Biking to Beer: Bigger, Longer, Stronger, Part One

Biking to Beer: Bigger, Longer, Stronger: Part One. Spring is here. Time to get back on the metal horse and re-acquaint myself with the local breweries, new and old.

If you were paying attention to this webular blogging activity of mine last summer, you may remember my effort to visit all of the brewpubs and taprooms in the city of Minneapolis on one day. This was timed so that I could make the attempt before it was impossible, for Sisyphus was soon to open, and after that Bauhaus and Fair State and Insight and Northgate and more were on their way. I could imagine having thirteen beers all over town in the course of a day, but not 18 or 20. In truth, I only did 11 of the 13 breweries, but it's close enough for jazz.

A new idea recently dawned upon me, to make the rounds again, but 3 or 4 in a day, on my days off. This will continue until I get to all of the breweries of the Twin Cities (yes, I'll get to St. Paul, or even some of the suburbs) by bike, and I'll write about my experiences with them, as well as the beers, and strive to include a new beer at each stop.

This anonymous lizard (surely he must have a name, but I don't know it) is the smallest taxidermied animal in the Harriet Brewing Taproom, after the armadillo and the fierce puma. 

First stop, at 5 pm, Wednesday, March 18, Harriet Brewing, 3036 Minnehaha Avenue. I can say with confidence that every one of the beers they've produced has been covered here in the Nib. I met owner and brewer Jason Sowards for the first time in the summer of 2010 as he was trying to meet the beer buyers and bar managers of the cities to find the people who would purchase his product, with his homebrew samples as the promise of beers to come. A call to him once I heard he'd found his space and was setting up his brewery led to the invitation to host the release party in early February of 2011. And what a day that was. For the next month, the Blue Nile was the only place you could get the first beer from the first production brewery in the city in over a decade, the first new one since the '90's. Before Harriet, there were three breweries in Minneapolis, all brewpubs. Since then, in less than four years, seventeen more have opened.

Over three years, I continued to tap every new beer Harriet released at the Blue Nile. In March of 2012, I was invited to play my jazz records at the soft opening of their tap room, which just missed being the first brewery taproom in Minneapolis, beat out by Fulton. After a bit, I was offered a regular gig DJ-ing there on my day off from the Nile, which continued for over a year, until they sought out more live entertainment. You may remember that I worked at their taproom after being unemployed last fall, and while waiting for my new job at Eastlake to start up. I still make it in a few times a month, checking in on the my records stored on their shelves, keeping up with their beers, soaking up the arty atmosphere.

Perhaps my quest to find a new beer I haven't logged here yet would fail early on, as I've tried ever Belgian and German-styled brew this outfit has offered. Luck was with me, as they had a brand new brew that wasn't on the chalkboard, and still had no name. An American IPA, their first American anything so far. (That is, unless you agree with me that the Belgian IPA, especially the style that West Side represents,  is a thoroughly American invention.) This anonymous IPA is everything you'd want, pithy and citrus-y and hoppy as any IPA you like. As an IPA critic, I can vouch that any hop-heads in the house would be easily pleased. (I'll get a growler soon, and do a full review then.) During my long association with the brewery, I've often wished they'd break away a little from the Euro-style schtick, just a bit. An English-style once in a while, an American-style now and then. Hey, they did a Finnish-style, why not go a little further? Or closer, even?

If I hadn't seen a friend there during my visit, I might have had one and be done, but Don was there, so we got to talking and I put back another, this one a Divine Oculust. Once that Belgian Golden Ale was finished, I got back on the bike and took Hiawatha Avenue, a few blocks from Minnehaha, northerly to Franklin and 27th, turning on Franklin and following it over the Mississippi River, from the West Bank to the East. It's only a matter of blocks from there to University Avenue, and once there, it's a small shot until we get to Malcolm Avenue, where at 520, we meet Surly Brewing Company.

In 2004, there was a mention in a Brooklyn Center newspaper about a man who wanted to start a brewery in that city. This report was repeated in a post on BeerAdvocate.com and it of course caused a minor flutter, as it should have. There had been no new breweries in the Twin Cities that had succeeded since Summit and James Page (which, ultimately, failed). In the intervening years, anyone with ambitions to begin brewing locally was discouraged or sent to Wisconsin. All I did was make a comment on that thread that a new local brewery would be welcome, indeed, and I received a private "beermail" on the BeerAdvocate site from a user by the name of "micro" identifying himself as Omar. He reached out to me to keep me aware of his activities creating this new brewery, visiting me at the Blue Nile when he had things to report.  Sometimes it was bottles of Michigan beer he brought me, sometimes his new business card, revealing the name for the first time, and sometimes a cap or a pint glass, picking my brain for insight or opinion.

If I were to detail the events that led up to the rise of the Surly Brewing Company, and my long association with them, it would turn into a mid-sized novella. Actually, it already did, but I edited it out of this post. Too long. Another time, perhaps. I confess, though I may have mentioned it before, that I'm still amazed at the evolution of it all. It's so incredible that  I find it hard to put into words. It took not only the building of a brewery and the invention of a brand, plus the growth of a cult following, but also the changing of laws, as well as minds and tastes. (Omar actually had to change the law in Brooklyn Center to allow him to found a brewery there.)

And here we are now, with the Surly Mega-Brewery at 520 Malcom Avenue, which I wrote about here….and the question was asked: when will it calm down? My second visit was on a Sunday night around 6 pm. The Beer Hall tables were full, but I found a seat at the bar easily. I had a couple beers, and a Surly Burger. A smart-alecky bar-back gestured to the open seats and said to anyone listening: "Is it 7 pm, or 7 am? Half the bar stools are empty!" Yeah, and it's a Sunday night, and you don't have any TVs showing the Big Game, and no happy hour, and no nothing that bars use to draw people in, and yet it's still busy enough that there's no need to complain because you have a momentary lull.

I'm not accustomed to downing my Cynic from fancy glassware, but I don't mind it either. Shaker pints are forbidden, it seems, at the Surly Beer Hall.

I still hear from people who say they haven't made it in, because the parking lot is full, or they walk in and there's a line. Don told me he walks out more often than he doesn't. So, what happens on a Wednesday in mid-March, around 7pm? A line, but short. My long bike ride made me thirst something simple and drinkable, and I went for a CynicAle, which I used to enjoy on a regular basis when I always had it on tap at the Nile, and I haven't tasted it much in the past year. One CynicAle while I stood near the bar and waited for a bar seat to open up. Took about 20 minutes, and I tried the lamb meatballs and ordered a Witches Tower. This was the first new beer released at the Beer Hall , a "session brown ale" with an extra dose of cardamom to make it truly unique. Warm, spicy, and terrifically drinkable. The name comes from a nearby Minneapolis landmark near the new location, the Witch's Hat Water Tower. I slowly savored my pint, while enjoying an appetizer of lamb meatballs, and engaging in conversion with my bar-stool neighbor, Dave, a bassist with the Minnesota Orchestra, and talked of music and beer.

Getting up close and personal with a Witch's Tower Brown Ale. Did I mention the house roasted cardamom, or the aging on toasted ash? 

It's a piece o' cake to get from Surly to Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery. Surly is located blocks from University Avenue which runs parallel to Washington Avenue, and I took the latter street through the University of Minnesota campus to the Washington Avenue bridge over the Mississippi river, taking me right to one of my favorite beer spots in town. It's still a great mystery why I put off going there for the first five years of their existence. My best guess is that I simply did not trust brewpubs back then. How could their beer be as good as a "real brewery"? I was suspicious, and dared not enter. When my quest for beer kicked into high gear, I ventured inside and after Masala Mama went down my throat for the first time, I never looked back.

On this visit, there was Czar Jack Imperial Stout to be had, so I had to have one. Always have to have one, if ever I see one. But that's not new, so I tossed back a tasty Mocha Java Double Brown Ale. Not sure why it's "double", at only 6.1 % ABV, it's maybe one and a half times the strength of a normal brown ale, but it surely packs on the extra flavor, with serious doses of chocolate and coffee. It's another one that I'll probably pick up in a growler and do notes on then.

MJDB, or Mocha Java Double Brown at Town Hall. Not very double, but plenty Mocha Java. 

As I was getting ready to pack up and head to my next stop, all the way through downtown, across the Loring Park neighborhood, and into the Dunwoody campus, across from the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden, I was called over to some friends in a booth. I hated to cut the chit chat short, but there was a plan in play, and I couldn't lose a moment, especially because closing time was nigh. I made to Sisyphus Brewing at about 9:50, just in time to get last call and have a couple pints. Trivia was over and the place was emptying out. Albert the dog was being friendly as always, and there was time to play a couple games of pinball with Sam, but I couldn't compete with him because he's become a master of the game. Enjoyed hearing talk of his expansion plans while enjoying a West Coast IPA, another beer that will be described in full detail later. (I had arrived in time to secure a growler of it before the law forbade me from doing so.

Last beer of the night? Not quite, I had one more at home. And once I opened the growler, you can read my notes on the West Coast IPA. 

So, on a Wednesday in mid-March I paid a visit to four of my favorite local breweries, just the first leg of this longer, occasional journey. Next time, maybe they won't all be my favorites, but there will be beer involved, so that's a good thing.