‘Rails & Ales’ Partner Spotlight
Leading up to our 6th Annual Rails & Ales: Light Rail Brewery Crawl, your local gurus at GetKnit will be doing a bi-weekly partner spotlight with the goal of helping you get to know our featured brewery partners that much better. Whether they are your favorite taproom in the Twin Cities or still on your “must hit” list, we hope you find this new article to be informative and entertaining! For our next installment of our partner spotlight we chatted with Dual Citizen Brewing Company. Enjoy…
Tell us a little bit about your brewery name.
Dual Citizen is a play on our location on the Minneapolis/Saint Paul border and our commitment to bringing communities together rather than drawing lines through them. We love Minneapolis and Saint Paul equally for their own special reasons and we’re proud to be Dual Citizens!
What is the beer that you’ve brewed that you’re the most proud and why?
Head Brewer Max: Raymond Oktoberfest Marzen Lager is simply my favorite beer I’ve ever made. It’s hard to pick your favorite child, but this one’s a Star. Fortunately for all of us, Raymond will be back on tap just in time for Rails and Ales!
Team Minneapolis or Team St. Paul?
TEAM DUAL CITIZEN!!!!!
What’s your favorite thing to eat at your neighbor’s The Naughty Greek? And why?
Head Brewer Max: The Pork Gyro pairs delightfully well with our collaboration beer The Witty Greek, a European-style Witbier brewed with Lemon and White Peppercorn. (Available exclusively at The Naughty Greek University Location)
If your brewery was a celebrity, who would they be?
What’s a fun fact about your head brewer?
Our Head Brewer Max Filter is the inspiration for our name Dual Citizen, having spent equal parts of his life living in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Despite being a locally-grown, organic Minnesotan, Max has spent the past 7 years out-of-state working in the commercial brewing industry; first as a Packaging Technician at Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, Colorado before accepting a position as the Head Brewer at Renegade Brewing in Denver, Colorado.
Most interesting beer flavor you’ve created to date?
Head Brewer Max: Queen Imperial Gose, brewed with Lemon, Lime, Agave Nectar, and Sea Salt before aging in Tequila (Ex-Bourbon) Barrels for one month. It’s the closest thing to a Margarita we’re allowed to serve in a Minnesota Taproom.
Who at your brewery has the best “brewery beard”?
Head Brewer Max Filter.
Tell us a bit about your brewing system. How big is it, where did it come from, anything else fun to share?
Head Brewer Max: We brew on a 10BBL 2-Vessel brewhouse from ABS in Raleigh, North Carolina. We have up to 60 BBLs of fermentation capacity at any given time. We are one of two breweries in the state of Minnesota that uses equipment from this manufacturer (the other being Blacklist Brewing in Duluth, MN). I can’t say enough amazing things about how great it was to work with ABS. Their system is intuitive, the welds are top-quality, and the team was great to work with throughout the process of purchasing and installing the brewhouse. 5 out of 5 Stars.
What is your favorite beer that is not your own?
Head Brewer Max: Anything from The Starkeller at August Schell’s in New Ulm, Minnesota or from Paradox Brewing in Divide, Colorado. Two of my favorite sour breweries in the whole country.
What special events do you have at your brewery throughout the week? Or anything really exciting coming up you want to share?
In addition to participating in Rails and Ales on September 14th, Dual Citizen is also hosting Blocktoberfest II on Raymond Avenue! Featuring the glorious return of Tapes ‘N Tapes live in concert, as well as performances by Heiruspecs, The New Primitives, Alex Rossi Trio, and The Shackeltons. Also featuring craft beverages from Urban Growler, Burning Brothers, The Lab, Lake Monster, & Dual Citizen.