I'm going to be in Minnesota this coming weekend and I'm on the hunt for local smoke beers in Minneapolis/St. Paul. On Saturday my plan is to do a brewery crawl. At the moment I've identified Northbound Smokehouse, Clutch, Waldmann, Surly, Fair State and Utepils as places with websites claiming various smoke beers are now on draught. Most of the websites appear to be up to date and there is a decent range of styles What says this group -- what am I missing? I doubt I'll have the chance to repeat the crawl anytime soon so I'd like to be sure to hit the most recommended options. Thanks for your help in advance!
I did a very similar smoke beer crawl a couple weeks ago. Hit Northbound Smokehouse, Utepils, Fair State, and Big Wood. tl;dr version: Fair State, Surly, Waldmann my favorites, others not smokey enough. Still waiting for Hammerheart to return. Long version: At Northbound I had Dictator, which was a pretty good strong dark ale with some notes of rum, but not enough smoke. Their smokehouse porter is also quite mild on the smoke in my opinion. At Utepils I had the smokey the beer. Again, it seemed to be a very light touch on the smoke. Fair State had the Grodziskie on tap and bought a bottle of the Lichtenhainer. The grodziskie was finally a good and smokey beer. The Lichtenhainer is a smoked sour, so it's different but does have a decent smoke aroma, but the sour/tart dominates the taste. Big Wood--I had Forest Fire. I think they changed the recipe since the last time I had (admittedly 5-6 years ago at least). From back then I remembered it being quite smoke-forward and quite malty. The version now on tap was basically a hoppy imperial red ale. Very little, if any smoke flavor. I didn't go to Surly this time, but "You Want This Smoke" was a very good smoked helles. Waldmann's Lichtenhainer was really good, I prefer it to Fair State's version. Have not tried Clutch's smoked octoberfest. Unfortunately the kings of smoked beers around here--Hammerheart--are still in process of getting their new brewery going in Northern MN (I hope! No news in a LONG time!)
If you’re feeling inclined to do so, be sure to share your thoughts and reviews with us in the Smoked Beer Appreciation thread (https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/smoked-beer-appreciation-thread-2023.673813/). Love the idea of a ring of smoke tour!
Thanks for this info. I wish Hammerheart was available. Big Wood sounds good, but it is 20 miles out of town and I won't have a car. Any chance that a taproom or bottle shop in MSP would have Forest Fire?
Frankly, I wouldn't recommend Forest Fire if you're looking for smoke. I don't think they distribute it either, it's a taproom exclusive in White Bear Lake only.
