Breweries opening in Minnesota 2015/2016

Might be intentional? On the other hand, if Minnesota were to restrict the term taproom to be used -ONLY- by brewing entities which sell taps and growlers*, then other venues with taproom in their name already would have to spend money to change their names -- perhaps. I'm not a lawyer, and don't know how some of those more intricate legal matters work.

*And which do not also have a full kitchen license.

 

I love how they (meaning the papers) keep calling it a taproom. Not complaining, since Lord knows we could use decent options here in Woodbury. Still could use a brewery taproom or two in the East Metro, and not in Stillwater.

 

Possible, I guess. Believe it when I see it.

 

We'd have to go back to, oh, I dunno 2011? I forget when the switch to these "new" forums came around. Anyway, there was a comment or two in one thread (Buebie and Dan, as I recall) bemoaning the lack of decent beer-y options out there.

Ed did the right thing in Hudson, and there's always White Bear Lake, but Maplewood Mall -- hello?

Hopefully someone sees what's goin' on with that old Champps location and it sparks a trend. "Hopefully."

 

Hopefully is right. I'm not impressed enough with Big Wood to go up to White Bear, and forget about Hudson because if I'm driving that far, it's usually in the Minneapolis direction.

Options are getting better, but the places that have them do not mind charging for them. Convenience factor, I guess.

 

As pertains to specialty and Craft Beer, Ward 6 has virtually revitalized the east side, single-handedly. And yet, there's Obb's, The Foundry, and a few others in-between Dave's BrewFarm and the Muddy Pig.

It's a slow change, but it's happening.

 

It is a slow change, and it is trickling in this direction more and more. Which is nice. My problem is that if I'm driving someplace outside of 5 minutes away, I tend to go to my old stand-by spots and forget about other options that are closer. Need to break that habit.

 

Washington Square had Backwoods Bastard, Blackout Stout & Brown Shugga' on tap last weekend, Pezzo always has a
decent tap line-up and you can usually find a couple of pretty good tap only options at Big Wood. If all else fails walk down to the Legion for an ice cold Premium and then to Hollihans for a Hamms.

 

Do you guys know any upcoming bar Next month? (I wanna know as tons as possible! ha, Thanks!

 

I think there is plenty of room for more breweries in MN/Twin City metro area, but I wonder if the North Minneapolis area is getting a little crowded now? Only a question, not really an opinion.

I just wonder if existing breweries/tap rooms in that area see a hit on their tap room revenues every time another option opens, or if it actually brings more people into the area? If you are 612, for example, you already had DM and Indeed, but now Bauhuas, Northgate, Insight, the huge Surly monster and a few more like Bryn Mawr in planning. I'm guessing there are a handful of other potential breweries wanting to target the North Minneapolis market as well (the proverbial "if they can I CAN mentality).

I can't imagine local bars/restaurants don't also feel some type of hit and I wonder if that is playing out somehow.

I'm always fascinated with economic dynamics and that is where my question comes from.

 

I've been a fan of Washington Square for a while. Even Manitou The Station and 617 (an old-fashioned dive, a block over) have pretty good options, all things considered. And the last time I visited Hollihan's they had dozens... maybe around 100 premium, import, and Craft bottles (in addition to Two Hearted and a couple of other Craft names on tap -- plus Hamm's, of course.) Needless to say: For a town of 25,000 just minutes away from the 'Rockin' East Side', I was impressed!

And then there's Tally's barbecue & beergarden (seasonal-only) with beer cruises on the lake. The WBL is sittin' pretty.

 

As far as memory serves me there are currently no breweries in North Minneapolis. All of the ones you stated are in Northeast Minneapolis, and you're right in that they certainly are packed into that relatively small geographic area for better or worse. Although I can't find an address for where Bryn Mawr will be located my guess in that it will be in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood of North Minneapolis (although Fulton isn't in the Fulton neighborhood, and Harriet is no where near Lake Harriet so I could be completely wrong). I'm hesitant, however, about how well a brewery/taproom will do in North Minneapolis, but it may turn out to be an untapped area for breweries. If Harriet can pull off bringing people into their Longfellow taproom next door to a crack house I wouldn't be completely surprised if someone can bring beer drinkers to the streets of North Minneapolis.

 

The short answer, based on my discussions with brewery employees, is that being in "the brewing district" of Nordeast Minneapolis helps drive business quite a bit for all of the breweries in it. Most of the patrons of these taprooms are not neighborhood locals but rather people coming from all over the metro area specifically to go to a taproom. The availability of options, opportunity for full or miniature taproom crawls, and the fact that Nordeast has become synonymous with taprooms attracts a lot of people to the Nordeast taprooms who otherwise might have gone to, say, Steel Toe, Harriet, or Bent. People say, "Let's go to a taproom," and immediately think to go to somewhere, anywhere, in Nordeast. They have a beer at 612 and then decide they might as well check out Bauhaus (or Indeed or whatever) while they're in the area.

This effect mainly applies to the core five breweries of the area, Dangerous Man, Indeed, 612Brew, Bauhaus, and Sociable. It helps the excellent Fair State somewhat, but Fair State seems to be a few blocks too far north to experience the full networking effect. NorthGate and Insight similarly are too far east to experience the full effect. Insight, in fact, is closer to Surly than it is to the core of the Nordeast brewing district, and it helps to produce something of a bridge between the Nordeast breweries on the one side and Surly and the nearby St. Paul taprooms of Urban Growler and Bang (and, a bit further on, Burning Brothers) on the other side. Boom Island, despite being very close to Dangerous Man, experiences little advantage due to its presence in "scary" North rather than hip Nordeast Minneapolis; blame the Mississippi River. 56 Brewing, when it opens and if it has a taproom, is much too far north to take much advantage of the brewing district effect, and Fulton's second location is essentially irrelevant because it lacks a taproom. Bryn Mawr will practically be on an island in the western part of the city and will have no relationship to the Nordeast brewing district. Tattersall Distilling is locating in the heart of the brewing district specifically to take advantage of the crowd that descends upon it for alcoholic beverages.

 

Boom Island is in North Minneapolis, and that location seems to frighten a lot of potential customers away even though it is only a couple of blocks west of the river. Arguably the Warehouse District / North Loop breweries Fulton and The Freehouse technically may qualify as being in North Minneapolis, depending on where one draws the boundary, but few people would think of them that way.

 

Forgot about Tally's. Great summer option.

 

Bryn Mawr looks like they're going in the old Glenwood Inglewood bottling facility.

 

"It's the water."

 

Actually, 90% of the Bryn Mawr neighborhood is in South Minneapolis (extending to S. 24th Street on the West side of Cedar Lake) - which is about as far south as Uptown, but further west. See the red shaded outline of Bryn Mawr here. But Bryn Mawr Brewing looks like it's going to be in the 10% on the north side (which is the portion of Bryn Mawr north of Chestnut Avenue).

Looks like it. Here's some more info: http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/www/groups/public/@cped/documents/webcontent/wcms1p-116657.pdf

 

What's the consensus on 56 Brewing? I just watched their Kickstarter video. At only 700 sq ft seems like they're going to be terribly undersized right out of the gate. Any idea on the brewhouse capacity?

 

They are taking over Northgates original space and I'm assuming using their old equipment as well. I think they have a 7bbl brewhouse and a couple of fermentors and maybe 2 brites? Small, yes and probably not sustainable for the long term, but they should be able to get a decent amount of beer to market.