Breweries opening in Minnesota 2015/2016

"City of Lakes" is the motto, eh?

True enough! As far as "BIP" go, I'm aware of plans which don't yet have names, and finding the right fit with only a city name and e.g. "brewery Minnesota", or "brewing company Minnesota" as a search modifier is metaphorical needle is a haystack search method.

That building sort of shot up like a weed, so I haven't been by it to see what the parking is like. Maybe they figure the people who live walking distance or those who bike or use public transit as their main clientele?

 

Indeed.

"Lakes & Legends" reminds me of the much maligned former Big Ten division names and motto ("Leaders and Legends") as well as the restaurant Lake & Irving, which is one of the better craft beer bars in Uptown.

 

It could be that they are riffing on that old motto, and the Loring Park neighborhood could probably use a sports bar to complement all of the other restaurants and bars. Sounds like it's going to be a pretty big operation.

 

Me, too.

Perhaps, but the old Big 10 division names were at the same time silly and pretentious. Not an association a business would want...

But, I'm not a died-in-the-wool Big 10 guy, so I'm not their target if that association was intentional.

 

A friend from St. Cloud just sent me this. I hadn't heard of this one before.
http://www.sctimes.com/story/news/l...-brewing-will-open-st-joe-september/25391183/

 

Arghhhhhhh why couldn't this have happened sooner? I'm graduating from St. John's in a month and I'll be moving to California for grad school... I would've killed to have a brewery in Joetown while I was here.

 

What, Sal's isn't good enough for you?

 

Good to see fellow Johnnies on ba

 

That's one for which I couldn't find a name, when the plan was mentioned in this article.

Two plans which ought to open "any day now":
Goat Ridge Brewing - New London
Sidhe Brewing - St. Paul

Goat Ridge has been working behind the scenes for quite a while, and Siddhe had hoped for a March opening.

The suggestion by @islay to double the estimated time involved 'til opening would be most useful for anyone planning a visit. There are a handful of unnamed plans for the Twin Cities metro area including Yoerg Beer which and 1858 Brewing Co., the latter of which hasn't been mentioned yet.

 

Fire up yer 401Ks: Grillen Brewing Company Saint Paul, MN (may or may not be the location) - was looking for accountant / attorney in the TCs. Go get 'em!
http://www.grillenbrewing.com/about/
(Is everybody looking to make a small fortune out of a very large one???)

 

I can feel the sarcasm blowing west across the St. Croix. I have a feeling there is going to be quite a bit of stainless on the marKet in the upcoming years, and the quote "wow, this home brew is awesome and you should start a brewery!", will probably be the biggest core reason.

 

Are Gull Dam Brewing and Big Axe Brewing in Nisswa producing anything worth noting or trying? I'll be up in the Pequot Lakes area in July for a week and was wondering if they were worth a visit?

 

I was up that way and tried Gull Dam. It should be a nice location for the summer, beer was......well at least it was made there.

 

What am I missing? This appears to be a hobbiest / home brewer's blog site, not a commercial brewing company site. Yes, it is a very elaborately done home brewing operation, but he makes no claims to be anything other than a home brewer. Quoting his site: "A website for an amateur homebrewer? Sure, why not? It's not just a hobby, but an unhealthy obsession involving grains, weeds and millions of unicellular organisms."

 

I'm more of a Middy guy myself...

I wish I'd thought of it sooner, but doing an SJU/BA bottle share would have been awesome. I know of a few people around here, but getting a decent-sized share would be awesome.

 

Chaz delivered the scoop on Grillen's transformation from mere homebrewing operation to commercial BIP a few months ago:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...innesota-2015-2016.243513/page-2#post-3155731

 

Not sure if Big Axe will be open by then or not but my guess is they will. I've been to Gull Dam three or four times and I find their beer to be solid/good. Maybe a little geared toward the masses but clean, and well made and I've always enjoyed their offerings. Prices are reasonable unlike the new outfits in St. Cloud. They also fill any growler which automatically makes it a return visit for me when passing through if they have decent beer which I feel they do.

 

Well, you're going to be in the area anyway. What do you have to lose?

 

Several hobbyist plans will go commercial in 2015; Here's one.

@MNHazmat wrote:

I'd reckoned 135 breweries and beer companies (and MN has lost at least two since I last made a count), DPS and Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild reckon the number will exceed 110 this year.

 

The other site lists 103 active as of this writing, of which approximately 16 (my count was quick) are client brewers. It does have a few sloppy entries, such as O'Gara's, which, as far as I know, hasn't brewed beer in years but still operates as a bar, and Lion's Tap, which renames Cold Spring beers and puts them on tap, as brewpubs, but these are known issues to admins. I believe that Skyview, one of the admins over there, has a clean-up project for this sort of thing on his long-term agenda.

Add in the known BIPs, and, if anything, 135 is conservative. I'm tracking over 30 BIPs in the Twin Cities area of the state alone (some of which, admittedly, surely will never open).

https://www.beeradvocate.com/ratebeer/?path=/breweries/minnesota/23/213/