Boreal Brewers

According to a story run by KBJR News, in the last three years 20 microbreweries or brew pubs have opened up in the Northland.  The two part newscast talked about why craft beers are taking hold, and how big of an impact it is having on the regions economy.  You can see the two clips below (please bear with the brief commercial beforehand).

I was disappointed to hear them end the first part of the store with a teaser for the next installment referring to the dark side of craft beer.  The so called dark side has to do with alcohol content, and implies that all craft beers have very high alcohol content, and that craft beer drinkers need to take extra precautions to avoid DWI  scenarios.

A lame comparison test was done between a light multinational corporate beer, and a 9.9% ABV Craft beer.  It does not take a physicist to predict the results, but the story assumes that craft beer drinkers guzzle beer like college frat boys on the cheap.  While a couple patrons interviewed in the story tried to make the point that people who enjoy craft beers tend to savor the flavor instead of “pounding ‘em down”,  it was glossed over.

See the story for yourself.  What do you think?  Maybe I just over-reacted to the “Dark Side of Craft Beer” title.

Part 1

Part 2 The Dark Side of Craft Beer

The beers from the advanced brew class at Itasca Community College are ready to bottle.  We had to wait a bit, as the lab prep room was cool, which slowed the ferments.

Plan on a bottling session at 6PM, in the same lab where we had class, Monday June 10th.  I’ve got some beer, bring some if you like.  Let’s make a potluck out of it and relax!

Hope to see you then.  If you can’t make it, we’ll hang on to the extra beer until we can connect.

-Steve

Three members of our club donated homebrew to the annual fundraiser auction for Bridges Kinship Mentoring.   We split up the donated beers into a pair of six packs and they were a hit.  One went for $65, and the other for $75.
Our club members donate some of their homebrew to fundraiser auctions every year.  If your Grand Rapids (MN) area charitable organization is seeking items for a live or silent auction, feel free to contact us.  Our ability to contribute may depend on availability, so be sure to give plenty of advanced notice.  We have a limit of two six packs per event and try to mix it up a little.