German in the Twin Cities: Minneapolis, MN

 When I left off last week, I was on the road from Chicago to Twin Cities by way of Wisconsin.  As the adjacent photos suggest, Wisconsin lives up to it's title as 'America's Dairyland.'  Wisconsin is basically like Nevada in that every building off the Interstate serves a duel purpose.  In Nevada every establishment is a Casino/ [insert building type here].  A casino/ hotel, a casino/ truck stop, a casino/ restaurant.  I think you get the idea.  Replace casino with cheese and you have the trans-Wisconsin experience.  I actually found a coffeeshop that sold cheese.  I have provided photographic evidence because, like Bigfoot, nobody is going to believe this story without a photo to back it up.  But I digress, time to keep heading West.

It's a little known fact outside this region of the United States, but the people of Minnesota and, indeed, Wisconsin love their beer.  They will have a beer.  In a big glass.  A quick search of Minneapolis/ St. Paul yielded an impressive assortment of local flavors to choose from.  Sadly, I'm short on time so I'll highlight one.

Once again, I am traveling with Jeff, the crazy old bastard from Kokomo, Indiana pictured here living out his Marilyn Monroe fantasies over a Minneapolis air vent.  I used his opinion at my stop in Chicago and I will add his reviews here because he has a very simple, yet profound style.  I imagine this is the way I sounded before I became pretentious and started describing beers as having "a citrus nose with lots of tropical fruit, nut, berry flavors... etc.

Today we visit:
Herkimer Brewing Company
 This brewery located in uptown Minneapolis specializes in German-style beers.   They brew several varieties of lagers including a couple of styles I had not run into yet.  For example:


Sky Pilot Kellerbier: Translated from German, this 'cellar beer' is an unfiltered light or amber ale.  It is a style that dates back to the middle ages.  It is so named because the beer kegs were stored with the bung unscrewed from the barrel so that the beer was exposed to air.  Consequently, the result was a beer with little to no carbonation.
So as far as the style goes, the beer was a pale, cloudy, straw-colored lager, so that's one-for-one so far.  Unfortunately, or (maybe fortunately?) the beer was carbonated.  No doubt if this beer had arrived flat, most people would send it back and get into a loud and sustained argument with the brewmaster.  The flavor was very light with just a little citrus and coriander spice with lingering hop flavor.

Jeff says:  It smells like banana!  It doesn't?  *Takes another whiff*  That's banana!!
(I don't know why he smelled banana, but he seemed so sure I didn't want to argue the point.)
Toolers Weiss:  While I was down in the cellar with the Sky Captain,  Jeff had himself a pint of the Toolers.  It was a pretty standard German wheat beer.  It was a deep yellow color with a good amount of head with the banana and tropical fruit flavors from the yeast.  I also picked up a little peach in the flavor.  It was a good beer, but nothing remarkable.

Jeff says: I don't know.  Maybe I should have another.  (Yes, yes you should.)

Dunkle Wiess: In the dark bar, this beer appeared pitch black.  The aroma was wonderful, the German wheat yeast combined with the roasted malts for a smell that can only be described as a chocolate covered banana.  The flavor was a little disappointing, it didn't hold any of the dark malts that were in the aroma.  It had a lot of fruit, but the malt was lacking.
Jeff says: Tastes like dirt.  (I think dark beers may be a lots cause on my friend from Indiana.)

Alt Bier: While Jeff continued with the Toolers, I moved on to the last beer they had on tap at the time.  This had a light aroma of date or raisin.  There was a touch of clove or coriander spice off the top of the flavor profile, but this beer was sadly lacking in flavor as well.  It seems to be a bit of a problem with this particular brewery.  It ends with a goodly amount of pine hops.

Jeff says: It... It... *spends a moment letting the beer sit on his palate* It sucks.  Yeah, that's it!

Sadly that's the last I will see of Jeff for a while.  I look forward to featuring him at a later date when we meet up.  As for me, I am still in the lazy days of summer.  I get a few more weeks to contemplate the meaning of Life, The Universe and Everything before I get back on the road.  I might do a feature here in Nebraska, but we will see.