After last Tuesday's excursion to Farmfest, the Bluestem team to joined some friends who were touring the Brau Brothers Brewing Company in Lucan, Minnesota. Neither Eric nor I knew anything about the brew or proprietor--or tiny Lucan, for that matter.
"Oh, wow," I said, turning to Eric as we pulled up to the brewery. "They grow their own hops."
Minnesota has never been a hops growing center, though I saw a few feral plants growing in the Minnesota Rover Valley in my childhood. The hop yard was the first surprise of the late afternoon tour.
Plainly, the three Brau brothers aren't plagued with an edifice complex: the brewery is housed in a plain metal building that could just as well be a machine shop in the tiny Redwood County town of just over 200 souls. The building is a step up from the brewhouse pub--the BrauHaus still in operation on the hamlet's main drag--where the Brau Brothers got their start.
We heard our friends John and Chris conversing inside the brewery with another person and walked toward the gleaming brewing vats. The unfamiliar voice explaining the brewing process belonged to Dustin Brau, CEO and brewmaster. Dusty's abilities as a beer ambassador were immediately evident, as well as his pride and enthuasism.
And ingenuity. Dusty explained how the small company, which employs 12 full and part time workers, keeps costs low creating equipment from scratch or adapting second hand machinery. Dusty, and later his father Dale, showed us their low-cost solutions for bottle pasteurization, labeling, and molding tap handles that accompany kegs of beer to bars serving Braus Brother on tap.
The highlights of the tour were checking out the hopyard, where twelve varieties of hops grow, and an impromptu beer tasting in the cooler. Perhaps it was the relief of chilling after a day at Farmfest, but the beer tasted amazing. We split bottles of Scotch Ale, Pils and a single batch beer, Sheephead, named for the meanest German card game still popular in small town taverns and living rooms.
Fortunately, that bitter hoppy beer still tastes great away from the brewery, if the six packs I've bought in Hutchinson's muni are any proof. The brothers serve a strictly local and regional market, primarily in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa.
Note to Twin Cities readers: Brau Brothers will be put of the beer sampling tomorrow night at Brew in the Zoo in Apple Valley.
To schedule a tour, call (507)747-BEER . To find Brau Brothers brews in your neck of the woods, check here. Follow the brewers at @BrauBeer.
Photo: Dustin Brau in the beer cooler. Photo by Eric Adams.
I think you need to create a category for "beer" btw.
It's just one of those essentials...
Posted by: Chris Boese | Aug 13, 2009 at 11:09 PM
Great suggestion. Done.
Posted by: Sally Jo Sorensen | Aug 14, 2009 at 01:10 AM
I enjoyed Hops Fest last October and don't see anything on a 2009 recurrence. Will there be one?
Posted by: val l watson | Aug 27, 2009 at 08:22 PM