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RECENT POSTS
Zoigl Season
Hey all, apologies for the extended radio silence, but does anyone read these anyway? It’s easier to rationalize not posting anything here if I believe they don’t, so I’m gonna go with that.
On the off chance that you ARE reading this, however, I thought I’d provide some additional context on the most recent Double Elbow release, American Zoigl. This is a very fun project that I am honored to be a part of, but it does require a bit more explanation that some beers. For context, check out this primer on American Zoigl, or for more background on the Franconian Zoigl tradition, this might prove a helpful resource.
The list of breweries who have participated in American Zoigl so far is one I’m pretty excited to be a part of – Goldfinger, Live Oak, Urban Chestnut, Fox Farm, Human Robot, Schilling, Good Word, Seedz, and now lil’ old me. I am excited to see who I’ll be sending the star off to in 2026, but in the meantime, please come down to the Little Thistle taproom and share a half liter with us in the spirit of “kommunbrau!”
First Anniversary?!?
It’s difficult to believe, but it’s been a year already. 9 beers in – 11 batches if you include re-brews of Tonks Tuesday and Inputs & Outputs – with plenty more planned for this fall and winter. The de-facto anniversary beer is a special one – a collaboration with Bierstadt Lagerhaus from Denver, CO. I’ve known Bill and Ashleigh for a while now, and this is the second collaboration I’ve done with them.
Check out some words about the beer here, and go find it in stores and at bars now. Probably won’t last too long.
For the 2021 version of Side Pull, my first collaboration with Bierstadt, Ashleigh and Bill flew their recently-vaccinated selves up to Minneapolis and I re-discovered what a hangover is after a year of pandemic isolation. That brew day produced one of my favorite brewery pictures featuring me, Joe Wells, Bill, and Ashleigh, and so this time around I thought it’d be fun to re-create it with the crew at Little Thistle. We’re all so cute.
Side Pull day, 2021 (photo credit Kadi Kaelin)
Festbier day, 2025 (photo credit Erik Eidem)
Thanks for drinking the beer, I appreciate you all!
The King of Double Elbows
I was at the annual Spring MBAA meeting at Schell’s not long ago – where the technical subject for the evening was malt, which is always a thing I enjoy learning more about. Certainly more than, say, NA beer or THC production. No offense.
Other than the cheesy potatoes and the inevitable post-meeting beer at the B&L Bar, the highlight of this meeting every year is getting to peek under the hood of August Schell Brewing Company, which is an absolute national treasure that you should all go see with your own eyes if you haven’t.
While admiring their 120-ish (I think?) kettle from the 1890s – in use until the 1990s! – I noticed that the stack is primarily composed of the most majestic Double Elbow I have ever seen.
Speechless.
What the heck does “Světlé Výčepní Pivo 8°” mean anyway?
We’ve got a new beer on our hands, and the first Double Elbow collaboration beer produced/released in Minnesota! The new guy is “Five Star,” and it’s a double-decocted Czech-style pale lager of extremely moderate strength brewed in collaboration with our old pals at Living Haus Beer in Portland, Oregon. Coming in at a svelte 3.4% ABV, Five Star is our homage to what the Czechs might call “Světlé Výčepní Pivo 8°,” which translates roughly to “pale draft beer.” It’s an every day beverage – really, an any time of day every day beverage – that is the calling card of what I’d call a truly civilized beer drinking culture. Our version is the very first double decoction I’ve attempted, and it is pretty dang hoppy, too.
It’s on tap at Little Thistle starting Tuesday 2/11/25, and I’ll be delivering kegs and cans of it to Rochester and Minneapolis/St. Paul on Thursday 2/13. The yield gods were not working in my favor on packaging day, and so allocations are kinda tight on this guy (exactly the sort of scarcity you expect from a 3% lager?). Seek it out ASAP, is my advice.
I waxed all sorts of philosophical about it on the beer page, so head on over to learn more.
how is it that a website feels analog at this point?
Welcome to the brand new doubleelboweer.com experience. Wow. There will be more to come soon, but my hope is to use this as an easy landing place for people to figure out just wtf is double elbow, where you can get it and when, and so forth. Sign up to get emails if you want, stay tuned for more info, do whatever you feel.
No new beer in January, I know, which betrays all I stand for re: dry January (resist the urge to be influenced by influencers to believe your normal human behavior is evidence of a pathology for one month a year, be nice to yourself, drink moderately if you feel like it, don’t make arbitrary decisions to cut yourself off from things you like because the internet said so, prohibition doesn’t work, this isn’t lent, good lord, etc.), but I mean, no one is perfect. Very fun new and returning beers planned for February onwards. More on that soon.
DOUBLE ELBOW
We make beers, you should drink them.
branding/labels by Anne Collingwood
photography (the good ones, anyway) by Kadi Kaelin
We distribute beer in Rochester, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and some other spots. Interested in carrying Double Elbow? Say hi.
doubleelbowbeer@gmail.com
Come find us at:
Little Thistle Brewing
2031 14th St NW
Rochester, MN 55901
DOUBLE ELBOW BEER 