Breweries Opening/Closing in Minnesota 2018

F-Town in Faribault has defaulted on a loan from Rice County used to pay for brewing equipment. Rice County now plans to "take whatever means necessary to collect the debt." You may recall that F-Town plans to relocate to St. Paul under a new name, although this development doesn't exactly instill optimism that that plan will come to fruition.

 

The Saint Paul brewery isn’t a relocation of F-Town. It’s a new brewery from one of the cofounders of F-Town.
Source where they make the distinction: https://www.twincities.com/2018/02/...ul-parlour-bar-spring-cafe-red-rabbit-colita/

 

As far as I can tell, that's just spin as part of a rebranding effort. The ownership entity of F-Town, i.e., the company that has defaulted on its loan, has been reorganized and renamed as M.O.E. Craft Company, run by Travis Temke. That's exactly the same company that's working on the unnamed St. Paul plan. In fact, Temke's failed pitch to Rice County in an attempt to restructure the loan was that relocating operations, including the brewing equipment, to St. Paul would afford M.O.E. the ability to make payments on its debt.

 

Austin's Angry Hog just needs to past state inspections before opening.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=id%3D2128934777342862%3Btype%3Dpost%3Buser%3DAngryHogBrewery

 

I just read that, and it seems to me as if F-Town is effed.

 

Magnificent. If they crank out good beer, this will make the weeks I spend annually in Austin much more pleasant!

 

That's awesome! That part of Minnesota badly needs a brewery. Granted they're close to Rochester, as well as Mason City/Clear Lake, IA, but Austin/Albert Lea have needed a brewery for awhile.

 

Brett Doebbeling (formerly of disgruntled) announced his new brewery in Wadena is a go. Great news for us non-metro alcoholics !!

 

A couple of updates:

- 651 Brewery Co.
Facebook page is no longer available. At one point I'd heard they were looking to buy a local brewery, but I have no idea what their status is or where this plan might be headed.

- Hamel Brewing Company (originally called "The Hamel Tap")
Website expired, Facebook page unavailable, last Twitter update in 2016. Defunct?

 

So both Northgate and F-Town got foreclosed on/closed down... didn't both of them sign with and get money from Bernicks? ( I could be wrong, but I heard that from so many people I am thinking it true).

If that's true, they were looked at positively by Bernicks, received money, yet both got into financial problems after they signed and received payment.

What happened? Am I wrong about the above?

 

So what are we looking at? Late Fall or later for the opening? Very excited although a bit more out of the way for me in my travels (although another 60 mile round trip off the my route never has stopped me before if the beer is great.)

 

Even if the St Paul place was to move forward, I wouldn’t visit it specifically because of the way Temke operates.

 

I don't know about Northgate, but F-Town had loans through the Economic Development Authority. I know at least one of the original investors pulled money out awhile back because he knew they were deliberately not paying, and no longer wanted their name associated with it. It sounded like that’s kinda been Temke’s MO.

 

For years I updated a spreadsheet, paid attention to which wholesaler acted as a master distributor for which brewery, which wholesaler had which brewery in which territory, etc. Nerdy stuff! I stopped updating over ten years (and ten hard drives ago).

As such I had to poke around to see that Bernick's was distributing both Northgate and F-Town. In fact, my search brought this (cleverly titled) result from about two years ago:
http://bernicks.com/events/how-fd-are-we

FWIW they bought Rohlfing April 1st, and have been on the rise for years.

I used to see Northgate all over town, but in the comments of this MPR piece on their closure, one person claims to have never seen their packaged beer at retail. So was I just observant, or were they legitimately hard to find?

While I have no doubt that there are some in the trade who would know more about the details of the agreements (between Bernick's and the individual breweries) than many of us on this board, it's rare that specific details of such financial arrangements are known to those who aren't directly involved. Likewise, I'd be surprised to learn that the amount that either received upon initial signing would be enough to make or break them.

 

Both were easy to find in my part of the cities.

 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=id%3D1179017225568558%3Btype%3Dpost%3Buser%3Dgarphishbrewing

 

Someone (shifty eyes) from F-Town came to Sisyphus before we built out the comedy room and boldly proclaimed to me that they would be on tap in every bar in a tri-state area within 3 years. I remember thinking, "Damn...I just hope to be in business in 3 years."

I shared my plans for a comedy club, and he laughed and said "Comedy... I don't see that working, but good luck with that." I didn't see his plan working either, but didn't feel the need to tell him.

Seems to me to be another case of overbuilding for future demand vs finding out what actual demand is first and then scaling into it. It's easy to sell your beers to a liquor store that first time... but how about the 10th time? Or the 100th time? Is it actually moving? Everyone, myself included, was going into craft beer 4-5 years ago with the mindset of "But what about when I can't make enough!?" because that's where the established players and early movers found themselves.

But it's a different ball game today, and will be 5 years from now. And 5 years from then too. It's almost like we are doomed to repeat some sort of never-ending cycle with an always moving, never achievable goal...

 

I have no idea what you are talking about

 

Unsure, I think he just got city approval and a location. I would be shocked if he was open by the end of the year, but tomorrow isn't soon enough for me!