The Blog

St. Patrick’s Day will soon be upon us – and though you might be hard pressed to spot a four-leaf clover or a pot of gold, you can easily find our newly released Shenanigans Summer Ale, no rainbow required. To celebrate this St. Paddy’s, we’ve put together a recipe for Irish soda bread featuring our warm weather brew.

We’re packing up something special for The Northern Lights Rare Beer Fest at the Minnesota History Center this Saturday. We’ll be joining 30 amazing craft breweries from around the country to showcase three exceptional brews from Wooden Soul, our robust living-beer barrel-aging program.

Brewing beer is an adventure – and it’s always more fun with a friend or two by your side. That’s why we are so excited to announce our newest collabeeration with New Belgium Brewing, one of the largest and most respected craft brew operations around. We’re joining them as part of their Beers with Vrienden program (vrienden is the Flemish word for friends) to take the best of both breweries and create two distinct and special beers: Come Together Honey Wheat Wine and Strawberry Fields Sour.

The first collaboration brew will be Come Together, a honey wheat wine weighing in at nine percent ABV and 40 IBUs. As honey is consistently used in many Indeed beers, like Mexican Honey and LSD, our Head Brewer Josh Bischoff felt it was a natural choice to get an “Indeed flavored” brew. New Belgium Production Director Travis Burge felt the same, saying, “With this collaboration, I wanted to explore with honey and that’s exactly Indeed’s wheelhouse and where they wanted to push the limits.” Come Together will be brewed with wildflower honey, strawberry scented Belma hops and New Belgium’s house Belgian yeast strain – and will be Indeed’s first wheat wine.

Our brew crew will be flying off to Fort Collins, Colorado to create Come Together Honey Wheat Wine with the gang at New Belgium Brewery in mid-March. The New Belgium team will head up north in late April for the release party and general good times. The collaboration will act as a happy reunion of New Belgium Brewer Matt Pollock and our Head Brewer Josh Bischoff (both pictured above), who previously worked together at Indeed. April will also feature the brew date of New Belgium/Indeed’s second collaboration beer, Strawberry Fields Sour – more details on that to come later. These beers will have an extremely limited release, so check in often with us on social media for updates. We hope you’re as excited as we are to share in this perfectly poured partnership.

Earlier partners in New Belgium’s Beers with Vrienden program include Allagash Brewing Company in Maine, Cycle Brewing in Florida, J. Wakefield Brewing in Florida, and Hopworks Urban Brewery in Oregon. To read more about New Belgium Brewing visit newbelgium.com.

Ring in the spring with Let It Ride, our seasonal IPA. Aromatic with notes of tropical fruit, this bold brew is made with a mixture of Mosaic, Calypso and El Dorado hops. “There's a bunch of aroma in these new varieties of hops that we weren't getting from hops, even a few years ago," says our Head Brewer Josh Bischoff. Look for fruity aromas like dank citrus, pineapple, blueberry and tropical fruits before your first sip.

Let It Ride pours a copper color, and when not in a glass, can be seen in a brand new bright green can – with designs from local artist Chuck U. This hop forward, 90 IBU American IPA is an adventure on its own, but also pairs well with pizza, spicy foods, barbecue and vegetable-focused plates – perfect for your spring and summer cookouts.

Join us at our taproom this Thursday, February 25th for a special Let It Ride Flight Night – featuring Let It Ride, a cask of Carbonated Let It Ride with Habanero Sugar Aged On Carolina Reaper Pepper, a cask of Grapefruit and Tangerine Let It Ride, and Let It Ride on nitro. $12 flights while the casks last – come take Let It Ride for a spin!

Ready to Let It Ride? Six-packs hit store shelves this week. You can also look for our IPA mixed six-packs featuring Let It Ride and Let It Roll. Look for Let It Ride on draft in restaurants and bars near you, and find it served up fresh in our Northeast taproom.

Roses are red and violets are blue, but let’s get real you can’t eat or drink either. We envision a world where a six-pack replaces those 12 long stem roses. Let’s leave the mushy stuff behind this February 14th, but keep the candy – and add beer (of course). To complete this task, we sat down with the experts at France 44 with the difficult assignment of creating beer and chocolate pairings. We left the usual rules behind. Can’t pair an IPA with chocolate? Well we did, and we liked it. Together, we’ve crafted four couplings of some of our favorite brews with mouthwatering, lip smacking confections. And just to make it easy for you – we’ll be offering a special flight on Valentine’s Day featuring the beer and chocolate pairings below. That’s right – a flight of beer and chocolate. So swipe right for once and grab a table for two in our cozy Northeast taproom and make this Valentine’s Day a delicious one.

Beer: Mexican Honey Imperial Lager
Chocolate: Valrhona Grand Cru de Terrior Majari

We were surprised to find success on the first chocolate we tried with our buzzy Mexican Honey brew. This 64% dark chocolate from Madagascar is fresh, tangy and has notes of dried fruit. The fruit notes help pick up the citrus tang from the orange blossom honey that this beer is named for. We found that this chocolate and Mexican Honey have a similar smooth ending. France 44 uses these baking chocolate pieces to make its delectable brownies, but they work just as well on their own.

Beer: Midnight Ryder Black IPA
Chocolate: Miticia Piedras de Chocolate

A chocolate covered almond is hard to resist, especially when it is coated in cocoa powder. We paired this 75% dark, Spanish confection with our malty Midnight Ryder. The sweetness of the cocoa cuts the bitterness of this IPA, while the chocolate helps bring Ryder’s roasted and toffee notes to the forefront. The two combined taste like a toasted hot chocolate you could sip on all night.

Beer: Old Friend Holiday Ale
Chocolate: Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate - Belize

A simple but refined single-source 72% chocolate seemed like the perfect compliment to our complex, yet subtle holiday ale. This bar has its origins in Co-op – Maya Mountain Cacao from Toledo, Belize. Its notes of dried plum and tart cherry work well with the raspberry honey, fresh ginger and orange peel in Old Friend. Take in the ginger aroma of Old Friend as you bite into the chocolate, and see how it changes flavor as you sip the beer itself. An Old Friend becomes new again!

Beer: Hot Box Imperial Smoked Pepper Porter
Chocolate: Patric Chocolate Limited Edition Oatmeal Cookie

Smoky and spicy, Hot Box is a strong beer to contend with – so we found an equally strong chocolate we think is up to the challenge. This unique American chocolate bar, made with maple, oats, cinnamon and vanilla (yes, it really tastes like an oatmeal cookie) cuts through the heat and smoke of Hot Box. At the same time, the intense sweetness of the chocolate helps level out Hot Box’s robust combination of flavors. A good pairing for those who find Hot Box a bit aggressive, and those Hot Box addicts who want to taste it in different ways.

Join us Valentine’s Day for this special beer and chocolate flight – limited quantities available. Let your palate be the guide and experiment with your chocolates and brews to see what you find to be the perfect match. We hope to see you in the taproom soon. Happy Valentine’s Day from Indeed!

Can’t make it to flight night, but still interested in creating a beer and chocolate pairing of your own? France 44 Liquor Store and Cheese Shop has got you covered. You can find a selection of Indeed and all the craft chocolate mentioned in the above post. Grab a cheese board and draft while you’re there! The staff is incredibly friendly and happy to help you find the perfect pairings for your palate.