Friday, December 29, 2017

Venn Brewing Citra Mosaic IPA / MN Breweries One by One # 125

The breweries keep on coming.

A few Saturdays past (December 16), Venn Brewing at 3550 E. 46th Street, Suite 140 in  Minneapolis opened it's doors. The chatter I'd picked up on indicated big crowds and long lines, so I decided to wait until a nice quiet Sunday afternoon, the next day, in fact,  to check them out. Got on a bus to the light rail station and merely had to endure a train chock full of Vikings fans, then jumped of at the 46th Street Station, and there it is, on the first floor of a retail & apartment complex. I'd heard good things and sidled up to the bar to check out the beers.

The convenience of the location is just one thing this brewery has going for it. Let's add the great thirst of the neighborhood. Everyone wants a neighborhood brewery, and south Minneapolis is lacking. Northbound Smokehouse Brewpub is a mile and a half away (side note: I saw three of their employees here during this visit), also easily found via the light rail system, but beyond that? Wild Mind is 7 miles to the west, or LynLake 5 miles in that same direction. The people of South Minneapolis want to get some good beer without having to travel to Uptown or Downtown or Nordeast, or, hell, anywhere, really. They want it right in their backyard. And they'll be happy.

There are numbers associated with the beers and style, but no names. Twelve beers on tap, though the numbers went to Thirteen. Number Eleven wasn't ready. That they had 12 good beers ready to go is impressive. And I started with a 5 ounce sample of what should be my favorite, if done well, the Citra Mosaic IPA. I'll tell you about it at the bottom, for I liked it well enough to take a growler home.

Happy with that one, I pressed on and went all out with another one that I wanted to be perfect, the 6.2% Porter, in a pint. Rich malt, robust, chocolatey, smooth and highly drinkable. Stands up, satisfies. I could find no flaw, wanted nothing more than what was in the glass. My notes actually read: "almost perfect."

My original plan was to try a couple beers and move on, maybe take a growler home and then check out another brewery that I needed to visit. But I was having a nice time, the servers were all terrific, several friends were in attendance that I chatted with , there was the old man next to me who didn't really know anything about craft brewery taprooms and just wanted something domestic. We had an interesting conversation. One of the bartenders was more than helpful in getting him to open up his mindset, an interesting exercise. Owner & co-head brewer Kyle Sisco was helping out with glass washing and occasional pouring, and I had a chance to speak with him a little bit. At this point, I decided to go with a flight.

It a build your own flight, allowing you to pick whatever you want, up to 8 beers. with the price per 5 ounce pour based on the price per full serving, either $2 or $3. Works for me. I went with Golden Ale, Black Lager, Petite Saison, Pale Ale, Blood Orange Wit, Winter Ale, Pilsner and Raspberry Sour. And I did not take notes on them. Why not? I had the feeling that I would be back and would bring home growlers to take further notes on in the time ahead. I was happy with what I tried, some not quite as flawless as the porter or the IPA, but nothing bad, either. Everything I sampled was good to excellent.

Once I was done with the flight I'd been on, I looked at the time and realized that I'd been passing the afternoon so well that I had little time left to accomplish my goals for the rest of the afternoon. I adjusted my plans accordingly. In addition to picking up a growler of the Citra Mosaic IPA, I used the other growler I'd brought along to use at that other brewery I wanted to see and had them fill it up with the Session IPA, which you may have read about here. My final beer at this inaugural visit to Venn (no diagrams, only friends and foxes) was the Rye Pale, again in a pint. I liked it, didn't love it. Prefer my rye ales to be heavier on the rye, but there wasn't anything wrong with it. Good beer, and you can drink it. But I don't know about "squishy"...

As for the space itself, it's fairly typical, the usual sea of tables, and well-appointed restrooms at the right, just past the board games. Always with the board games. Nicely designed, an excellent staff. Food truck out in the parking lot. I can see many good things coming out of this brewery.

Let's talk about that beer, though:

Venn Citra Mosaic IPA. 7.5% ABV.

Mostly clear, with chill haze, bright golden hue, beautiful, long-lasting white head.

In the nose: hop bitterness bursts from the nose, big citrus, grapefruit and pine, lots of lemon and tangerine. Just right.

In the mouth: Bitter hop attack continues once the ale boards the palate. Light-ish body, malt holds it down, but lays low. An impressive melange of hop flavors abound. Hop bitterness stays long on the tongue, and I like it that way. This is sure to please any card-carrying Hop-Head, like myself. Damned delicious. This one will quickly rise to the ranks of my favorite locals IPAs.

BEER STYLES
We want our beers to be as welcoming as the beertender pouring them. So it’s no wonder we have a wide array of beers, inspired by recipes from around the globe, to quench your curiosity. 

Unlike larger production breweries, we won’t have the same core beers on all the time. Instead, you can expect to find each offering labeled by batch number –  Each batch will be available until it’s gone.

Batch #6 CITRA MOSAIC IPA (7.5%)
Tropical fruit, resinous, bitter. West-Coast style IPA: dryness and bitterness are key notes in this hop-dominant style.
Malts: Maris Otter. Hops: Citra and Mosaic (United States). Yeast: American Ale.

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