Fair State Cooptoberfest marks the brewery's seventh anniversary • Photo via Fair State Brewing Cooperative

Fair State Cooptoberfest marks the brewery’s seventh anniversary • Photo via Fair State Brewing Cooperative

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. 

It’s celebration week, whether that means a traditional harvest festival, a parking lot pop-up, or anniversary events. And there are a lot of anniversaries right now. A Minneapolis brewpub turns 9, and others across the state celebrate milestones ranging from 4 years to 7. Can you guess who?

Naturally, each party has unique celebratory beers, but we’re also getting party leftovers across the state, with previously exclusive State Fair recipes now flowing at their home taprooms. Whether you seek the familiar flavors of a Märzen-style lager, a stout, or brown ale, or if you want something more adventurous with sumac, juniper, wild rice, or even flying ants, there’s a lot to pick from this week.

 

 

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

Badger Hill Roggeneier – On tap for Shaktoberfest on Saturday, Sept. 18, at the brewery.

Dangerous Man Papaya Saison – Made with real papaya, this saison has an earthy and grassy base with layers of fresh melon and citrus and tropical funk, the brewery says. 5.5% ABV.

Forager Disintegrating Antlers – A 4.9% ABV mixed culture saison brewed with wheat, spelt, honey, and sumac flowers.

Northbound Wild Rice Amber Bock – Northbound’s very first seasonal, first tapped on Sept. 20, 2012, is back for their anniversary celebrations, using a recipe that’s been fine-tuned over the past near-decade.

Wild State Cider Apple Pie – Fit for the fall season, this cider offers, “A balanced blend of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, along with a dash of black pepper make this semi-dry cider stand out,” the cidery says. Available statewide. 5.8% ABV.

New beers available this week

3rd Act Craft Brewery   

  • Dance With The Devil In The Pale Moonlight – An English-style imperial stout aged in Kentucky bourbon barrels. 8% ABV, 23 IBU.
  • I’m Never Leaving This Place – “Very smooth, malt-forward beer. Brewed following the strict German brewing purity laws,” says 3rd Act. 5.4% ABV, 17 IBU.

608 Brewing Company

  • Paper Walls – “We wanted to make an IPA with rice as it would create a thinner, tighter malt profile while using Amarillo and Simcoe hops to bring a mellow hop character,” the brewery explains. “The result is a succinct body, with mellow citrus flavor with some dank subtlety with a nice amount of bitterness to balance everything out.” 6.5% ABV and available on draft and in 6-packs at the brewery.
  • Schlatz – A clean and crisp Oktoberfest lager with a sweet malt touch. 5% ABV. On draft and sold in 6-packs.

Alloy Brewing Company

  • Caramel Apple Ala Mode – Built on a cream ale base, Alloy added caramel, apple, vanilla, and malt powder and then aged it on oak staves for its latest “What Happened?!” series release. 8.8% ABV, 11 IBU.

Arbeiter Brewing

  • Spritzig Seltzer: Watermelon – A dry hard seltzer with subtle watermelon and sweet berry, the brewery says. 5.2% ABV, gluten-free.
  • Yuzu Cold IPA – “The flavor follows suit with the aroma – clean and pointed citrus oil and fresh pine flavors come from both the yuzu fruit as well as the hop varieties. Expect clean and bright lemon, grapefruit, and a hint of orange citrus notes. Balanced with a gentle malt finish,” Arbeiter says of this collaboration with Envelope Brewing (Seattle, WA). The beer was brewed to celebrate the traditional harvest festivals of Korea and China. 6.6% ABV, 49 IBU. It taps in advance of A. Night Market, taking place at the brewery this Saturday from 5–9 pm.

Badger Hill Brewing Company

  • Roggeneier – Top Flight selection.

Beaver Island Brewing Company

  • Coffee & Vanilla Sweet Miss – A variant of the brewery’s oatmeal stout, sold in the Sweet Miss variety pack.

Boom Island Brewing Company

  • Barrel Aged Hoodoo Dubbel – One of three special releases for Saturday’s Harvest Fest, along with the draft debut of Punkin’ Pie spiced autumn ale and Wild Stallyns wild ale.
  • Wyld Stallyns Wild Ale – One of three releases for Saturday’s Harvest Fest, along with the beers listed above.

Dangerous Man Brewing Company

  • Papaya Saison – Top Flight selection.

Earth Rider Brewery

  • Apricot Wheat Ale – First tapped for Earth Rider Fest last weekend and still on tap. 5.0% ABV.
  • Ginger IPA – First tapped for Earth Rider Fest last weekend and still on tap. 5.6% ABV.

Fair State Brewing Cooperative

Saturday marks Fair State’s seventh anniversary. Billed as Cooptoberfest, the party features several special beers:

  • Best Friends Day – Available in (limited) bottles, this vanilla stout collaboration with Lua brewing (Des Moines, IA) was double barrel-aged, spending time in both rye and bourbon barrels for a total of two years.
  • Festbier – Making its first draft appearance of the year. “Malty and refreshing,” the brewery says.
  • Foamo – An oak foeder-aged Helles-style lager.
  • Lichtenhainer – A mixed culture rustic ale with smoke notes.
  • Re-billionizing – “A blend of fresh and barrel-aged saison dry-hopped right before packaging. Light funk and crisp hops in a 3.4% ABV package,” the brewery says.
  • Secret Highways – A mixed fermentation saison aged on sumac, juniper, and bitter orange, which combine for herbal citrus notes with juniper as the connecting ingredient.
  • Time Debt – Barrel-aged and made with the house culture, this dark sour offers flavors of plum, dark chocolate, and vanilla.

Forager Brewery

Foragerfest marks the Rochester brewery’s sixth anniversary, with a shopping seven barrel-aged stouts available in limited bottles on Saturday AM and another six saisons available.

Barrel-Aged offerings:

  • Buzzed – Sold in bottles, this barrel-aged milk stout adds cocoa nibs, coffee beans, and lacrosse.
  • Chicatanazzzzz – A barrel-aged stout conditioned on chicatanas from Mexico, “Where these flying ants are considered a delicacy,” the brewery says, with brewer T.J. noting, “Chicatanazzzzz provided an unforgettable blending experience that I’m looking forward to building on in the future.” 14.5% ABV.
  • Critter Cuvee    – “This is a blend of multiple different beers, barrel sizes, and spirit types. We blended oat wine, spelt wine, rye wine, maple barleywine, and imperial stout,” the brewery says. 13.5% ABV.
  • Derby Pie – A collaboration with Horus Aged Ales (Oceanside, CA), this derby pie-inspired pastry stout was conditioned on cocoa nibs, vanilla, walnuts, and cinnamon, and spent 23 months in Eagle Rare bourbon barrels. 14.8% ABV.
  • Kitten Treats – A 16.8% ABV cognac puncheon-aged wheat wine.
  • Nilerzzzzz Killerzzzzz – A vanilla coffee stout aged in rye and bourbon barrels. 14.5% ABV.
  • Syncopation – A double-barrel stout and a collaboration with The Eighth State Brewing Company (Greenville, SC). The stout was first aged in maple syrup barrels, then Blanton’s bourbon. 13.4% ABV.

Saison offerings:

  • Dearly Beloved – A 6.4% ABV wild ale with grapes, black currants, honeyberries, and cherries, all Minnesota-grown. A collaboration with Fair State.
  • Disintegrating Antlers – Top Flight selection.
  • Layered Through Time – A strong wild ale with tropical notes in a combination of Old World brewing styles and New World hop varieties. 8.5% ABV.
  • Oxytocin vs. Dopamine – A 5.9% ABV wild ale blend of two mixed culture saisons, one of which uses Forager’s strain of Brettanomyces.
  • Perpetual Forgiveness – This mixed culture creation is a blend of two wine barrel-aged spelt saisons for a rustic and mildly tart experience. 6.3% ABV.
  • Tuscan Sun – A mixed culture farmhouse saison with lively carbonation and notes of melon, herbal tea, and strawberry, among others. 6.1% ABV.

Founders Brewing Co.

  • Velvet Rush – A bourbon barrel-aged brown ale with notes of coffee, chocolate, vanilla, and lactose. 11% ABV and available nationwide in September.

Humble Forager

  • Coast Sunrise v5 – A breakfast-themed pastry sour made with blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, and marshmallow. 5% ABV.

Inbound BrewCo

  • Contains Nuts – A peanut butter milk stout. Available at the brewery now and coming to liquor stores too.

Indeed Brewing Company

  • Yamma Jamma Harvest Ale – The sweet potato with mellow spices fall seasonal is back at the taproom and in liquor stores now. Made with sweet potato, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla, this 5.0% ABV, 12 IBU malt-forward beer is an annual release.

Lake Monster Brewing

  • Cherry Sour
  • Loonatick – A fresh hop beer made with 2021 Strata hops, set to debut this week according to the brewery’s latest newsletter.
  • Oktoberfest

Lakes & Legends Brewing Company

  • Oktoberfest – On tap today and the star of the show at the brewery’s upcoming Oktoberfest taproom party on Oct. 2. 6.8% ABV.

Lakeville Brewing Co.   

  • Oktoberfest – “We model our Oktoberfest after Germany’s ‘export’ versions of the style. Orange-amber in color, and with a distinctive toasty malt character that finishes clean and is not too sweet,” the brewpub says. 6.5% ABV.
  • Palisade Peach Pale Ale – A fruit-forward pale ale made with peaches from Colorado’s Palisade growing region. Peachy, but with bittering hops to balance the sweetness, the brewery says. 6.3% ABV.

Left Hand Brewing Co.

  • The Milk Box sample pack is hitting stores now, featuring:
  • Double Milk Stout – This bigger version comes at 10.5% ABV.
  • Mint Chocolate Milk Stout – Sweet chocolate and refreshing mint.
  • Mole Milk Stout – A brand new sweet and savory stout, this concoction was made with cinnamon, chili, and cocoa powder.
  • S’mores Milk Stout – A new milk stout made with marshmallows and spices, just in time for campfire season.

Lift Bridge Brewing Company   

  • Key Lime Pie – Previously a State Fair exclusive, Lift Bridge tapped Key Lime Pie on Monday, including Crowler sales.
  • Mini Donut – The State Fair is officially over, but the celebration is still possible at Lift Bridge. Tapped and available in Crowlers, as of this past Monday.

Modist Brewing Co.

  • Gravity Sucks!    – A dry-hopped New England-style IPA with a hop blend that includes Citra, Mosaic, Talus, and Ekuanot Cryo. Plus, it pairs with a video game of the same name.
  • Passion Fruit EndLayer – A gose fruited over 3,000 pounds of passion fruit. 7.3% ABV.

New Glarus Brewery

  • Gyrator Doppelbock – A new season 6-pack from Wisconsin made with whole-cone Diamant hops grown in Germany.

Northbound Smokehouse & Brewpub

  • Anniversary Ale – On tap as Northbound celebrates its ninth anniversary all month long, this beer offers notes of honey, biscuit, clove, and Belgian yeast ester “with a bit of alcohol heat,” the brewery says.
  • Wild Rice Amber Bock – Top Flight selection.

Oliphant Brewing

The Somerset, WI brewery celebrates its seventh anniversary on Saturday from 12–9 pm, including one-off barrel-aged beers and the following new taps:

  • Cherry Lime Humdinger – A cherry and lime sour ale. 5% ABV.
  • Somos Extremos – A golden ale with Peruvian coffee. 6.5% ABV.
  • Spooky Squishy – A 5% ABV apple pie sour ale.

Pantown Brewing Company

  • 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 – A New England-style IPA with a cocktail of Cashmere, El Dorado, and Sabro hops. Tapped at the start of the month.
  • Irish Cream Milk Stout – “It’s almost halfway to St. Patrick’s Day,” Pantown reasons. Hence the limited release of their creamy milk stout.
  • Oktoberfest – Oktoberfest is clean, refreshing, and super easy-drinking. This is a traditional fest beer with full flavor and plenty of backbone,” the brewery provides.

https://www.facebook.com/events/183631087074529/

PawPrint Brewery

  • Hyper PuP – An IPA brewed with Citra and Cascade hops and conditioned with vanilla bourbon-infused coffee. 6% ABV, 50 IBU. Tapped at the start of the month.
  • PuP’toberfest – A new Märzen-style lager, tapping on Saturday. 6.0% ABV, 20 IBU.
  • The Bird Dog – A limited rum barrel-aged sour, sold in bottles.
  • The Dog Ate My Homework – The first in a new line of sours, this was made with key lime, graham cracker, and cream cheese. The 4.5% ABV, 27 IBU base will be a constant, the brewery says.
  • Trash Panda – An imperial rye IPA, tapped last week.
  • Y.A.N.A. – You Are Not Alone was tapped on Sept. 1 for suicide awareness month, this blue raspberry milkshake-style IPA fundraises for a cause. 7% ABV, 30 IBU.

Rogue Ales & Spirits

  • Jam Sesh – A strawberry ale made with Oregon-grown fruit and up-cycled bread. The Rogue Band, who practices in their warehouse in Oregon every Friday. 5.5% ABV.

Shakopee Brewhall

Three special beers are on tap for the brewery’s week-long fourth-anniversary celebration:

  • Mandala – This beer, available Saturday, “[Was made with] generous amounts of raspberry, rhubarb, and complemented with fourteen gin botanicals native to Minnesota – juniper berries, orange peel, coriander, cherry bark, and more,” the brewery says.
  • Nutty Mad – Nut brown ale with notes of light roast coffee, milk chocolate and a hint of toffee. A slightly bitter finish, the brewery says.
  • Spetty – A blonde ale with mango.

Stacked Deck Brewing Co.

  • Märzen Attacks – “This rich, bready, crisp and malty Märzen is ridiculously crushable and absolutely refreshing. Available now on tap and in 16oz 4-packs,” the brewery notes. 5.5% ABV.

Surly Brewing Company

  • Damien – The child of Darkness, an American black ale made with second runnings of the original Darkness wort. At 6.5% ABV, the dark beer offers a medium body with roasty sugar notes, chocolate, coffee, and a tangerine plus pine touch from dry-hopping.
  • Fifteen – A blended grand cru with notes of cocoa, milk chocolate, dark fruit, honey, vanilla, and hints of tartness and spice, Surly estimates this beer as “about 80% barrel-aged Quad, and 10% each of the barrel-aged Brett beer and clean, fresh Quad.”

Urban Growler Brewing Company

  • Hans On – Previously a State Fair exclusive, this Simcoe and Bergamot-hopped American IPA is now a taproom exclusive. Expect resin, pine, and orange flavors, the brewery says. 6.5% ABV, 100 IBU.

Waconia Brewing Company

  • Just Gonna Sneak Rye Ya – Just tapped on Tuesday.

Waldmann Brewery

  • Festbier – One of two featured beers at the traditionally-themed brewpub in St. Paul (along with a previously released Oktoberfest lager). The brewery is celebrating Oktoberfest with a festival both this weekend and next.

Wild Mind Ales   

  • Table – Available today, a 3.8% ABV rustic Belgian-style farmhouse ale. Also sold in Crowlers.

Wild State Cider

  • Apple Pie – Top Flight selection.

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