Hey you guys! Thanks for joining us on another journey. Today we're in
South Dakota just outside of Hill City drinking beer at Miner Brewing Company
right next to Prairie Berry Winery isn't that so much fun to say you just want to say Prairie
Berry yes i want to go to Prairie Berry. If you're new to the channel this is April--hi--and I'm Wayne;
we do a video every Thursday. So sit back, relax and enjoy the journey!
this is the original system we have a seven barrel brew house with 15 barrel fermenters the only
thing you don't see is our one barrel test batch system so that's what we use to kind of hone in
year-round recipes and whatnot people ask how long our beers take to make anywhere from two weeks we
have beers that have aged for over five years we do have some sour beers that we're careful
with as far as not wanting to infect any of our normal beers with bacterias or anything like that
and then we do make cider and seltzer as well and some of those are made next door at our parent
company in Prairie Berry Winery every state has weird alcohol laws to a degree and they're always
in flux going back a ways our founders Matt and Sandy they were influential in pushing through
legislation in 1998 to allow the commercial production of wine and wine sales in South Dakota
and that's what instigated Prairie Berry Winery the winery has been an official business for over
20 years now because of that change they opened the brewery in 2013 we've been involved in some
beer legislation one of the main legislative changes in beer in the last few years has had
to deal with distribution prior to covid we did a good amount of distributing kegs throughout
the states you'd see us on tap and bars and restaurants all over the place some restrictive
laws on how you could do that and how much you could do that and whether you need a distributor
or not and then one of the other things is there's beer festivals all over the country sure and the
laws at the time made it really complicated as to how you could get beer to festivals and back and
who's pouring and whatnot so things that make us different obviously there's a ton of breweries out
there nowadays one of the distinguishing factors for us like i said matt and sandy our founders
Sandy is a fifth generation wine maker her family came to South Dakota from Czechoslovakia in the
late 1800s traditionally in Czech heritage the females in the family are the wine and beer
makers her great great grandma came to the plains of South Dakota and converted Czechoslovakian
recipes into recipes that she could make using local ingredients that are completely different
than anything that they had you know in Europe throughout our family's history they've passed
down that lineage and that tradition and so she's the fifth generation wine maker and her family
and now also a brew master part of that is with the winery next door we have the
ability to barrel age stuff and uh lambic that barrel aged in cabernet oak barrels for a year
most breweries don't have access to things like that but being a large you know commercial winery
we can do a lot of fun stuff but other places might not one of our upcoming beers is a hybrid
it's a German style pilsner but it's conditioned with Catawba grapes so it's like this weird wine
beer hybrid she has that knowledge of being a wine maker for her entire life the name of it's
gonna be Wenzel rose or rose pilsner Wenzel is a German rose and in Germany they make these weird
plant hybrids so that's what Wenzel is is a hybrid rose from Germany so that's what this is
it's like she we're passionate about history and tradition and she has a lot of it in her family
but she's very much so not afraid to push the boundaries of styles or make something that
doesn't fall into any category right our top selling wine up there is made out of rhubarb
and raspberry but we make a whole line of wines that are European style grape wines so we've
got everything from traditional dries to crazy fruity sweets and tarts do you guys ship these
as well all over the wines are shipped to any state that will let us legally ship them there
okay we'll put a link below for you then awesome are you shipping beer too or not we cannot legally
ship beer at this time so selling out of the tap room we do 32 ounce crawlers and you know growlers
to go you just gotta hit it when you're here in town that's right so you can see it through the
smoky haze it's usually a little clearer view from here but this is the smokiest we've seen bike week
yeah the the highest peak up there has got a little square knob on it and that's the fire
lookout tower on Blackout Peak so it's a little over 7,200 feet yeah we have six peaks that are
over seven thousand feet and that's the tallest one definitely amazing riding that's for sure
okay this is the original tap room so you used to look onto a big empty hillside and so it's
changed over the years this small space what used to be a biker bar like in the 80s called G-bobs
turned into like a wool and antique shop on a transition from a biker bar to an antique store we
tore the building down to the original foundation and rebuilt the brewery in the same footprint
and then this is the concert lawn so this is our largest venue space built to hold about a thousand
people so stage gets set up we do host some events throughout the year we have uh the black hills
yoga festival a week from tomorrow it's our first time having it here the yoga festival's been going
on for a few years now and they wanted to move it into the hills so we're excited to have it here
Miner Brewing Company name comes from the mining history of the Black Hills this premises that
we're on what we call our campus used to be a tin mine so mining happened right here in this area
none of the mining really took off in the hill city area it's kind of a funny short history
but it got people to the area they use the lure of mining prospects to get people
into town and business you know into the saloon or into the inns in the area right when there really
maybe wasn't that much for them to access so it didn't last long i had mentioned the 1880 Train
currently it goes from Hill City to Keystone back then there was a couple other routes and that did
... we were trying to figure out why they yeah ...
part of that rail is so original they upkeep it um but they use that to haul tin and gold and silver
from the area yeah well we can go in and grab some beer
guy would be tempted to want to drink a job we have new beers coming out pretty regularly so
the only drinking on the job we do is our tasting panel so every time we have a new beer coming out
okay it's an official thing one of those things it's like the hard part when you have to drink
beer right we sit down as a group of brew master Sandy and talk through styles and all the stats
about it and kind of how we want to present the beer to the public definitely try it all on the
lighter end and then work our way up put that tray there this is Miner Light it's an American light
lager we usually release it a few weeks before rally every year right for your Budweiser drinkers
i got a bud light here try this is better perfect time of year for a light beer it's not something
we keep on year round but it's one of our seasonal releases yeah yeah that is definitely a good
summer beer good fishing beer lawn mower beer yeah yeah a lot more beer yep that real gold colored
one that is our Kolsch it's a traditional German Kolsch Kolsch's that is then cold condition like a
lager so you get maybe a little bit more flavor out of it as than you would out of a lager but
a really smooth finish has a mild bitterness kind of like a German or Czech pilsner would it's got a
little bit of an aftertaste not too much yeah just saying that's actually really cool it's a natural
progression from the light so we kind of yeah yeah that's more my beer of a light beer
the other one's too watery for me yeah the Gruit style kind of predates modern beer so
Gruit traditionally are brewed with no hops it was before hops were used in beer and so
they would use herbs to add flavor and aroma so this is wheat based but it is uh conditioned on
red sandalwood echinacea yarrow so all those things add a little flavor i like
it i do too actually it's it's when you hear it it sounds crazy you're just like oh it's
pretty light and refreshing you catch hints of those things but it's not overwhelming this is
a true tasty light beer oh yeah it's so different though it doesn't spell it g-r-u-i-t
if you gave this to me and didn't tell me what it was i wouldn't believe it was a beer to begin with
if someone's skeptical of anything in their beer besides the standard you know barley water
we might give them a taste of it and then they're like oh that's good and then we'll
tell them what's in there just so we're not scaring them right this is our copper lager
that's such a pretty color with the mining theme to the name and whatnot and we've got
a gold we've got the copper we've got our first NA beer coming out soon that's called Fool's Gold
so we play with the mining terms so copper lager's you know an obvious style for us to brew it's one
of my personal favorites um it's kind of right in the middle so if you like a light beer it's still
very easy drinking but if you like a dark beer it's still very malt forward it's got some caramel
notes to it roasty toasty yeah almost like a red lager close we don't have it right now like i said
sometimes we run out of our standby staples before the next batch one of our main beers is called
Scarlet it's a Irish red style off-the-wall adventurous stuff it's a mild step so we're
gonna go to the Watermelon Wheat it's on the top right of that one there this one you got it this
is American style wheat American style wheats are gonna be a little lighter than a European style uh
the yeast is not so flavor forward so you're gonna get the flavor in this case watermelon now how do
you get the watermelon in there this one i don't know it's a trade secret oh most of the beers i
know about but there's a few where our Sandy our brew master is just like i'm not telling yeah and
i'm allergic to watermelon so i smell it and i'm like that smells so good and i've never tasted it
i like this i don't care for watermelon i think it's more the texture of the fruit but this is
good like it's subtle unless it's an IPA with like a citrus flavor i'm good at that yeah
Sandy being a wine maker and making a lot of fruit wines she has learned over the years how to take
the aspects of fruit make it not overwhelming for instance with the wines she uses blueberry
or red currant in some wines what kind of alcohol content is this it seems very very the watermelon
i think it's like 4.7% okay yep so we have the cider in the middle on the bottom row there uh
we make several different ciders throughout the year this is our kiwi strawberry cider
we use South Dakota apples in this case it's two red apples and a green apple so you get the
sweetness of the red and the tartness of the green that kind of balances that she's gonna like this
oh yeah that's like totally up her alley flavor if it was just the kiwi but because it's got the
strawberry it gives it a little bit too much tart no i love it i'll just keep this one for myself
we'll go to the other non-beer our seltzer is a pineapple seltzer at the moment it's in the top
middle and this has real pineapple so hence most seltzers you see in the can are going to be clear
this is that gold pineapple color because it's made with pineapple it's a seltzer then yes that
was not definitely not something i liked what'd you think about the pineapple it's pretty good i
don't i like this better typically speaking people are like a big seltzer fan or they don't drink
seltzers at all seltzers do seem to be at least the ones in the can made by the big labels seem
to be more popular these days with the younger kids depending on the seltzer ours is not made
with gluten so we can offer it to people that are watching their gluten we don't certify any of our
products gluten-free just because they're served in a facility with beer let's move into the Star
Nation so this is a Lambic that conditioned with strawberry blackberry and raspberry milk
sugar which will add creaminess and sweetness and then conditioned in cab oak barrels for a year so
there's a whole lot of different flavors good oh yeah that was the last time you heard of that if
people ask like what can i get here that i can't get anywhere else oh that's actually the taste
on top of the list i wouldn't think beer though it's got all sorts of stuff he's got all kinds of
flavors going on so many levels yeah if you come here you gotta try this one
uh what was that one again that is called the Star Nation Peace Treaty Lambic so let's go with the
East River that is our on most days that's our top seller New England style IPA oh it's nice so hazy
juicy you get some citrus notes no fruit in this beer but definitely some fruitier notes to it this
is a very smooth sweet IPA we call it a gateway IPA so it kind of introduces you to the you know
hot varietal flavors you don't get notes and stuff but it's not punching the face of an IPA
but it you definitely you got a light undertone of IPA flavor to it but the great citrus this is
similar to the one that we had in Maine when we were doing the beer tour so the East River name
is kind of multifaceted South Dakota is split by the Missouri river you live East River or you live
West River and there's a little bit of a rival right right and so this name kind of references
that we have locations on both sides it also references East River East Coast New England
the New England style so so i typically don't like an IPA that's a lower alcohol percentage
and this doesn't smell like it's a high alcohol percentage it's in the sixes i want to say 6.2%
wow that's yeah that's surprising because most of the time i don't like the lower IPAs i like
a 9 - 10. we'll try the other IPA that we have on tap right now which is called Hot Lips Juicy IPA
this one is conditioned on pink guava so you'll get a little bit more of a tropical note to it
now that doesn't taste like an ipa at all people that are like i don't like ipas i'm trying to
make her flight what should i add i ask them like do you like fruity stuff do you like guava
it's smooth it doesn't have the hops that you think like you can eat pour it for me
if didn't tell me it was an IPA i would never guess it wasn't that yeah what's ibus
IBU is international bitterness unit so it's a scale of zero to a hundred closer to 100 you get
the more bitter it is based on the quantity of hops in there variation there is like with our
imperial red we have that roasted red malt and that is a sweeter more flavor forward malt
and it kind of masks some of the bitterness so okay you might have a lighter ipa color that's
only 50 ibus and it could taste more hoppy than something that's 70 ibus but darker okay
where do you get most of your hops and barley from all over the place all over yeah it's
not really grown there's a few growers in South Dakota but we have a really short growing season
yeah so um we source as many local ingredients as we can we get some things like our choke cherries
choke cherry is a really small berry it's very earthy South Dakota Montana you'll
see chokecherry jam choke cherry pie they're adding a ton of sugar to cut that bitterness
the way we use chokecherry is more like a hop it's naturally earthy and bitter
so we actually ferment with the chokecherry and that adds a little bit of bitterness
they're probably part of the brewing process so it tastes like a very traditional
English style brown ale that's where a lot of the wine influence comes into this is actually using
and they make choke cherry wine up there as well okay this is our Campfire Cocoa Milk Stout it's
a local favorite it's not a year-round beer for us so anytime it gets released people get really
excited it just came on tap about a week ago every once in a while we'll get crazy and take
out a culinary torch and torch french vanilla marshmallows and serve a marshmallow on top
yeah because i can see why you call it cocoa definitely not like a uh Guinness or anything
like that we have our Blarney Irish Stout that we release every year for St. Paddy's Day that's very
traditional and dry Irished out this is our last one it might not be up your alley but it will be
like yes Blackberry Marshmallow Tart so you can smell the tons of berries tons of blackberry puree
actual marshmallows no definitely not at my alley that is an acquired tart kind of creamy
oh that's good yeah i'm not a big marshmallow fan but i see how it's working in this blackberries
are tart yeah and it's a Lambic by style so tart with a sour style and so the the
marshmallows wash it down with some IPA i'm gonna keep this one for myself too that is really good
there's a little little sample of what we have like i said we normally have 14 to 17 beers on
tap. well we appreciate you giving us a tour and checking out all the different beers that you had
on tap. if you guys are anywhere near the Sturgis motorcycle rally and want to try some tasty beers
come out to Miner Brewing Company three miles outside of Hill City perfect place to stop in
and have a flight or two. Miner Brewing Company our parent company Prairie Berry Wineries next door
we call the whole space our campus because you can get beer and walk up to the winery
you have wine bring it down here and we have a kitchen so you can kind of
meander around so it's not just grilled food you have an actual kitchen yes there's a
kitchen with artisan cheese plate soup salads homemade desserts let's just stay here all day
right it's early in the morning so that's why it's so quiet in here we decided to come check
the brewery out early probably in a couple hours it's gonna be packed sneak in before the crowd
yeah exactly. We want to thank you guys for watching our video all the way to the end. If
you would, hit that subscribe button, share it with a friend and, like always, thank you for living life!