Any early thought on this new place from Moorhead? I had their Hatchet Jack on tap in Detroit Lakes at Zorbaz and thought it tasted like an average home brew to be honest.....are they extract brewers? 1-10 it was at best a 5 (average)...probably more like 4 so not drainpour but nothing to turn me on...
They don't use malt extract to the best of my knowledge, however, as a long time homebrewer I'd like to say that in the right hands excellent beer can be made with extract.
They are all grain. Here is an article I did from a visit to their brewery earlier this year: http://www.fmbeer.com/visit-to-junkyard-brewing/ Pretty much a small part time brewery with home made equipment and they have added a temperature controller since those first production batches so fermentation should be getting better. I did stop by their place last week when they were selling growlers and I did have some Hatchet Jack the week before at Zorbaz too and it was undercarbonated, an issue they had before at a JL Beers. They are still tweaking their brews and evert batch is different at this point. I did have a sample of their Scrounger, a cream ale made with wild rice and that was very tasty. I think they will be working on their product and getting better, and hopefully before they turn off too many people.
I've been waiting for one of you guys to post about our beer, so thanks for kicking that off, Zap. I think you got a pint from our 1st batch sold. I saw Zorbaz kicked the Hatchet recently. Scrounger was gone a while back. As Dean said, we're going to be tweaking the beers for a while based on the responses we're getting. Carbonation and clarity have been two of our biggest headaches, but we have started using finings and getting the carb dialed in for what works in bars (about 4min shaking at 50psi for a 1/2 bbl). Tell us what you'd like to see in the beer and we'll work on it. We tuned up the level of hops and dark caramelized barley in Hatchet Jack and added toasted oats to Scrounger on the last 2 batches. All BAs are welcome to stop by the Brewery sometime to tell us what they think and sample the fresh stuff. We're definitely there Wed. and Fri. nights 4-7pm, but you could call or text Dan or I other times to see if we're in; #s on facebook and website. Best, Aaron - President/Brewer Junkyard Brewing Co.
Our big fear was having over-carbonated beer that poured foam. From what we heard before starting, bars can't stand that and will pretty much blacklist you for it. So we started short and we're working up to optimum. We're really focusing on the growlers right now, being that it has to remain a "part time" brewery until we can afford to pay ourselves something from brewing, so distribution of kegs will be spotty until then. By "part time" I mean we spend "way too much time" there. (not just sampling beer with people either)
Hey thanks for the thoughts....I know it is tireless and unappreciated work as a brewer (not from my experiences but just from knowing people that do)...let alone doing it on the side part time..good luck with tweaking things....like I said my first experience was not horrible but nothing that got me excited either...I'll try your stuff again next chance I get.
We get all the good feedback to our faces; this is one of the places to go to find out what people really think, which needs to be done if we're going to kick this off right.
