Autumn Brew Review

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend The Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild's Autumn Brew Review. This event quickly sold out, but I was able to purchase some tickets from Ryan at MNBeer.com-Thanks Buddy!

The local brewers were in fine form. I tasted some fantastic beers.

I was very touched by the beer fans that took time out to talk to me and let me know they missed my beers and they are excited in what's to come. You folks are the best.

I can't wait to be serving next year. Make sure you buy your tickets early.

More ABR Photos

Hop Shortage

Yesterday was a trying day. I spent the afternoon with hop suppliers and it's more bleak than I thought. Hops are virtually bought up. I was lucky to find a vender who had made room in thier supply for start up breweries, otherwise I'd be S.O.L. This reminds us all the beer just doesn't materialize out of thin air. A farmer needs to seed and care for the hops and malt, good folks in the supply chain need to do the work to get the ingredients to the brewers, and if things are tough(weather/other factors) we(brewers) do not get what we need-simple as that. Raise a pint for those guys & gals tonight. Word.

Mill Room Ready

I started cleaning and organizing the mill room about three weeks ago. The electrician accidentally snipped the wires to the light/outlet circuit, so I had to move on to other things. We finally got power back yesterday. So...the mill room is done and ready to go. Waiting for the grain scale to arrive via brown santa any day now.

My next mission today is to get my hop order sorted out. We(brewers) are in a bit of a hop crisis right now. This years supply is mostly gone and the crop isn't looking great for next year. I hope to have hops coming my way soon one way or the other.

Race Action: Pork Chop Challenge

Riders battling up one of the many climbs.

The Pork Chop Challenge

My local Bicycling club "The Mid Minnesota Cycling Club" once again hosted The Pork Chop Challenge cyclocross race. In past years O'Hara's would donate a keg to this event. Since we are not up and running yet at McCann's, Surly Brewing in Brooklyn Center came through in a pinch. The club thanks Omar at Surly for providing a ample portion of yummy Bender oatmeal brown ale. Surly has been known to sponsor other cycling events, so cyclists:
Go get some Surly!
See the website for the 411:
http://www.surlybrewing.com/

Moonlighting

During this summers "down time" I landed a job as coffee roaster at Dunn Bros. in Monticello. I have a passion for coffee as well as beer and I have been home roasting for seven years or so. This here is my Diedrich IR-3 roaster. I do six pound batches. I hope to incorporate our coffee in some of McCann's future seasonals.