Last night I got the opportunity to try the latest brewery in Minneapolis, Able Seedhouse. This brewery is unique in that it is a farm-to-table brewery. They source grains from regional farms and then malt their own grain to make their batches. Currently they have four beers on tap, so I went ahead and ordered a flight.

• The first beer was an American Red Ale that I found really well balanced. It was certainly an American style red as the hop character was forward with the malt taking on a supporting role.
• Next up was a wheat ale, which was unfortunately a bit of a let down. It wasn’t particularly bad, but felt like it had a bit of a soapy taste to it, and just didn’t have as clean of a finish as I expected.
• The third beer I had was their IPA which was really quite nice. The hops were balanced well with the light malt character, and the finish was clean. I could certainly see ordering a pint of this one.
• The final beer was a stout that was my favorite of the evening. The only critique I had of it was that it had a slight astringency on the back-end. I decided to get another half-pint of this before the night was done.

I know a lot of people get very critical of new breweries, but what I look for when a new brewery opens is simply well made beer, even if the recipes need a few refinements. So many new breweries open their doors with very flawed and mediocre beer, that when someone opens up with a solid line-up of basic and well-brewed beers I take that as a win.

In addition, Able has an awesome environment in a big warehouse building with some wonderful reclaimed wood backdrops. It was a very relaxing and comfortable environment with good people, good food (food truck), and good beer.