Minnesota Breweries-In-Planning / Now Open . . .

Haha. Sometimes I forget to look at Forum dates....

Here is an example of what you need to know about - assuming you don't already haha. It can be hard to read sarcasm so I'm assuming you're serious.

http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/23222/72170

 

I'm not sure which breweries closed, but I can't think of any that closed that I cared about. There has certainly been a recent influx of quality breweries in Iowa so hopefully the new ones are learning from the others. There's a lot of competition and being 'local' simply isn't enough. It's a great culture that's growing and I love it.

And I agree. TG is a leader and I'm happy to see them grow. It will be nice when their beers are more available.

To be fair to MN, light beer is the top grossing beer in just about every state... More Craft for us I guess!

 

Its open now.

http://minneapolis.eater.com/archiv...ewing-company-taproom-now-open-in-st-paul.php

 

Wow, no word then ahem, bang they are open. Kind of excited to check out their operation.

 

Ok Chaz. I know you have some more. Let's hear it!!

 

Today "The Tap" portion of the local blog Heavy Table reports that the brewpub on Washington just down from Town Hall is projected to open fall 2013, Day something is its name.

 

http://blogs.citypages.com/food/2013/09/bang_brewing_in_st_paul_officially_open_for_business.php

 

I would think w/ all the start-up costs of opening a brewery, even a small one, that you would open with a little more varied beer lineup and be open broader hours. I dont understand how one could pay the bills, let alone make a living. This may well be a couple that 'aint in it for the money'. Independently wealthy perhaps!

 

I am excited for Day Block and Loose-Wiles most of all. More date night options for the wife and I

 

I got the impression that they both still have day jobs. I was there last Friday when they had their "soft opening". Since they're a very small place, they can fill it pretty easily via word of mouth to friends. As far as making a living, I would think that shipping kegs is more important than selling a few pints in the taproom.

 

Just swung by Bang. Obviously it's not open right at this moment, I just wanted to get a feel as to where it's located. Sweet little building, looks like a grain silo. Took a gander through the front door. Bigger brewhouse than I thought for such a small place, maybe a 7bbl. Everything inside is super shiny. So as I was driving around the building I realized that it is literally right next to the future home of the Urban Growler Brewery. Like, next door neighbors. Pretty sweet.

 

I'm guessing the limited hours and sparse beer selection will be tempory. The strangest thing in my opinion is their almost complete lack of media presence. They are on Twitter, so I guess that's something, but one would think a start up brewery like them would use everything within their means to get the word out about their business. Maybe it's not a bad thing, maybe they want to keep it low key at first. Who knows.

 

I wonder about small breweries that have been around for a while too-olvalde and borealis come to mind. Have to sell an awful lot of bombers. Very little tap presence for either

 

I've noticed this as well. Some of these guys don't have any intention of growing their breweries large enough to make a whole lot...sort of an intermediate between pro and hobbyist. The key with the nanobrewery is to have a very low overhead.

I can't claim too much knowledge of their plans, but I'm sure it probably helps if you can build the entire place from scratch, like Borealis.

 

Bang isn't even a nano, it looks like they have a brand new 7bbl neatly tucked into that cool, sorta weird little space. A micro brewhouse in a nano skin. Though, their cellar capacity has got to be fairly limited.

 

I've seen several definitions for "nano" (equipment vs. production), so I'm not sure where the cut off should be. Either way, they should be pretty small. Throw in the specially designed building and a focus on "supplying local business with high quality product", etc. and you get the impression that they've got their specific and (at least initially) limited niche identified. Probably not a bad approach in an increasingly crowded market.