Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Opening Day Friday, November 30th

Well, opening day will soon be upon us. Unfortunately, I have not recieved approval from the goverment to brew yet-grrr!
I'm hoping to hear something today or tomorrow.
Anyway, please stop in and check out the new digs. Great local beer will be here soon-promise.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

A Few Things Before the Holiday...

The Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild's Winterfest will take place at Landmark Center in St Paul on Friday February 8th-6:30-9:30pm. 550 Tickets will go on sale at noon, Monday December 3rd available at http://www.ticketworks.com/. Folks, these tickets sell out very fast so do not delay. Minnesota brewers bring out the big guns for this event and if you consider yourself a beer lover do not miss it.
Todays McCann's news is we got our certificate of occupancy today. This means we have our liquor license and we are one step closer to opening day. I still hope to brew next week if the goverment finishes our paper work up.
I picked up a bottle of Brouwerij Lindemans Framboise for Thanksgiving dinner. Should pair up well with the meal.
Happy Thanksgiving folks.

Monday, November 19, 2007

Deep Seven IPA Logo


Here's the Deep Seven IPA logo. Thanks again to J.W.

MPR Interview

Today I was interviewed by Tim Post of Minnesota Public Radio about the rising ingredient costs for brewing. Listen for the piece possibly Friday morning. I gather it will be on the MPR website also.
In other news...The TTB got a hold of me today. They said they are 90% done with our paper work and it looks like things may go through next week. Not what I was hoping, but what can you do? I'm just dying to brew. I'll keep ya posted.

Thursday, November 15, 2007

State Inspection

The brewery had it's state inspection today and everything checked out fine. I'm finishing up the last bit of details with the Federal side of things. Cross your fingers folks-I may be brewing next week.

Monday, November 12, 2007

McCann's Golden Ale Logo


Here's the logo for the Golden Ale. Big ole thanks go to Jon Wittman for the design. Jon has more on the way, so stay tuned. Jon loves beer.

Some Photos to Tide You Over











Sunday, November 11, 2007

Buried in Paperwork

Sorry about the lack of McCann's updates recently. As far as the restaurant and bar things are moving very well. The building is really coming together.
As far as the brewing side goes, it's been a bit frustrating. I have all the paperwork in for the federal and state side and I'm just waiting to hear back. It's getting to the point that I'm worried I won't have beer on for opening. That just kills me. I will do everything in my power to have something on, but it's kinda out of my hands at the moment. I'll be making calls Tuesday to try to light a fire.
Other than that I'm ready to brew. Malt, hops, and yeast are stocked and the brewery is ready to fire up.
Hope I have some good news this coming week.
Anyway...my family took the last day trip of the year up to Duluth before the white stuff flies. The kids had a great time at the zoo-even with some snow flurries. We stopped at the Brew House at Fitgers for a late lunch. The food and service were on point and of course the beer was spot on. Dave Hoops has done a great job up there. Growlers were flying out of the place. We need to support our small local breweries more than ever now with rising ingredient costs(if you can get ingredients at all). I practice what I preach folks.
On a side note, my band Cannery Row will be playing the St. Cloud Federal Building downtown on the 16th from 5-9pm for the Art Crawl. Stop in and say howdy.
http://www.myspace.com/canneryrowband

Sunday, November 4, 2007

It's Coming Back Home


I just won this on Ebay.

Many local folks don't know about St. Cloud's rich brewing history. The St. Cloud Brewing Co. was in business from 1933-1939(after operating under different names and owners since the late 1800's). The building later became the Purity Milk Company. I was fortunate enough during high school to be a volunteer for the March of Dimes "Haunted Dungeon" which used the old building as a halloween fund raising event. I remember vividly being in the basement lagering cellar-a beautiful stone structure with a healthy population of bats. There were other breweries in town as well. Caves in a ravine near St. Cloud State University were used to lager(age) beer. A rival brewer was accused of starting a fire at the Frank Funk Brewery in 1878. So, competition must have been fierce.

I may display this at McCann's and I'm searching for other items from local breweries. If you have anything interesting, or you know somebody who can help me on this quest, please let me know.