Tap Talk : Able Seedhouse And Brewery
Over the last five years, the craft brewery movement has grown exponentially in Minnesota. The Associated Press says licensing records show two-thirds of Minnesota breweries have opened just since 2010. So, we decided to help you – and your livers – keep up with the taproom trend by stopping by some of these Twin Cities brewhouses. As the number of breweries continue to grow, many are having to set themselves apart in unique ways. For this Tap Talk, we visited one that is not only brewing craft beer but malting its own small grains. Meet Able Seedhouse & Brewery.
For avid beer drinkers, when it comes to the taste of an IPA it's all about the hops.
In the same vein, brewers and drinkers alike know that by simply changing the yeast from American to European alters the flavor greatly.
So, what happens what you alter the grains? And, more specifically, what happens when you use Midwest grains.
Are we able to taste a difference?
That is the idea that brought Casey Holley into the brewing business.
Born and raised in Minneapolis, Holley had long been involved in the food and beverage industry. Prior to his return to the state he had been living in a wine community of northern California.
"I got to see a whole community of 50,000 people sort of lift up this one idea that we grow great wine grapes here," Holley said. "[It was] incredibly mind blowing."
The community's dedication to their chief agricultural product and export inspired Holley and made him wonder what Minnesota was good at. The answer – grains.
Holley began wondering if brewing beer specifically using Minnesota grains impacted its taste. Through his research he found other people who believed it could and began working on figuring out a way to prove that it would.
His solution was to build a brewery that had an in-house malthouse that processes only Minnesota grains to be used in the brewery's beers.
"The whole impetus of Able was can we grow this product in Minnesota, or at least the Midwest, can we malt it and process it in house…and can we get a percentage of that grain in some of our beers," Holley said.
Whether it's 5 or 20 or 100 percent, Holley hopes that even the slightest amount of local small grains can give the beer a distinct Minnesota taste.
Follow them: on Twitter @AbleBeer, Facebook at Able Seedhouse & Brewery or visit their website online.
Owners: Casey Holley, Matt Johnson, Rick Carlsen and John Mowery
Brewer: Bobby Blasey
Location: 1121 Quincy Street SE, Minneapolis
Hours: Wednesday and Thursday: 3 – 11 p.m., Friday: 1 – 11 p.m., Saturday: 12 – 11 p.m. and Sunday 12 – 6 p.m.
Contact: 612-405-4642 or info@ablebeer.com
View more photos of Able Seedhouse & Brewery here.
Northeast has come to be known as the craft beer hub of the Twin Cities so new breweries have to set themselves apart. Tell me about the way Able is setting itself apart through the malthouse.
Holley: Raw grain out in the field has to be processed, or malted, so we can use that in brewery. So what we're doing is we're just trying to get access to the sugars stored in that grain but we're doing that here as opposed to ordering the already processed grain from large companies.
Able is the first brewery in Minnesota to process its own malts in house. With the influx of all the breweries in the market, why haven't other brewers done this to set themselves apart?
Holley: It's really hard. There's a lot of time that you need to put toward it. There's capital expense that you need to put toward the equipment. There's just this learning curve that's really, really difficult. To put it in better terms [Minnesota's] small grains exist on a very, very large industry scale. Think Cargill. So, it's really easy for a small brewery to [make] a couple clicks of a button and grain shows up on their dock the next day. But the scale that we're using it at is very small, so we had to go build that supply chain to fit our scale. And that's difficult. It's taken us three years to get to a point where we probably have grain that we can use now in the malthouse and in the brewhouse. So, it's hard.
Sounds like there is a lot of added work on top of the amount of time and energy it takes just to open a brewery. So, how many local farmers do you work with on your scale?
Holley: We've been working with three different farmers. It's taken the last three years for us to get to that point where we have three that we can use: rye, barley and wheat. It comes out of the field free of toxins; it's high quality. These are small grain farmers and they are doing it right.
So, will these three farmers be able to sustain your entire operation?
Holley: We'll have to [buy from large companies] too. We're still very open and honest about our operations that we still have to also buy large volumes of grain from an industrial agricultural company. But our goal is to try to get some of that grain in house, process a percentage of that into one, two, three or all of our beers. That's the hope. We have to see how it performs in the malthouse and then we have to see how that grain performs in the brewhouse.
How do you think that using specific Minnesota grains will alter the taste of the beer?
Holley: Well we don't know and that's why we're trying to do it. Right now what happens is the grain comes in on giant train cars and it gets offloaded in these giant malthouses. A little bit [comes] from Minnesota, Canada and the western plains and it all gets mixed into this big blended mix bag of small grains and malt. So, it's really hard to know if there is an identifying factor in there. Are there characteristics from Idaho or from Saskatchewan that make the grain taste different? Certainly the bakers believe that there's a taste distinction in small grains and we feel the same way. Our hope is there are different characteristic that they can breed. We're breeding right now for different malting characteristics that we can get out of the grain. So that's the hope, is that there is a taste difference.
It seems to be a running idea throughout the brewery of being "able" to taste a difference. Is that were the idea for able came from?
Holley: Able, for us, was just really trying to capture this sense of exploration and empowerment. We started with a really wide list and Able kept making all these cuts until we got to the final list. I just love the syntax of it. I love the way it sounds. I love the way it looks. I love what it stands for. It is all about capturing and highlighting a time and place. And for us it's right now and right here in Northeast Minneapolis in our home of Minnesota. Everything that we've done sort of bounces off the idea [of] how do we highlight that sense of time and space? How do we capture that? Then furthermore, how do we connect the consumer, the market, to that? For us a big part of it is this taproom right here. So let's work with a lot of great Northeast Minneapolis artists, designers, furniture builders, glassblowers and all kinds of really cool architects to capture this thing that they're doing in Northeast right now. Then, let's also do the same thing with beer. Both of those things converge at this point in the taproom as where we're highlighting what can be done with Minnesota small grain and what can be done with Northeast Minneapolis arts.
Is that why you decided to locate in Northeast Minneapolis?
Holley: We didn't initially want to try and locate here. We looked at a lot of other facilities across the Twin Cities and for a long time we kind of wanted to get away and tell our own story, be separate from the Northeast brewers' scene. We were looking at so many different buildings that when we walked in here and it didn't matter where it was. This building is so cool. We're like, this feels right. Then as we learned more about the developer that we're working with, Hillcrest, the artists that are all here, the restaurants that are moving in here and, obviously, the brewing scene that's already here, we sort of feel like we can not just be a part of that Northeast Brewers District but also add to that story in a meaningful way. It didn't make sense if we just came in here and tried to tell the same exact story through our beer, we really felt like we could add to that story.
Across the state, and definitely in Northeast, there is a big focus on local. Shopping local, supporting local etc. What does being local mean to you?
Holley: I think for us, it just started with this idea that we can support this small local economy. And so, if we're successful in the seedhouse part of the business, if it exists and it can operate just within the four walls of Able, then we're supporting a couple small local farmer families. We're [also] supporting our employees in the tap room that pour the beer. We're supporting a lot of different things if we can succeed in telling that story effectively and have it actually work the way we want it to.
With all the extra work that has gone into creating the seedhouse part of Able, what has been the most challenging part of opening this brewery and taproom?
Holley: Getting Internet in here. (laughs) The number one most difficult thing has been to get Century Link in here to give me my fiber Internet. That's it! That's the hardest thing! I made it through the federal treasury department, a giant huge government institution that gives us our license to brew our beer, and we've made it through there faster than we have been able to get Century Link out here to pull a fiber line. But I think probably, besides my Internet, is just the sheer volume of things that have to happen and that stack up all at once. So, luckily we have a killer team [and] it's really easy for each of these people to play to their strong suits.
I've never gotten Internet as an answer before! Hopefully they come out soon! So, let's switch gears and talk about the beer. What will you have on tap? *At the time of publication, Able was not open. They open Nov. 6, 2015.
*Listen to head brewer Bobby Blasey discuss what Able will have on tap.
Sounds like a good variety of flavors to start with. It seems like there will be something for everyone. Do you plan to have any seasonals on tap?
Blasey: I'll do winter seasonals. I won't have a typical holiday ale or anything, at least not this year. But I would like to do some seasonals.
As Able grows and progresses, will you stick with the main four or will you add more in?
Blasey: A fifth beer will come out in about a month or so, as soon as I can squeeze it in and start brewing it. Then again, as quickly as I can, coming into the end-ish of December I'll have another one on.
Since Able is not open just yet, what is your favorite beer in general?
Holley: Summit EPA. It's probably a boring answer but it is for sure my favorite beer. I think of it as classic Minnesota. My "old man beer" is for sure going to be Summit. My kid will steal that from me someday because it's always going to be in the fridge. It's a great sort of lead in to this idea that there's a real deep emotional connection to food stuff; beer, wine, food, whatever it is.
Definitely. I think as the localvoire movement continues to grow the emotional connection will only get stronger. So, with the upcoming opening, what audience are you trying to attract at Able?
Blasey: I want everybody to like our beer. I don't really try to tailor to the people who are very educated or looking for weird, out-there flavors. I want to start off with these beers because they're not too far out-there but they're different enough. I figured if we started with a decent variety of stuff, stuff that I wanted to drink, then we'd have a good baseline and from there I'd be able to expand the portfolio. I will do some crazy, weird stuff using ingredients that I've never used before, but for right now I like the way that we're going here. Malt, hops, water, yeast. That's what we've got right now.
Sounds like there is a lot of room for growth but you've always got the basics. So, without using its name, how would you describe Able in one word?
Holley: Thoughtful
