Tag: Surly Brewing

Todd the Axeman coming to cans in July, Guinness Nitro IPA, New Belgium Hop Tart

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axemanA few news tidbits to start the week. I spent the weekend in Minneapolis and had my first visit up to Surly Brewing. Let me say that this place blew me away. The food, the staff, and of course… the beer were top notch and I’ll post more on this visit and all other other breweries I visited while in Minny. I talked to a number of staff members and was told that Todd the Axeman will be canned in July, but they couldn’t tell me whether we would see it in Iowa or if it was just a Minnesota release. Stay tuned for more info on this but if we can get Todd in cans in Iowa, this will be one happy beer drinker.

The 2nd bit of news is that Guinness will be releasing a canned Nitro IPA for U.S. consumers. I still really enjoy a pint or 2 of Guinnesss but it might take some persuading for me to purchase this brew. I’m not a nitro pale/IPA fan but who knows, maybe I’ll enjoy it.

hop tartAnd last but not least New Belgium Hop Tart is the latest offering from the Hop Kitchen series. This beer uses pale malt with the addition of Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy, and an experimental hop to give it that fruit flavor. It checks in at 5% ABV, here’s more from the folks at New Belgium:

There’s quite a lot of cool stuff to pull out of Hop Tart, but you’re pretty busy, so I’ll distill it down to three simple points:

  • Like Snapshot, Hop Tart undergoes lactic fermentation in a stainless steel tank, using a single lactobacillus strain we pulled from our malt and propagated in our lab.
  • The beer’s malt bill includes one of our new favorite varieties: Colorado Belgian-style Pale Malt, made locally by the Colorado Malting Co.—it’s super juicy and sweet.
  • We’re really excited to combine the lemony lacto flavors with über-fruity hop varieties: Hop Tart’s brewed with the likes of Cascade and Mandarina Bavaria, and dry-hopped with Galaxy, Nelson Sauvin and Experimental Hop 522. The result is a tropical bomb with a clean, tart bite in the back.

While Hop Tart stems from a collaboration we did with Bluejacket before our D.C. Tour de Fat in 2014, we’ve toyed with hoppy sours for a while now. Our popular dry-hoppedLips of Faith Le Terroir is a favorite both in and out of the brewery (that one’s 100-percent barrel aged in our foeders), while our brewers have experimented with dry-hopped Berliners and the like on very small scales. We thought it was time to bring our newest iteration of the hoppy sour to draft accounts throughout our distribution because, well, is there anything more magnetic right now than the idea of a sour ale dry-hopped with some of the coolest, trendiest hops around? (hint: no)

So, check out the video above, which features our one of the Hop Kitchen brewers Matty Gilliland diving into the beer, and then stay tuned as we gear up for the official launch of this awesome beer June 15.

Have beer news? Send it my way!

Surly Brewing and Centro Restaurant Beer Event Coming Thursday March 26th

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surlyI just received the following information from Surly Brewing. Sounds like a terrific event with lots of excellent beer and food. Full hog porchetta? Yes please! Here’s more info:

WHAT: Centro is welcoming the Twin Cities’ Surly Brewing to Des Moines with an exclusive food and beer event this week. The event will showcase Surly beer and food prepared by Centro executive chef Derek Eidson and Surly executive chef Jorge Guzman. Both chefs will feature dishes for sampling while guests are able to taste Surly’s beers.
Entrance includes five Surly beer tasting tickets, two paired small plates from Guzman, hors d’oeuvres from Eidson, and a complimentary branded tulip snifter. Additional pours of Surly beer will be available for purchase.

SURLY FOOD MENU:

  • Red Chili Pork Tamale with Cotija cheese, pickled red onion and cilantrocentro_surly
  • Pecan Smoked Brisket, sweet potato bun, spicy pickles

CENTRO FOOD MENU:

  • Full hog porchetta, South Union Bakery bun and pickled vegetables
  • Roman-style pizzas with assorted toppings
  • Charcuterie (assorted cured meats and accouterments)
  • Housemade frites with sauces
WHEN: Thursday, March 26, 6pm – 9pm
WHERE: South Union Bread Café at Centro, 1007 Locust St., Des Moines
TICKETS: RSVP to RDeAngelo@CentroDining.com, $30/person

SGAD (Surly Gives A Damn) coming to Davenport; part of Surly Brewing Iowa Distro

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surlyJust received the following email from Surly Brewing:

What: 
Surly Brewing Co., the Twin Cities-based craft brewery has just arrived in the Quad Cities as part of its Invasion of Iowa. Now, two weeks since its launch in Iowa, the brewery is kicking off its community engagement program, Surly Gives A Damn (SGAD) in Iowa by bringing together Minnesota and Iowa craft beer fans in Davenport this weekend to help the city’s spring corridor cleanup. 
SGAD is Surly’s community engagement program. Since 2010, the brewery has enlisted local beer fans to help with service projects across Minnesota. In 2014, SGAD organized nearly 1,000 Surly fans to take part in 2,376 volunteer hours. The program is now following Surly beer to Iowa.
The first SGAD Iowa event will be this Saturday in Davenport, to help the city with their spring corridor cleanup. Surly is bringing 40 volunteers from both Iowa and Minnesota to take part. They will work together to help the city with its spring corridor cleanup, ensuring that unwanted garbage doesn’t make it into the local creeks, streams and waterways this spring and summer. The SGAD group will be cleaning from the LULAC Club, 4224 Ricker Hill/Blue Grass Rd and then making its way to Utah and Rockingham Rd. After the event, volunteers will come together to enjoy a Surly beer or two.
When: Saturday, March 21, 8:30am – 11am
Where: From the LULAC Club, 4224 Ricker Hill/Blue Grass Rd, Davenport, IA, and then making its way to Utah and Rockingham Rd, Davenport, IA.
Visuals:
  • Minnesotans and Iowans working together to help clean up along Davenport highway
  • SGAD organizers to discuss its plans to help out with future Iowa community projects
  • Celebrating Minnesota’s craft beer coming to Iowa by supporting community projects
Surly has confirmed a number of events around the state this month, and will be posting more Iowa events throughout the months ahead. More information can be found at http://bit.ly/SurlyIowaEvents. SGAD will continue to organize and host volunteering events in Iowa, more information can be found at http://www.surlybrewing.com/surly-gives-a-damn.

Surly Des Moines Launch Update

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**UPDATED** For Eastern Iowa folks: The following comes from Reds Alehouse Facebook post:

BIG NEWS!! Surly Brewing Company will make their way to our tap lines Saturday March 7th! And not just one or two lines; we’re talking TEN lines! 10!! They include: Hell, Todd the Axeman, Furious, Coffee Bender, Smoke, Cynicale, Mild, Doomtree, and Fiery Hell. These will all be tapped at 11am Saturday with a special early tapping of Furious Tuesday morning that will last all week, just to get you familiar with Surly.

The dudes from Surly will be hand that evening sometime around 6:30-7:00. Then the party really gets started!

Wait a minute, that’s only 9 beers.

I must be forgetting something…

Isurly just received the following information regarding the upcoming Surly Brewing Iowa launch on Tuesday. If you are in the Des Moines area make sure you get to one of the following venues and enjoy some Surly beer!

Three buses are coming down from Minneapolis, full of fans and the whole Surly crew and all the Doomtree guys. Each bus will stop first at one of either Ingersoll Tap, Quinton’s or Mullet’s at 5pm. People are encouraged to share a beer there with us.
Then all three groups converge on Up-Down at 7:30p, then upstairs for the Doomtree show at Wooly’s. Big thing is tickets are still available. $10. 
Each bar has a slightly different beer mix, but people can expect to see Furious, Bender, Hell, Cynic and Doomtree and some or all of the venues.

Release Updates: Millstream, Surly, Prairie, Boulevard

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A few updates on some beers and breweries hitting Eastern Iowa shelves:

millstream*Millstream* – following up their successful release of Raspberry Latte Stout Millstream is going to try their hand on a double IPA. From my beerbuzz.blogspot.com:

Here’s a new bottle coming from Millstream Brewing in Amana, IA.  This is Bitter End and it is a Double IPA.  This beer will be packaged in 12oz bottles.

Haven’t read on the exact date of release so if you hear any info on that please pass it my way.

surly*Surly Brewing* – from various people in the industry that I’ve talked to, we can expect their full slate of releases to enter the state in February. I’m hoping we get to see a little Abrasive hit the state as that is an early 2015 release.
prairie artisan ales*Prairie Artisan Ales*- will be releasing Limo Tint. This milk stout, aged on chocolate, will be released in late January so keep your eyes peeled for this one. I believe it’s only a 4% stout, so very sessionable compared to what we are usually used to from Prairie.

coffee*Boulevard Brewing* – coming in February will be a Coffee Imperial stout. Boulevard has a bunch of new beers added to their 2015 schedule which I will post very soon. They will still have their regular imperial stout, but the Coffee Imp comes soon!

Coming Soon to Shelves?! Abrasive, Sucks, The Abyss, Millstream Raspberry Latte Stout

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surlySome things that may or may not be heading to Iowa in the upcoming weeks/months. There are a few that haven’t been confirmed for Iowa but we have seen in the past. So here are a few things that we will hopefully see soon.

*Millstream Raspberry Latte Stout – per a twitter conversation with @millstreambrew this will hit with distributors on December 6th. A great sounding stout for the winter months from an Iowa brewery.

*Surly Abrasive – a few reports/posts from message boards saying we can expect this when Surly rolls into Iowa full force come February. Hope to see a little trickle of it before then since it’s brewed in November, I believe.

Lagunitas Sucks – the 32 oz are supposedly suppose to hit our shelves in the next coming weeks. Haven’t heard about sixers of it but I would assume they would be as well. Anyone else have info on that to share it would be greatly appreciated.

Deschutes The Abyss- release at the brewhouse first and then to distro markets early November. Haven’t heard if we will be getting this one but I’m assuming so since we had last years.

**If you have any beer news or work in the beer industry and want something reviewed or a press release to give, contact me on twitter @iabeerbaron or benmed15@yahoo.com.

Distribution News: Surly, Left Hand, and Lagunitas

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surlyIf the following news comes to fruition, Iowa craft beer lovers will be swimming in a bunch more great craft beer! Here’s the latest rumblings from the craft beer forum world:

**For Eastern Iowa Fleck Sales will start distribution Lagunitas in July.**

**Left Hand Brewing will follow Lagunitas and will become available in August.**

**And finally…….Surly brewing should be going to statewide distribution in January.**

Lot of great things on the horizon to go along with the great things we already have. Cheers to a great weekend!

Des Moines Friends, this is happening! Surly @ El Bait Shop!

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surlySaw the following information on Surly’s facebook page! Hopefully a sign of things to come! Looks like a must-attend event if you are in the Des Moines area. Hopefully I can make it!

We’re road tripping to Iowa and we’re bringing beer! On April 3rd, 4-8 pm, we’ll be hanging out and pouring beers at el Bait Shop in Des Moines. We’ll be bringing: Furious, Hell, Cynic, Bender, Cacao Bender, Smoke, Blakkr, Mild, Darkness & Pentagram. BUT we’re NOT distributing broadly to Iowa (yet), just sharing beers for the night with our neighbors to the south. We’ll add more details and a FB event soon.

Beer Review #100: Surly Hell

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surlyLike most people who have tried their beers, I have really taken a liking to Surly’s product (www.surlybrewing.com). Furious, Abrasive, Bender, and Coffee Bender are all fabulous beers that I’ve tried from them. Lately, a buddy and I have taken to ordering some beers from places like france44.com and halftimebeverage.com. France44 works out really well if you are in the mood for some Surly beers and with my buddy’s latest order he took a shot on a Surly beer neither one of us had tried yet.

I will be the first to admit that I haven’t had much experience with dortmunder or helles style beers but after trying Hell, it seems to me that Surly is doing this style justice. The name was kind of misleading to me at first; I was thinking of some sort of chipotle or pepper beer but instead, Hell is referring to the German word for light.  This beer was definitely light in the pour with a golden hazy pour with a nice sized head. Very bready and yeasty in the aroma. Definitely get the pils malt with the first few drinks and the bread follows through with a hint a lemon citrus. Slight hops follow to round out this extremely drinkable offering from Surly. Maybe the perfect accompaniment to a summer BBQ? I think this would do nicely.  Description from the brewery:

Finally, a Surly beer my German mother will drink. She says this one tastes like a bier from back home. Not unlike a Zwickel Bier from Germany, Hell is our filtered and fermented with lager yeast, American hops takes a back seat to the Pils malt sweetness and fresh bread aroma. The color is well… hell (Deutsch for light). It’s fiendishly drinkable, and you don’t have to sell your soul to get another.

The style of this beer isn’t one that is often talked about currently. IPAs, barrel-aged, sours, are dominating headlines with most craft beer drinkers but if you want to try different styles and try them when they are done right, I think Surly can be proud of this beer. This could also quite possibly be a great transition beer for those looking to get into the craft beer world. Rumblings of Surly wanting to expand a bit continues through the midwest and here’s hoping that they make it south to the lovely state of Iowa.

REVIEW

Style: Helles/Dortmunder

ABV:4.5%

Purchased at: France44.com

Pour: Golden straw color with a thick white head.

Aroma: Bread, yeast, light citrus.

Flavor: Lots of breadiness with lemon and bit of hops.

Ratebeer.com rating: 90/100

Beeradvocate.com rating: 88/100

Overall: B

My recommendation: A great beer for the style, extremely drinkable. Surly continues to do things and if you can get up north to Minnesota to get some, buy a bunch, or order from france44.com.