Breweries Opening in the Minnesota 2016/2017

Imminent Brewing (Northfield) has launched an Indigogo campaign. Lots of information on there.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/imminent-brewing-community-beer#/

 

Schells tweeted that the starkeller should be opening in late October

 

Hastings - Spiral Brewery LLC
2017 opening date by their own estimate. Web presence at http://spiralbrewery.com/

It's lookin' good.



An update or two:

Hastings - Spiral Brewery LLC
They estimate a 2017 opening date at their website (new?) http://spiralbrewery.com/

St. Paul - Stone Saloon
Mid-to-late 2017 opening (confirmed via email) and a new look: http://www.stonesaloon.com/

Fisher - Vertical Malt
Adam Wagner and I recently met at Fair State, where 'trivia night' and a balmy evening combined to make for an engaging conversation on the patio.

I recalled this inquiry from the thread:

As Rahr was mentioned by name, I inquired via follow-up email, and Adam replied:

It's worth remembering that Vertical Malt's capacity is still small. For example, Fair State's order took about two weeks to process (including same day delivery) and represented their main product, a pale malt used in Fair State's North/South IPA; Junkyard* (Moorhead) also used it recently in their "Glacier Smash."

So far he's only done very small sample batches of Pilsen and caramel malt, and plans to add sizeable batches of Munich and Vienna once his pilot system has been scaled-up to one with a more efficient economy of industrial scale.

He expects the scaling-up process to take place within the next six months, at which point there will be a near-doubling of his present speed and capability. Within the next year, the goal is to increase the output once again. This article from May offers some more insight into his process, and includes a look at the pilot kiln:

http://www.crookstontimes.com/news/...iness-spotlight-vertical-malt-finds-its-niche

The ultimate goal is to have scaled-up enough that they are a regular provider of specialty malts to breweries throughout the region, as well as the home brewing community.

* He also supplied them with some Caramel Malt for an upcoming brew. Bemidji and Rhombus Guys have also used this malt, and two other breweries will also feature it in upcoming beers.

 

Took a quick tour of Roets on Friday. They weren't serving beer for Jordan's German celebration (u4ic was) but they are sticking with the "few more weeks" timeline. They said they passed an occupancy inspection earlier that day. The taproom is all ready to go and the brew system looks ready to roll as well. Taproom was pretty nice looking with a big copper bar, some high tops, and a cool live edge table thing.

One thing to note is that they're doing a membership which they said will fund an immediate brewhouse expansion. Membership levels range from $50 for a shirt to $250 which gets you a shirt, private tasting, tour, discounts and growler purchases. There's an in between level too with a shirt, discounts and growlers for maybe $125. They made it sound like growlers wouldn't be available to the public initially, only to those who purchased a membership.

 

Did you tell him that you have been waiting very patiently?

 

That's hella tight.

 

How was the u4ic beer? I've been there twice and both times closed.

 

• Perpetual timeline to open?
• Located outside the metro?
• Local population of ~5000 people?
• Already eyeing expansion before even opening?
• Restricting business opportunities to potential customers?

Granted I don't have a MBA and I seriously hope I'm wrong here but this doesn't exactly strike me as a successful plan. The highlighted aspects sound an awful lot like the path a certain store took around here before going under. Maybe they're working on a signage plan like the candy store nearby?

 

Didn't want to lie to the poor guy! I did share a crowler of sisyphus with him and he said he liked their beer and model so that's promising.

It is like a branded/personalized work shirt so the price didn't seem too crazy to me. I could also have the tier details wrong but none of them struck me as a "good deal" or something I'll do. And I live 3 blocks away.

Bad. They had their Car Show Ale on tap. I skipped it entirely. My other craft drinking friends had one and switched to Leinie Oktoborfest.

I think this plan does have a chance to successful, despite the points you listed. For a few reasons:

• The brewer is fairly accomplished, this article details the many awards he's won in his homebrewing days.
• The space looks nice. The inside has a decent vibe, the bar is cool looking, and they built a patio out back which looks promising.
• The local population is, as far as I can tell, extremely excited about having a brewery in town. The town has a rich brewing history, at one time the city actually had TWO breweries. The town baseball team is called the Brewers. As an aside, someone asked Tim while I was there if they'd be serving beer at the ball park and he stated they couldn't distribute due to their licensure. Bummer, since the ball park is about two blocks away and would be a very natural fit to sell some beers.
• Jordan and the area in general does get some out of town traffic. We've got a B&B, some antique shops, the aforementioned candy store, and an orchard. The town is also in talks in regards to building an outlet center or mall of some sort out by McDonalds on 169. I heard talks about a hotel too last year, but not sure what's going on with that.
• Smaller, less metro towns support breweries - Montgomery comes to mind. If you're just selling beer in your taproom 3 nights a week it seems like you can keep overhead low and sell a lot of pints at a high margin and keep the lights on that way. I've actually been really surprised by the trend of these smaller towns getting breweries. Having grown up in a town adjacent to Montgomery, I wouldn't have thought any town in that area would fill a brewery but they've been quite busy on all 3 of my visits. The people in the area like their beer, but I see a lot of Mich Golden and Busch Light being consumed. Apparently the locals will branch out. Just build it and they will come!

 

I'll add my 2 cents as well about Roets. Mostly the same as @mrpeterandthepuffers . I talked to the son, he mentioned how his dad has won many many awards. In talking about the beer, they don't plan on naming them, going with the Social Cider beer game, light, malty, hoppy and other.
The hoppy one will be Citra and Cascade he thought. They do plan on making a scotch ale at some point as well.
Didn't get me too excited. Sounded like low output and minimal hours as well, especially to begin. They hope to be approved to start brewing by this weekend. That would mean, beer done by end of the month. Of course, the soft opening will be for those people that choose to buy an expensive shirt. Seems we won't get to try it until mid October at best.

The taproom look great, one of the better looking ones that I've been to. Of course, you don't drink the taproom, you drink the beer.

 

So myabe it'll be open around the time I have to head to that neck of the woods for my nephew's birthday mid October.

 

Various updates -- none of these are BIPs with project names, yet.

Minnetonka - BIP (project name not presently known)
There's talk of a taproom (or brewpub) for a particular retail strip in the Glen Lake neighborhood of this fine city. There's nothing official yet, and there are frankly too many plans for the western suburbs (Note: In addition to those which we are already aware of) for me to be able to pin a name on this one. Hattip @islay

St. Paul - BIP (project name not presently known)
Over the past several years there has been talk of an indeterminate number of BIP for the capital city's downtown and Lowertown (it's hip!) neighborhoods, along with documented plans (BlackStack, Grillen, Stone Saloon) moving along and a rather large handful of successful startups (Bang, Burning Brothers, Sidhe, Urban Growler) having successfully made the jump from concept to commercial entity in other areas of the city.

With a couple of exception (Last City, Mr. McGeasil), most of the plans for downtown have moved forward in recent years, with 12welve Eyes, Clutch, and Looney Bin on the way in.

As such it is no surprise to hear of a new (or "new") plan for Lowertown taking shape, and indeed talk of another such plan is making the rounds. Hattip "Dangeruss" at the other site.

And here's one I caught-up with today:

Eyota city officials voted 4-to-1 on a motion to sell a parcel of land, allowing a brewpub plan to move forward. The plan calls for a brewery with attached wood-fired pizza grill. Brett Lincoln (South Fork Brewing Co.) is named as one of the plan's principals.

*A couple of years back the city made local headlines when it announced that it was looking to draw the attention of potential brewery or taproom plans. The idea being that a taproom would be both a tourist destination and raise the profile of the area for further business development in the future.

 

Rahr is putting in a test brewery at their facility. Not sure if beer will be available to the public or not.

 

I've been driving by this for a few weeks.
I talked to a friend about it. It would be great to see a Rahr brew house for their "test" beers.
1. They have the capital and don't need to make money on it.
2. They can test their ingredients on the public.
3. No pressure to distribute.
4. I like the location.
5. Low expectations.

I'd be fine with SMASH beers all day long. Just sell growlers and ask for feedback... Just my thoughts.

I know I've seen them invite breweries out to tour and host them at an older taproom. I imagine they host their own private events, but if you brew "too much" beer, feel free to sell it!

 

Just my two cents as well but I think it is a major mistake to not name your beers and I would assume most people in the business would agree. Even Roets IPA would work much better than "hoppy" What the fuck does that tell a potential customer. There are tons of variations of "hoppy' beers. I've seen places sub categorize them next to the beers for beginners which makes sense but to them that is not a good decision.

 

Two Tiny updates:

Unmapped brewing is setting up in Minnetonka -http://bizj.us/1o94fo

Utepils has made nice progress and is still aiming for late fall opening, depending on government approval.

 

So Upmapped Brewing is the brewery going in near Glen Lake. I wish Upmapped could have stayed in Tonka Bay like they were initially planning (closer to me!). Upmapped will be very close to the Gold Nugget Tavern.

 

Maybe next week?