Breweries opening in Minnesota 2013/2014

Wayzata Brew Works is being planned for the Boat Works complex, once the site of manufacturing everything from buses to armored landing craft. Taproom with growler sales, and perhaps micro-distilling in the near future.

(Edit: Has this one been mentioned here yet? July was a long, blurry month... )

 

According to Waconia Brewing:

"The three major priorities for us at the brewery are: 1) Getting the condensing unit installed so we can fire up the cooler. 2) Finding a safe place for our glycol chiller and getting it there. 3) Making sure the boiler is assembled correctly and outfitting all the pipes that go along with it. Taproom tables & chairs arrive at the end of August and some framing, titling & painting still needs to be done but it should go quickly once started. All these things should be resolved within the next 3-4 weeks and we hope to have beer fermenting by the first week of September with an opening date towards the end of September."​

Still seems like an aggressive schedule but they're pretty driven so it could still happen.

At the same time J. Carver Distillery has installed their stills and their serving area looks done. So they're darned close, too. Good times for Waconia. :-)

 

Something more recent on what I presume would be Wayzata Brew Works, unless there is even yet another brewery looking into Wayzata...

http://www.weeklynews.com/news/gove...cle_0f7a4b2d-3259-5cba-a45d-1d7cf74454aa.html

 

Another article about the same...

http://www.bizjournals.com/twinciti...ks-distillery-brewery-boatworks.html?page=all

Having read the articles I'm not real excited about this one. Almost feels like 2 rich guys looking to cash in on a "hot trend" rather than 2 beer lovers fulfulling a lifelong dream. I bet the deck will be outstanding, though, and a great place for one of their "lighter beers" on a hot summer day.

 

But but but they have a crack brewer!

 

I know, I know:

As Craft Beer purists we tend to cling to this righteous notion whereby hard-working college grads have a dream and thus, grasp life by the short-and-curlies and throttle it in order to make their dreams come true.

But can you show me where it was written that a couple of well-to-do Brohams cannot also share a lifelong passion to produce beer and spirits? ^_^

 

Agreed, if someone makes great beer, I could care less where they come from.

 

Quoting from the article:

"But we have to work our way through a number of concerns, the least of which is parking,” Willcox said. “We’ve been awfully successful in bringing new restaurants to Wayzata, and the result has put significant pressure on our parking availability. So now we’re very careful. We want to be sure that the parking situation has been well thought out and is workable before we add more pressure in that area.”

So is parking an issue or isn't it?

“There is a concern about alcohol in general and how much of it is being consumed in Wayzata. Some of these taprooms want to have the ability to add small distilleries, as well as wine or hard cider. So there’s some concern of opening the spigot too much or too broadly."

Sounds like a slippery slope to me. Could loose women be far behind?

I'm glad that I don't live in Wayzata - couldn't afford it anyway.

 

If it was a winery/tasting room they wouldn't even bat an eye.

 

Tony Yanow out in LA is a great example of a very well to do individual who is also very passionate about beer and has opened two well regarded beer bars followed by a massive brewery (for a start up) out there. He started with a modest neighborhood bar in Burbank called Tony's Darts Away, then a much more upscale place called Mohawk Bend and then within another year or two opened the production brewery; Golden Road. And has done that all in less than 5 years. I forget what the story is about where his money came from, but his passion for beer and commitment to quality can't be denied.

But, despite just making that case, I am also usually usually skeptical of a lot of places popping up serving mediocre beer, especially if the plan is to do so in a place like Wayzata.

 

I bet the new Wayzata brewery will be a gold mine. The taproom at Excelsior Brewing is always packed so making mediocre beer near Lake Minnetonka is a winning formula.

 

There's another example like that from out in Cali that comes to mind:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/2210/

 

They can, but I'll be more skeptical of them. Especially when they select an uber-trendy location in a hipster building and talk about "lighter beers". It's certainly possible their crack brewer is some assistant brewer from Surly or Indeed or <insert some top 10 brewery here> and the beer will be fantastic. They clearly have the budget for it. I guess we'll find out in a few months.

 

I almost went with that, except that I figured that Firestone may have been too obvious. I met Adam in the early 90's through some friends in the bay area (circumstances escape me now), but I did a lot of traveling up and down to SoCal from the Bay Area and my gf and I hit the Central Coast wine region several times. He had said to look him up sometime, so I finally did and met him at his family's winery probably around 1995. He had a jockey box system going at a short bar across the wine tasting room. He talked about his vision (basically the mainstream brand that it was for so many years) and made no qualms that while he planned a business completely independent of the winery (as his father had done from the tire business), having Firestone as a last name certainly smoothed out the access to cash. But he was passionate from both beer and business approaches, which is probably why they stuck so long to the few tried and true mainstream beers before they started to really expand what they were brewing once they did get into production. I don't think that I ever met David Walker (I barely even remember the circumstances about Adam), so I am not sure if he was brought in shortly afterwards or how that worked. I actually don't even think that the "Walker" name was on the label in the early years.

 

This is probably a little ways a way - maybe 2015:

Minneapolis Town Hall Northeast.

 

Two updates from right over the border:
http://www.oliphantbrewing.com/
Sounds like their taproom is opening on Aug 28. This one seems to be on the nano size. Seems like they are still fundraising with a "donation" page.
http://www.lucettebrewing.com/press.html
From the pics on their social media this looks like a pretty big expansion. Also look forward to another can offering from them. 16oz 6pk of the tall boys is an awesome deal. More should do it. Seems like they kind of just fly under the radar.

 

I had a chance to check out Schram Vineyard and Brewery last week and blogged about it. Check it out here and please comment if you have any other thoughts. I like the concept, but I think they need to keep working on getting the system down. They have only been serving beer for a month...
http://jackofallbrews.blogspot.com/2014/08/schram-vineyard-brewery-update.html

 

I have visited Schram Vineyard & Brewery several times since they started brewing beer. It can get really hectic there especially on Saturdays with them constantly hosting events. That is why I generally go out on Thursday evenings. I also agree on the beer.

 

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but in Grand Marais there is a brewery under construction with a sign saying Voyageur Brewing on it.

 

Yup, it received a quick mention about a month or so back, and I swear there's another place that announced they are opening only in the last week or so. Been a long summer with lots of beer consumed (by me), must... focus...
<-- insert best Shatner voice.