What happens when a bar asks every brewery in town to make up a special beer for a random Saturday in November? If you’re Grumpy’s, they respond with a resounding yes.
Beginning at 2pm this Saturday, Grumpy’s Downtown will host the Limited Action Beer Festival. The free event is your chance to taste one-of-a-kind and potentially never-to-be-seen-again brews from ten of the best breweries in the state.
The festival is the brainchild of Rainer Fronz and Pat Dwyer, who were blown away with the response from brewers when proposing the idea some months ago. “A representative from every brewery came down and picked hops,” says Fronz. “Centennials, Northern Brewers, it’ll be interesting to see what they use.”
The brewers came to satisfy the conditions of the gauntlet Grumpy’s laid out: all of the beer at the festival must either contain hops hand-picked from the patio at Grumpy’s Northeast, wild rice, or something else distinctly Minnesotan. “It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with,” says Dwyer. “Some have the small tanks, others will cask condition.” Here’s a sneak peek at three of the specialty brews on tap this Saturday:
Northgate Brewing: a firkin of American Red Ale with 2 Row, Crystal Malt, Chinook, Citra, and Grumpy’s Hops.
Excelsior Brewing: A wild rice-honey ale they’re calling “Milfoil Ale.” It includes Minnetonka Gold honey, Minnesota wild rice, Minnesota buckwheat, and some zebra mussel shells. Brewed using MN-grown fresh hops, Maris Otter barley and saison yeast. The kicker: they’ve used milfoil for kettle fining.
The event will also feature specialty beers from 612Brew, Fulton Beer, Indeed Brewing, Mankato Brewing, Rush River Brewing, Sociable Cider Werks and Summit Brewing.
John Garland // The Growler Magazine
“We’ve had the hops here for about seven years,” says Dwyer, “They were planted by Kelly Kuehl and his wife Dawn, who worked here. He’s at Country Malt Group now. They sell malted grains and hops to everyone from Summit, Surly, Fulton, to the west coast, like Green Flash. I always just gave the hops to customers, homebrewers, and this year was a great yield.”
Your commemorative glass (for the first 150 people) will comes with a set of drink tickets, with more tickets available for purchase after that. Each ticket gets you an 8oz pour and representatives from each brewery will be on hand to explain their concoction. “The brewers are going the extra mile,” Dwyer says. “So we want to bring them a good crowd that’s interested in hearing about how the beers were made.” Weather permitting, the event will take place outside on their patio.
Grumpy’s Downtown: 1111 Washington Ave S., Minneapolis, 612.340.9738
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