Minneapolis Breweries Day by Day #1: The Herkimer & West Alice Belgian Imperial IPA

{Editor's note: I began writing this on 12/26/17 and finished it on 12/29. Keep this in mind if you feel you've caught some sort of temporal anomaly in the text.}

I forgot to take a good pic of the place, and shot this
from the bus. Until I get a better pic, enjoy this shot
of the Herkimer and a blue truck!

If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you may remember that in 2014 I attempted to see all of the breweries in Minneapolis on one day before such a feat would become impossible. I made it to 11 of the thirteen, not bad at all. (I skipped Rock Bottom and 612, because, well, because if I had to skip two, those would be them.)

In 2016, I made it my aim to see all of the breweries in the state of Minnesota as I could (with much help from Jason at the steering wheel) and write about them here, as well. At this point, almost a year after accomplishing half of that goal, I still have a stack of reports to write, and still intend to write them, even if it's a year or more afterward. And while all that work awaits me, I am embarking on a new project and will insist that I keep up the reports as the visits happen. I'm going to try to see every Minneapolis brewery (we just had the 32nd open ten days ago) again by the end of January next. That gives me 37 days to do it, and I'll do it in a certain order, seeing the ones that I've neglected the longest, first. I'll skip this format if something comes along, like a special event, that moves another brewery forward up the list. Or if none of those is open on that particular day at a convenient enough time, then I shall choose another. Take for example next Monday, New Year's Day. There will be few taprooms open, so my choices will be limited. Let's say, it's Surly's in turn, in that case.

By the way, we're calling this Minneapolis Breweries Day by Day, or MBDD, or Em B'Dad. Say it a couple times, you'll get it, Em B'Dad. Em B'Dad. Em B'Dad.

For the first day of this project, it's a Tuesday and I have to be at work at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Three of the top 5 on the list are in far-flung NE Minneapolis, and one of them was closed and the others opened at 4, giving me little room to get there, have a pint and make it to work. The other two, however, were on the way and would be easy to stop in before jumping on a bus. I chose the closest to me, The Herkimer, only seven blocks away from where I live. Read what I've written about The Herkimer here.  I don't intend to repeat myself, so I'll just say that The Herk has survived these past 17 years or so by virtue of being there and making competent beer. And that's being generous.

So, what about on December 26. I told the friendly barman that I was looking for something on the dark end of the spectrum. He told me they had a good red ale, and a brown and that I should have been there last week when they had a killer stout on nitro, then handed me samples. They were not what I wanted and then I glanced upon a beer in the listing called West Alice, an Imperial Belgian IPA, at 8.6% ABV & 90 IBUs. Hey, that's right up my alley! I know what I'm drinking.

I inform the barman of my order, who then tells me that it does not technically receive the same Happy Hour treatment (Happy Hour 2 for ones run from 3-6 daily and it is currently 3:30.) because it is a bigger beer. The second one will be $2 off. Fine, I'll take that offer, though I rarely have two 8%+ beers before work.

The beer looks fine for the part, though the glass could've been cleaner. (I'm not one to talk, for dishwashing is a struggle at work, and I've got many pictures on this blog I'm not proud of. I'm getting better, and trying harder, though.) Bright red, with a fine, frothy head.

I take a whiff, and I get the funk and the hops. Nice and weird, the way I like it. Good and hoppy, barnyard funky. And then the not so good: a bit of plastic, definitely off flavors, something from the yeast or part of the fermenting process. Is this a problem arising from using unfamiliar ingredients? Can't say for sure.

This flaw did not persist throughout the length of
the drink. Yes, I finished it. And I finished the second one, too. Didn't get as much of the off-flavors in glass two. Medium bodied, fairly easy drinking, despite the strength. Doesn't rank among my favorite Belgian Imperial IPAs (and how many are there, and what are they? I simply must find out.), not by a long shot. Would I order one again? Not with the memory of that flawed flavor still lurking in my brain.

Does the Sake Grade rice have anything to do with it? The Herkimer is owned by the proprietor  of the Sake brewery/Japanese restaurant Moto-i located just down the street. Do they share ingredients often, I wonder?

I finished as much as I could of glass #2, left the chips and dip behind and ran to catch my bus across the street. Will I return to The Herkimer any time soon? Well, not so much when Muddy Waters is across the street with a wide range of beers on tap and LynLake is two doors down with a higher success rate in my opinion. There are even more options at that corner I'm not as familiar with, but will probably yield a much higher result of fine ales offered. At the Herk, you're best off ordering a Handy's Lager of something less exotic than this. Their clientele is not looking for beers of this kind and it'll take much longer to go through them.

In fact, the Herk has been off the beer geek radar for so long, I think that if they made the best beer in town, somehow, no one would know about it, and if you told them, they wouldn't believe it.

To restate the purpose of this project, I'm going to revisit each brewery in Minneapolis and review a beer or two by January 31, 2018. But the next time I find myself wondering which breweries I haven't seen in a while, I'll stick to the ones I actually like.

Meanwhile, the people of Uptown/LynLake will keep coming here for the booze and the food and shuffleboard and the beer that's just good enough, but not quite.