mile delivery radius! Gah!
There will likely be a lot of old beer on tap whenever restaurants open up again unless distributors (or breweries that self-distribute) are letting restaurants return it.
You aren't THAT far from Unmapped and they do curbside (15ish minutes depending on your home). Don't need to pre-order and the "drive thru" has a board with the beers listed and can just order then. Only takes a couple minutes per car. Sometimes I pull right up, other times there are 5 cars in front of me. Always super nice. Also, 5 dollars off growlers on Tuesday and Friday, and 5 dollars off a 3-pack of crowlers on Wednesday.
Not super close to u, but I live in Golden Valley and have picked up from steel toe(been there a lot), utepils, modist, dangerous man and fair state, all without having to step foot in a brewery. Utepils u get out of the car, but they have the garage door open w a counter top up, so u don’t do anything other than pick grab your growlers - $15 including glass
So.... I really like Northbound in general, and it's a moderately frequent stop for me while biking in normal times, but I hadn't gotten quarantine beer/food until recently because they are 15 miles away. I recently got around to ordering food/beer from them, because I'm trying to support all the places I like. I was a little surprised, and disappointed, to find they didn't offer curbside. If I just had food, I'd still need to go in but only to a table in front. But if you have beer (or bacon, don't ask me why) you have to go to the bar to pick it up. I'm not saying that's a deal-breaker, everyone can make their own decisions there. But I think just about everywhere else I've been to has curbside, and I've gotten pretty used to that.
Or people your age in an ICU, on a ventilator, sedated, who they are throwing the book at trying to keep alive. Remdesivir, Veletri, multitude of antibiotics, multiple blood transfusions, etc...lifelong health problems when they "recover". I love when people were posting #flattenthecurve on Facebook and everywhere else not even knowing that that entailed (a VERY long time of social distancing i.e. years until EVERYONE has slowly been exposed). Now that they understand, they don't want it. Today there were over 100,000 new cases of COVID reported workwide. That's 100,000 NEW cases in just 24 hours. The single largest day since this started. This is far from over.... But, hey, your alcohol is important and it's important to hang out with other people REALLY need to drink with others.
Today was 2nd largest day for new cases in MN since this started. Also, today, all our hospital are already close to maximum capacity for ICU beds and we're far from a "spike". Those are all new infections. 100,000 in one day. You'll be exposed eventually and after you recover (hopefully) let me know what you think then. My father's coworker was exposed and had a "mild" case aka sick at home for 6 weeks. He was slightly overweight and lost 60 pounds. He lives in St Michael. Hopefully you don't have a more serious case requiring hospitalization and/or an ICU stay. You'll be getting a BIG bill of you do. We were told cost per day on a vent in the ICU is close to $11,000/day. Imagine that bill if you're there for a month (or more).
In Minnesota Deaths: 777, Deaths among cases that resided in long-term care or assisted living facilities: 635 so only 142 deaths not in long term care. If breweries can reconfigure their facilities to do social distancing and those that are most susceptible to the virus keep away there is no reason that breweries can't open.
For all your MN Covid-19 information: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/situation.html#testing1 On 5/19 MN completed tests on about 11% more people than on 5/5. Not much of an increase. Completed tests thus far peaked on 5/15. It is true that the curve of testing has been on the slow upswing since late April, but it's not like we've had an explosion of testing here. As for new infections, it appears that all but four days since 4/23 there have been more than 500 new cases (discounting the data for this week which is incomplete). That doesn't imply that the virus has peaked here, or that it's likely to disappear anytime soon. I have a lot to say about this but I'll keep it brief. Deaths are not the only way we should be measuring the severity of this issue & based on your second paragraph, you appear to minimizing the impact in order to lobby for breweries to re-open (& if that's incorrect, sorry). Hospitalizations are over 2,300. Even people with "mild" cases that are symptomatic often end up sick for two weeks or more. I don't dare get within 10 feet of my mom because if she caught ill & died - even if it weren't my fault, I don't want to live with that. And studies are beginning to point to people spending a lot of time indoors, with a bunch of other people, are more susceptible than others. I feel - feeeeeeel - for breweries & small businesses right now. But I'll be happily drinking in my basement until the worst has passed.
