Ladies and Gents, we’re going to be in great shape. We’ve settled into the Uptown district of Minneapolis, and are literally living fifty yards off of Eat Street (the local name for Lake Street). The food selection is much better than I had anticipated, there are numerous liquor stores whose wine selections vary greatly in both selection and price, and the beer… oh the beer selection is incredible.
We have finally finished most of the unpacking in our new home, and I’m still on the job hunt, so stay tuned for more frequent updates. This is our first truly free weekend in Minneapolis, so we’ll see what happens!
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In the meantime, I’ve tasted a few of Lift Bridge Brewery’s brews this week. They make several others, but I got my hands on the Farm Girl, Chestnut Hill, and the Minnesota Tan. I suppose that this was a fortunate procurement, seeing that their bottles should be coming off of the shelves temporarily due to some unfortunate circumstances with their contract brewer, Stillwater (who I still need to seek out). Stillwater does several contract brews for other breweries (a somewhat common occurrence) and one of their other companies simply has more demand that Lift Bridge, so they’re getting left out for the time being. Understandably, they’re not too happy about the circumstances, but their beers are still going to be available on draft since their home brewery does all of the keg brewing. More info about this here.
Anywho, on to the beers!
We’ll start with the Minnesota Tan. This beer is a Belgian Style Tripel brewed with Lingonberries. I found the beer to be hazy with a golden straw hue and a thin white head of mediocre retention. The nose was that of sour fruit… yeah, lingonberry. There were also notes of granny smith apple, sour cherries, and unripe raspberries. There was very little yeast characteristic (which my knowledgable salesman disclosed), with only a hint of malt character. Smells like a lambic.
The palate was hot (obvious presence of alcohol – which is not listed on the bottle). The tart berries come through, and that’s really it. No yeast, no hops, and just a bare hint of a malt backbone. Kinda like a lambic.
These guys have only been around since 2008. I think that this beer has some great potential. And, this is probably the first time I’ve had lingonberry outside of an I-HOP. I do think that this is certainly more of a lambic than a tripel in style simply due to the tartness, haziness, and lack of yeast character. No it’s probably not done like a traditional lambic, but I would never call this a tripel in a blind or competition setting. It’s too tart for a tripel!
Next is the Chestnut Hill. This interesting nut brown ale is brewed with chestnuts and allspice. I want this for the holidays. This slaps you in the face with allspice, and follows with clove, honey, whisky barrel, and something sour. Actually it reminds me of bitters. I dig this beer. It would make a great digestive after a holiday meal, or just a fun beer to throw into a traditional holiday dinner .
I did expect more malt on the palate for the style, but it’s growing on me. I like the bitterness on the finish, and the spice comes all the way through to the finish.
This isn’t what I was expecting but I think it could be fun.
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Finally, we tried the Farm Girl Saison. Saisons are cool beers in my opinion. They’re rustic, dry, and can be very complex. Lift Bridge’s example is not too shabby either. This particular example is a golden-honey-shaded beer is hazy and has a fine white head.
The nose is yeasty, with hints of clove and a little of that saison funk. From there it gets a little herbal and grassy, leaning towards hay. There is also a pleasant caramel note as well and a kiss of lemon.
The palate is dry with a pleasant bitterness that balances out at more proper temperatures. The grassiness cuts through to the palate and it finishes up with the lemon. Oh and there’s that kiss of funk too. Anyone still got a Tower of Power album? Yeah, I didn’t think you would… that may be too funky anyway.
Lift Bridge has several other beers that I haven’t gotten my hands on yet, but the Farm Girl is my favorite of the three that I’ve had so far. I think it’s the closest as far as stylistic accuracy, though a little simple, and a pretty good drink. Naturally… there’s more to come.
There are a lot of breweries here. This is going to be such fun!
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What do you think of the new layout?
~ the Hungry Wino
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If you were to come to Minnesota, I could have you locked up like that. That’s power.
~Jesse Ventura
