Take us out to the ballgameโฆ
Utepils Copacetic, our Kรถlsch-style beer, is now available. Find it in Section 116ย behind (where else?) home plate, on the main level. Howโs that for a grand slam?
If youโve already tried Copacetic, we donโt need to convince you any further. In fact, youโve probably stopped reading this because youโre in a mad dash to Target Field right now. (Um, just make sure thereโs actually a home game going on first.)
If you havenโt, youโre in for a treat. Copacetic is light and bright with a subtle blend of hops and malt. Itโs the perfect beer for raising a glass to the home team.
Psstโwondering why itโs called Copacetic? The word was popularized by the Apollo astronauts to convey: โEverything is A-OK. Thereโs no trouble in sight.โ So, regardless of the scoreboard, grab a Copacetic. Everything will be A-OK.
byย Chris Crowell
Power provider CenterPoint Energy recently announced the three recipients of the 2016 Conservation Improvement Program (CIP) Energy Efficiency achievement awards at the 2017 Energy Efficiency and Technology Conference: Customer of the Year; Trade Ally of the Year; and Most Innovative Project of the year.
Why do you care about this? Well, its most innovative project of the year was awarded to Utepils Brewing.
Utepils Brewing is a new craft brewery located on the west side of Minneapolis. In 2016, the company installed state-of-the-art German brewery technology involving heat recovery and vacuum de-pressurization. This step helped decrease the energy consumption of the brewing process by 70 percent.
โOur plan was to build our brewhouse at a size that meets what weโll need in the future,โ explained Justesen in our news about the breweryโs plans back in February. โWe didnโt want to be in a constant state of upgrading our brewhouse or our equipment, so we built the upgrade.โ
Project details
The brewing equipment, a maze of stainless steel pipes, mash and lauter tuns, a kettle and six giant, two-story fermenting tanks was custom designed and imported from Bavaria. The tanks were purchased from a family thatโs spent three generations fabricating equipment for breweries. The brewhouse also boasts the first-ever North American installation of the energy-saving Vario Boil system โ which helps cut their energy use by almost 75 percent. Award-winning brewmaster Eric Harper manages all of it using traditional skills, like smell and taste, as well as modern technology. His control center looks like the flight deck of a science-fiction spaceship.
Utepilsโ outdoor beer garden will finally bring together man, butterfly, eagle and beer.
Even the tile on the floor of the brewhouse was a subject of intense discussion among Utepilsโ partners. โAfter all the brewing equipment is in place, you canโt just go back and replace the floor,โ explained Justesen. โWe wanted the best equipment we could buy on the best floor we could find, all to make the best beer we can.โ As a result, the floor tiles were imported from Bavaria as well.
The brewery and taproom have been designed to suggest an old European town, with many of the interior finishings sampled from Regensburg, Germany. One wall of the brewhouse is painted green in homage to the historic Wurstkuchl tavern in Regensburg and eventually will have windows and doors added to complete the effect. The grain mill and delivery equipment is contained in a structure designed to look like the cityโs clock tower.
Do you offer food?
If by โfoodโ you mean โawesome beer,โ then YES.
But seriously: While we donโt sell food in the taproom, food trucks park at Utepils on a nightly basis. We love supporting local chefs, and we also love the incredible variety that we get from our various trucks.
Looking for something specific? Check out the food truck schedule to know whoโs coming when.
Can I bring outside food?
Absolutely. Bring in any food you want (reminder: no outside beverages of any kind). You could even order food to be delivered here.
Please bring your own dishes/utensils and clean up after yourselves.
Thinking about catering a party here? Contact us at 612-249-7800 to talk about scheduling your event.
For those who say all the new breweries opening are the same, you need to visit Utepils Brewing in Minneapolis.
Pronounced โohh-tah-pilz,โ the brewery, located at 225 Thomas Ave. N, Minneapolis, opened late this winter and focuses on classic, low alcohol European style beers like pilsners, Kolschs, and hefeweizens. They make well rounded beer that can be enjoyed no matter the weather or food pairing.
While going classic can set a brewery apart during this era of extreme experimentalism, the Utepils taproom is also noteworthy. It seats over 150 guests and will soon include an outdoor beer garden near Bassett Creek, which runs along the property. Itโs a getaway in a historic building just west of downtown Minneapolis, even though it feels more isolated. Itโs next to Theodore Wirth Park, lending a sense of escapism even while the skyline is still in site.
The dรฉcor is classic European. With large paintings on the wall โ thematically based on their flagship beers โ and a historic copper kettle that hangs over the bar, itโs distinct, comforting, and spacious. Windows show off the natural setting, while visitors are further removed from the industrial parking lot by a walkway ushering visitors past the tall fermenters and into the welcoming taproom environment. Itโs a big brewery, but it maintains a small vibe amid the community tables, warm colors, and the homage to tradition.
Meganโs official title: VIPer Program Director. But thatโs a little stodgy, so feel free to substitute Queen, Tsar, Perk Purveyor, and/or Benevolent Dictator. They all boil down to the same cool gig: Megan manages our VIP program. (PsstโVIPer stands for Very Important Patron, Enthusiast, and Recruiter.) VIPers get tons of awesome benefits, not the least of which is a lot of free beer. Needless to say, Meganโs a popular gal.
With a background in software and tons of experience in corporate America, Megan has analytical and organizational chops to spareโbut sheโs also super-friendly, which is why she also regularly bartends at the taproom. Come say hi, order a beer from Megan, and ask her about becoming a VIPer.
No. We love dogs, but we are first and foremost a production facility. That means we need to strictly enforce a no-pet policy. No exceptions.
Okay, there is one exception: Weโll welcome dogs on our patio when itโs open. But youโre going to need a best friend to hang out with manโs best friend while you grab another round inside.
Kids are very welcome in our taproom. (Supervised, of course. Unsupervised children will be given espresso and a free puppy. We are only sort of joking.)
This is a pretty kid-friendly spot. We offer non-alcoholic craft sodas, snacks, and games for all ages. Plus, our stunning setting features a creek bank and the opportunity to watch trains go by (both awesome elements, but again, donโt forget about that supervision thingโthere are no lifeguards on duty, literal or figurative).
Please keep in mind that minors under the age of 21 are not allowed in the brewery after 9:00 p.m.
Brewers and beer fans are always yak, yak, yakking away about hops and malt and barley and all the other ingredients that make beer what it is. And those are critical elements, to be sure. But thereโs one more ingredient thatโs highly underrated: water.
Beer starts with water. And thereโs a whole lot of water in beer. In fact, itโs so hydrating we should probably start advertising it as a health drink, perfect for strenuous athletic activities and general wellbeing. (Side note to our lawyers: weโre kidding.)
In all seriousness, waterย is an incredibly important component of beer. If you donโt believe us, try drinking beer made from crummy water. Itโll be crummy beer. Guaranteed.
At Utepils, weโre all about using traditional, time-tested methods to brew the best, freshest, most delicious beer we can. That means weโre very picky about the ingredients we use. Since we donโt hide our ingredients with fancy, bizarre flavors (you wonโt find a maple-watermelon-parsley-fudge beer here), we have no room for error. Everything we put into our beer must be really, really good.
Thatโs why we were so excited to source our water from Glenwood spring.ย In fact, our brewery and taproom are in the very building that used to be the bottling plant for Glenwood Spring water company. It doesnโt get much more local than that. We pump our water from wells located on local park land. The water enters our building through an underground pipe that runs beneath the nearby creek.
Water quality is just the beginning. Water chemistry is just as important. Few people know that the chemistry makeup of water goes a long way to determining the style of beer. One of the primary reasons that different beer styles originate from such different geographic regions is that the local water in those regions determined what the local brewers could accomplish. For example: The high mineral content of water in England would have made it difficult for English breweries to produce the Pilsner style, which requires water with low levels of minerals. Czech water, on the other hand, was right on the money. Thatโs why Czech-style pilsners, like our flagship Pils, are so delicious.
We brew several different styles of beer here. Authenticity demands that several different styles require several different types of water. So how do we make that work? We source high quality spring water and then perform a reverse osmosis treatment to remove the minerals, including the high levels of iron and manganese characteristic of water in this area. This gives us a blank slate so we can actually recreate the specific water chemistry native to region and style weโre brewing. Cool, huh?
This blend of local quality and regional specificity is just some of the wizardry we perform here at Utepils. Come taste the difference.
That smiling face you see when you walk into the Fernweh taproom? Itโs Kelsey Bomgaars. (Okay, it could be just about anyone. There are a lot of smiling faces at Fernweh, because we brew really good beer that makes people happy.) But Kelseyโs a huge reason theyโre all so happy. She loves coming to work every day, and it shows: Kelsey makes everyone who crosses her path feel like royaltyโstaff and customers alike.
Kelseyโs responsible for managing staff and making sure everything runs smoothly in the taproom, and she also had her hand in designing the taproom. She can do just about everything, aside from picking her favorite Utepils beer. She says thatโs like picking a favorite child.
If thereโs such thing as an over-qualified head brewer, itโs Eric Harper. (Donโt tell him. We want to keep him.) Eric has an unbelievable resume, including many years honing his craft at other breweries as well as a prestigious diploma from Londonโs Institute of Brewing and Distilling (yes, thatโs a thing). In spite of all that, when asked why heโs so awesome at his job, his answer is: โI love beer.โ That passion, skill, and experience shows up in every sip. The team says they hit the trifecta with Eric, whom they describe as a chef, food scientist, and cool guy all rolled into one.
Director of Operations is the ultimate catch-all title, which means Jeff wears more hats than a Dr. Seuss character. He handles everything from general maintenance to running special events and working with the distributor. Fortunately, no one is better at juggling a heavy, complex workload. โThereโs not a lot of gray area in my life,โ Jeff says. โI make quick decisions and Iโm willing to take on anything and see it through to completion.โ Heโs not kidding. In his former life as an event manager, Jeff once had a tornado decimate an event just prior to airing on national television, and he rebuilt everything before anyone could blink an eye. And then he cracked a beer.
Seven hours. Thatโs how long we had a line out the door for the February 18th grand opening at our Fernweh taproom. We were blown away by how many of you showed up to enjoy good times and delicious beer with friends, family, neighbors, and strangers! And even more of you tuned in to our live feed. The response has been incredible, and we feel so lucky to be part of this awesome community.
Thank you to all of you who braved the long lines on opening day. From what we hear, the beer was more than worth the wait. And if you couldnโt join us, we look forward to raising a glass with you soon.
Check out our grand opening highlights video, courtesy of Jeff and Rita at Lifeimage LLC. (Warningโloud bagpipes!)
How often do you see a CFO hang sheetrock? Itโs all in a dayโs work for Jim Moore. Jim has serious financial credentials, including 20+ years in corporate banking and multiple gigs as a financial assassin for high-growth companies. Still, heโs best suited to the all-hands-on-deck philosophy at Utepils. In fact, itโs his favorite thing about his job. โSince joining Utepils, Iโve used every skill set that Iโve accumulated in my entire life,โ he beams. Jim isnโt afraid to get his hands dirty, but he keeps the books clean as a whistle. With Jim on the job, no one has to worry about the numbers. And that means we can all spend more time with the beer.
Donโt let Danโs self-deprecating humor fool youโhe knows he has a good thing going here. โI was a total nerd in high school,โ he says. โNow I get to live this big adventure.โ His title might be president, but his real job is professional people person. Danโs specialty: โFind really great people to do the work I donโt know how to do, and support them in their roles.โ Itโs working. If you ask his team, Danโs gift for vision and leadership makes him the Pied Piper of beer. People just want to be part of what heโs doing. (It doesnโt hurt that what heโs doing is creating delicious beer.)
Before starting Utepils, Dan honed his brewing chops as co-owner and president of Vine Park Brewing. He also served on the board of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, including a stint as president. So heโs still a nerd, but now heโs a super social beer nerd with a really cool job.
By JESS FLEMING | jfleming@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
March 28, 2017
Ewald the Golden by Utepils Brewing: Tucked away in a former warehouse on Bassett Creek in Minneapolisโ Bryn Mawr neighborhood, Utepils Brewing, which opened about six months ago, isnโt exactly on the beaten path.
โAltโ is German for old. Our Alt 1848 is a copper-hued ale with spicy caramel flavor and timeless style. Sean Gray's illustration features the copper kettle top over our bar that came from Fรผchschen brewery, one of the original brewers of Alt Bier in 1848.
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โAltโ is German for old. And while our beer is fresh as a Siberian iris in spring, the style couldnโt be more classic. Ale is the old-fashioned method of making beer, originally brewed in Dรผsseldorf, Germany. (Not the newfangled lager style that showed up later.) Our Alt 1848 is a copper-hued ale with spicy caramel flavor and timeless style.
The copper kettle top over our bar comes from Fรผchschen brewery, one of the original brewers of Alt Bier in 1848. Seanโs illustration features a badger and a fox brewing on the copper kettle. The badger references Brewmaster Ericโs alma mater (the University of Wisconsin, which also opened in 1848). The fox references Fรผchschen, which translates to โlittle fox.โ While the fox and badger brew up some Alt 1848 for us, the sun pouring through the window makes it a classic Utepils moment.
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Sean Gray created this amazing artwork to bring the Glocal spirit to life. Weโve brought Europe to our corner of Minneapolis by combining local Glenwood spring water with the finest malted barley from Europe.
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โGlocalโ is a mashup of local and global. Our talented Midwestern brewer combines local Glenwood spring water for brewing with the finest malted barley from Europe, a spicy Belgian yeast strain, and hops from both Europe and America. Glocal IPA is dry, spicy, and tart with a bitter edge enlivened by a citrusy aroma.
Seanโs poster brings the Glocal spirit to life. A map, a copper globe, a keg with a built-in compass and the French and Belgian flags on the โFlightskiโขโ evoke our European roots. But weโve brought Europe to our corner of Minneapolis, with cross-country skiers arriving in our beergarden for a glass (or two) of Glocal IPA.
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The name Ewald dates back to Irish brothers from the tenth century who decided the Germanic tribes needed enlightenment. Sean Gray created this amazing artwork to help bring a new form of joyous enlightenment to the masses.
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A really good Hefeweizen boasts fresh flavors and delicious aromas thanks to golden wheat and a special yeast. (And no, you should never add fruit to it.) Ewald the Golden features aromas of banana and clove and, of course, a bubbly foam โhalo.โ You could drink it in an igloo, and itโll transport you to a sunny, summer day.
Early in our planning stage, our Brewmaster needed a secret code name so he could volunteer with us while still keeping his job. (Shh!) We called him Ewald, and a legend was born. The name Ewald dates back to Irish brothers from the tenth century who decided the Germanic tribes needed enlightenment. Within 48 hours of their arrival, they were martyred and ended up as Catholic saints. One was known as Ewald the Light and the other Ewald the Dark. Our Ewald the Golden is shown in a field of wheat bearing a beautiful glass of Hefeweizen, bringing a new form of joyous enlightenment to the masses. (And the Ewald icon? Thatโs our Brewmaster Ericโs face.)
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What is the origin of the word copacetic?ย Sean Gray created thisย amazing artworkย to capture the spirit of the word; and the beer. Light and bright with a subtle blend of hops and malt, Copacetic is the perfect beer for relaxing and telling stories.
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Like champagne, Kรถlsch is only made in one place: Cologne, Germany. Brewed elsewhere, itโs called โKรถlsch styleโ (and ours is as authentic as it gets, with barley grown right near Cologne). Light and bright with a subtle blend of hops and malt, Copacetic is the perfect beer for relaxing and telling stories.
Copacetic is mysterious word of unknown origin. Many theories exist, but the word was popularized by the Apollo astronauts to convey: โEverything is A-OK. Thereโs no trouble in sight.โ With that spirit in mind, Sean depicted a relaxed, sunny day with a family enjoying a picnic on the banks of the Rhine river in Cologne. Kites for the kids. A growler of Utepils Copacetic for the adults. Everyone wins.
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Sean Gray created some amazing artwork for our beer! He captured our motto that good brewing starts with honoring the traditions of brewers who have gone before us. Our beer is brewed using the highest quality water from the historic Glenwood Inglewood wells to produce beer that is classic yet uniquely distinct. Using tried and true brewing practices, we seek to create a new tradition in the Twin Cities that brings friends and families together to share time and beer with one another.
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Utepils is a Norwegian word that describes the anticipation for the first beer enjoyed in the sunshine with friends after a long, cold winter. We know a thing or two about Utepils in Minnesota, and we canโt think of a better way to celebrate sunshine than with our flagship beer, Utepils Pils. Itโs brewed with Czech-grown barley and hops; fermented with a Czech lager yeast strain.
Sean captured an Utepils moment with five friends raising a glass of delicious pilsner. The stained glass frame features a mix of hops and barley, the core ingredients of beer. The rushing creek and green grass are a nod to our biergarten, and the Siberian iris is always one of the first flowers to bloom in spring. Sunshine. Friends. Beer. Is there anything better?
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Itโs kind of like a magic portal where a sad, empty growler goes in andโPOOF!โ it comes out ready to party.
Hmmโฆif only we could use it to magically transform other things. What would you put in our growler fill station? Your job? Your bank account? Now weโre day- dreaming. And weโre day-dreaming with a full growler of delicious beer, which is pretty awesome.
Wondering what makes the fill station such a Big Deal? Weโre so glad you asked.
A lot of breweries take the bottling process seriously, but then they get sloppy when it comes to growlers. They fill them at the same taps that were designed for pint glasses. Beerโs sloshing all over the place and it ends up too foamy or too flat. We think thatโs criminal. So, as with everything we do at Utepils, we aimed for better.
Instead of filling growlers at the tap, we do it in a clean controlled environment.ย At the risk of getting too technical, we displace the atmosphere in the growler with CO2 and pressurize the bottle before filling it up. The fill station prevents excessive foaming, which is cool for three reasons:
The result is beer that meets our ludicrously high standards. You can bring a growler to a party with pride, knowing that itโll draw oohs and aahs and yums.
In effect, our growler station properly "bottles" the beer.ย While tap-filled growlers only last a couple of days, your Utepils growler should be refrigerator stable for weeks. (Not that youโll want to wait that long to enjoy it. But it means you can buy multiple growlers at a time, knowing that when the Utepils moment strikes, your beer will be ready.)
Need another reason to try the fill station? Itโs really, really fun to watch. And the only thing we care about as much as the taste of our beers is the experience you have.
Stop by the Fernweh taproom and check it out for yourself. We canโt transform everything for you, but a growler of great beer to share with friends is a pretty good start.
Utepils Grand Opening is THIS SATURDAY! Weโd love to raise a glass with you, but we know not everyone will be able to make it (and frankly, not all of you will fit). MORE INFO HERE -->
Good news: You can still be part of the party. Weโll be livestreaming the whole event, but watching without drinking is like living without breathing. LIVE STREAM HERE -->
Solution: Swing by the taproom today or tomorrow to pick up a growler, and you can toast right along with us from wherever you are. Bonus: Youโll be one of the first to experience our ridiculously cool growler fill station. That way, when your friends who attend the Grand Opening wonโt shut up about their growlers, you can just smile and start planning your trip for a refill.
"...Utepils is prepared for big business, opening with the stateโs sixth largest brewhouse out of Minnesotaโs 120-plus breweries. When optimized, the brewhouse could brew up to six batches of beer per day. Seventy-nine pilings reaching 105 feet into the ground support the immense weight of the two-story tanks above."
โ Michelle Bruch, Southwest Journal
Read the full article on Southwest Journal
"...Founder Dan Justesen has been part of the Minnesota beer scene for the better part of this millennium, working at Vine Park in St. Paul and with the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild. Over the past decade heโs heard his peers frequently talking about how they wished theyโd started bigger. Heโs also noted the rapidly changing demand for local beer. As a co-owner of Vine Park in the early 2000s, he recalls being one of the first breweries to sell growlers." โLoren Green, The growler
Read the full article on The Growler
โTo start from scratch and do something total new, thatโs fun,โ โEric Harper
Read more about the story at Fox 9 News
Another big Thank you to Star Tribune for noticing the changes and giving us a 2nd mention in less than two weeks.
Long overlooked, area's proximity to downtown gains momentum.
Click here to read the entire article!
A big thank you to the Star Tribune for a little preview into our taproom!
You know that moment that comes after a long winter, when the sun pokes through and the grass springs loose and itโs pleasant enough to sit outside and perhaps indulge in an adult beverage?
Thereโs a word for that. Well, in Norwegian, anyway.
Click here to read the entire article!
Meet VIPersย Peteย andย Tracy Kootsikas!ย
When these active parents aren't running a successful Pedal Pub franchise in Nashville, TN, attending sporting events, and hosting friends at their home, you can probably catch them out enjoying a great beer together.
Join Pete and Tracy on their lifelong VIPer adventure at:ย https://utepils-2023.flywheelsites.com/
Why did these two decide to become VIPers? Simple! To them, it's all about creating new connections, making new friends, and getting to know the (Utepils Brewing) staff really well. There's nothing better than enjoying good beer with good people at a great brewery.ย โช#โMemBEERshipโฌ
We love a great neighborhood party so weโre adding TWO fun stops to the Bryn Mawr Neighborhood Festival of Garage Sales on May 7.
ONE: After a day of shopping for upcycled treasures, grab your lawn chairs and join us for a Root Beer Float Social at the future home of Utepils Brewing Co. from 2:00-5:00. It's an informal chance to see transformation underway of a nearly abandoned warehouse to vibrant craft brewery at 225 Thomas Ave. North.
TWO: Wander thru the amazing offerings inย Trappingsย in the heart of downtown Bryn Mawr and find us in back with much to offer from 1:30-5:00. We can answer questions, point you to our site for root beer, and maybe share a treat with you.
In 2015, we opened our doors so neighbors could for the 1st time see what was hidden inside. Now you can see that it is not just words but a lot of action happening. We'd love to say hello.
T-shirts and a MemBEERship information & sign up booth will be available. Credit cards accepted.
