Brewery Updates in Minnesota (2019)

I understand what you're saying but I'm comparing 12eyes to BT based on the styles of beer they make. Tin Whiskers has been around longer than BT and is probably riding the "my local brewery" wave much like a lot of other subpar breweries in the twin cities. That is the only explanation I have for that brewery still being around because i definitely share your opinion on their beer quality. Other breweries I feel the same about include: Lake Monster, 612, Insight, Lake and Legends, Baldman, and so many others.

12 eyes opened just after BT and tried to specialize in the same type of beer as BT. In my opinion if you switched the locations of the 2 breweries there is only a slight chance that 12 eyes wouldn't have met the same fate because of the superior quality of BTs products that are targeting the same audience.

Personally, 12eyes could've offered free parking and I still would've gone to BT 9/10 times if i was looking for hazy IPAs or fruited ales.

 

I couldn't have said it better, myself.

 

I'll try not to go into too much detail out of respect for the owners of the business, defunct though it is, but I was informed (prior to the closing) that 12welve Eyes had shifted toward the trendy styles because it was doing much larger-than-expected crowler distribution to liquor stores, and that's what the liquor stores were demanding ("We don't want the rye stout. Doesn't sell. Got any more fruit sours?").

I'd have loved it if the market had supported 12welve Eyes' initial approach of a wide and rotating variety of styles, but customers simply weren't turning out to the taproom in adequate numbers to justify the Oregon model even as business was booming for the crowlers in stores in a more limited style range (that's my take, not coming from anyone at 12welve Eyes). I do agree that, given that it had gradually morphed largely into a hazies/fruities/pastries shop, there was little reason for fans of those styles to pick 12welve Eyes over the bigger name a few blocks away when choosing which taproom to visit. Damned if it did; damned if it didn't.

That said, the story of irreconcilable differences among the owners, as opposed to market factors, being the cause of the closure is quite plausible to me. From everything I heard, 12welve Eyes legitimately was making good money specifically on that high-margin crowler distribution.

 

Part of the reason I've shyed away from 12welve Eyes is exactly because of this reason. If they made a rye stout, now that would be interesting. The hazy/milkshake/brut ipas, fruited sours, trendy beers, etc. are done by everyone and their neighbor, give me something more interesting, perhaps some kind of kind of interesting saison (they can even fruit that up for all I care). Then again I'm probably not your typical craft beer drinker.

 

I thought their beer was well made, and since I live just across the river, the location was great. We went there a lot when they first opened, but as their taplist became less diverse, we visited less and less. It's too bad they couldn't survive without having to follow the crowd. As someone who prefers a stout that isn't a latte, I realize I'm in the minority. They're good guys, and I wish them luck with whatever they do next.

I would have thought Tin Whiskers would have many of the same issues, and their beer isn't as good. Maybe their location gets more walk-in traffic, being by all those restaurants?

 

b.i.n.g.o. Also a bunch more residential near TW. And it's not in a basement.

 

In the StarTrib business section today:
Bankruptcies - 12welve Eyes Brewing. Filed June 5, 2019
Assets $5,312
Liabilities $1,628,660

 

Ok, now the picture becomes a lot more clear. Damn! I really feel bad for them.

 

That is a “significant” loss for a 2 year old
Brewery .

 

I'd love to know what their initial investment was.

 

Thank You ! You couldve added Sidhe in there too but that place is thankfully dead. And what kills me is when people rave about these places as having "the best beer". They obviously dont know what they are drinking.

 

They actually had quite a few windows in there to make it not so basementy.

 

I'm going to try to interpret this information despite my limited understanding of bankruptcy law. It appears that Elliot Grosse, one of the owners of 12welve Eyes, is filing personal Chapter 7 bankruptcy to absolve himself of responsibility to pay the business debt. The low assets cited presumably are his personal assets, and the high liabilities cited presumably are the 12welve Eyes liabilities (perhaps combined with some personal liabilities such as auto loans). Chapter 7 (versus Chapter 13) can be a good option if you don't have a lot of personal assets, because Chapter 7 generally leaves personal assets more vulnerable than does Chapter 13. It's murder on your credit score for the next decade, but it's a relatively quick process, and the trustee takes care of the liquidation, so the filer can quickly move on with his life.

If my interpretation is correct, that's not an action someone would take lightly. I'm not sure it tells us much about the cause of the closure, however; it could still be driven either by market forces (hand forced) or personal factors (desperate to get out). Many (most?) breweries are largely debt-financed, in which case their liabilities (including future rent obligations on a long-term lease agreement) are bound to exceed their liquid plus tangible assets in their early years. Where the business potentially can make money isn't in liquidation value but rather in the expected future revenue flows, which of course go away when the business shuts down operations.

Please chime in, anyone, if you have a better sense of bankruptcy law and strategy or more info on 12welve Eyes' situation in particular.

 

Well, they did make rye stout, and lots of other non trendy stuff. They had 12 beers on most of the time, and only about half would be considered hype.

 

I think you may be on the right track islay. The bankruptcy was filed by Elliot Grosse so maybe this is his way of trying to financially get out of a potentially failing business now when he saw little chance of turning it around (or he got sick of the work to pay equation of a running a small brewery). His partner(s) may have disagreed and wanted to continue on and maybe that's where the partner disagreement rumors are coming from.

 

I think you may, or may not be on the right track with your assumption. By your own admission, you don’t fucking know shit, so why even posit this garbage? Do you have concrete facts about the situation? Ones you can back up with verifiable source material? I thought this was Beer Advocate, not Falcon Crest. When did the Midwest forum get highjacked by daytime tv fans?

 

Wait which Falcon Crest, the new or the old one? Also who the hell shot JR on Dallas?

 

It’s all a dream, man.

We’ll all wake up in the morning with no talk of bankruptcy or head brewer’s woes, and return to our usual discussions about how Culhane Brewing has been kicking ass these past few years in lowertown. Fruited sours, pastry stouts, and hazebombs galore!

 

The Growler covers four expanding breweries in the Upper Midwest, including Copper Trail in Alexandria (new/larger building, equipment, and taproom) and Aegir in Elk River (new/larger brewing facility with slightly enlarged taproom at original site).

Also in The Growler, Liz Foster discusses the lessons learned from her 120-taproom tour of Minnesota in 2018. Good content here, though I'd be remiss if I didn't issue a trigger warning to the more sensitive readers of this thread regarding lesson #6.