When Perfect Duluth Day last tallied regional craft beer production in 2018, the Twin Ports and surrounding region had tripled output over the previous five years, quenching area thirst with about 57,000 barrels of beer. Suds production has certainly slowed and dipped a bit since the previous audit. This mirrors the national trend, which indicates a 9 percent decline in production by small and independent brewers in 2020.
Blacklist Brewing Company will move its taproom and brewing operations from 120 E. Superior St. to the Lange Motors building one block east this summer. (Photos by Mark Nicklawske).
A Downtown Duluth brewery and taproom is moving into a larger, newly renovated space just an axe-toss away from its existing location on East Superior Street.
Blacklist Brewing Company will move its brewing operations, taproom and axe-throwing lanes one block east into the historic Lange Motors building at 206 E. Superior St. The move will almost double its serving and entertainment space and increase its brewing capacity.
Minneapolis-based actor/singer Rodolfo Nieto penned this new anthem for Minnesota beer, accompanied on piano by Jared Miller and backed by a chorus. The song references two breweries from northeast Minnesota — Bent Paddle Brewing and Castle Danger Brewing.
Nieto notes that he would “love it if others created their own pun-filled verses in the future, using the names of other Minnesota breweries.”
Matt Caple and Ben Gipson – Photo by Lissa Maki
A new veteran-owned brewery is moving into the former Lake Superior Brewing Company space at 2711 W. Superior St. Owners Matt Caple and Ben Gipson plan to have Warrior Brewing Company up and running by April to be sure their product makes it to liquor stores before summer.
Wisconsin’s northernmost brewery kept a bit of a low profile in its first year. Adventure Club Brewing owner Matthew Gerdts said his small-batch operation has been “Bayfield’s best-kept secret,” but the news is slowly getting out.
Duluth’s Hoops Brewing won its first Great American Beer Festival medal at the 2020 awards ceremony held Oct. 16. Hoops’ 325 Pineapple Chili was awarded the gold medal in the Chili Beer category. It’s the fourth year in a row that a Duluth or Superior brewery has won a gold medal at the festival.
Earth Rider Brewery in Superior took home two silver medals this year — Royal Bohemian Pilsner in the Kellerbier or Zwickelbier category and North Tower Stout in the Oatmeal Stout category.
Seth and Sarah Maxim have purchased Lake Superior Brewing Company and plan to move operations into the former Xcel Xercise fitness center at 5423 E. Superior St. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)
An iconic craft brewery, the first of its kind in Minnesota, has been sold and new owners plan to move operations from Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood to Lakeside.
My whole life was organized around going out for drinks. The party’s over.
The Duluth art and music scene seems preserved in amber. I can see it in my mind’s eye from every angle, but I can’t touch it.
Has the virus infected time?
I was days away from participating in a group art show in Duluth Coffee Company and its Roasteria taproom. The Facebook event page was hours from launching. All the art is on the walls. I left a hammer there I was going to go back for, just before the stay-at-home orders unfolded. It’s probably right where I left it, timelessly suspended as if let go by an astronaut in orbit.
The Embassy art-church had just opened, promising untold events, unseen sights, and unheard sounds. It reached as if for the hand of God in the Sistine Chapel — a frozen gesture.
Ursa Minor Brewing has offered curbside beer and pizza pickup via a drive-by canopy since April 8.
Small businesses have been struggling to stay afloat during the COVID-19 outbreak. Local craft beer, cider and spirits purveyors are finding ways to persist by distributing products through a variety of takeout, curbside pickup and delivery options.
Ben Hugus with Ursa Minor’s new NA beer – Photo by Lissa Maki
Ursa Minor Brewing quietly became the first Duluth-area craft brewery to offer a non-alcoholic beer option back in December. The brewery’s Constellation Cream Ale, is now available sans intoxicants.
From the Jan. 1, 1910 issue of the Duluth Evening Herald.
Earth Rider Brewery was awarded a gold medal at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival, the world’s largest commercial beer competition. The Superior brewery was recognized in the Coffee Beer category for its Duluth Coffee Pale Ale, a mildly hopped pale crafted using single-farm sourced beans roasted by Duluth Coffee Company.
Ursa Minor Brewing of Duluth also brought home a medal. Its Thistle Dew won the bronze medal in the Scottish-Style Ale category.
Instagram loves a nice sexy photo of a beer can on the beach, a bottle glistening in the sun on a handsome patio, a plastic growler propped just right on a canoe. Here are a few recent ones.
