Fulton Beer - 300

Brewed originally to celebrate the 300th batch brewed at Fulton's original brewery location, this West Coast-style IPA pours a bright golden copper color capped by a nicely formed head of foam that laces the glass as it recedes. On the nose, look for a complex hop profile to deliver lots of luscious tropical fruit notes conjuring mango, papaya, and pineapple, along with impressions of orange and lemon-lime citrus, and a nice herbal dose with hints of pine. In the flavor department, those hops remain bright, bold, and super expressive with big tropical fruity and floral notes, plenty of citrus zest, and a spicy herbal edge. There's a robust malt foundation of light toastiness and subtle caramelization with enough heft to stand up to the hops, though the very firm hop bitterness easily keeps this IPA dry from the start to the finish, which lingers long with a crisp and zesty citric note. For pairing options, spicy dishes will play off the bitterness, as will sweeter and fattier fare which can be easily cut through by the hops. Ham with a tropical or citrus glaze sounds great to us, as does Thai lemongrass coconut curry, or Vietnamese spring rolls with a spicy and citric Nuoc Cham dipping sauce. Cheers!

The story of Fulton Beer begins in 2006 with the four folks behind Fulton Beer—Ryan Petz, Brian Hoffman, Peter Grande, and Jim Diley—starting to homebrew together in Jim’s piddly (and cold) one-car garage. Rest assured, Minnesota gets cold. But that homebrewing inlet, like so many unexpected and fiscally questionable paths into professional brewing, led them in 2009 to start Fulton Beer together. As the story goes: Ryan and Jim were in debt from grad school, Pete and his wife were expecting, everyone else was newly or about to get married... The four had no savings, no cache of brewing connections, and no real industry experience. The circumstances, in other words, were perfect.

In the time since, we’ve been able to watch Fulton Beer grow from a small, contracting brewery into something much more established—and all in spite of the less-than-super-great chances for the whole endeavor. The first keg of Fulton Beer was served at The Happy Gnome out in St. Paul; this was back in late October of 2009. The intrepid four signed a lease for their first brewery in September 2010, which became the first brewery taproom in the Twin Cities. And, having quickly exhausted that production space, they began building a second brewery in late 2013.

Today, the majority of Fulton Beer’s production takes place at their second location: a 51,000-square-foot facility in northeast Minneapolis, about five minutes from their original spot. Today, they brew several year-round brews in addition to a wide array of limited "Garage Series" brews, barrel-aged beers, and sour mixed culture beers, plus a line of increasingly popular hard seltzers. To learn more, ring 'em at 612-333-3208 or visit www.fultonbeer.com.