Brau Brothers Brewing Company - Silver Linings (RBC Exclusive)

We’re pleased to be able to offer Brau Brother’s imperial milkshake IPA with mango, Silver Linings, as a Rare Beer Club exclusive this month. This tasty, mango-packed DIPA will be available exclusively through the club and the brewery’s tasting room. This beer hasn’t been previously bottled, and our earliest samples of this one landed to us in overnighted crowlers. This double IPA lands right around 9% ABV, and uses two types of oats for enhanced body and mouthfeel, along with vanilla bean, lactose sugars, and whole mango chucks. The beer’s hop blend incorporates the new Samba hops, a proprietary variety out from Brewers Supply Group’s Hop Solutions Program, and these were specifically developed as a heavily tropical hop for hazy and milkshake IPAs. That Samba hop addition goes great alongside the mango.

This mango-driven DIPA pours a deep orange color, well hazed, capped by significant off-white foam that leaves behind substantial retention and lacing. Great-looking pour. This has a surprising degree of plush fruit in the aromatics, even going into this expecting a fair bit of mango. That fresh, tropical character is just huge, accompanied by lychee and pear and even a bit of mint along the edges. This beer’s fresh, vibrant, loaded up with fruit. And that sweet mango is just turned up to a whole other level, bringing forth mouthwatering tropical notes from the start, accompanied by pine and pith, with a touch of caramelized sugars and cotton candy. We sample a ton of IPAs. The aromatics on this one are something else.

First sip of Silver Linings encapsulates everything the aroma suggests: super juicy, and packed with mangos and tree fruit. Even for those of us regularly picking up fresh, local, hazy beers out here in California, the mango presence on this one is in another space entirely, and the Samba hops only add to the tropical expression. The alcohol is nicely tucked away on this, even pushing 9% ABV, and the overall mouthfeel is just wonderfully rounded, plush, and fruit-packed throughout. Alongside core expressions of mango, pineapple and pear, there’s still tons of additional fruit; we caught impressions of passionfruit, papaya, tangerine… A minimal show of malt throughout, staying mostly tucked away aside from the light candied orange at the core. A beautifully detailed double mango IPA, for sure. Tons of bright fruit.

You’ll definitely want to enjoy this one on the fresh side for maximum hop character. Hazier beers like this just weren’t meant for aging. For pairing: the core sweet mango and additional fruits give this a lot of versatility. We’re thinking bacon burgers with tropical salsa, spicy thai or Szechuan fare (using this beer’s sweet core to temper the heat)… Ooh, or spicy bahn mi.

Straight out of college in 1999, Dustin Brau and his wife, Mary, bought a restaurant in the small town of Lucan, Minnesota (home to approximately 220 residents), which they named BrauHaus. In order to attract more of the local population to come enjoy a meal in town, the duo decided to begin offering their very own BrauHaus beers made on-premises, thus turning their homebrewing hobby into a legitimate microbrewery. Their tiny 2-barrel system was barely enough to keep up with the demand of their restaurant, so in 2006 they moved their beer production to a larger building in Lucan. It was at this time that Dustin’s brothers, Trevor and Brady, joined the enterprise, and their father, Dale, joined in to help too. With space to brew more beer, the team could now take the business to the next level. Brau Brothers Brewing Company was officially founded. A bottling line was installed and their beer began flowing out of the town of Lucan to retail accounts throughout the area. They also began farming their own hops and barley on a few acres of nearby land.

In 2013, an even bigger step was taken when Brau Brothers moved to an even larger facility in the city of Marshall, several miles to the west. BrauHaus was closed in order to focus entirely on the brewing company, which now enjoys 37,000 square feet of space, 3,500 of which is devoted to barrel-aging, allowing Brau Brothers to produce a wider variety of beers, including sours, not to mention their own line of sodas. The brewery collaborates with a variety of smaller producers, from distilleries to coffee roasters, and the brewery's taproom offers over two dozen taps. In addition to providing tasty pub fare, Brau Brothers also offers growler fills so visitors can take plenty of beer home with them. For the latest visiting info, you can contact them at (507) 929-BEER or visit www.braubeer.com.