Able Seedhouse & Brewery

I’m not a big beer drinker (though lest you label me a mom who drinks wine, let me assure you I prefer whiskey) but I liked Able’s House Red. I had two. And I sang Christmas songs. With my kids.
Able has lots of seating, and is kid friendly (until 9 pm of course bc that’s the law) and my friends brought cards so we play gin rummy and let the kids play on our phone until the carols started. I’ll keep an eye on the special events calendar, and I’ll be back.

When I visited Able they had been open about a month. The space is beautiful, it fits in with most of the NorthEast tap room scene, a combination of industrial and modern with a view of the brew house. I went for the flight to sample most of what they had. My general impression is… meh. Everything tasted kind of watered down. It’s how my friend describes drinking typical home brew, it just isn’t there yet. The stout had a decent start but is a little thin to be a true stout, the IPA was alright but didn’t really stand out.
The question this makes me ask is, have we reached peak taproom in north east? Are we at a tipping point of having too many? I think the answer is no, we haven’t. There will always be room for new and great beer, but this isn’t it yet. Up until now I believe that most of the startup breweries have survived because we Minnesotans are extremely loyal to our local businesses but the time has come to expect more from them. That may mean seeing a handful of average or below breweries going out of business but that will also mean more and better beer in our future. I will definitely give Able another shot but the question will be is this a stylistic choice of how they want their beer to be or is this simply new brewers getting their feet under them? If it’s the former then I know I can move on to the beers I love and look forward to the next great brewery, if it’s the later I look forward to tasting how good this beer can be.
Give Able a chance but maybe wait a few more months.

I mean meh. That’s about the most I can muster for this brewery, especially knowing there are so many great breweries out there. I checked it out on a Friday night with some coworkers and they were out of half of their selection by the time arrived at 8:30pm. Rookie mistake. The stout was decent, but the IPA & Pale Ale just tasted off.
The space looks cool & it’s comfortable, but the beer is so far off point, I cannot really go back when so many others are so on their game.

Stopped here finally to check out the newest brewery on the block. There is a lot of open space and seating. In the summer the large patio will be awesome. There is a simplicity here in this old building that is welcoming. There is also a lot of natural light coming in from 2 sides of the building. It is also pet friendly, there were at least 5 dogs inside this day.
I tried the flight, which consisted of 4 beers, a wheat ale, IPA, porter and a red ale. There were options for the porter, nitro or add coffee. I typically don’t like IPAs, but that was my favorite of them all. It was light in color and wasn’t all that hoppy in flavor.
Per usual, you could bring in your own food or eat from the rotating food trucks.
There is a parking lot across the street.

Excellent renovation, great location, cool design and impressive beers. Dog friendly and big tasting room.

Almost everything about this brewery is appealing to me. They have seemed to put a lot of thought into the entire package. The space, décor, and atmosphere really hits it on the nose for me. The space is large and can fit plenty of patrons. The bar has decent seating as well. I am a sucker for details so the lighting, newspaper type publication on the tables, and the beautiful large woodgrain type image on the wall was appreciated.
The woman behind the bar was friendly and had us laughing. Unfortunately, the 3 beers we tried weren’t memorable. The BLK WLF on Nitro was the best one we tried. Smooth and dark without being bitter. The First Light and Two Sparrows were a bit bitter for us. We will definitely try this one again. Right on about everything except the brews on this first go.

It was with much giddy anticipation that I took the 30 second walk from my work to Able Seedhouse on their opening night. What better place for a brewery than in the parking lot of the building you work in? Well, IN the building I guess, but this is the next best thing.
First off, I love the design and décor of the building. Nice cut wood, LOTS of space. A decent sized bar, plenty of tables, chairs outside for when the weather warms back up. And right in the heart of NE! Park in the overflow lot across the street, I promise you will not get towed!
Despite the anticipation though, I felt pretty let down by the beer. I’ll say up front that the stout, especially on nitro, is delicious.
But the other 3 beers? An IPA, a red, and a wheat pale. Another reviewer mentioned these all had astringent aftertastes to them, and that hits the nail on the head. With the IPA and the red, you’d get the flavor upfront but, both beers had this odd bitterness that lingered too long, and not like a hop bitterness either. This was also evident in the wheat pale, which I was really sad about. Wheat pale sounds like exactly the kind of beer I would love, but I found it did not have much flavor to go along with the weird bitterness that accompanied every sip. My husband met me there and we agree on pretty much all these points.
Guys, I drink a LOT of beer. And I know that one person’s taste in beer is not reflective of a whole brewery. To me, those 3 beers, especially the wheat pale, these were not something I drank and said «Meh, tastes like beer» (ala 612). These were beers that I drank and wondered why the heck they were all so bitter? I’m obviously not alone in this observation.
Able is new and I imagine there was probably a big learning curve coming from home brewing to a bigger scale like this. Hopefully they are able to tweak their recipes a bit. I look forward to returning and giving an updated review with more stars.

It was a rainy cold November evening when I stopped in to try a flight of what Able was offering. I was impressed with the size of the taproom. Very well built. Plenty of room to relax and enjoy the beer. The sheer size of their fermenters and equipment was quite a surprise. It was much larger than I was expecting from a new brewery that just opened.
Onto the flight! Here’s my breakdown on the brews:
House Red: This isn’t your traditional red. There were a lot of hops flavor coming through on this which over powers the traditional malt flavor. The aftertaste of this brew left me wanting a palate cleanser.
Two sparrows: a pale wheat, with great color and aroma, but this was my least liked of the bunch. Way too astringent flavor and after taste.
First Light: I would say this is a delightful IPA. The best of the flight I had. But why did I still have that bad after taste following each drink?
BLK WLF: I’m not a big stout guy but ’tis the season. I’m still not a coffee fan, and this has only a little bit of coffee flavor in it which I liked.
Overall, they have some work to do. I do realize that these are some of their first batches coming off the equipment and there’s some fine tuning to be done when scaling up the recipes. Will I be back? Yes. Every brewery evolves over time and I look forward to updating my review in the future.

Able Seedhouse & Brewery is a great addition to the Northeast Tap Room scene. It’s a large room sans TV’s with high ceilings and tasty taps. With a painted floor, a garage door and some basic blond wood work, this rap room is adds more in flavor than it does in décor. 4 beers gives you enough for a flight but not enough for a selection. Having opened only Friday, we will watch for more but this is a great place to start.

I had the pleasure of visiting the newest addition to the NE Brew District last night, and let me be the first to say… welcome to the neighborhood Able!
It was the soft opening, and unfortunately their IPA, First Light, needed a little more time to condition, but we tried a flight of the other 4 brews they had on tap:
House Red: An American Red Ale, well-​balanced, not too bitter — 4.25÷5
Two Sparrows: A Wheat Pale Ale, toned down on the hops, golden in color — 3.5÷5
BLK WLF: A Stout with subtle caramel and coffee notes, easy drinking — ⁴⁄₅
BLK WLF on Nitro: Balanced. Smoother than the original — 4.5÷5
$ 5 pints, $ 3 half-​pints, $ 8 flights (4 beers), $ 15 growlers.
The brewery and taproom space is beautiful! The light brick walls create the perfect backdrop for the countless wood details, including a scorched timber bar wall, a woodgrain bar and table tops, along with a custom tree ring art feature on the wall directly across fromt the entrance. The light fixtures are pretty cool too… including a handmade wooden one that’s shaped like their logo and the blown glass pendant lamps above the bar. There’s lots of space, and when the warmer weather returns they have a garage door that leads out to a patio!
We had a chance to chat a bit with the co-​founder, Casey and head brewer, Bobby, and you can just hear the passion for beer and community oozing out of those guys! I can’t help but think it must make the beer taste better :)
We plan on returning tonight to test out that IPA, so I’ll definitely be reporting back! Cheers!
UPDATE 11.10.15: We went back on opening day and tried the First Light, which is a crisp IPA, golden in color, with a fair amount of bitterness. I give it ⁴⁄₅. Overall, the stout is the best thing they have going currently (get it in nitro if they have it), but I know they’re just getting started… so I’m excited to see what brews they’ll turn out next!