local beer

Photo of Pete Bonahoom (right) and Lee Zukor (left) by Arif MamdaniThanks to our friends, families, and community for coming out to play at Galactic Pizza in Minneapolis on Thursday night. We ate well, shared stories, and (some of us) went home with tasty prizes from Equal Exchange, Peace Coffee, and SGT.

Welcome back to a look at local beer in Minnesota. In March, you were given a brief history on craft beer and introduced to the basic recipe for beer. Now we’ll kick off our profile of local breweries and brewpubs with St. Paul-based Flat Earth Brewing Company.

What in the wide world of "adult" beverages is your drink of choice? Mine, without a doubt, is craft beer. But it wasn't always that way. The "me" of 15 years ago wouldn’t have been familiar with the term "craft" beer, and my palate probably wasn’t quite ready for it. However, shortly after I moved to Minnesota, I was invited to take the path less traveled, to experience something beyond the mass produced product I had been accustomed to. This is no flat expressway; instead it is a meandering trail that offers discoveries around every turn, invites you to find something you didn’t even know you were looking for, and begs you to appreciate the craftsmanship that's gone into the glass that you're holding.

Two and half years ago, in the fall/winter of 2006, a new eating and drinking establishment opened on the border between Park Slope and Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Called the Flatbush Farm, it won over locals almost immediately with its friendly bartenders, inventive drinks, hearty daily specials, rustic interiors, and enormous candle-lit backyard.

Local beer is easy to find these days, especially if you have a tendency to drink microbrews, as I do, and live in a decent sized city (like Minneapolis or St. Paul, as the case may be).