Deus Brut des Flandres--one of several beers made like champagne!

​New Years Eve is a night for frivolity and toasts. Effervescent festivities call for an equally effervescent beverage. For most this means champagne. But many, like me, aren't so keen on the vinous variety of bubbly. We would prefer beer. In fact, a recent survey conducted by Wakefield Research found that a majority of men would rather mark the turning of the year with beer. Can beer possibly rise to the occasion? You bet it can. Here's a rundown of four "champagne beers" to usher in the New Year.

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photos by Steve Neuharth

Recently Teddy Hobbins reported on the new A25 Sushi and Sake Bar at Anemoni. Again A25 showed off the beautiful new renovation, designed to resemble a Tokyo subway station stop. This time A25 played gracious co-hosts with Crispin Cider as they created a multi-course dinner designed to match A25's imaginative dishes with equally inspired Crispin cocktails.

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D.L./Flickr

Leinie's is beefing up its marketing according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, and that means broadcasting itself up and down the Minneapolis skyway.

"Leinenkugel's has plastered the above-ground system of walkways with advertisements -- not just the typical, back-lit signage, but also wall clings, elevator wraps, floor decals and a 12-foot Adirondack chair -- and plans to keep the ads up until July 15."

Could be worse, right? It could be ads for baby wipes, or vasectomy reversal services.

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ddiemont / Flickr

The famed craft-beer mecca the Muddy Pig, in St. Paul, will be celebrating its seventh year on Saturday, but it's the customers who will be getting an anniversary present: half-price draft beers all day long, from 11:30 to 2 a.m. Among the 48 boutique brews on tap, says co-owner Paul Schatz, will be Two Brothers Hop Juice (said to be hoppier even than Surly Furious), Summit's new Horizon Red, and the Rush River Double Bubble.

 

That's only one of the food-and-drink tidbits you can find out about in this week's edition of the Twin Cities Eater, City Pages' free food newsletter. Each week you'll get the inside scoop on restaurant deals, special dining and drinking events around town, and links to the best local food-related posts online. It takes less than a minute to sign up--just click here.

 

The sucky thing about bottled beer is that it can't fill up a pint glass with that tidy perfectness that you can get from the tap (and any type of Surly -- thanks Surly! -- or those 16 oz cans of Guinness). Hence disappointment number one with Guinness 250, a special edition stout the venerable Dublin brewery released a couple weeks ago for its 250th anniversary. Like all bottled beer, it reaches only about the three-quarters mark in the glass, giving the illusion that it is, I dunno, subpar. Not a good foot to start out on, even though it really has nothing to do with anything.

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Copper kettle at New Glarus brewery. mindfrieze/Flickr

According to the Brewers Association, Minnesota has 22 breweries. This seemed like kind of a high number, so we did a little digging. Turns out, brewpubs count as breweries (guess that makes sense?) and they make up more than half of our 22, so there you go. The list also apparently counts all Granite City brewpubs separately, and there are five of those in the state. I'm not trying to dis on Minnesota's proud beer heritage but I'll just leave it to you if you want to check on the competition. I won't mention how many Wisconsin has. Hell, even Iowa beat us out. On a trying-to-be-positive note, Minnesota has three breweries currently in the works.

Summit Founder Mark Stutrud discusses the finer points of the brewery's new Horizon Red Ale.

"A 9 a.m. beer tasting? Can that be right?," I wondered. And 9 a.m. it was. Breakfast followed by beer isn't all that bad, actually, especially if it's a subtle, smooth brew. Enter Summit's new Horizon Red Ale.

It's the first beer the St. Paul brewery has released since 2006's ESB, and it's gonna be a hit. It even has a pleasant aftertaste, fer chrissakes. Tamer than the brewery's IPA, yet still assertive enough to puff up its chest a little bit, it's the type of beer you could hang on to all night: dangerous.

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j / f / photos/Flickr

Imminent hellacious weather system be damned. Bell's Oberon comes out today. According to MNBeer, the BLB is having a coming-out party tonight for one of everyone's best spring-summer-and-into-fall friends. Ditto the Bulldog Lowertown tomorrow. Oberon, welcome back. We've missed you.

Bell's describes Oberon thusly: "An American wheat ale brewed with Saaz hops ... [s]picy and fruity ... the color and scent of a sunny afternoon."

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erin.kkr/Flickr

At about 9:45 Monday night, Grumpy's Downtown was already more than two-thirds the way through the three kegs of Surly 16 Grit they had cracked just a few hours earlier. A table full of men clad in Surly garb shouted loudly and happily. Bikes lined the sidewalk out front on Washington Ave. It was a no-coat night, the first of the year.

Pints of 16 Grit ringed the bar and that's clearly what drew most people out that night. The beer was originally brewed as a farewell to the brewery's Growlers, but was such a hit that Surly resurrected it, releasing it only at Grumpy's. It became available at other bars yesterday.

The beer, a rich amber color, has a bright, assertive flavor. It actually has a lot of the hoppy bite of Surly's Furious, only it's somehow ... chattier. It is lively and kind of explodes across your mouth, finding its way into every available space and losing none of its personality as it goes down. It has the potency and crackle of a campfire, minus the heat.

Get yours fast. Surly only made 60 kegs, and three of them are already cashed.