|
|
|
|
|
|
Tour Stop 135 - Blackstack Brewing - 8/6/2022
755 Prior Ave N, Saint Paul, MN 55104 | (651) 808-0747
Experience before you go . . . 
The second stop of the day was at Blackstack Brewing. It's located in an older industrial-looking area of St. Paul that has been re-done for today's fun. There's a big arcade game hall downstairs called Can Can Wonderland, along with an Axe Throwing place next door. You can take your kids to the arcade, then go drink some beer and then throw axes. I was going to find nephew Matt and his kids and I had to go down several turning stairs and through doors and hallways to get to Can Can. I was accompanied by families and kids all going to the game room in the basement. I got to the bottom and saw the long lines inside and decided to skip these activities and head straight to the brewery. Back up the stairs, through what looked like secret doors, and out into hallways with more families and turns ahead, and through an unmarked door on my left and finally there's the brewery!
 The inside of Blackstack is big and open, with tall windows to the front and lots of plants, lots of big plants. It was still around noon so it was kind of quiet. It was going to be very busy soon and I was glad to have the front row seat, as it were. Olivia was pouring the beer and giving me recommendations. I had the Speaker City, a "Cold School IPA" at 7.3% abv. Great recommendation! I took a taste of the Fugazi and went with that for my second. John to my right came all the way from Stillwater to get a couple of big cans of Fugazi, an Italian-style Keller Pils at 4.8% abv. I'm not a usual Pils fan but this beer was good. And John gave it such a great recommendation. "Crispy and Pale". John told me he works for an organization called Superior Molecular. The slogan he uses is "We put weed into water". Infused drinks with with a kick!
  Blackstack has been brewing beer here for about five years. They don't serve food, but they bring in food trucks that sit right outside. They have activities like Bingo on Mondays and lots of games whenever you want. Racks and racks of games are available to use while you drink your beer. Most of their production goes out to the local twin cities area, but Olivia siad they can also be found in Japan! Seems kind of random, I mean, wouldn't expanding to Rochester be easier? It's working though because they have tripled their production since February! The head brewer is Cyrus and he has been working hard! His dad was also a brewer and he passed on some of his skills, now being used right here in St. Paul! Cyrus has the sales skills too as he talked me into having another one, a Maximum Drip Stout. It's a Coffee Milk Stout coming in at 7.2% and a very luxurious beer! Cyrus told me they have another brewer too but he's somewhere else welding.
I had one more beer, the Local 755 NEIPA. Looking back on my notes, the only thing I have written down is "wow". This is what BS calls "Our all-time IPA". Their "Forever favorite fog dog". 6.8% abv and the culmination of "Countless tweaks & nudges in the right direction over three and a half years". Well worth it and it's easy to see why this is a favorite at the brewery! I grabbed it and took it with me on a tour that Cyrus gave me. We went into the back area and he showed me all the inner workings. Lots of capacity, lots of brewing being done. I even noticed a Hamm's Bear with a happy smile.
The rush is definitely at 1:00. A big line forming for beer, two ladies taking the orders and pouring, another lady helping with additional pouring, it was all hands on deck. I had the two beertenders as a captive audience before the rush, but now I just watched the throng of beer drinkers, finished with grueling hours of watching kids at the game center, now coming back upstairs for a little nerve salve. Dads were plugging machines with their little cards of credit downstairs to see the young'uns having fun and now they brought the kids upstairs in hopes of enticing them with some of the games from the racks while they use their other cards of credit to get their own joy.
 One of those dads was Matt, who was hosting us in St. Paul for the weekend. He had two kids of his own in tow and they found a nice table and started playing Uno. Matt had just acquired two cans of KVEIK 755: NEIPA. This is a 6.8% abv ale made with Norwegian Farmhouse Yeast, known as Hornindahl Kveik. Story goes that a sunken Norwegian ship was discovered and in its hold was an amount of this yeast from a long time ago. It was nutured and it grew and they now use it as the Mother for all of their Kveik beer. Leave it to Matt to uncover this bit of history!
Sr. Tech Support |
