Brau Brothers Brewery Tour

It's hard to believe that it has been almost 2 weeks since I was in Lucan, MN. The visit to Lucan was for a tour of Brau Brothers Brewing Company, which was just one part of a fun craft-beer-themed weekend that I organized for a large group of my friends. It was the 5th year of our annual event, affectionately dubbed "Beer-a-palooza."

Dustin Brau, Brewer and CEO of Brau Brothers, was our tour guide on that fateful day. And what a tour it was...

The highly knowledgable tour guide, warm and personal atmosphere, and abundance of beer sampling were just some of things that made this tour great. The extras (as I like to call them) made it exceptional:

• 2 kinds of bottled beer were opened for us to try (their new Forgotten Flem farmhouse ale and Rainwater Stout), even though they already had 10 taps available to sample from.
• Dustin pulled out 4 bags of grain they use (beechwood smoked malt, cherrywood smoked malt, rye malt, and naked golden oats) so we could grab handfuls to sniff and snack on.
• The hop garden. Even though they were just starting to sprout, it was cool to see a brewery growing their own hops for use in their beer. At the time, some of the little hop shoots were protruding from the ground anywhere between 2 to 4 inches. (I wish I had taken a picture of them.)

After this great experience, I personally think Brau Brothers is my favorite Minnesota brewery tour (with Schell's a close second). In fact, it rates as one of my all time favorite tours, right along with Avery in Colorado.

Here are a few pictures I took while we were there:

Outside the brewery.

The brew house.

4 of the guys in our group of 19. I'm taking the photo. Where are the other 14 guys? Around the corner to the left behind these guys. Why are they over there? Ummm... Probably the 10 taps coming out of the cooler!

Fermenters and the hot liquor tank.

My friend seems to approve...

Conditioning tanks.