Photo via Lakes & Legends Brewing Company

Welcome to Beer Dabbler’s Freshies, our weekly rundown on the newest beers hitting the store shelves and taproom coolers in Minnesota from your favorite local and national breweries. 

There are a lot of stereotypes about St. Patrick’s Day, including the beer.

There are certainly plenty of crispy green beers available as revelers celebrate all weekend long, but in honor or Irish tradition, we can taste more of the rainbow than a dose of artificial coloring. Dry, dark stouts and caramelly reds are on tap too, giving wider breadth to the experience while still finding a way to celebrate. And if that’s not enough, keep reading to learn of unique infusions, cream ales, and even a nonalcoholic stout.

With the clocks turned ahead and the snow turning into mud puddles in the lawn, we can look forward to a vibrant spring with flavors of berries, lemons, oranges, flowers and honey.

 

 

Each week, the Beer Dabbler team highlights five of the most tantalizing new beers that we’re most excited to try.

Bent Paddle Brewing Co. Art of Change IPA – A women-brewed IPA with fruity, tropical, and juicy notes.

Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative Crowlering Crew’s Craic – A dry Irish-style stout with flavors of coffee, toffee, and caramel, plus subtle herbal and grassy notes from the inclusion of European hops. 4.7% ABV, 33 IBU.

Modist Brewing Co. Olde Omen – A dark bock lager made with Munich malts and Sultana hops.

Nouvelle Brewing Stirred – A new bottle release, this is an imperial witbier aged in Negroni barrels and conditioned on orange peel, juniper, and orange bitters. Overall, the witbier offers complex fruit with vibrant orange notes and notable bitterness, which lead to a “perceptively sweet and refreshing with a spritzy carbonation.” 10.6% ABV.

Wooden Hill Brewing Company Gold Top – A traditional in style hefeweizen at 5.4% ABV pale wheat, Pilsner malt, and light hopping.

New beers available this week

10K Brewing

  • Cherry Lime Gose – A gose with tart cherry and lime, plus sea salt. 3.9% ABV.
  • Level Up, Lemon Up – 10K’s cream ale gets a burst of lemon to replicate the Girl Scout cookie experience. 5.4% ABV.

Alloy Brewing Company

  • Dark Like My Soul IDA – An India-style dark ale brewed with Cascade and Centennial hops. 5.6% ABV, 67 IBU.
  • Midnight Snack Chocolate Stout – Available for Saturday’s St Patrick’s Celebration, including with three limited one-time only infusions: Mint, Raspberry Vanilla, and Caramel Macchiato.
  • Strawberry Banana Earthshake – Alloy’s newest milkshake-style IPA brings banana up front, followed by strawberry, and pours at 8.5% ABV, 40 IBU.

Arbeiter Brewing

  • Nacht Rider – A dark in color, light in body schwarzbier with notes of toffee, dark bread, light roast coffee and a touch of chocolate on the nose. 4.9% ABV, 21 IBU.
  • Sommerzeit Kölsch – “Sommerzeit is a crisp and clean Kölsch honoring the traditional Kölsch originating from Köln (Cologne), Germany. Delicate noble hop aromas, light-bodied, and finishes with restrained malt notes,” the brewery says. 4.7% ABV, 25 IBU.

Photo via Arbeiter Brewing Company

Bad Weather Brewing Company

  • Mythic Mongrel – An Irish cream ale, tapped for St. Patrick’s Day on nitro.

Badger Hill Brewing Company

  • Loyalist – An American light ale

Bemidji Brewing

  • Dark Mild –  A malt-forward dark ale with toasted nuts, caramel, and dried fruit-like flavors. Taproom only.

Bent Brewstillery

  • Coileáín – An Irish red stout, which features malty red ale character balanced with more typical black-in-color stout notes. The brewstillery celebrates on Saturday, beginning at 2pm.

Bent Paddle Brewing Co.

  • Art of Change IPA – Top Flight selection

BlackStack Brewing

  • Crunch Time – A barrel-aged imperial stout with ranola, coconut, cinnamon, almonds, and vanilla. 14.5% ABV and sold in 750-milliliter bottles.

Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative

  • Crowlering Crew’s Craic – Top Flight selection
  • Fade To Black – “For this edition of Fade to Black, we lagered it for a smoother, more rounded hop finish. It is a black imperial pale lager that is heavily hopped, but has a smooth malty backbone. It has notes of chocolate and caramel in the finish. The hops selected for this beer give it a lingering citrus and piney aroma and flavor,” the brewery says. 7.6% ABV, 86 IBU.

Copper Trail Brewing Co.

  • Clouded Judgement – A hazy IPA with pineapple and tropical fruit flavors and strong dank tones, the brewery says. 7.4% ABV, 67 IBU.
  • Lucky Red – An Irish-style red ale, tapped for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. At 5.8% ABV, 20 IBU, this offers smooth, bready and caramel flavors with notes of smoke, the brewery says. 

Dangerous Man Brewing Company

  • Dampf AF – On tap now, this German-style dampfbier has banana, clove, and toasted bread flavors. 5.6% ABV.
  • Dark Velvet Night – Available today, this imperial stout was aged in Woodford barrels and conditional on cacao nibs and vanilla.
  • Double Cream Coffee Dream – “Our classic cream ale doubled and conditioned on Dogwood Coffee Espresso Roast,” the brewery says. 7.3% ABV.
  • Full Moon Effect – Also available today, this double barreled imperial stout offers hazelnut and mocha flavors.

Drekker Brewing

  • Braaaaaaaains! – The latest edition of this recurring series was made with strawberry, pineapple, dragon fruit, sea salt, lactose, and vanilla.
  • Chonk – Strawberry, coconut, and cacao nibs combine in this new offering.

Fair State Brewing Cooperative

  • Old Sod – A nitro-our dry Irish-style stout tapped on St. Patrick’s Day at the brewery. This 4.4% ABV stout offers toasted malt-forward flavors with herbal hop bitterness, the brewery says.

Humble Forager

Several flavors of naturally flavored seltzers are out now.

  • Humble Bumble (v1) – Sold in 16-ounce cans, this Humble Bumble is made with calamansi, blood orange, orange blossom honey, and staghorn sumac blossoms.
  • Humble Bumble (v6) – A combination of passion fruit, red dragon fruit, red grapefruit, wildflower honey, and hibiscus blossom flavors.
  • Humble Bumble (v7) – Mandarin, mango, calamansi, chamomile, and wildflower honey: all together in one beverage.
  • Humble Bumble (v8) – Pineapple, morello cherry, calamansi, honeysuckle, and basswood honey come together in this hard seltzer.

Inbound BrewCo

  • Contains Bees – A week after introducing a limited rum barrel-aged version now we get the original blonde ale with peanut butter and honey. 5.2% ABV, 15 IBU. On draft and in cans. 

Insight Brewing

  • Banshee Cutter – Available at the taproom now.
  • Brunch Drunk – A 5.5% ABV New England-style pale ale with juicy and citrusy flavors – like a mimosa.

Kinney Creek Brewery

  • Bock – 7.5% ABV and tapped last week.
  • Red Robin – Red ale
  • Trippin’ Berries

Lakes & Legends Brewing Company

  • Two Boats Irish Stout – Tapped on Thursday in two variants: Nitro and NA.

Lakeville Brewing Co.

  • Irish Cream Stout – A seasonal stout with a touch of Irish cream added. 5% ABV.
  • Maibock – A 6.4% ABV spring seasonal.

Left Hand Brewing Company

  • Key Lime Pie Nitro – A seasonal nitro recipe from Left Hand, this is a 7.3% ABV beer with a silky texture and flavors of lime with vanilla.

Lift Bridge Brewing Co.

  • Irish Coffee Stout – Available on Saturday, with a party in Stillwater to celebrate. The annual release is a milk stout blended with a whiskey barrel-aged imperial stout, finished with coffee. 7.6% ABV, 29 IBU.

Modist Brewing Co.

  • I Bring You Love – An oak-aged Czech-style Pilsner. On tap this Saturday and in liquor stores beginning next Tuesday.
  • Olde Omen – Top Flight selection
  • Sick Mix – A Berliner Weiss with raspberry and apricot. On tap tomorrow and in liquor stores next week.

New Glarus Brewery

  • Scream – A Thumbprint series limited edition double IPA made with seven different hop varieties, including experimental and estate grown hops.

Nine Mile Brewing

  • Aces Around – An American-style IPA with assertive citrus and bitterness along with dank notes. 7.0% ABV.
  • Lulo Goldenberry Sour – A sour ale made with two South American fruits with tart and slightly funky profiles. “Gobs and gobs of the aforementioned lulo and goldenberry fruits provide constantly shifting pungent tropical and citrus notes on the nose while shifting into a lemon warhead candy-like tartness on the palate,” the brewery says. 5.5% ABV.

Nouvelle Brewing

  • Critter Bonus – A Japanese-style dark rice lager made with black rice, which adds chocolate notese to its light, naturally carbonated body. 4.5% ABV. A collaboration with Fair State.
  • Made in Citra – “This hazy IPA was made with every form of the Citra hop we could get our sticky hands on. Heavy amounts of Citra Cryo and Citra Incognito were used in the kettle then generously hopped with Citra T90, Citra Spectrum and more Citra Cryo,” the brewery explains. “Dank, sticky overripe passionfruit and papaya with a bright citrus finish.” 7.6% ABV.
  • Stirred – Top Flight selection

Oliphant Brewing

  • Gorb Gorb – A 10% ABV imperial hazy IPA made with Cry Mosaic and Amarillo hops.
  • Lumberjack Baes – A hazy IPA made with Mosaic and Citra hops. 6.9% ABV and made in collaboration with Stillwater Proper, Lolo, and Lolito.

OMNI Brewing Co.

  • Irish Red – On tap at Saturday’s 11am-11pm St. Patrick’s Day party.
  • Irish Stout

Shakopee Brewhall

  • The Riveter – Irish cream ale

Toppling Goliath Brewing Co.

  • Think Piece – A double IPA featuring Citra, Riwaka and Sabro Hops, made in collaboration with Untitled Art.

Torg Brewery

  • Kilted Yoga

Utepils Brewing

  • Raspberry Pontoon – Tapping today at Utepils.

Venn Brewing Company

  • Hawaiian Hog – A smoked lager with pineapple.

Waconia Brewing Company

  • Green Kolsch – Tapped on Thursday .
  • Mango Kolsch – To tap today, Friday March 18.

Wooden Hill Brewing Company

  • Clouds – “A tart ale brewed with heaps of blackberry, raspberry, vanilla, and marshmallow fluff,” Wooden Hill says of this double berry marshmallow sour. 5% ABV.
  • Gold Top – A traditional in style hefeweizen at 5.4% ABV pale wheat, Pilsner malt, and light hopping.

Have a new beer we should know about? Send the details to newbeer@beerdabbler.com for inclusion in Freshies.