608’s Grandpa’s Liquor Cabinet: Coconut Bay Pastrywine • Photo via 608 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.

It’s easy to call attention to the most unique beers of the week, from barrel-aged seltzers to a “pastrywine,” to a breakfast stout made with actual breakfast cereal. But there are far more traditionally inspired recipes pouring across the state right now, from seasonal Oktoberfest lagers to altbier, hefeweizen and ales both golden and brown. The point is that beer is dynamic, ranging from historic styles to pushing the envelope and creating new traditions along the way.

There are also parties in every corner of the state, celebrating German brewing tradition, but also the local hop harvest and more. Whether you want to polka dance and hoist steins, or hop the light rail for the return of Rails & Ales, the taps will be flowing.

 

 

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

Bad Weather Due Date 5 – The latest Due Date series release from Bad Weather is a bottle conditioned farmhouse ale with anise, hyssop, and bee balm.

Dual Citizen Cereal Money – A breakfast stout collaboration with Treats Cereal Bar & Boba. It’s an 8.2% ABV stout brewed with six breakfast cereals, waffles, cocoa nibs, and coffee. Available today.

Insight Vibe – “A smooth, medium-body mouthfeel easily transitions to bright flavors of tropical fruit and aromas of peach, lemon, and pear. It all comes together in a soft, approachable beer packed with juicy energy,” the brewery says of its new 6.3% ABV New England-style IPA.

Lupulin Fugacity #8 – Available today, #8 in the Fugacity line is a dark sour fermented in wine barrels with cranberry and raspberry. “Jam-like, rich, and slightly tart with a big malt bill, expect an almost savory note, as well as hints of chocolate that play perfectly with the cranberry and raspberry,” the brewery says. Sold in bottles.

Tallgrass Cider Wayward  – “A clean and refreshing English-style still cider. Earthy and smooth. Mouthfeel like wine. This wild fermented cider captures the essence of the orchard. Each batch is unique and can never be repeated,” Tallgrass explains.

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.

608 Brewing Company

  • Fruit Cup Cocktail – A fruit punch smoothie sour collaboration with Untitled art that pours at 7.2% ABV with added white grape, cherry, pear, peach, lactose, marshmallow, and pineapple.
  • Grandpa’s Liquor Cabinet – A barrel-aged stout blended with fresh barleywine, or “pastrywine,” as the brewery dubs it, with added coconut and vanilla. “Creamy coconut is almost immediately over taken by the barrel character, with a vanilla sweetness smoothing everything over in the finish,” 608 says. 13.6% ABV.
  • Philsner – Named after brewery owner and lager lover Phil, this Italian-style Pilsner pours light with subtle malt and bitterness, plus a unique dank touch from the use of Strata hops. 5.5% ABV.

ABC Brewing Co.

  • Oktoberfest
  • Vienna Lager

Alloy Brewing Company

  • Laser Lips: Raspberry Lemonade – A new kettle sour with tart yet also sweet flavors. 4.0% ABV, 0 IBU.
  • Nummer Eins Märzen – The namesake Oktoberfest beer at this Saturday’s brewery party that includes live polka, stein hoists and more.
  • Sexy Green Tractor – A double dry-hopped New England-style IPA showing off the flavors of Sabro and XJA2 hops. 7.5% ABV, 31 IBU.

Alloy Brewing’s Sexy Green Tractor (and its beer namesake) • Photo via Alloy Brewing Company

Bad Weather Brewing Company

  • Due Date 5 – Top Flight selection.
  • Saturation – A wet hop IPA made with St. Croix Valley Hops-grown Chinook hops.

Bent Paddle Brewing Co.

  • Pordij No 8: Robusto IPA – “This is a big, bold, in your face IPA with an aggressive Simcoe Cryo, Amarillo, Centennial, and Sultana hop bill boasting resinous overtones alongside juicy undertones,” the brewery says.

Bricksworth Beer

  • Ice Tray – A cold-fermented IPA made with a blend of Citra, Mosaic, Columbus Cryo, Michigan Chinook, and Nelson Sauvin hops. Made in collaboration with Pig Ate My Pizza, this new beer pours at 7.5% ABV and is described as conveying “maximum crispness.”

Dual Citizen Brewing Company

  • Cereal Money –Top Flight selection.

Duluth Cider

  • Lamplighter – A 6.8% ABV smooth yet dry cider.
  • South Island Tea – “A balanced semi-dry with raspberries, black tea and Motueka hops,” the cidery says. 6.0% ABV.
  • Zephyr – A 6.8% ABV dry, light, crisp cider.

Earth Rider Beer

  • Cider Donut Beer – A collaboration with Adventure Club Brewing. Tapping at 5pm today.

Eastlake Craft Brewery

  • Kirby Pucker #8 – “We paired lion’s mane mushrooms with ginger and meyer lemons, and infused an ultra-limited batch of our Kirby Pucker #8 Spiced Beet Gose,” the brewery says, with each serving providing 430mg of organic lion’s mane extract. 

Fair State Brewing Cooperative

  • New Territories – An IPA collaboration with Mikkeller Brewing, made with genetically modified yeast to enhance tropical fruit flavors.

HeadFlyer Brewing

Three special options tap for a day-long brewery party this Saturday.

  • Gin Barrel Seltzer with Grapefruit Bitters – As the name suggests, this seltzer takes on extra gi and bitter notes with a unique flavor profile that includes notes of white grape and citrus.
  • Headstrong – A barrel-aged strong ale that spent time in J Carver apple brandy barrels. On draft and sold in bottles.
  • Märzen Lager – A small batch Beyond the Door series lager with malt-forward flavors.
  • Wetcha – Made with Triple Pearl hops form Civil Sass, “This is a clean pale ale with a focus on bringing out these fresh hop flavors and aromas,” the brewery notes.

High Pines Brewing Co.

Hoops Brewing

  • #214 Raspberry Wheat – An American-style wheat ale with raspberries. 4.9% ABV.
  • #67 Wiesn Oktoberfest – This golden lager pours at 6.5% ABV and follows German tradition.
  • #9341 Bamberg Lager – A “very lightly smoked” light lager. 5.1% ABV.
  • #99 Wood Smoked Hefeweizen – Another smoked option, this one a 5.2% ABV hefeweizen style.

Humble Forager

  • Humble Bumble: Mangosteen and Banana v4 – The latest seltzer concoction combines coconut, pineapple, passion fruit, mangosteen, banana, clementine, goldenrod honey, and lavender flowers. 5% ABV.

Inbound Brewco

  • Fest Bump – A crish and refreshing festbier style seasonal, on tap for Barktoberfest at the brewery this Sunday. 5.5% ABV, 20 IBU.

Inbound’s Fest Bump Festbier • Photo via Inbound BrewCo

Insight Brewing

Insight has unveiled new can art and a new core lineup:

  • Avant – A Pilsner dry-hopped with Wakatu hops, “Aromas of lime and citrus transition to traditional pilsner notes from German and Czech noble hops, creating a sessionable, crisp lager packed with flavor,” Insight says. 5% ABV.
  • Drift – A 2021-style West Coast-style IPA with grapefruit and citrus on the nose and hints of blueberry in the beer itself, leading to a crisp and dry finish. 6.6% ABV.
  • Rhythm – A lightly-hopped and full-bodied beer with a hint of malt sweetness. 4% ABV.
  • Vibe – Top Flight selection

Junkyard Brewing Co.

  • Eighties Rock Label – Featuring a hop combination of HBC 586, Galaxy, and Mosaic, this new beer offers peach and stone fruit flavors with a soft, full body, the brewery says. 6.9% ABV.
  • For Heavens Cakes – A cake-inspired sour ale made with angel food cake, strawberries, whipped cream, and almonds.
  • Keep Me Cold Mango – A creamy-body sour ale made with fresh mango.

Karst Brewing

  • Fresh Hop – Brewed with Centennial hops and on tap at Hoptoberfest tomorrow.
  • Oktoberfest – Tapping for Hoptoberfest this Saturday.

Kinney Creek Brewery

  • Rocktoberfest – Available now, including in limited mixed 4-packs in Rochester.
  • Somethin’ Light

Lakes & Legends Brewing Co.

  • Altbier – A 5.3% ABV German-style altbier recipe.
  • Gatekeeper – A 4.5% ABV brown ale.

Lakeville Brewing Co.

  • Alt-ernative Medicine – “Hints of cherry, bread crust, and classic German hops in the nose. Medium-bodied malt-forward flavor with enough carbonation and hop bite to cut through the sweetness,” the brewpub says of this 5.2% ABV German-style offering. On tap at the brewery’s Oktoberfest celebration on Saturday.
  • Oktoberfest – A smooth autumn seasonal German-style export Oktoberfest with toasty malt and a “not too sweet” flavor, the brewery says. On tap at Lakeville Brewing’s Oktoberfest this Saturday, 4-8pm. 6.5% ABV.

Lakes & Legends Altbier • Photo via Lakes & Legends Brewing Company

Lupulin Brewing Company

  • Cryptid – A 7.7% ABV, 7-0 IBU black IPA with juniper.
  • Fugacity #8 – Top Flight selection
  • Lateralus: Chocolate Malt – An imperial stout with cacao nibs, malted milk powder, and vanilla. 11% ABV.

Roets Jordan Brewery

  • Heimatfest – Festbier
  • IPA Infusion – A New England-style IPA with tangerine.
  • Pete’s Wet Hop Ale
  • Roets Brown – An English-style brown ale.
  • Roets Chile – A bone ale with scotch bonnet peppers.
  • Sweet Chocolate Infusion

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

  • Atomic Torpedo – Torpedo IPA gets a new hop profile: Mosaic, Magnum, Cascade, and Centennial. Expect lust fruit flavors and resinous pine. Sold in the Hoppy Sampler pack. 8.2% ABV.

Spilled Grain Brewhouse

Sylvan Brewing

  • Oktoberfest – 5.2% ABV, 18 IBU

Take 16 Brewing Co.

  • Pheasant Festbier

Talking Water Brewing Co.

  • Crushin’ Nuts – A porter with chocolate and peanut butter, sold in 4-packs.
  • Festbier – Available in 4-packs.
  • Make It Rain – Brewed in collaboration with Bank Brewing, this new gose features red and black currants, plus rhubarb. 4.6% ABV.
  • Maybe I Did…Maybe I Didn’t – “We got a wild hair and decided to skip whirlpool hops altogether, and just add that extra dosage into the dry hop,” the brewery says of this new beer featuring Strata, Azacca, and El Dorado hops with tropical and melon notes. 6.5% ABV.
  • Oktoberfest

Tallgrass Cider

  • Wayward  – Top Flight selection.

Thousand Lakes Brewing Co.

  • Caesar’s Belly Button – An orange smoothie-style sour.
  • I Know Nothing – A light and crisp festbier.
  • Dummkopf – A Marzen-style Oktoberfest lager with bready sweetness and a touch of hop flavor, the brewery says.

Tin Whiskers Brewing Company

Grapefruit Lowertown IPA – One of three beers tapped for the weekend-long Rails & Ales event.

  • Pineapple Dreamstate
  • Raspberry Chocolate Truffle Imperial Stout
  • Synonym Toast Crunch – Available only in very limited bottles, as of midweek, this cereal-based beer is back.

Tin Whiskers’ Synonym Toast Crunch • Photo via Tin Whiskers Brewing Company

Torg Brewery

  • Brautbier – “A rich, bready Marzen with subtle sweetness and clean hop bitterness,” the brewery says. Torg celebrates Oktoberfest tomorrow, Saturday Oct. 2. Additional taps include Dinkel’s Brew, Guilty Marder, Kolsch, and Hefeweizen. 

Town Hall Brewery

  • Oktoberfest Märzen – Tapping today, October 1.
  • Petunias Pumpkin Ale – Tapping today, October 1.

Wild Mind Ales

  • Kairos – A hazy IPA made with a blend of El Dorado, Strata, BRU-1, Mosaic, and Mosaic Cryp hops, plus a heavy dose of Phantasm powder which, combined, impart flavors of pineapple smoothie, candied orange, cannabis, grapefruit pop, and blueberry, with dank tones, the brewery says. 7% ABV.

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