Straight out of college in 1999, Dustin Brau and his wife, Mary, bought a restaurant in the small town of Lucan, MN, which they named BrauHaus. The duo decided to begin offering their very own BrauHaus beers made on-premises, thus turning their homebrewing hobby into a legitimate microbrewery. Their tiny 2-barrel system was barely enough to keep up with the demand of their restaurant, so in 2006 they moved their beer production to a larger building in Lucan. Dustin's brothers, Trevor and Brady, joined the enterprise, along with their father, Dale. Fast forward to the present day, and Brau Brothers enjoys 37,000 square feet of space in a new facility in Marshall, MN, 3,500 of which is devoted to barrel-aging. It's been three years since we've featured these talented brewers, so we're excited to have had the chance to work with them again this month - this time brining you an exclusive brew available only through the club and the brewery's tasting room.

Silver Lining uses two types of oats for enhanced body and mouthfeel, along with vanilla, lactose, and mango. The beer's hop blend incorporates the new Samba hops, which were specifically developed as a heavily tropical hop for hazy and milkshake IPAs. We sample a ton of IPAs, and we can assure you the aromatics on this one are something else. The fresh, tropical character is just huge, accompanied by lychee and pear and even a bit of mint along the edges. This beer's fresh, vibrant, loaded up with fruit. And that sweet mango is just turned up to a whole other level, bringing mouthwatering tropical notes accompanied by pine and pith, with a touch of caramelized sugars and cotton candy. The overall mouthfeel is just wonderfully rounded, plush, and fruit-packed throughout. Alongside core expressions of mango, pineapple and pear, there's still tons of additional fruit: passionfruit, papaya, tangerine… A minimal show of malt throughout, staying mostly tucked away aside from the light candied orange at the core.