Fulton Brewing Company

I finally checked out Fulton Brewing Co.’s new Minneapolis brewery on Memorial Day. My wife and I have friends that live very close by, so what better to do than have a happy hour on their patio, then grab a growler and some Black Sheep pizza to go? Tasty.

Fulton has broken out into doing a pale ale, which I would have liked to try but it wasn’t available in growlers and I wanted to give Lonely Blonde another shot while we were there. Still not anywhere near awesome, but It’s grown on me a bit. I skipped Sweet Child of Vine, as I just haven’t ever had a great experience with that beer. Tastes like hop oil and not a whole lot else. Not in a crisp fresh way either, rather just a muddled, oily hop mess. And don’t get me started on chill haze. Yes, I have problems with chill haze more often than not. I’m also a hobbyist. Lonely blonde didn’t have this issue, so I know they’re capable of producing a clear product. C’mon guys!

They’re tap room was quite large, taking up at least half if not 2/3rds of the building’s square footage. I wonder if they’ll knock down a few walls to expand back into the tap room in a few years… or maybe the plan would be to do away with the tap room at that point and just completely focus on being a production facility. I could see that happening. The tap room is just as much a promotion tool as it is a source of income. If they become larger, maybe cost/benefit will dictate that they use the space on fermenters instead of a large tap room. Time will tell.

If you’re planning on hitting up Fulton before or after a ball game at Target Field, keep in mind EVERYONE ELSE is thinking the same thing this year. Get there early. The tap room is large but not that large.