Breweries opening in Minnesota 2015/2016

I'll be in Minnesota this weekend, looking forward to trying these new places

 

Thanks Dad! Since I live in eastern metro they are both a shorter drive for me than most breweries located out of the metro. Also this thread includes updates, but I'll try to keep to your gestapo thread rules.

 

I was at 56 Brewing today, and they told me the taproom would be open in September. They were shooting for August, but didn't get on the city council agenda. Samples, growlers, and 750ml's available until then.

 

Thank you for that update. I had somehow reckoned that their taproom would be open at the same time they started doing their growler sales back in April.

 

It's easy to be cynical about this, but it's a good thing. Yes, there's a massive learning curve from home brewing to commercial brewing, and we all know it's not just learning the business side of things. In a perfect world, though, many of these places will succeed and, over time, we'll have a much wider variety of beer. Imagine being able to stop into any small town and be able to try the local brew.

In truth, though, there are quality questions and scale questions. We don't know how it will all shake out. I feel bad for those that don't make the probable coming shakedown, but hopefully it won't be as bad as many here fear. With time many of those homebrewers can probably produce really good beer.

 

I like the idea of many small towns with breweries. The biggest problem most will find, however, is with the treatment plants. Do these small towns have the infrastructure in place to handle the outflow of a production brewery as it grows? I'm guessing no, and I'm also guessing no one has put a lot of thought into it.

 

What exactly do you mean by outflow? Waste water and such?

 

Retail space for what kind of stuff? I'm not sure what you are talking about.

 

I'd be honestly surprised if the community knows ahead of time the effluent BOD levels of even a small brewery. I was recently contacted by the Met Council concerning problems in MSP.

 

Yes. Effluent would have been a better word. Yeast and beer have incredibly high BOD levels that can really mess up a treatment plant. Cleaning chemicals are either highly alkaline or highly acidic which also cause problems.

 

As someone in a water related line of work, I never thought about the waste discharge from the breweries. Not to derail the thread but what mitigation do other breweries use? Seeing as it's a loaded and technical question if you have links to any info I'll happily browse that and save you the typing.

 

This is sort-of on topic (and this thread has veered a little, but so be it) for those among you with an interest in going' Pro:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/going-...now-to-start-your-brewery-tickets-17973889387

To this end, I'm expecting that we'll be learning of another small batch of BIPs within the next month, as those with an eye on the beer tourism aspect begin to ramp-up their early 2016 promotional pushes.

 

I'd love to read what Mr. Berg has to say, but I believe that he's reached his maximum allowed posting limit for the month.*

Here's an interesting read on the topic (google search: "brewery wastewater"):
http://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/equipment-systems/wastewater-basics-growing-craft-brewery/

I found several more salient results with: "effluent mitigation and the brewing industry" as search criteria.

*More than two posts, and they'll shackle him to a pair of oversized garden gnomes and feed him only Schell's Light.

 

Here ya go: BaldManBrewing.com - looks to be Plymouth, MN.
I am running out of smartass retorts - oy...

 

I found this post on their blog to be particularly insightful.

 

Indeed, that really speaks to me.