Fitger's "Hop Independence" Releases

[davesarman]

I almost took off work today and headed up to Duluth when I got this email:

Greetings from the brewery at Fitgers
We have beer releases for your enjoyment.
Thursday June 24th
Breakwater White 5.4% A yearly summer favorite. Breakwater is a Belgian
style wheat beer brewed with spices and special yeast.

Over the weekend of June 25-27th we will start Hop Independence. A
celebration of the Hop a true love of the brewers at the Brewhouse. Over 1
week we will release these beers and pour thru the July 4th weekend.

Skyline Imperial Pale Ale 8.3%
A supercharged pale ale brewed with pale malt and 8 types of west coast hops
85 b.u.'s

Misty Mountain IPA 7.5% an English Style IPA brewed with only low alpha
English hops then served on nitrogen 110 b.u.'s

El Nino Double Hopped IPA 7.1 % a special batch of our best selling IPA
always tasty 116.5 b.u.'s

HomeGrown Hempen Ale 6.3% Yep, we saved a small amount of this insanely
popular hemp beer 68 b.u.'s

Tanked Imperial IPA 12.0% A titanic ode to malt and hops brewed last year
and aged for your happiness 200 + b.u.'s

Bourbon-Aged Edmund Imperial Stout 10.0%
2003 vintage Ed aged in a Jim Beam barrel for 8 months. Amazing smoothness
and mellow whisky comes thru
100 b.u.'s

b.u. = a measurement of the hop level of a beer

Please stop down and enjoy HOP INDEPENDENCE

Thanks for your support
The Brewers


check out the other happenings at www.brewhouse.net


They make great beer there up at Fitger's, I might have to find a way to get up there soon, especially for that Bourbon barrell stout! If it's anything like the one his brother makes at Town Hall in Minneapolis, it would be worth the drive! I can see my wife hitting the roof if I came home with 6 growlers of beer... :)

[chazwicke]

Sounds like some great beers. What is the story on Fitgers? I know it was an old brewery and brand that was made at Schells in the late 70s.

[ontap78]

Fitger's is now a fine brew pub in the old brewery which also contains a specialty mall and a hotel. They used to have a homebrew shop in there years ago but I don't know if they still do. I live in New Ulm where Schell's is made and they still bottle Fitger's Twins Lager in returnable bottles. I think, in reality, it's Schell's Original in different packaging. That's what my buds (and my sources) tell me.I don't get up there that often, but some friends of mine attend there Bock beer festival every year and have a blast. I think one year they even "polar beared" into Lake Superior. But I guess it's nothing compared to the bock beer festival in New Ulm at Schell's. Now that's a party. 5000 strong on the brewery grounds with beer-a-flowin' and brats-a-cookin' and music-a-playin'. Check out the Schell's website for next years date and plan on attending.No brewery in the country would put something like this on year after year.It's nuts!

[davesarman]

Yes, the old FItgers brewery complex was converted into a shopping center and a five star hotel along with a stellar brewpub along the shores of Lake Superior. My wife and I stayed there the first night of our honeymoon on our way up to the Gunflint Trail in northern Minnesota, near the Canadian border.

We also went back up there 2 years ago over labor day. (Spent a wonderful evening with the guys from Superior Brewing) It was really foggy that weekend and the foghorn on the lake was blowing every 90 seconds. It was really neat, but the local paper indicated that residents were trying to get that stopped as with the shipping industry use of GPS and radar, there is really no need for foghorns. But it did lend to the atmosphere of the place. Never heard how that issue actually came out.

The brewer at the Fitgers brewpub is really quite good. His brother is the brewer at the Town Hall brewpub in Minneapolis which is the best brewpub in the Twin Cities, in my opinion.

I had no idea that Schell's was contract brewing Fitgers Twins Lager. I have not seen that anywhere around here. I've seen old cans and bottles of it, but nothing in stores.

I concur with Ontap about Schell's Bockfest. One of the biggest, funnest parties I've ever been to. Especially in February in Minnesota. The beer is good, the brats are good and general mayhem ensues. Quite a party. Didn't make it this year, but I did the previous year and several year prior. Only complaint I had was that it was getting too crowded in thier small confines. (One of the most beautiful settings for a brewery in the country. The second oldest family run brewery in the country, next to Youngling's.) When it takes over 15 minutes to work your self through the crowd to get a beer, that is too long. Some people get very creative in order to make the most of it however.

Ahhh, Minnesota.....gotta love it!!!

[ontap78]

Well, Schell's really doesn't do contract work for Fitger's. I think they may have bought the Twins Lager label many years ago and still bottle it. As I said before, I think it's Schell's Original in different packaging. It comes in returnables only in a Fitger case.
I just happened to find the King Bock at the last Bockfest in New Ulmj you were at the year before last. That makes 2 kings for me! This year, they retooled the beer serving at the brewery and things went much smoother(I didn't find any bocks this year though).You could pratically walk right up for a beer this year, though there was probably only about 3750 (only?) people this year. We have a good time there year after year. I think this was year 18 and I think I've missed 3 times.It used to be so small, they had it in there warehouse.It started with a couple dozen people and turned into a monster. Hats off to Ted Marti!

[davesarman]

I've talked to Ted a couple of times at various beer events. Seems like a good guy and down to earth. It's been a couple of years since I took the Schell's tour, but I thought it was one of the best brewery tours I've been on. An older guy that worked at the brewery took us around and instead of talking about the process of making beer that you hear at every tour, he talked about the history of Schell's and various funny stories that have happened over the years. Then at the end, he took us to the tap room and said "Help yourself!" We had as many taps as we cared for and stayed as long as we wanted. Man, I love that place! Hopefully they are doing well with the acquisition of Grain Belt Premium and it will afford them the ability to expand the Schell's line even more.

[chazwicke]

about 25 years ago I used to go up to Straub Brewery in Saint Marys, PA. You could drink all you wanted from a tap in the wall but the catch was, you had to wash your own glass when you were done.. The Straub family members would come out and drink with you.They loved to talk golf. They thought we were crazy to drive 5 hours just to drink their beer. We often brought back 35 cases or more. (16oz returnables which made great bottles for our homebrew) . We once made arrangements with a distributer in Altoona PA to have them bring 10 cases out to the little Altoona airport as one of my friends is a pilot and has his own Cessna. We were going to fly up and pick up the cases but it was bad weather when that day arrived. Once again, they thought we were crazy to fly in for beer. They even offered to bring it out to the airport for us. But back then Beer options were very limited. And Straub was a step up from the usual swill. I also have had beer from a tap in the wall of the old Walter's Brewery in Eau Claire, Wisc. (my mom's hometown). Same deal. Drink what you want but wash the glass when you were done.

[davesarman]

Great story! You could make a novel or movie out of that!

Ahh, Walters! I remember when I was about 15 years old, I was visting my brother in WI, and on a Saturday he took me to a few breweries for tours. (At that time I was into collecting cans.) I think we went to Leinie's, Walter's and Point in one day...that's a lot of driving....Anyway, I remember Walter's letting me have beer after their tour, as no one else was really around. I can still remember how cold and crisp that beer was coming straight out of the tanks!

[chazwicke]

I never made it to Point but I have been to Leinies several times.

[chazwicke]

And I made it to Walters Brewery in Colorado just as it was being torn down. (December 1978) . I managed to secure some breweriana from some of the buildings.

[davesarman]

The owner of a bar here in Waconia is a Walter's collector...lots of cans, bottles, glasses, etc. on the shelf behind the bar. Talked with him a while back and told him I had a couple of Walters cans, he said I should bring them in and I could have something in trade. Never took him up on the offer...maybe I should....

[davesarman]

Back to the Fitgers topic....I got another email from them and it sounds like the "Hop Independence" went quite well. I don't think they will mind me posting the text of this week's email, as it is a mass email...Plus, it looks like they have some more very interesting brews coming up as well!!!

Hi,
Dave here from the Brewhouse. I just wanted to thank all you beer lovers out there for making Hop Independence a memorable event. Most of the big IPA's are gone now just a bit of Misty Mountain and Skyline are left. We did save some Tanked Imperial IPA for future enjoyment.

The comments we heard really made us feel great about Duluth beer lovers.

So, that being said here are the latest releases.

Lester River Hefeweizen and Tugboat Irish Stout are both going on tap for a limited time. (About a week)

We just released:

Farmhouse Special Reserve 7.2%
A special version of the popular Farmhouse Ale, this beer is stronger and has a bit more spice character. It was aged for about 4 months and is now a very nice Belgian Ale

Greenman Grog 5.4% Will be released on Tuesday July 13th
This is a rye/wheat pale ale brewed to help honor the GREENMAN...the Greenman will show his face on Fri July 16th for the 3rd annual Greenman Festival at Spirit Mountain. Tickets are available at the Brewhouse.

Wildfire 5.3%
As you know this is our pepper beer. Made for people that really enjoy hot hot hot. This year we have 100 lbs of 10 varieties of peppers. This beer will be released between Tues July 13th and Thursday July 15th

Watermelon Wheat 5.4%
Watermelons and Wheat what a match....in a beer no less. A truly surprising and tasty elixir..out on Monday July 19th

check www.brewhouse.net for more info
Thanks for your support
Dave, Andy, and Frank
The Brewers


I have to get up there to Duluth and check out the Fitgers brews soon! :cool:

[tavernjef]

I stopped in at Fitger's July 5th and had the Tanked Imp. IPA and the Edmund Imp. Stout Bourbon Barrel Aged and both were amazingly awesome!!

I know this is the wrong forum, but here are my notes anyways:

Edmund Imp. Stout(BBA)-
On-tap at the brewpub: Served in a 10oz "Nonic" style pub glass - Extremely limited edition, one keg only and no growlers available for purchase, bummer!

Solidly opaque deep, dark brown body, close enough to black its black. Finger high fluffy cocoa brown head sits briefly which resides slowly to a hazy skim and thickly placed globby sheets of lacing.

Straight up lovely nice whisky aromamtic nose. Great oaky twinge over the top. Behind each wiff sits some terrific notes of soft and dry bakers chocolate, quite thick and rich, lush to be sure, and some burnt caramel to boot. Yum!

Taste is full of all kinds of chocolate laced with bourbon, nice little burn and grab of bourbon oak barrel singe and sweetness. Especially towards the finish. Lots of boubon heat and oaky tinges. But the chocolateyness just keeps giving with a rich cake-like thickness and brownie soothness with a smooth roasty edge. Chocolatey-rific!

Feel is well heated and bourbony, round, creamy, thickly smooth body thats just about medium. Good warmth within and has a bit of spice to finish off the residual chocolate tones but most of it returns to stick like a fine dark chocolate.

Tanked Imp. IPA -
On-tap at the brewpub: Hazy caramel orange color, thin off-white head keeps a good foamed bubbly skim; super fine lacing in intricately woven yet thick sheeting.

Aroma has a big bubble gum presence with mixing sugar coated melon sweetness and juicy, resinous piney backed hops. A slight backing of toasty caramel keeps a nice sweet tone distinguised among the fruits and sugars.

Taste has a welcoming mild front of melon, quickly sugar coated, mellow for a good while with hop pine juices. Great toasty malt factions grabbing through from underneath. About 8 seconds later the fun begins where large and lengthy resin filled pine bitterness just rips out the throat and squeezes out any reminents of food or drink before. And it has one hell of an alcoholic hit, wowza! But that late bittering finish is awesome. Hello... hops!

Creamy, somewhat buttery medium body, lots of hop kick in the finish, actually a ton of hop kick. Oh, and watch out for that 11.9%, that sneaks up on ya right quick.

Well there ya go....jealous?:p

[davesarman]

Very much so! Your descriptions had my mouth watering! Sounds like Mr. Hoops made some stellar beer! My only hope is that he brings some equally impressive beer to the Autumn Brew Review in Mpls this coming September 11. I've been to the last couple ABR's and he's not disappointed me in either one.

[tavernjef]

Originally posted by davesarman
Very much so! Your descriptions had my mouth watering! Sounds like Mr. Hoops made some stellar beer! My only hope is that he brings some equally impressive beer to the Autumn Brew Review in Mpls this coming September 11. I've been to the last couple ABR's and he's not disappointed me in either one.

I'll be going to this years ABR, let me know where you're gonna be and we can meet up and sample away at the Fitger's stand!

[davesarman]

Sounds good to me...we'll figure it out when it gets a little closer to the event. Good call!

[davesarman]

Originally posted by tavernjef
I'll be going to this years ABR, let me know where you're gonna be and we can meet up and sample away at the Fitger's stand!

I'm meeting some other guys at the Town Hall stand at 2:00. Still planning on going? If so, we can hook up there.

[tavernjef]

Yep, I'm planning on being there.

Seems like a whole bunch are meeting at the Town Hall stand @ 2.

So look for me, I should be easy to spot as I'll be wearing my orange Scorpion Pale ale shirt.

See ya there.

Cheers!:D