Tag Archives: Lift Bridge

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Lift Bridge’s Irish Coffee Stout

St. Patrick’s Day 2016 may be a date of the past, but don’t that keep you from tracking down Lift Bridge Brewing Co.’s stellar Irish Coffee Stout.

Lift Bridge Brewery Irish Coffee Stout

This tasty beer from the Stillwater-based brewery returned for the fifth year and it’s as good as it’s ever been. You’ll want to find it in your favorite liquor store in 750 ml bottles or catch it on tap at Lift Bridge’s taproom before it’s ushered out of the rotation for the year.

Here’s how Lift Bridge describes the deep, delicious beer:

Morning, noon, night – any time is the right time for this delightful combination of whiskey, coffee and cream. Russian Imperial Stout is aged in whiskey barrels and blended with a big Milk Stout, before it’s finished off with local free trade organic roasted coffee. You don’t have to be Irish to appreciate this labor of love, but you’ll certainly feel the luck. Great with desserts, including chocolate cake and cheesecake.

Breaking down the beer
Malts: Roasted malts
Additions: Cold press coffee, barrel aged
ABV: 8.5 percent
IBU: 50
Color: 70

 

 

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Minnesota Brewery Job Openings

Enki Brewing Brewhouse
Enki Brewing Brewhouse

Everyone knows the craft brewing industry is expanding across the nation and right here in Minnesota. Breweries add staff as they grow to make sure expanding operations continue to benefit their company and its partnerships. Several Minnesota craft breweries are looking for to add help in a variety of roles.

Everyone thinks brewery work is a dream job. The truth is that brewery work is still work. You don’t get to punch in at noon and crack a beer. You’ll be up early, and likely cleaning or lifting something. If you think you’ve got what it takes, checkout the links to Minnesota brewery job openings below.

Lift Bridge Brewing Co

Applications deadline is February 2nd, 2015.
All potential candidates, please fill out the form at the following link: http://bit.ly/1drvm64

Lucid Brewing Co.

  • Growler Sales Manager
    Summary Description:
    Responsible for scheduling part-time growler sales staff, coordinating and executing tours and private events, and merchandise management.
  • Part-Time Growler Sales
    Summary Description:
    Responsible for checking IDs, interacting with customers, cleaning and filling growlers, and tour support.
  • Brewer/Cellarman
    Summary Description:
    This position will be responsible for the brewing process from preparation of the raw materials through the fermentation process.

Bauhaus Brew Labs

  • Brewer
    Production, fermentation, and sanitation.

Tin Whiskers Brewing

  • Marketing Manager
    The marketing manager is responsible for preparing and sending out press releases, brand development and promotion, managing our external events, organizing events at the taproom, updating the website, current social media platforms, doing basic graphic design, and some sales.
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Local Beer at the Minnesota State Fair

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This is the Minnesota State Fair. We normally don’t mind writing about any beer, but this is all about local beer at the Minnesota State Fair. If you are looking for info on a beer that isn’t made in MN you will have to look elsewhere. We are keeping it local this time. If you go to the great Minnesota get together, and don’t drink Minnesota beer we will seriously doubt your local roots!

MN Craft Brewer’s Guild Beer Hall
Look for nearly every craft brewer in Minnesota to have their beer rotate through here at some point during the fair. (Except brewpubs. Want to talk about brewpub distribution, anyone?)
Michael Agnew of A Perfect Pint will speak about food & beer pairing on 8/29 at 3pm.
2013 State Fair Homebrew Awards Ceremony on 8/24 at noon on the MN Craft Brewer’s Guild Stage.
For full details as they become available check the guild website.


Lift bridge / Ball Park Cafe
Lift Bridge is releasing a Mini Donut Ale just for the Minnesota State Fair. This malty monster will be on tap at the Ball Park Cafe along with several other local craft brews from the likes of Indeed Brewing, and Badger Hill Brewing. The Ball Park Cafe is a must hit for any craft beer fan, especially with their new craft beer battered onion rings made with Day Tripper Pale Ale and served with beer mustard!

Schell’s:
Below is a map of where you can find Schell’s at the Minnesota State Fair.
Pro-tip: Hang out in front of the Heritage Square stage and drink Schell’s Pils in the late summer sun while rocking out.
Schells at the fair

Summit:
Summit is available in several spots around the fair, but every day at 1pm Summit will tap a special Minnesota sourced IPA from brewer Jeff Williamson at the International Bazaar. This one of a kind brew should not be missed.
summit at the fair

Fulton Beer:
Fulton Beer is available at 7 different spots around the Minnesota State Fair. A big favorite is Cafe Caribe. Check the map below for all locations or the Fulton Beer website.
Fulton Beer at the Minnesota State Fair

Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments below.

PS. Don’t forget to tell every politician see that you want to buy beer on Sunday!
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Tuned Beer

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Tuned Beer LogoWe all know that music and beer go hand in hand. From traditional German biergartens with oompah bands, to punk rock shows with PBR, there is just something natural about music and beer. Maybe it is the social lubricant aspect of beer that makes it perfect for concerts and the like. Perhaps music and beer are just both key parts immersing yourself in an enjoyable experience. Whatever the answer is, Tuned Beer is combining music and beer in a way never seen before.

Tuned Beer American Brown
Image courtesy of Jeff North

The Tuned Beer brand is the brainchild of mobile canning guru Nate Smith. Smith operates Lagersmith, a mobile bottling business that brings bottling hardware to breweries that don’t want to invest time and space into a bottling line of their own. The Tuned brand is nomadic. So, like Smith himself, the beer will move from brewery to brewery. This is exactly the way is supposed to be. The brand will travel to a new brewery each season, creating a new recipe each time it moves.

So, what is this about music? Each new limited release brew is “paired” with a local band or musician. After you purchase of a bottle of Tuned Beer you scrape the wax off your bottle to reveal code that entitles you to a free song download of the featured artist.

The first Tuned Beer is an American Brown Ale from Stillwater’s Lift Bridge Brewery. To compliment the beer (or does the beer compliment the music?) it is paired with Reckless Ones, a Minneapolis based Rockabilly band. The beer / music combo is a nice fit. Reckless Ones are good, playing songs that sound a little like a Reverend Horton Heat and Green Day decided to get together and merge their sounds. The beer is exactly what you would expect from an American Brown, a hop forward ale with rich toasted malt flavor and hint of nuttiness.

The inaugural release is on store shelves now. To celebrate the launch Lift Bridge is hosting a special Reckless Ones concert at the brewery Friday and pouring the rockabilly inspired beer.

Tuned Beer
The Reckless Ones
Lift Bridge Brewery

Legislative Events, Newsfeed

Video: Understanding MN Beer Tax Laws with BBS University

Better Beer Society UniversityI was honored to moderate a great discussion panel about beer and taxes in Minnesota at Better Beer Society University.

Luckily we avoided the excise tax increase this year. To see how everything played out in the legislature click here.

Pop some popcorn and watch the beer business wisdom flow from Paul Morrissey jr. (Capitol Beverage), Dan Schwarz (Lift bridge), Jason Alvey (Four Firkins), Joe Falkowski (JJ Taylor), Pete Rifakes (Town Hall brewery), Mark Joseph (Ale jail).

Many thanks to Rob at BBS for including consumers in the conversation.

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Farm Girl vs Farmer’s Daughter

Stillwater’s Lift Bridge Brewery and Wisconsin’s Lucette Brewing have some problems to work out. They have girl problems, farm girls or daughters depending on your brand of choice.

Lift Bridge has called shenanigans on Lucette, asking Minnesota Courts to the make Lucette drop the Farmer’s Daughter name.

Customers are mixing up the two brands now that they’re going head-to-head in some Twin Cities bars, Lift Bridge CEO Dan Schwarz said. The two breweries have gone back-and-forth over the problem for about six months, he said.

“We asked several times very nicely, and unfortunately we’ve just seen more efforts from them to confuse and dilute the brand,” Schwarz said.

girl fight
What beer is this advertising?

The Minnesota beer community and the brewing community at large often view lawsuits as something that doesn’t benefit the micro brewing industry. Some think time would be better spent fighting the large macro brewers than fighting amongst themselves.  Avery & russian River even created collaboration beer in an effort to avoid litigation. And, let’s not forget the Northgate vs Northbound issue that seems to has resolved itself.

Brewing beer is most definitely a business, and one that risks that costs time and money.  When local, or nearly local (Lucette), companies are competing for tap lines and shelf space with similar beers that have similar names and similar packaging, it is easy to see how confusion arises. 

How many times should a brewer have to ask and how long should they wait for changes if they think their beer brand is under attack?  It seems Lift bridge is either tired of waiting, or asking, or both.  And with images like the one above being posted around town, who can blame them?  Promotional posters are usually provided by distributors. So, where does the responsibility lie?

Hopefully some meaningful resolution will come from the litigation, but don’t look for a collaboration anytime soon.

Source: Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal

 

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Lift Bridge Brewing Expands

Lift BridgeStillwater’s Lift Bridge Brewery has just added some new tanks to their ever expanding facility. They welcomed 3 new fermenters and 1 new bright tank to their new home yesterday.Newlands

The additional tanks will increase the brewery capacity about 35%, raising the annual output to around 5,000 barrels.

The tanks were manufactured by Newlands Systems Inc., a Canadian brewing equipment supplier.

There is still a bunch of work to do like cleaning and passivating the stainless steel. However, it shouldn’t be long before the new vessels are full of Hop Dish IPA. Mmmm, Hop Dish…..

 

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Antici-pation – Winterfest 2013

rhps-lips

I had my ticket for Winterfest printed and in hand about 48 seconds after they went on sale.  It’s an understatement that I was excited for last Friday (Feb. 1st) waiting on the first floor of The MN History Center with all the other rabid beer fans.  This would be my first one.  I’ve known that Winterfest was the premiere Minnesota beer tasting event for the past two years but could never get a ticket.  Now I had one and second 49 started the wait.

There was much chagrin over the price of the Winterfest tickets this year; a little over $80 with internet fees.  With the notion that the ticket was a Christmas present to myself I bought one; one of 750 sold.  It was a brilliant marketing idea to offer the “6 Pack” of tickets (2 tix to each of the 3 MN Craft Brewer’s Guild events; Winterfest, All Pint’s North, Autumn Brew Review).  It was a really good deal (a little over $50 a ticket, $290 plus fees for the six pack).  Last summers All Pints North had a less than stellar attendance (but a really great line up!) and the 6 pack really help the Duluth beer scene.  After Winterfest I’m a huge fan of what is going on in Duluth.  One idea: is it such a bad thing to have all the major beer fests in one place?  Maybe my idea of comparing the Minnesota Twins to the MN Craft Brews Guild is too far.  The idea of a destination brewing town is appealing to me but I live here and can see the other side of the argument wanting craft beer to be inclusive.  I’m torn but not like Natalie Imbruglia I still have faith.

It was Wednesday of the week of Winterfest when the program for was available.  As far as event planning goes I’m sure this was right on time, I’d been looking for it for two weeks before, however.  I was a little excited.  I know you couldn’t tell.  I poured over the program, made a list, checked it twice.  Even went so far as to make sure I could drink everything that I wanted to.  Let’s face it, not only is it a beer fest but most of my must haves were barrel aged (a Winterfest specialty) that can lead to waking up in the US-Dakota War exhibit, or jail if you’re belligerent.

To celebrate my first Winterfest I went on a quest to support the local beer community every night leading up to the Fest starting on Monday.  This took me to Grumpy’s NE, Butcher and Boar, Nomad, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, of all places.  It was an absolutely fantastic week and Winterfest was a brilliant end to it.  All I had to hold on as 7 o’clock rolled around.  My excitement was match by the 200 or so other people I was crowded into the 1st floor hallway of the Minnesota History Center.  As the bag pipes started to play there was a collective sigh, not only because Winterfest was now here but we could begin to move without bumping into four other people by breathing.  It was a happy squeeze.

It was the first hundred or so of us that were able to make out the toast the guild president gave; a hard to hear address to the few that were listening.  Before this we were gathered in a tent just off the History Center.  A stage in there would have been a great area to provide a little more pomp and circumstance to the event and let’s face it, everybody loves a show.

So, I was off to the third floor first, beating the crowd.  I wanted to make sure I had Barley John’s Dark Knight Returns.  Not only did I have it, I think I was the first, but it won the Snowshoe for best of fest (Congrats to Barley John’s by the way).  I’m glad to say of all the things that I wanted to try I did.  All told I had 30 beers on the night.  That number’s a little inflated due to poor record keeping.  I tried to mark off as I went, that didn’t happen.   Then, I tried to remember and failed.  Chalk it up to what you will (it was the booze).

Of all the breweries I had the most consistent, and new to me, was Fitger’s.  I don’t know if that makes me ignorant or inspired; regardless I’m better for it.  Here are my top five beers of Winterfest.  Besides number one there is in no particular order.

5.  Dawn Juan – Steel Toe – I beg you not to bottle this.  You have enough of my money already.

4.  Silhouette – Lift Bridge – Can’t wait for this to be bottled.  It’s been too long since my last Stillwater trip.

3.  Gaelic – Castle Danger – Not only do you have a bad ass name but a good showing of all the beers I tasted.

2.  Manhattan Barrel – Townhall – Although I did love the Twisted Trace, this brew was unlike any beer I’ve ever tasted.

1.  Mango Trial IPA – Fitger’s – I’ve never had fruit sing through and yet compliment the hops in beer in quiet the same way.  A mouth revelation.  Town Hall’s Mango Momma can’t hold a candle to it.

Of all the things I tried at the fest I was most impressed by the Mango IPA from Fitger’s.  From second hand internet posts and bathroom walls I’ve heard disparaging words against this brewery, mainly in connection with Town Hall.  I was thinking this through; if a brewery (or brewer) would be compared to Town Hall and thought of as good but not as good I’d like to think that would be huge compliment with all the great things I’ve had from Town Hall and all the national love, not to mention awards, it has received.  Safe to say I’ll be road tripping to Duluth this summer and the only reason is for Fitger’s.  Not only did they impress me with the best new beer, but the range of the other brews I enjoyed from them was of a brewery that has everything under control and wants to show off.

Winterfest was unlike any other fest I’ve been to.  The limited tickets made for a smaller crowd. The atmosphere was great, and no wait longer than 30 seconds for any beer; the ultimate American experience.  In fact the only thing I waited for was the food they had.  It was solid and a welcomed interruption to the huge beers I was downing.  The small lines and limited amounts of people that I was surrounded by provided an atmosphere of pure beer love that I haven’t experienced at other fests I’ve gone to.  A combination of just enough people and easy access to beers I would normally wait in line for created a world of bliss for the beer lover that wants to try it all.

Despite all this I don’t know if I’ll go again.  Don’t get me wrong I had a blast.  Winterfest is Wonka’s chocolate factory.  You can meet the candy makers (if they’re not slinging beer too fast), try all their best confections, and all with an exclusive crowd.   Although no one grew purple from too much drink (not that I saw but I’m sure it happened).  What I discovered was I missed the lines.  In line is where all the real magic has happened for me at fests.  Where I’ve met people and connected with others that have the same passion I do.  Maybe this is an unfair bias.  I like to meet new people at these events.  Go in with nothing but excitement and come out richer for the experience.  I’m glad to have gone.  I’m also glad to know how I operate at beer fests little more.  I love the wait.  I love the people I meet and the experience that the line brings.  Maybe ABR will be more my speed…