Beer imitates art at Mia’s Artoberfest

Artoberfest 2016 // Photo courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art

Long before today’s smartphones, selfie sticks, and Instagram, artists were commissioned to document the every day happenings of contemporary events in eighteenth-century Europe. “Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art focuses on the masterful works of view painters, including Canaletto, Bellotto, Robert, Panini, and Guardi.

Head over to Mia for Third Thursday: Artoberfest, where art meets beer, as four breweries have specifically tapped into the exhibit to craft artfully inspired beers.

Presented in partnership with The Growler, on Thursday, October 19 Artoberfestgoers can gaze upon the exhibit’s more than 50 artworks—vividly detailed, gorgeously painted, grand canvases that transport us to Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome, a gondola floating along Venice’s Grand Canal, and other events of long ago—all while sampling special, art inspired beers from Fair State, Fulton, Able, and Bad Weather.

Art inspired beers by . . .

Fair State Brewing Cooperative

Fair State is making a Smoked Wheat Sour inspired by Hubert Robert’s “Fire at the Opera House of the Palais Royal” (France, 1781).

Fulton Brewing Company

Fulton will pair “Bridge for the Feast of Santa Maria della Salute,” (Sweden, 1748) by artist Johan Richter, with a Lingonberry Blonde Ale.

Able Seedhouse + Brewery
The Departure of Charles III from Naples to Become King of Spain, 1759

“The Departure of Charles III from Naples to Become King of Spain” (Italy/Spain, 1759) by Antonio Joli was the inspiration for Able’s Artoberfest beer.

Bad Weather Brewing Company

St. Paul’s Bad Weather Brewing company were inspired by “The Balloon Flight of Jacques Charles over the Place de la Concorde,” attributed to Pierre Antoine de Machy (France, 1873).

“Flight, is dependent on wind, as is a windvane,”Bad Weather brewer, Andy Ruhland, says about connecting their own “Windvane” beer with the open skies in the painting. “We basically did a dry hop Windvane cask. We added some Simcoe hops to the beer and we wanted to accentuate the hops in the cask. I’m looking for that piney, resiny, dank character in the beer.”

Alongside these artful inspirations, each brewery will also bring a few other beers to sip and savor, and the chance to meet and talk to the brewers. Rock out to live music from BBGUN and get crafty with beer-inspired arts and crafts.