Roseville’s Bent Brewstillery serves up a double hit

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to make a good beer. Or does it? Bent Brewstillery founder Bartley Blume was once an engineer with NASA. Why would a guy who worked for an agency that puts rockets and people into space want to make his own beer? It hearkens back to 2007, when his wife gave him a “Mr. Beer” kit for Christmas. Since then, he has worked to perfect the taste of his product.

The home brewing kit eventually led Blume to open Minnesota’s first combined craft brewery and distillery. The Roseville operation allows Blume to work on his craft. And does Bent Brewstillery turn out some good beer and spirits.

“I shed the shackles of corporate life (to brew),” Blume said.

The brewery has been in business as Bent Brewstillery for almost three years, opening in January 2014. The facility has 7,500 feet of warehouse space. The brew house uses a two-vessel, 20 barrels per batch system.

Housed in an industrial section of Roseville, the brewstillery has a bar in the front of its facility. Large garage doors can be opened to allow cool air in on warm days. A food truck (Omaha-based Pepperjax Philly sandwiches) is parked outside to help customers satisfy their food cravings.

Bent produces three beers throughout the year, while creating several seasonal brews. Nordic Blonde, Enuff and Moar are the main beers. A seasonal drink is Darka Fatha, Barrel-aged, the brew combines a light ale with the dark, cocoa, roasted smoothness of a stout.

I ordered a glass of Enuff. It’s described as classic London-style, export-strength IPA loaded with specialty malt and buckets of hops, notes of tangerine, grapefruit marmalade, and green tea finishing crisp and thoroughly hoptastic. It had a strong, but enjoyable taste.

Lisa went with a drink called Pineapple Time! It had a mead “feel” to it. It wasn’t mead, but the drink included orange blossom honey combined with roasted pineapple and fresh thyme. It looked like a wine, but was a beer.

The neat thing about Bent Brewstillery is that each batch of beer may taste different. They use liquor barrels to age the drinks, so the beer that’s aging will pick up some of the flavor of the previous item aged, Blume said.

So, we checked out the brewery side of the house. What about the distillery? Well, the distillery has a small unit they use to create three drinks – poitin, whiskey and gin.

Neither Lisa nor I are anywhere close to heavy alcohol drinkers, but we sampled a couple of Bent’s spirits. Boy, were they good. Poitin, an Irish liquor which reminded me of vodka, actually had a smooth taste. It hits you afterward. If I can drink a shot of hard liquor and not spin around in circles, it is certifiably smooth.

They’ve been in business for almost three years, and the typical whiskey – in example – usually takes five years to age.

“The art of aging is knowing when it’s ready,” Blume said. He believes he may have one of the most educated brewmasters in the industry. “We sample it as we go. When it tastes the same twice in a row, we know it’s ready.

“We have two-year-old whiskey that tastes like it’s eight. We know what we’re doing, and we care about it.”

While a larger brewery may be able to write off a lost batch, Bent Brewstillery needs to ensure it’s creating the best product it can, he said.

Bent Brewstillery is one of less than 30 brewstilleries in the United States, Blume said. And they have been winning awards in the competitions they enter.

We enjoyed our visit to Bent Brewstillery. We recommend checking it out when you’re in the Twin Cities.

For more information on Bent Brewstillery, please visit www.bentbrewstillery.com or www.visitroseville.com.