It’s the most Minnesotan time of the year, folks: State Fair time. Since the launch of Lift Bridge Mini Donut in 2013, the Fair has engendered the zaniest output from Minnesota’s breweries and cideries. Fair beverages are 12 days of devil-may-care: stuffed with fruits, pickled with veggies, ringed with cotton candy, frozen into slushies, or … [ Read more]
Tasting Notes: All 27 new drinks at the 2018 Minnesota State Fair
2018 makes the biggest lineup of new craft beverages ever at the Minnesota State Fair. We sampled 27 new drinks—a wild array of beers, ciders, and wine cocktails made with fruits, vegetables, vanilla, sugar, spice, and everything Minnesota nice. Here are our tasting notes (listed alphabetically within each group). You can also find our Complete … [ Read more]
Trailblazers 2017: Quality Beer
If there’s one trend in local beer that I’d like to see stick around, it’s a newfound dedication to consistency and quality. For far too long in this community, inexperienced breweries have been bringing bad—often fundamentally flawed—beers to market. Now, as consumers become educated about quality craft beer and more breweries are investing in quality … [ Read more]
Meet North America’s first craft-brewery cruise ship
This month, Carnival Cruise Line launched its newest and largest ship, the 3,954-passenger Carnival Vista. That wouldn’t necessarily be news, except that has its own brewery on board, the Red Frog Pub & Brewery, the first North American ship to have a brewery. Brewmaster Colin Presby makes three styles of beer, and though they are … [ Read more]
Prairie Artisan Ales now distributing in Minnesota
Prairie Artisan Ales announced today via press release that it has signed with Clear River Beverage Company to distribute in Minnesota. Prairie was named Best Brewery in Oklahoma and one of the top 100 breweries in the world by RateBeer in 2014 and 2015. In addition, the brewery’s “Bomb!” imperial stout was recently named as one of … [ Read more]
Green Flash Brewing debuts three canned beers nationally
Fans of Green Flash beer, listen up: This morning, Mike Hinkley, co-founder and CEO of Green Flash Brewing Co., announced the national and year-round debut of three Green Flash beers in 12oz cans as an extension of their existing packaged beer assortment. Six-packs of canned Green Flash beers will hit store shelves in June. The … [ Read more]
Junkyard Brewing announces big release for MN Craft Beer Week
Junkyard Brewing Company is doing big things out in “NoMo” (North Moorhead—who knew?). The nano-brewery boasts 10 taps at their taproom, featuring a weekly rotation of experimental beer styles. Their latest creation: a bourbon barrel-aged version of their Coconut Dark Ale, aka Big Kahuna. Two hundred and fifty crowlers of Big Kahuna will be released … [ Read more]