The Blog

Lace up your foot-stompin’ boots and come thirsty! It’s Indeed Brewing Company’s 3rd Annual Hullabaloo and it’s going down Saturday, October 11th, from 12-10pm. Join us outdoors at the brewery for a zero-waste parking lot party full of good food, live music presented by the First Avenue Stage, and more limited-release, hand-crafted beers than you could shake a stick at.

FIRST AVENUE STAGE PRESENTS: 12:00pm - Doors 12:30pm - Pill Hill 1:30pm - Jack Klatt 2:30pm - Peter Lang 3:30pm - The Dang Ole' Tri'ole 4:30pm - Michael Gunther 5:30pm - Nato Coles & The Blue Diamond Band 6:30pm - Crossing Guards 7:30pm - John Swardson and Bad Blood 8:30pm - Tired Eyes (Alan Sparhawk/Rich Mattson Neil Young Tribute)

Autumn is upon us, and we’re celebrating the bounty of the harvest season the best way we know how: with beer, new beer, and lots of it. We’ll be making way for this year’s release of Rum King, an Imperial Stout aged in Jamaican rum barrels, patiently biding its time for a Hullabaloo debut. Also on tap for the day: our Sweet Yamma Jamma fall fan favorite brewed with sweet potatoes and spices, a traditional Oktoberfest with a new wave twist, a pale ale brewed with blueberries and Mosaic hops, and a “cask wagon” piled with goodies. It wouldn’t be a party without a few surprises, so expect the unexpected when it comes to our full line-up of beers at Hullabaloo.

Pair your craft libations with fresh pretzels or juicy grub from Blue Door and park yourself for a line up of outdoor music including Crossing Guards, John Swardson and Bad Blood, Michael Gunther, and Tired Eyes, a Neil Young tribute from Alan Sparhawk of Low and Ol’ Yeller frontman Rich Mattson. Bands will be striking up starting at 12:30 pm, kicked off with tunes from Pill Hill, and jamming ‘til they can jam no more.

With good eats, fine tunes, and beers both well-loved and wildly new, we’ve got the fixings to cook up quite the harvest hoedown at the 3rd Annual Hullabaloo. Clear your calendar and come on over, Saturday October 11th at Indeed!

Indeed Brewing Company is thrilled to announce its silver medal win at this past weekend’s Great American Beer Festival (GABF) in Denver, Colorado!

We are honored to have been awarded the silver medal in the Specialty Honey Beer category for our Mexican Honey, an Imperial Lager brewed with Mexican orange blossom honey and Amarillo hops. Offering a citrus and floral fiesta for your palate, you can expect notes of orange nectar, graham cracker, biscuits, and honeycomb from this refreshing and dangerously smooth brew. Present to receive the award in Denver were brewery Co-Owner & Co-Founder Tom Whisenand and Lead Brewer Matt Pollock. It is the first GABF medal for us, since opening in August of 2012!

With 268 medals awarded in 90 beer categories covering 145 different beer styles to brewers across the country, GABF, now in its 28th year, is the largest commercial brewing competition on the world, and a true arbiter of brewing excellence. We would like to congratulate all of the other medal winners, especially those winners in the Specialty Honey Beer category: Wicked Weed Brewing Funkatorium, with a gold medal for their Mampara beer, and Blue Moon Brewing Company, with a bronze for their Honey Grand Cru. Indeed Brewing Company is one of six Minnesota breweries to be awarded medals this year. A complete list of all the winners can be found here.

To celebrate the GABF silver medal, we will be tapping a cellared keg of Mexican Honey in the taproom on Thursday, October 9th at 5pm. Bottles of Mexican Honey will also be available for sale in limited quantities.

"Go West, young man, go West." They say if you want a job done well, you’ve got to do it yourself. When it comes to selecting hops, the little green cones with the one-two punch of flavor and aroma, getting that job done right is essential to brewing our signature beers. To smell, touch, taste, and see the year’s crop of hops is why Indeed co-founders Tom Whisenand and Nathan Berndt, and head brewer Josh Bischoff, traveled to Washington state for this year’s lush, fragrant, colorful hop harvest.

Washington’s Yakima Valley is the epicenter of hop growing and processing, thanks to its ideal climate and long, well-established production history; they boast by far the largest percentage of hops grown in the United States. If it’s such a well-oiled machine, why bother making the trip before placing your order? As Director of Operations Tom Whisenand explains, “Like any agricultural product, the quality and characteristics of hop crops will vary from field to field, grower to grower, this side of the river to that side of the river. Selecting in person ensures that we get the hops that best match what we are looking for in each variety.” And this in turn ensures that the Day Tripper you sip today will taste like the Day Tripper you drink a year from now.

Another highly anticipated, highly unpredictable, but wholly worth-it part of the hop harvest is the opportunity to send back unprocessed hops to be brewed into very small batches of fresh hop beer. New to fresh hop beer? Head brewer Josh Bischoff's got you covered with a quick primer: "[Fresh hop] is a beer made with hops fresh off the vine that have not been dried or processed.  Even with great care in processing hops you do lose some oils and character of the non-processed hop. Part of what makes fresh hop beers special is you only have a small window to use the hops once they are harvested, ideally within hours, and [the hops] are only harvested once a year over the course of a few weeks." If this all sounds risky and high-stakes, it is, but the final product warrants the extra effort!

This year's fresh hop beer went off with nearly nary a hitch, and we're lucky to be tapping into the Mosaic Fresh Hop this evening in the taproom, and at both Red Cow locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul! But things don't always go so smoothly: there's an extreme time crunch from the moment the hops are harvested, then trucked on a dedicated refrigerated truck, and finally received miles away at the brewery before they're brewed into beer.

As Tom puts it, "A fresh hop beer is a logistical nightmare but what is delivered in the final product is something extremely special." Run, don't walk, to the nearest source; once this year's batch is gone, it'll be a long wait for another taste. This is as fresh, fragrant, and fleeting as it gets, so get your hands on some today.

Obscure ingredients with elaborate plating have their place, but between friends, a no fuss, no muss, straight up tasty dish to communally chow is very welcome. Enter Pat's Tap and their hot and crispy Sweet Yamma Jamma-battered Sweet Potato Fries with Sriracha Aoili, the third recipe installment of our foray into fall cooking with beer, The Kids' Table (All Grown Up).

If (like almost every body) a plate full of deep-fried yammy goodness is your jam, grab a buddy and dig in. Tossed in a beer batter made from our spiced fall seasonal ale, cayenne pepper, and paprika, these shareable, snackable salty and sweet fries are a natural match for a cold pint of beer and a lively, root vegetable-fueled conversation.

By blanching the fresh cut sweet potatoes in hot oil, chilling, tossing, chilling, and frying again, the kitchen behind Pat's Tap has perfected the crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside quality that defines an addictive fry. That extra mile makes all the difference, especially if you're looking to up your deep fry game at home; take a tip from the pros and don't skimp on the prep work.

Sweet Yamma Jamma-battered sweet potato fries are only on the menu for two weeks, so get 'em while they're hot! And stay tuned for the final course of our Friendsgiving dinner, debuting Monday October 13th at Red Stag Supper Club.

Sweet Yamma Jamma Sweet Potato Fries with Sriracha Mayo

Makes 4 portions, or about one portion per sweet potato

• 1 can (12 fl oz) Sweet Yamma Jamma
• 10 oz corn starch
• 4 medium sized sweet potatoes
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Wash and scrub the sweet potatoes, leave the skin on, and cut into ¼” by ¼” strips lengthwise down the sweet potato. Blanch the fries in a deep fryer at 300 F for three minutes, pull out of fryer, and chill on a parchment-lined baking sheet until completely chilled.

In large bowl whisk the corn starch into one can of Sweet Yamma Jamma. Once thoroughly mixed, add paprika and cayenne pepper and continue whisking until smooth. Toss the now-cooled blanched fries in the beer-cornstarch mixture until all fries are evenly coated. Remove coated fries from the bowl and spread in a single layer on a baking rack, then chill again.

Deep fry the Sweet Yamma Jamma-battered sweet potato fries at 350 F until golden brown and crunchy on the outside, roughly three minutes. Toss with salt, and enjoy with a pint of Sweet Yamma Jamma!

Sriracha Mayo

• ½ cup mayo
• 2 tbsp Sriracha
• 1 tsp honey
• zest of ½ of lemon
• ½ tsp ground black pepper

Whisk everything together and chill.

When that “little nip” in the air turns into a full-on chill, what’s better than a quick warm up from the inside out courtesy of some gooey, melty, cheesy comfort food and a pint of seasonal beer? Try Bryant Lake Bowl’s version of Welsh rarebit on for size: the beer is in the cheese. Made with Sweet Yamma Jamma, it’s the second dish of The Kids’ Table (All Grown Up), our foray into fall cooking with our seasonal sweet potato ale.

Sweet and savory caramelized onions meet oven-toasted baguette, and for those folks playing at home, this might be the perfect time to layer on some crisped bacon or ham. Pour on a Sweet Yamma Jamma beer-cheese sauce brimming with a smoky-salty-tangy mix of cheddar, Parmesan, and smoked Gouda, sweet paprika and a faint kick of cayenne, and you’ve got yourself the fixings for the ultimate ease-into-autumn bite.

Enjoy at Bryant Lake Bowl, starting Monday September 15th through Sunday September 28th, or try your hand at Sweet Yamma Jamma Rarebit at your house. Good bread, good cheese, good beer: you can’t lose! (And we know you want to “win” your next Friendsgiving potluck.)

Sweet Yamma Jamma Rarebit, from the Bryant Lake Bowl kitchen

Makes 12 pieces, 3-6 snack sized servings

(1½  hours of prep, mostly unattended)

• 1 cup clarified butter
• 1 cup peeled fresh garlic cloves
• 3 large yellow onions, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 ½ tsp kosher salt
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• 2 cups whole or 2% milk
• 1 cup Yamma Jamma
• 1 tsp sweet paprika, plus more for dusting
• ¼ tsp cayenne
• 1 pinch ground white pepper
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar
• ½ cup shredded smoked Gouda
• ¼ cup grated Parmesan
• 1 crusty baguette

Place the butter and the garlic cloves in a small saucepan; cook over low heat until the garlic is completely soft and sweet (about 40-50 minutes). Remove garlic and reserved for another use.

Reserved ¼ c of the (now) garlic flavored butter and in a wide bottom fry pan cook the onions on medium heat until really well caramelized. Stir in salt. Reserve caramelized onion.

In a heavy bottom saucepan (1 ½ quarts or larger), place the reserved ¼ cup garlic flavored butter, stir in the flour well, and cook on low heat, stirring from time to time for at least 10 minutes (but do not brown the flour/butter mixture). Whisk in the milk until smooth and bring to a boil, stirring. Whisk in the Sweet Yamma Jamma until smooth, then whisk in the paprika, cayenne, and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and continue stirring for 5 minutes.

Stir in the Cheddar first, followed by the Gouda and finally the Parmesan. Add salt to taste, if needed, being careful not to oversalt the already salty cheese mixture.

Preheat oven to 425 F and line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with parchment or foil and slice the baguette into long diagonal slices about ½ inch thick.  Arrange the bread on the sheet pan and toast in oven until lightly brown, turning each slice over to brown both sides.  Divide the caramelized onions between the toasts and coat generously with the Yamma Jamma cheese sauce.  Place the pan back in the oven until the sauce is bubbly and beginning to brown.  Alternately, this step can be done under your broiler.  Dust the top with additional paprika.

Serve on a warm platter piping hot with a pint of Sweet Yamma Jamma on the side. Cooked bacon or ham may be placed between the toast and the sauce along with the caramelized onions.