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Ryan Tuenge
Ryan Tuenge is an avid home brewer and craft beer lover who
is not afraid to spend his last $5 on a pint of beer at the local pub.
As a member of the Minnesota Home Brewers Association, Ryan has tried a wide variety of beers and has toured many of the local breweries. He also has a blog about craft beer in Minnesota. He likes to read, write and travel with his wife. Follow him on Twitter @lodgefather.
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News and Notes for Late Fall
Posted by: Ryan Tuenge under Entertainment, Food, beer, wine events, Food and drink, Beer, Local business Updated: November 14, 2012 - 12:25 AM
This is the time of year when we are all reminded of how lucky we are to have such great local beer to enjoy. Late Fall is a great time to get acclimated with a favorite winter warmer or to try something new at your favorite bar or brewpub. Here are some things you can look forward to now and in the coming weeks.
At Barley John’s in New Brighton the smooth and slightly sweet Tropical Stout is on tap as well as their Zombie Ale, which is a dark British Mild Ale. Also on tap: Dark Knight Returns, a Porter that was aged for 18 months in bourbon barrels. Some of you will remember that the original Dark Knight won the Snowshoe award at last year’s Winterfest in February.
Chad Hilgenberg, brewer at Great Waters, has been busy concocting some new brews at downtown St. Paul’s beloved brewpub. Right now you will find Canty Smeek, a Smoked Scotch Ale pumped from a cask, which will be featured all winter long. Currently on tap are Figgy Stardust—an American Strong Ale and Madcholly Union Ale—a Belgian Blonde ale brewed with 65 pounds of local honey and created to celebrate Chad and his his wife Molly’s recent nuptials (congrats Chad and Molly).
The time is here again to celebrate the release of Commander, a fine Barleywine made by the fine folks at Lift Bridge. The event will be held at the brewery on Saturday, November 17 from 3 PM to 8 PM. Admission is $10 and you can expect music, games, a mustache contest, an old time circus costume contest, and (of course) there will be food trucks on hand selling some delicious fare.
Cheers!
Canning Indeed
Posted by: Ryan Tuenge under Entertainment, Beer, Local business Updated: October 27, 2012 - 12:15 AMOnce thought to be inferior to bottles; cans are now making a comeback around the country as the craft beer craze continues to grow. There are over 689 craft beers being canned by 223 breweries across the nation. Right here in Minnesota, two of the local favorites Surly Brewing and Indeed Brewing have chosen to package their beer in cans. Surly, who has been known for their quality beer since they began in 2005, still proudly cans almost all of their beers.
Canning has many advantages over the historically preferred bottling option. First and foremost, canned beer is 100% protected against light, which is beer’s mortal enemy. Second, cans tend to travel well since they are near unbreakable and most public places that allow alcohol will not allow bottles on their premises such as beaches and parks.
Aluminum cans are also one of the most recyclable products because they are often melted down and made into more cans or sent to auto manufacturers to use in light-weight car parts. Other notable breweries across the nation such as 21st Amendment, Tallgrass, and Oskar Blues are also packaged in cans and are available around the Twin Cities at your local liquor stores.
Indeed cans, which hit store shelves on October 11th, feature the excellent artwork of Chuck U. They are available in both Midnight Ryder, which they call a Black American Ale, and Day Tripper, which is considered a Pale Ale. You can find Indeed in cans at Zipp’s, Central Avenue Liquors, France 44, Thomas Liquors, Four Firkins, and The Ale Jail.
*Two side notes: Remember that today is Surly Darkness Day. Get all the details here. Also, I have been nominated for Best Beer Writer in Growler Magazine and you can vote for me here if you agree. Voting ends on November 6th.
Cheers!
Weekend Festivities
Posted by: Ryan Tuenge under Culture, Food, beer, wine events, Beer, Local business Updated: October 10, 2012 - 9:13 PMThere are a couple beer-related events going on for those of you who are looking for something to do this weekend:
Out east, in Stillwater, on Saturday and Sunday they are celebrating Harvest Fest. On Saturday you can witness a pumpkin weigh-off or purchase tickets to take part in a beer tasting and chili cook-off featuring local favorite Lift Bridge Brewing. You can also ride the Joseph Wolf BierCycle, a multi-person pedal bike, throughout the two-day event.
On the BierCycle you will be able to take a tour of downtown Stillwater and see all that it has to offer. Right now the BierCycle is also available for private parties, and in the future you will be able to try out beer from the soon-to-be re-established Joseph Wolf Brewery—run by great granddaughters Pat Wolf and Kathy Wolf Swanson. More to come on the reemergence of Joseph Wolf Brewery at a later time.
If you are going to be out west this weekend, you may want to head out to Excelsior Brewing’s Oktoberfest on Saturday. Here you can check out Tim Mahoney, who was most recently on NBC’s hit show “The Voice,” at 2:00 PM while wolfing down some sausage and other german fare. At 4:00 PM, hometown surf rockers Thee Holy 3 will take the stage in front of the fitting backdrop of Lake Minnetonka.
Bitteschläppe Brown Ale will be on sale at the Excelsior tap along with Big Island Blonde, and XLCR Pale Ale. They will be doing cash and credit transactions so you don’t have to bother with tickets. The focus here will be on the fun. Get out and enjoy the weather before the snow starts flying!
Cheers!
Oktoberfest Bier Tasting and Dinner
Posted by: Ryan Tuenge under Food, beer, wine events, Beer Updated: October 8, 2012 - 8:43 PMMany of you are familiar with brewer behind the finely crafted beers at Barley John’s Brew Pub up in New Brighton. On Saturday, October 20th at 6 PM (doors open at 5:45 PM) brewer Brian Lonberg will be hosting a beer tasting and dinner at St. Paul’s on the Hill church with tickets going for $30. All proceeds from the event will go to the church.
At the event you can expect a lecture covering different styes of beer, a Q&A with Brian, and to learn how to pair beer with food and incorporate into your home cooked meals.
After the beer tasting you will be able to try out some appetizers and take in some german music performed by the organ master of the church and some members of the choir. A german themed dinner and a silent auction will round out the evening.
Speaking of Oktoberfest, get into Barley John’s where you can to try out the 9.4% double decocted brew before it runs out. Barley John’s has a German brewing system so they make this one true to form.
Cheers!
Beer Gone Sour?
Posted by: Ryan Tuenge under Entertainment, Food, beer, wine events, Beer, Local business Updated: September 25, 2012 - 11:34 PMOn September 29th Republic at Seven Corners is playing host to an event called Where the Wild Beers Are. They are calling it a “collaborative” festival for wild beer enthusiasts—think of it as a sort of potluck for wild beer. The cost to attend the event is $10 plus your beer contribution. For every 750 ml of sour beer you will receive 10 tickets for beer samples, assuring that everyone gets an equal amount to try. This is the 5th year that this event has taken place in the Twin Cities; bringing together fans of “wild or sour” beers—a style that originated in Belgium where wild yeast is introduced to the wort via open fermentation. Jeff Halvorson and Tim Stendahl are the men behind this event, as well as the one held in Brooklyn, New York.
The process of creating a sour or wild beer can be rather lengthy; often taking years for the beer to properly mature. Debuting at this year’s event will be Mark 1 and Mark 2, which are two special sour beers created by some of the previous year’s attendees from the bacteria and yeast left behind in the bottles at last year’s event. The ten-month old Mark 1 was made with white wine-soaked oak staves, while Mark 2 will feature cherries.
So, you may be asking yourself: Just what is a sour beer and what is the difference between regular and open fermentation?
According to University of Minnesota Associate Professor of Microbiology Jeff Gralnick, the difference between open fermentation and normal fermentation is all about how you “inoculate” the fermentation. “The open fermentation style in many cases is literally a fermentation vessel that you leave open to the air. Microbes floating around in the air (typically this can be around 100,00 per square meter) have a chance of landing into the vessel. The majority of things that land probably don't know how to live in this environment, but some of them do.”
One might wonder where an ideal place to execute an open style fermentation would be. “Sometimes these open fermentations are done in orchards, where the number of microbes who really like to ferment sugars can be higher in the air (think about rotting fruits, for example),” Jeff said. It may also be as simple as reusing your fermentation vessel, “In the next batch, the microbes can come from the nooks and crannies in the wooden vessel when it is reused.”
And just what, exactly, creates those unique, sour flavors? According to Jeff, “Often these wild microbes (both yeast and bacteria) make sour and funky tasting compounds in addition to ethanol, which an organism like Saccharomyces (the yeast species typically used in making beer) typically don't make.”
Many examples of this style can be found at places such as The Four Firkins in St. Louis Park, The Ale Jail in St. Paul, or Zipps in Minneapolis. So be sure to stock up before you attend this year’s event.
Cheers!
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