Lift Bridge Brewing Co
1900 Tower Drive West, Stillwater, MN 55082
liftbridgebrewery.com
Lift Bridge Brewing Company is well-known around the Twin Cities for making consistently tasty beer, including their flagship Farm Girl Saison and the MN State Fair favorite Mini Donut. I was surprised at how small the tap room was given their wide distribution. The bar had two cramped serving stations with only 8 stools around. There were maybe ten tables inside, with a handful more outside. The outdoor space was more of a parking lot you can drink in than a patio, but it is dog friendly and they had a bean bag tournament going the night we stopped. Inside was cozy with efficient waitstaff, free popcorn, and a jukebox in the corner blasting Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Sweet Caroline. The expansive merch section tailors to a market of suburbanites and tourists who want to experience a local craft brew before their riverboat cruise on the nearby Saint Croix.
The Beer
Because it's easy to find Lift Bridge at most good beer bars and liquor stores around the city, we've had quite of few of the standards. The taproom had 11 beers on tap, and we chose to do a flight of 6. The first was the Citra Kellerbier. This bright, bitter beer is reminiscent of an IPA in flavor but is actually an unfiltered lager. Citra hops are citrusy without getting too soapy. It was a solid beer that I'd recommend.
Also good were the Crosscut Pale Ale and Cowboy Jack's IPA. Both of these were mild, crisp, easy-drinking ales. If you want a punch-in-the-face bitter ale, go for the Kellerbier instead of the IPA.
The most notable beers of the night were the Oktoberfest, the Getaway Pilsner, and the Dopplebock. The Oktoberfest has a beautiful red color with delicious malty notes and an anise finish. It was everything I look for in a Marzan. The Pilsner was a surprise. Normally pilsners are boring, but this was definitely one of the best pilsners I've ever had. It had great citrus notes and very, very mild clove flavors on the finish. I'd happily drink this again. My favorite of the night though, hands down, was the Dopplebock. This too had surprising citrus notes for such a dark beer. It also wasn't overly toasty, so I'm really curious to know where they got all that dark color from. It packed a punch at 8.5% and was therefore served in a smaller portion on the flight, but it was a tasty beer.
In Summary
If you're in the area, it's definitely worth a stop. The beer is very good and with so many rotators there's bound to be something on tap you just can't get anywhere else. If you like traditional German styles like doppelbocks, pilsners, and kellerbier, Lift Bridge truly shines. The tap room is nothing fancy and given Lift Bridge's broad distribution, the best justification for making the pilgrimage to Stillwater may be getting one glass of affordable Mini Donut beer after the State Fair. That biscuity brown in a cinnamon-sugar rimmed glass is the tastiest gimmick of all time.
Taproom: yes
Patio: "Parking lot you can drink in"
Dog-friendly: Yes
Flight size: 4 or 6
Beers on tap: 11 Patio: "Parking lot you can drink in"
Dog-friendly: Yes
Flight size: 4 or 6
Maple Island Brewing Company
225 Main St North, Stillwater, MN 55082
mapleislandbrewing.com
Maple Island Brewing Company has a beautiful location overlooking the river. It would be very pleasant to sit on their expansive terraces sipping a beer and watching the riverboats go by if the beer wasn't so awful. The large taproom was full of empty, dirty tables. A disappointed-looking bachelorette party nearby left most of their drinks unfinished and it took a solid 30 minutes before anyone came and cleared the glasses away. The ambiance also wasn't helped by walking into the front door straight into the bathroom. The taproom has separate men's and women's rooms that share a large sink that takes up most of the hallway right next to the door on Main Street. Nothing welcomes you to a taproom like a bunch of people washing the pee off their hands. 
The beer:
The beer was bad. Really bad. Carl and I had a long and serious debate about whether or not this was the worst brewery we'd ever been to bad. Eventually, we decided that Rowland's in Chilton, WI was worse, but that's not saying much. After taking more sips than my stomach found tolerable to try and figure out what the heck made this beer so awful, we settled on the hypothesis that they were over-carbonated and under-attenuated. Severly under-attenuated beer can leave a cloying sweetness and syrupy mouthfeel, while severely over-carbonated beer has a bitter, tonic-water taste. These crimes do not balance each other out. I do not understand how this brewery had 4.1 stars on Google and won an award at a recent competition in Red Wing. It's possible we came on a bad day when all the kegs were a little off, but given that there were other reviewers who shared our reaction I think it's more likely that most of the patrons of this establishment don't know anything about what good craft beer is supposed to taste like.
The Worst Offenders:
None of the beer was good. There wasn't a single beer on our flight of 9 that I would ever drink again. I struggled to finish four tasting portions. By far the worst was the Strong Man Scotch Ale. I absolutely love Scotch Ales. It is my favorite style. I literally gagged when trying to swallow my first sip of this beer. I don't mind my scotch ales a little peaty - I think the herbally, grassy, smoky, nutty flavors of peat smoke can really enhance a good dark ale. That said, this brewer seems to equate peaty with bog water. I've been in bogs that smelled better than this beer tasted. Almost equally appalling was the Maple Island Bock. This bock tasted like the dishwater at a pancake house. It was overwhelmingly sweet and yet somehow horribly bitter. Speaking of cleaning solutions, the Peel Me Wit was basically citrus cleaner in a glass. Somehow, this citrus-cleaner wheat beer was more drinkable than many of the others on our flight, including the Cup of Joe Freak Show, a watered-down day-old-coffee ale that was named by a 9-year-old.
The Worst Offenders:
None of the beer was good. There wasn't a single beer on our flight of 9 that I would ever drink again. I struggled to finish four tasting portions. By far the worst was the Strong Man Scotch Ale. I absolutely love Scotch Ales. It is my favorite style. I literally gagged when trying to swallow my first sip of this beer. I don't mind my scotch ales a little peaty - I think the herbally, grassy, smoky, nutty flavors of peat smoke can really enhance a good dark ale. That said, this brewer seems to equate peaty with bog water. I've been in bogs that smelled better than this beer tasted. Almost equally appalling was the Maple Island Bock. This bock tasted like the dishwater at a pancake house. It was overwhelmingly sweet and yet somehow horribly bitter. Speaking of cleaning solutions, the Peel Me Wit was basically citrus cleaner in a glass. Somehow, this citrus-cleaner wheat beer was more drinkable than many of the others on our flight, including the Cup of Joe Freak Show, a watered-down day-old-coffee ale that was named by a 9-year-old.
In Summary:
Don't go. If you have to, the only beers I found tolerable were the ThornBrau, a florally, rosehipped lager, and the Crate O Hops IPA which was described as a "knock your socks off hard hitter" but tasted a lot more like a mild amber. Carl hated the ThornBrau, so good luck finding anything you can tolerate.
Taproom: Yes
Patio: Yes
Dog-friendly: Unsure
Flight size: up to 9
Beers on tap: 9-10Patio: Yes
Dog-friendly: Unsure
Flight size: up to 9
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete