Visit to Excelsior Brewing

In a rare incur­sion into the Twin Cities Metro, I was able to briefly vis­it the brand new Excel­sior Brew­ing Com­pa­ny brew­ery on Sat­ur­day after­noon. I had been dying to get there for some time, espe­cial­ly since they had promised me a free t‑shirt in response to some pre-open­ing Twit­ter inter­ac­tion back in, oh, late May I think, and I am one of those peo­ple who will dri­ve an hour and half to get a free t‑shirt.

But far more than that, I want­ed to be able to set foot in at least one of the glo­ri­ous spate of new brew­eries set­ting up shop in Min­neso­ta in 2012. This is a very excit­ing time to be a beer lover in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I’m not sure what has been more frus­trat­ing: watch­ing this abun­dance devel­op from far away in Canada’s Cap­i­tal through­out the past fall and win­ter, or watch­ing it from 100 miles away this spring and sum­mer. It’s prob­a­bly for the best, though: if I was still liv­ing in Saint Paul I would be a beer-chasin’ fool right now, and that’s prob­a­bly not what my fam­i­ly needs of me.

But back to Excel­sior. As I men­tioned, I was only able to man­age a very short vis­it, long enough to col­lect my t‑shirt (thank you very much! I wear it proud­ly with my kilt!) and enjoy a small sam­ple of their inau­gur­al brew, Bring Jumper. The sto­ry that was being told when we were there is that they had planned to brew a ses­sion­able Amer­i­can Pale Ale, but their brand new brew­ing sys­tem was far more effi­cient than expect­ed, and a mon­ster 8%ABV beer had come out instead. I just have this to say about Bridge Jumper: if it was tru­ly as unplanned as leg­end would have it, I cer­tain­ly hope is is repro­ducible, because I LOVED it. I can find a ton of beers that smack me in the face with a bushel of hops, but Bridge Jumper smacked me with a big malty hand instead, and that is all too rare a treat. Bra­vo, Excel­sior Brew­ing team, and I look for­ward to try­ing all your efforts, I hope for many years to come. And next time I vis­it, I’ll make sure to give myself time to enjoy a full pint of some­thing. And I’ll be sport­ing my new shirt, too.

Leave a Reply