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Live Music this Saturday with Sloughgrass!!!

12/4/2019

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One of our favorite bands is coming back to play at Loony's this Saturday and we're super excited. The high energy tunes that will be resonating throughout the place get people moving, dancing, and having an overall great time.
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With Sloughgrass, you get to hear timeless classics performed as if they fit right in to modern times. Starting at 8pm.

See you Saturday!
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Holiday Shipping Special!!!

11/27/2019

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Looking for a special gift for someone that enjoys craft beer, specifically super strong craft beer that will hard for them to find anything else like it? If so, you're in luck as all our barleywines are now 25% off shipping orders, going through December 31, 2019.
What's Included:
  • Drunken Loon Strong Belgian Ale
  • King Kong Strong Pale Ale
  • Loch Ness Wee Heavy Scottish Ale
  • Hango Honey Mango Ale
  • Ample Maple
  • Black Bear-E Blackberry Ale
  • Grindstone Coffee Chocolate Stout
  • Drunken Pancake Sweet Maple
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Once ordered from shipping, you should have it delivered within a few days.

Cheers,
The Brewing Loony
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Two New Barleywines: Grindstone and Drunken Pancake

11/13/2019

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And this completes the second stage of the barleywine oak aging adventure. We've now experimented with all sorts of sugars, fruits, oaks, and a ton of other flavors to be able to sit back, see what everyone thinks, and finally get caught up on the standard brews. Speaking of which, the Loch Ness Scottish Ale, Flying Squirrel Amber and Black Swan Stout are back on tap and better than ever! 
Grindstone Coffee Chocolate Stout
  • SRM: 43
  • IBU: 40
  • ​ABV: 15.1%
The Brew: A classic stout with Belgium candy syrup, cold pressed coffee using the Coffee Landing Rainy Lake Blend, roasted cacao nibs from Ecuador, and natural Vanilla bean flavoring.
Oak Aging: French oak fire staves for mocha qualities and soaked in bourbon.​

This brew was very interesting to make as I was making cold pressed coffee for the first time, adding chocolate nibs both to the mash and the fermenter for the first time, and French Fire Staves to give a little extra nutty/mocha flavors. A great winter seasonal brew to try out.
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​Drunken Pancake Super Sweet Maple
  • SRM: 10
  • IBU: 26
  • ​ABV: 14.9%
The Brew: A light amber ale with maple syrup added during the boil and after the primary fermentation to provide gargantuan amounts of maple flavor sweetness and flavoring.
Oak Aging: French oak butterscotch staves and soaked in cognac.​

This is an example of what can happen when even though not everything goes as planned, it turns out unexpectedly  great and you can say later, yeah, I meant to do that.
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Both of these are available for shipping if you live in Minnesota.

Come down to try them out or get a flight with a couple more. 

Cheers,
​The Brewing Loony
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Barleywines for Winter

10/12/2019

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It seems winter has arrived, no problem, we have barleywines!

You may be asking, what are barleywines? Well, generally they're over 8% ABV, the stronger beers. Historically they were the first running of an already strong batch, such as the wee heavy version of a Scottish Ale. Today, with the compliments of various candy sugars, honey, and maple syrup, the ABVs can easily be hitting 12% and higher.

Why are we doing this? It started last winter with our first oak aged brew, the Loch Ness Scottish Ale. The extra oak flavors really smoothed it out and ended up being what was  probably our highest rated beer of the year. And while the flavors were helped no doubt from excessive malt and extra boiled for a bit of caramelization, we were fairly convinced that the oak was mostly responsible for the end result. From this, we were determined to launch a family of oak aged brews, and similar to wines or liquor, the oak flavor especially excelled with stronger brews and with that, we put together a number of recipes that helped to make them stronger, such as with Belgian Candi Sugar, honey and maple syrup. That said, all this was happening at the beginning of summer, the busiest time of the year, so brewery priority had to go to the standard brews. Both because it's less risky and they don't take nearly as long in the fermenter, which adds an extra month or so for the oak aging. This put off getting started until the end of summer and I'm happy to say that just released the first wave of new barleywines, including the Hango Honey Mango, Ample Amber Maple, and the Black Bear-e Blackberry ale.
The Barleywines currently available:
​Drunken Loon Strong Dark Ale
  • ​SRM: 20
  • IBU: 27
  • ABV: 9.2%
Dark, strong and mysterious, this beer includes a large blend of different malts for a complex dark amber hue. Adding in a mixture of coriander, star anise, grains of paradise and rose hips give the beer a well balanced flavor with hints of black licorice.
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​Hango, Honey Mango
  • ​SRM: 5
  • IBU: 21
  • ABV: 11.2%
An infusion of clover honey and mango flavors and aged in light toasted oak for a smooth finish.
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​King Kong Strong Ale
  • SRM: 7
  • IBU: 40
  • ​ABV: 11.7%
An extra strong ale with a combination of sweetness to give the perfect blend of a strong ale without the strong alcohol taste. As it goes down as smooth as silk, one needs to be careful to ration the tastings of this amazing ale.
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​Ample Amber Maple Ale
  • SRM: 13
  • IBU: 30
  • ​ABV: 15.1%
Getting a horn of plenty with a strong amber ale, northern Minnesota maple syrup and bourbon oak aged. Includes a blend of pale, honey, caramel and chocolate malts, Galena and Centennial hops, maple syrup from the northern shores of Lake Superior, and to smooth it out to perfection, aged in bourbon flavored oak.
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Black Bear-e Blackberry Ale
  • SRM: 13
  • IBU: 22
  • ​ABV: 15.75%
Coming pale and caramel malts with dark Belgian Candi syrup, blackberry flavors, and aged in port medium toasted oak.
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As you've probably noticed, the portions are less than a regular pint, served in five ounce servings in Belgian Beer glasses. This being as they're simply so strong, the smaller portions allow one to pace themselves a bit more, as the ABV can be closer to or more than a standard glass of wine.

We have a couple more that will be coming out over the next month or so, otherwise will be busy getting back on track and stocked up with the standard brews, as we got cleaned out over summer, hopefully we'll be caught up by the end of the year.

In the meantime, you can try these out with a flight and if you don't live in the area but still in Minnesota, we'd be happy to ship it out to you.

Cheers,
The Brewing Loony
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Introducing the Ample: An Amber Maple Bourbon Oak Aged Brew

7/4/2019

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The Ample is our newest addition to the family of brews categorized as barleywines, this one having the special additions of northern Minnesota maple syrup and bourbon oak aged.
Ample Amber Maple Ale
  • SRM: 13
  • IBU: 30
  • ​ABV: 15.1%
Getting a horn of plenty with a strong amber ale, northern Minnesota maple syrup and bourbon oak aged. Includes a blend of pale, honey, caramel and chocolate malts, Galena and Centennial hops, maple syrup from the northern shores of Lake Superior, and to smooth it out to perfection, aged in bourbon flavored oak.
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This brew is significant for us in a few ways including:
  • The first to use Maple Syrup, which was found to be extremely fermentable, so much so that we had to add a bit more at the very end to provide a bit more maple flavor enhancements.
  • The second to be oak aged, using a slightly different charred oak, producing flavors of honey, roasted nuts, and hints of coffee and spices. The oak does a great job in smoothing out pretty much everything, and having done it now twice, am confident with future experimentations for what to expect.
  • The first with the oak being bourbon flavored. With every flavor change producing different results, the bourbon flavor adds a nice touch to the rest of the brew, icing on the cake you could say.
  • The strongest fermented brew to date, clocking in at 15.1% ABV. This was done using a barleywine yeast, able to handle these stronger brews much better than normal beer yeast. As it was another new variable, wasn't sure how it would do and are pleasantly surprised with how well it went.
  • The first to be with a serving size of 5 oz, the same as a wine serving. At 15.1%, a regular pint would be far too much and too accommodate, we've added new Belgian style brew glasses for serving.
All of the above being important as being key stepping stones for other new creations, giving a wider range of variables and ingredients to work with.

For those that would like some but not able to make the journey to the brewery, it's also available for shipping throughout Minnesota.

Cheers,
The Brewing Loony
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New Brews: Beehive Honey Wheat & Wee Heavy Oak Aged Scottish Ale

6/14/2019

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It's been awhile since an update, been going crazy brewing up supplies for summer and even managed to crank out a few new ones.
Beehive Honey Wheat
SRM: 2.8
IBU: 8
ABV: 5.5%
Integrating Pale Ale malt, malted and unmalted wheat, and honey malt with Kazbek hops and wildflower honey
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Loch Ness Wee Heavy Scottish Ale
SRM: 20
IBU: 12
ABV: 8.1%
Heavily malt flavored, light on the EK Goldings hops, and oak aged with scotch for an ultra smooth finish. ​
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This was our first brew that went through the oak aging process so I was a little nervous with how it'd turn out. Nothing to worry about as it ended up being one of the best brews we've ever done. Besides adding a myriad of flavors, the oak does an amazing job of really smoothing or mellowing out a beer, especially helpful with brews that have higher ABV's. It turned out so well that we'll be adding a few more different types to try, with one in the fermenter now and another to start brewing in a few weeks. For the first two batches we're using oak spirals that have been soaked or marinated with Scotch Bourbon, it doesn't to ABV as so little is soaked into the wood, but enough to infuse some more interesting or complicated flavors. Going forward we'll be getting a small quantity of oak barrels for some brews that require a much longer aging process.
New Shipping Updates
If you live in Minnesota but not able to make it to the neighborhood, no problem, you can order form the website and we'll ship it you. Some recent changes:
  • Brews Available: We no longer make available all of our brews for shipping, but will focus on the ones that are extremely unique, where it's hard to get something similar from other breweries. Current brews available include the Loch Ness Wee Heavy Scottish Ale and the King Kong Strong Pale Ale.
  • No Extra Shipping Costs: A small amount has been added to the cost of the brews to include average shipping costs, so what you see is what you get, simplifying the process a bit.
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Enjoy the new brews and have a great weekend!

Cheers,
The Brewing Loony
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Steel Tipped Dart Board now Available!

3/7/2019

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Besides the plastic dart board, we now have one available for steel tipped darts. An extra dimension for dart enthusiasts really trying to hone their game.

Located at the back of the bar, it's out of the way from the bar, perfect for getting together with your own group and throwing a round or two.
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​Come on down to try it out with one of the 19 different craft brews on tap!
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