Calling all artists. Here is your chance to have your work adorn the latest edition of the Surly coaster which will be on display at all bars in Minnesota and Chicago serving their beer. The winner will get free beer and of course some notoriety throughout the local beer scene. The theme is that it has to represent the “Surly” image.

Surly Creative Director Michael Berglund won this contest back in 2011 and it began his long standing relationship with the brewery—affording him the opportunity to design the labels for special releases such as Darkness, SurlyFest, and Six. He even designed that awesome BLAKKR can. Omar and company love talented artists and winning this contest may provide similar opportunities for another aspiring artist. Details on the contest below were taken from their Facebook page.

How to Enter:

• Design a 4-inch diameter circular coaster with your favorite design software OR the old-fashioned way by hand.

How to Submit Your Design:

• Email a PDF of your design to michael@surlybrewing.com. Be sure to mention “Surly Coaster Design Contest” in the subject line and include your contact information (Name, Address, Phone Number, E-Mail) in the body of the email OR

• Mail your coaster design, along with your contact information to:

Surly Coaster Design Contest, 4811 Dusharme Drive, Brooklyn Center, MN 55429

Requirements:

The Surly Coaster design must following the guidelines below.

• Must be a 4-inch diameter circular coaster. One side will be our standard logo coaster design—we’ve got that covered. Your design will go on the other side.

• Must use Surly colors: Red 484U, Gold 873u, Black and White (white is the paper color) - All designs need to be three color.

• Must include Surly Brewing’s website (SurlyBrewing.com) somewhere on the coaster.

• Must have a white ring around the edge of the coaster for your name and website, if desired, in the space.

Other Information:

• Preferred final format is an Illustrator .AI or .EPS file

• There is no particular message you need to include. Just think about the fact that it’ll be on bar tops everywhere with ALL the different beers sitting on it. So it’s more about overall brand attitude than any one specific beer.

Deadline:

• The final submission deadline is 8:00pm CT on Monday, June 9

Winner Announcement:

• We’ll put up all submissions on Facebook following the submission deadline where you can Like the coaster you want to set your beer on. The winner will not be chosen based on the number of Likes, but the Likes may tempt us to look at the design longer.

.

The final announcement will be made when we’re ready to announce it.

Craft Beer Round Up

Saturday marks the 6th annual St. Paul Summer Beer Fest which begins at 1 PM at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. This is a great festival and was one of my first beer fest experiences. Expect a great lineup of breweries as always and be sure to wear plenty of sunscreen and drink lots of water. For a list of the breweries and beers click here and if you’d like to purchase tickets you can find those here. I’ll be volunteering on Saturday so make sure to stop by and say hello.

Tin Whiskers Brewery is officially open for business today at 4 PM in Lowertown St. Paul. The Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band will be at the opening ceremony to entertain you while you try out the brand new Ampere Ale which is making it’s debut as well.

125 E 9th Street

Suite 127

St. Paul, MN 55101

LTD Brewing is also opening it’s doors in Hopkins on Saturday at noon. The west metro brewing scene continues to grow and their beer lineup looks promising. I’m personally looking forward to trying Night Terror which is their Double Chocolate Milk Stout as well as Sleep Walker Triple IPA.

All in all this should be a great weekend for local craft beer!

Cheers!