Breweries opening in Minnesota 2013/2014

I live in Wayzata and I'm not really looking forward to the brewery. I look at Excelsior and really feel the product at the Wayzata brewery will be more the same...(I'm not a fan of Excelsior). I hope I'm wrong because I'd love to have a brewery a block away from my house. I'll definitely keep my on the development and keep everyone posted.

My neighbor is on the city council and said this will pass, so we should see some movement shortly. Beautiful area so I hope they can put out a great product. We shall see...

 

Here's what it looks like as of today:


And the Gun Flint is brewing but doesn't have anything ready for draft yet. The barkeep said they were running tests for consistency. Is that maybe what you're thinking of @Chaz?

 

Just so we're all on the same page:

Voyageur Brewing (a.k.a. the 'Cara Sporn' plan) received a quick mention about a month or so back. I posted some comments I received from the brewer at Gunflint Tavern / "Big Swamp Microbrewery" a while back. After that pilot batch, it can't be too long after they offer their brews for sale to the public.

Chaz said:

It was mentioned on the highly-rated Beer Show, last Thursday. I'm not sure where it's located, but it's got "North" in the name. True North is what I remembered, but there's already a beer named that and it's not new...

Edit: It was "Du Nord" craft spirits.

 

Yes yes it's not MN, but Oliphant just opened in Somerset WI and are making tasty tasty beer. Just about a 15 minute drive from Stillwater. Go check them out!

 

You don't like Excelsior Brewing's beer so therefore you aren't looking forward to a brewery opening in the town you live? Sure that makes sense.

 

Nah, his issue appears to be that he doesn't want a brewery like Excelsior in his town (which I think is perfectly reasonable). See bold part below:

 

^^^^^ Exactly.

 

Gotta defend a fellow Ween fan!

 

I passed through Grand Marais last week. At the Gunflint Tavern, the first batch is finally in the tanks, so it won't be long.

 

Just thought that take the time to re-visit the start of this thread for the sake of comparison:

Fair to say that there's been a lot of change and -and perhaps improvement?- insofar as total number of local breweries, taprooms, and brewpubs are concerned, all of which marking a HUGE change from where this town was ten years ago (with e.g. James Page being sold to Stevens Point, Minnesota Brewing closing down, too many brewpubs closing to count on my free hand...) Who knows where we'll be in another ten years?

P.S. Some updates:

- Bad Weather moving to St. Paul, opening a taproom on West Seventh Street.
- East Lake in Minneapolis is now hiring.

 

I have found Excelsior to be well made without any flaws. Anybody agree or disagree?

 

I live less than 2 miles from Excelsior Brewing and unfortunately I haven't found a beer yet that I really like. I find their beers to be aimed toward the Bud/Miller crowd that enjoys to be seen drinking a craft beer.

 

Really looking forward to the Bad Weather brewery/taproom.

Does that leave Lucid as the only brewer at their location in Minnetonka or are they trying to sign up more for their brew-share?

 

To quote from Meredith Wilson:

"I say, first, medicinal wine from a teaspoon,
Then beer from a bottle.
An' the next thing ya know,
Your son is playin' for money
In a pinch-back suit."

 

At ABR in 2012 Excelsior's brown was one of the highlights of the day for me, but it's way the hell across town from where I live, so I never got to the tap room. When the brown showed up in bottles I snapped one up & it was...foul would be kind. Excretous would be more accurate. I do want to get up there someday.

 

Guess I should have actually read the article.... Bottling will still be done at Lucid and "future canning will be done at Badger Hill". Bad Weather and Badger Hill in cans? Sign me up!!

 

I went through the last few pages of posts and didn't notice these, so I was going to add them here.
4 more breweries Opening up fall 2014 (probably):
http://insightbrewing.com/
http://www.lynlakebrewery.com/
http://www.eastlakemgm.com/
http://www.amitybrewing.com/

 

Thank you for providing those links as helpful reminders for me to get off my lazy ass and update.

- Insight is not quite ready to open. Their equipment (large scale) is en-route.
- LynLake plans for the month of Oktober.
- East Lake is now hiring (as of Sept. 02...)
- Amity is moving right along. I managed to check in last week and things are rolling right along; He has a space, barrels for a Sour program, is awaiting his equipment, plans to can... but it sounds like his taproom won't be ready until later this year at the very earliest.

Other updates:

- Wabasha Brewing (taproom on the West Side of St. Paul) opened their e-commerce store the other day...
- Bemidji is now hiring.

 

Waconia Brewing posted today saying they will not have beer for Nickle Dickle Day next weekend. I imagine it will still be October but you never know.

The J. Carver Distillery got their license! So they'll be distilling really soon. The tasting room will not be open initially. They're going to wait until they have a variety of products to sample. I know this isn't beer but it's been fun to see the progress of them and Waconia Brewing as they build at basically the same time. Big things happening in our small town. :-)