Local Beer Businesses Competing for Award That's "Kind of a Big Deal"

Growler Magazine, a journal of Minnesota beer enthusiasts, are hunting for the best of the local beverage scene.

Southwest Minneapolis has long been a nest of homebrewers. Fulton Beer and Harriet Brewing both started as homebrew outfits in different Southwest Minneapolis garages, and Surly Brewing's Todd Haug is a longtime Linden Hills resident.  Now, these companies and Lynnhurst's South Lyndale Liquors are going head-to-head against scores of area companies in the "Kind of a Big Deal" contest organized by the beer enthusiasts at Growler Magazine. As Growler writes, the local beer scene is exploding, and even attracting a good deal of attention from city politicians: The best thing about the Minnesota craft beer scene right now is the energy. New breweries are popping up, restaurants are widening their craft beer offerings, there’s seemingly a new …

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Fulton Beats Harriet To Open First Taproom

Locally-born brewers are both taking advantage of new brewery rules.

Will Growlers Come To Liquor Store Near You?

Legislature takes up bill that might please some beer aficionados.

Three Southwest Businesses Nominated For Silver Whisks

Tilia, Pizzeria Lola, and Harriet Brewing are all in the running for the Heavy Table's prestigious food awards.

In the geographic sense, Southwest Minneapolis is tiny in comparison to the Upper Midwest. Infinitesimal. Dinky. But size, as they say, isn’t everything, and in the foodie world our neighborhood looms large. The Heavy Table—the premier foodie journal for this slice of the USA—has nominated three local businesses for their prestigious “Silver Whisk” awards, one for each category of “Best New Establishment”—Linden Hills’ Tilia— “Best Purveyor”—Harriet Brewing—and “Best Chef”—Pizzeria Lola’s Ann Kim. For Kim, being nominated only a little over a year after launching Lola is reward enough. “I was shocked, actually,” she said in an interview on Friday. “My priority was to create a great neighborhood pizzeria. I was spoiled from living in New …

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James Sanna

3:49 pm on Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Oooh, those are all great ones, too. What're your favorite parts about them?   more ›

PHOTOS: Behind The Scenes At Harriet Brewing

Jason Sowards reveals some of his secrets to local homebrewers.

When the door to Harriet Brewing's brewing floor opens, you're hit in the face with a fist of warm, moist air that carries a faint tinge of sweetness. Clouds of steam pour up from around the corner and machines screech as Harriet employees clean kegs for the evening's brew. The overall effect is to suggest a construction area or a factory, rather than the delicate, almost chef-like approach Harriet's owner Jason Sowards says goes into his beer.   Like practically all of Minneapolis' micro- and craft beer startup breweries, Sowards and Harriet Brewing started as a homebrew operation in Sowards' Linden Hills home, albeit an expensive, scientifically-driven one. Sowards stays true to his roots, though, offering detailed technical tours for …

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Homebrewing Becoming Big Business

Mayor Rybak declared Saturday "Minneapolis Homebrew Day"

All great local beer starts somewhere, and that "somewhere" is usually someone's garge. From Fulton Beer to Harriet Brewing, Southwest's well-known children of the vine all started out as experiments in homebrewing, a fact City Councilmember John Quincy and the owners of Northern Brewer's new Windom store celebrated on Saturday. In honor of the industry's contribution to economic development in the city, Mayor RT Rybak had declared Saturday "Minneapolis Homebrew Day." Since Southwest Minneapolis Patch first reported the homebrew supply chain was coming to Minneapolis, local homebrewers were likely chomping at the bit to get at the now-conveniently-located supplies. As the Southwest Journal reports, though, this has caused some problems for…

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