There are beers that I've written about and breweries that I've written about. There are breweries whose beers I've reviewed here, but never the business itself, it's taproom, facilities, or itself as a corporate entity. I try to cover the Minneapolis scene and have been remiss in posting articles about a handful of our local breweries, and my visits to them, and these include: ONE, Inbound, 612, HeadFlyer, Utepils, Pryes, Falling Knife, and 56. Some of these I will write about when I visit them again, and then there is one I don't intend to step foot in unless something changes.
A few more things. One of the truest things about this blog is that I will review every beer that finds it's way into my fridge. How this happens is divided into two categories: either someone gives that beer to me, or I go out and I get. I go out and get it at a store, or in a growler or a crowler on a taproom/brewpub visit. Whether I visit a taproom or not, and with what frequency, is determined my different factors. Do I like the people there, do I enjoy the space, do I crave their beers? Is the facility in close proximity to home, or work. Is it hard to find?
If you search for 56 Brewing in this blog, you'll see that they've appeared here eighteen times, which is more than other brewers I might actually like a little better,. If you examine these entries with a keen eye, you'll notice that the vast majority of these beers were samples. If you give me a sample, it's goes in the blog, good or bad. Go ahead and read them. I wasn't thrilled with this brewery at first.
56's Lake Sandy Rye Lager went on tap at Acadia around five years ago, before I started ordering the kegs. A nitro keg of Dark Territory also went on before I was in charge, and afterwards I decided not to continue with them until I they got better. Samples stopped coming, and I never picked up any of the bombers that appeared in the stores. But I did make an obligatory visit to the brewery in 2016. This was a space without a taproom, due a lack of restroom facilities. (The same once-used by NorthGate, and now Broken Clock, who have fixed that issue.)
Occasionally, they would have events, with outdoor seating and a Biffy, and on October 14 I got on my bike and made my way up to California Street in NorthEast Minneapolis to try the Octoberfest among others. Certain special beers were being poured from kegs inside a delivery truck: Railyard Black Iron Porter (Bourbon Barrel aged), Maple Porter, 1/2 Ton V1 DIPA, and Oktober56fest were the ones I tried. I wasn't happy with any of them. I took notes and pictures, including one of the brewer in front of the truck, hoisting the plastic cup of beer he's about to serve me, but I postponed the article forever. Just couldn't work up the energy to write up a so-so brewery working out of a doomed facility.
Cut to nearly a year later, September 2017, and my first stop at the new facility, just around the corner. All this information comes from Untappd (as well as much of the above data). I had a Black Iron Porter, Simcoe Double IPA, and others, all in plastic cups, for some reason. You've got a brewery, you pour your beer in glasses. (Unless, this is another weird case where they "wanted to get rid of them.") And I was surprised by how much I liked them. This might also have been when I first met Mahad, I know I'd seen him there at least twice.
So, they've got a new building, new brewery, new brewer, and an actual sales rep, who was dropping off samples. The beer was much better, and I felt like I could bring them back in. Looking on the reviews, I published notes on everything they brought me, whether from a growler, can, or crowler. And every now and then, I'd bring in a keg.
Once 56 had cans in the market and a hazy IPA inside them, they started to catch on. Recognition grew and so did their favor among the beer geek crowd. Every now and then, I'd even buy one of their beers on my own, for home consumption. This happened in late 2017, when I bought a six-pack of an IPA that I'd previously sampled from a growler brought in by the sales rep. It had (and still has) the unfortunate name of Nose Hair Bender. You might think that that is a clever way of describing your IPA and it's effect on the insides of someone's nostrils, but there are several things wrong with it, and it's flat out weird that they would go through with such a poor marketing strategy. In my review, I wrote: "Someone should have said no somewhere."
I made another stop in January of 2018, pleased that they were using glass this time. Took home a mini-growler of 'ssippi Squeeze IPA, which I liked and sold at the bar. Still put off writing about them. The samples kept coming, and I'd put them on once in a while. Didn't make it back to the taproom again until April of last year, a quick stop with my niece to return all these empty growlers from all the samples. Had a Peach Cobbler IPA that I didn't mind at all. Still didn't use that opportunity to write a post.
So, I've got 52 check-ins on Untappd, 18 reviews here on the blog, and one untapped keg of Super 'ssippi Squeeze waiting through this infernal shut-down, sitting in the cooler, ...and the one brewery owner who doesn't know a damned thing about racial sensitivity, or just being a good human being.
When I first met Mahad, I thought it was great to see some diversity behind the bar, it's cool that Black folks are becoming part of the industry. This place must be cool to have him on board, I thought. They must be cool people for hiring him. They couldn't possibly be racist, of course. No?
No?
Oh, sure, you have some knots lying around, and some are noose-like, and your sole Black employee feels uncomfortable, and you feel a joke coming on. Someone should have said no somewhere. And that's you, man. In your head and in your heart is where you say no to something stupid and harmful. Some things aren't jokes, and the people of diverse ethnic backgrounds in your employment shouldn't have to be in a potentially toxic environment. It's not terribly hard to not be racist.
That's just fucked up.
So, this is the blog post where I write up the brewery that I don't intend to step foot in again, unless the Johnsons sell, get out of the business, and let someone take over, rename it, make it a haven for respect, caring, and inclusivity. We can't put up with shit like this anymore.
I think we have enough breweries where we don't have to support the one with a racist owner.
