La Dona Cerveceria El Reyna IPA ( and part one of Minneapolis Breweries 2020)

One thing has been missing from this blog lately, and you know what it is. Individual write-ups about visits to breweries, rather than simple reviews of their beers. I've seen many breweries and not written them up here, and I can offer no excuses or explanations.

In addition to this, I wanted to accomplish the task of doing brewery reports of Minneapolis first, close the circle on it, so to speak. At year's beginning, I began a project of hitting up brewery taprooms until I got through a certain number, all through the year. Well, you know what happened. But now, the breweries and taprooms are re-opening, and I still haven't gone back to work full-time. As good a time as any to try, try again.

In the logo for La Dona Cerveceria, Minneapolis' Latinx-themed brewery at 241 Fremont in North Minneapolis (it's practically outside Downtown), we see very prominently the number 2016. This is one of those cases where that number does not reflect the year that they opened, but the date of their inception, the time they decided to start doing something, maybe the date they formed their LLC. If they'd opened in 2016, I might have written about them sooner.

In fact, they opened in late 2018, and I put off visiting them until May of 2019. This is when they first appeared here, after bringing home a couple of crowlers from my Monday stop. I'd been hearing from friends who'd been there, and raved about their brown ale or their Mexican lager. That wasn't good enough for me, I had to see if there was more to them.

You walk in and see the Mexican-themed art is everywhere. There's a long bar, surrounded by all kinds of other seating, with televisions all around. Past the bar is a small restaurant area that's been occupied by various enterprises. It wasn't open that night, and I'd just missed the night's event, a lesson in Spanish. Other advertised events included Latin dance lesson, DJs, and bands. Outside, a miniature futbol field, definitely the only one of it's kind attached to a Minnesota taproom.

I had three beers that time, and took no notes. They included Bromista, an American Pale Ale, El Rey, an American IPA, and Xipe, a Mosaic & Simcoe IPA. I was pleased with all three, found them all refreshing, tasty, and being indicative of their respective styles. Perhaps I should have gone outside my usual comfort zone, and tried different styles, but that's just the way I was feeling that night. Two crowlers came home with me, and they were hits with my palate, too: an Azacca DIPA and a Coffee Brown Ale. I didn't want to only praise their lagers, as one might suspect that a Latinx brewery would be best known for lagers, and wanted to make sure there were other treats
available.

Now I have to ask why it took me so long to return. One theory might be that in order to get there from where I live, one would need to pass Sisyphus Brewing, and would I really want to skip them.?Also, no buses will take you there, you'd need to walk a mile from the area near Sisyphus, and in winter, do I want to do that? No excuse for when I'm on bike, though. No excuse at all.

In the before times, we used to gather.

And so it came to be that my second visit was on a Sunday night in March of this year, when I was at Sisyphus, near closing time. Sam was going to go there for some televised futbol after closing, and offered to give me a ride, so that was that. A large crowd had convened to watch the local Loons kicking around the Soccer ball in Portland, OR, much larger than the 30-some that the management had anticipated. I saw my futbol-loving friend Steve at the bar and squeezed in between the stools. My super-fan friend Rich, who had gathered all these fans there for the occasion, saw me and uttered, "Al! You're at a soccer game?" "No," I told him, "I'm at a bar." "But, you're watching a football game!" "No, there's a game on, where I'm drinking beer." Silly.

I had two beers while there, first, one of their standard IPAs, La Reyna, which you will hear more about below. I followed that with Cuauhtil, a Russian Imperial Stout. Which you will hear about when I crack open a bottle. They were both served in plastic, due to the larger number of patrons than they suspected. It seemed that they were doing a good job of keeping up with cleaning the glasses, though, and I spied the back-up snifters sitting dry on a shelf. Asked if I could get my imperial stout in one of those, instead of plastic, please. Nope, only plastic while the game is on. But it's right there, I think, but don't say. Okay, whatever, I won't argue. I took my leave and Ubered home.

I wished that I could have brought crowlers home from that visit, but it was after 6 pm on a Sunday, and that wasn't allowed. Too bad. This was nearly the last taproom visit of 2020, until recently. I'd done a Wisconsin trip to see Oliphant & Dave's BrewFarm, after,  and a pop-in to Town Hall, before it all came crashing in, and the world shut down. So many things seem like ages ago. The carefree feeling of standing/sitting next to people. Crowds. Being able to walk in without worry. I won't say "freedom" because that makes me sound like certain other people.

We're slowly opening up. Now, at last, I made my third visit to La Dona, on a Saturday afternoon, again biking south after seeing Utepils. And there's no fuss about reservations. We can take glassware outside. Plenty of room for "social distancing". They ask that patrons wear masks while indoors, and everyone complies. Jason and I moved our table to the shade, and just enjoyed spending the time. I was delighted by the 3:17 to Cologne kolsch, which hit all the right notes. Next up: the Dona Fria lager, a style I typically skip, but was perfect for the weather at the time. I finished up with Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, a kolsch/IPA hybrid that didn't knock my socks off, but I enjoyed, nonetheless. In the middle of the beers, I had a chorizo taco ($4 each).

This time I was able to pick up crowlers/bottles, and I went with 2 of each. One of which is reviewed below.

La Dona Cerveceria El Reyna IPA. 6 % ABV. 73 IBU.
La Dona Cerveceria, Minneapolis, MN.

Clear, bright golden hue, larges, lasting, lace-leaving ivory head. Looking good.

In the nose: Slight sweetness swiftly subsumed by hop aromatics. Resiney, piney, some citrus.

In the mouth: Starts out bitter and bridges over to juicy and hoppy. Ending on a dry note. Big bite of citrusy hop flavors, a touch of tropical on the side. Long, bitter finish, that I love. Medium-bodied, and easy-drinking. A splash of sweetness continues to counter the brittle, bitter side.
Juicy, bitter, dry, cha, cha, cha.

I like this one. My kind of IPA. I'll drink it again.

North meets South as Simcoe and Mosaic hops create a duet of piney and tropical fruit aromas and flavors.

After three visits, I haven't found a La Dona beer that I didn't like. And I'd be a fool to not return with more urgency. I just have to see every other Minneapolis brewery first. Maybe. We'll see.

Here's how they describe themselves, by the way: We are the nation's first Latino-influenced for-benefit beer company, supporting and accentuating the Latinx communities of Minnesota. Inspired by our upbringings, our goal is to provide quality craft beer to anyone who appreciates beer with purpose, culture and heart. We are fusing Latin and local Minnesota culture, one cerveza at a time

Come for the waste elimination, stay for the art!