Minnesota Breweries One by One #7, Spilled Grain Brewhouse, Annandale

Spilled Grain Brewhouse, 300 Elm Street, in beautiful
downtown Annandale, where, a highway sign informs us,
Jesus is the Lord of. 

There have been six installments of this series so far in January, and I spent the final day of the month collecting data on breweries 7, 8, 9, and 10. That will make ten for January, getting slightly ahead of the stated goal of eight per month. And when Jason and I went north-west of Minneapolis this past Sunday, it marked the first time the project ventured outside of the City of Lakes. Sunday, January 31, 2016 was our day to review the breweries of Wright County, Minnesota.

So, we left my home in Minneapolis, and went about 50 miles, a trip of roughly an hour and some, to the sleepy little town of Annandale, population 3, 228, to visit the Spilled Grain Brewhouse. I don't think about the town of Annandale much, but I'm pretty sure they don't think

A lovely mosaic of vintage plates
in the men's room.

about me, either. The farther we get away from the big cities, the more likely I feel like I may stick out as "city folk." And the taproom at Spilled Grain has the feeling of "small town pride" all over it.

Every sign is hand-painted, even the tap handles. Country music fills the room. Pictures of old trucks and license plates on the wall, along with every kind of Annandale ephemera and memorabilia.  And it's a friendly feeling, for sure, although we interacted with no one but our server. Groups had brought their own pizzas, but Spilled Grain provided chili on Sunday afternoons, and we gratefully obliged. ("Complimentary while you watch football on the biggest screen in town!")

Did you know that Annandale has 26 lakes? And has been dubbed "the Heart of the Lakes" because it has so many lakes within a 10 miles radius? Did you know it was incorporated in 1888? Or that it's population is 96.3% white, 0.5% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.3% Asian, 1.5% from other races, and 1.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.1% of the population? I love Wikipedia.

My flight of four, kolsch and IPA in back, oatmeal
chocolate stout and SMaSH in front.

There are six beers available on tap, a nice range going from an easy-drinking light kolsch up to the current release, 9.8% Imperial Brown Ale made in collaboration with Big Lake's Lupulin Brewing. This one, the beer that sounded most interesting to me, was not available in growlers and I had to

This is not what Bobby McFerrin sang,
but it's what he meant to sing.

come to a new decision about this project. I previously said that each entry would include a review of a single beer from each brewery, most likely in a growler I bring back home. If I was to do this at each stop Sunday, that would easily cost me $75-$100. Growlers at SGB were $20, including the glass. At our next stop, that price would be $25. Nope. I'm not funded for that, nor do I want to build up my growler collection to the crazy size it was a year ago (over 50 if you remember). I didn't bother to call ahead and ask if they fill other people's growlers. I'd be forced to take notes or just give the general gist. Maybe that's enough.

I ordered a flight of four, and so did Jason, with our selections covering all the bases. First up, Crooked Rafter Kolsch (5.5%, 19 IBU), soft, lightly bitter, smooth and expertly down-able. Their best-seller, our friendly tap-tender told us, and it's no wonder. I've worked in a couple of taprooms, and I can say that when they're at their busiest, the second most-asked question, after "where are the restrooms?" is "what's the lightest beer on tap?" In a community such as this, it's probably even more frequent. And this is not a bad rendition of the style. Not perfect, but not bad.

Chalkboard full of choices.

I moved on to their first SMaSM (single hop/single malt), which they call Small Town. You don't say. Maris Otter malt, Citra hops, 5.9%, 39 IBU. Very clean, with tropical hop notes, a delicate bitterness. Jason liked this quite a bit, but it didn't move me more than normal. Just alright. Third, the Highest Point IPA ( 6.8% ABV, 57 IBU), called "American IPA at it's finest. I don't know about that, but it was a fine effort.  Chinook and Galaxy hops for that "Piney/dankness", so they say. They also say "we did not forget the malt, however, for it provides a strong backbone that does not allow the hops to overpower the drinker." Good thing they didn't forget the malt, or they wouldn't actually have any beer. Quibbles aside, it was an intensely bitter beer that hit this hophead where he lives. I would make this a staple of drinking if I were here with any amount of regularity.

To finish the flight, I picked up my sample glass of Short Temper Chocolate Oatmeal Stout, 5.9% ABV, 29 IBU, aged with fair trade cacao nibs for Ghana. Pronounced chocolate and caramel malt flavors in this one, but less full-bodied than I'd like from a stout. Overall, I liked it, and would have a pint.

Best of the bunch, Operation CoHopearation
release #1, Imperial India Brown Ale.

That ended my flight, but not the beers I wanted to drink. I took a sip of the Apiary Ale honey nut brown (5.7%, 30 IBU, "back by popular demand!")from J.'s sampling, and it was okay. Probably pretty popular, but nothing I would choose. And that left one more, the Operation CoHOPeration that was released the previous day, the collaboration with Lupulin. I ordered a 12 ounce serving of that one. 9.8% ABV, 70 IBU. Reading the beer list description, we are treated to tales of the friendship between Jacob of SGB and Matt and Jeff from LBC. Without such material at hand, you'll have to

This place loves exposed rafters as much as I
hate shaving or smiling.

just imagine what wild adventures and late night revelry these three have enjoyed. The beer, though? Rosy brown colored, fruity-malty nose, rich and sweet malt flavors, with enough hop bitterness to provide great balance. Fiercely hoppy, in fact, with a lot of depth and complexity and a long, malty finish. Dry-hopped with Simcoe and Amarillo. "Loads of malt and loads of hops come together to form a concoction of epic flavor." Me, I proclaimed it "delicious." The best beer there, from a beer geek perspective, and it only made me more excited to check out Lupulin in Big Lake.

So, we drank all the beers and we listened to all the country, and we soaked up all the down-home-ness, and it was time to move on down the road, in the other direction, heading back home and hitting every brewery we could on the way back. And we left charmed by the space and fairly impressed with the output at Spilled Grain, with hardly a concessionary beer in the bunch. You've got to make them fairly safe and drinkable for a crowd such as this, which may not have a lot of access to craft beer where they are, but none were "too safe." In fact, I learned from their website that if we'd been there the week before, the line-up would have included a 7.5% stout and an Imperial Black IPA, at 9.7%. More importantly, I got the feeling that the brewers really know what they're doing here.
Good beers, Spilled Grain, next time I'm in Annandale, I'm coming back for more!