Frothy Minnesota Beer Market?

I think the only way there could be too many brewpubs is if they stretch the market for experienced/competent brewers too thin. Unfortunately, I'm afraid this might already be happening.

 

I guess I just find most Minnesota breweries boring. Nobody is really doing anything unique or specializing in anything really. We just have a collection of brew pubs that crank out the same 5 beers. Meh.

 

Regarding the retail shelf room, I'm curious to see how this plays out. Just in the past few months off the top of my head Minnesota has gotten Prairie, Bruery, Bear Republic, Cascade, Alpine, Sixpoint and I'm sure many others that I can't remember. The popular beer stores aren't adding square footage to their store for the addition of more beers so at some point they will hopefully have the capability to say no some of the crap beers that sit on the shelf forever because nobody buys them. Overall I think we are reaching a point where supply is outweighing demand on mediocre/average beer. On the other hand, I think the consumer is smarter thanks to sites like this and therefore really good beer will continue to be in short supply.

 

I certainly think this has a lot to do with the topic at hand. I will give you a few of those - Town Hall, Schell's, Fair State....but Surly? Indeed? Steel Toe? What have they honestly done recently? Surly got on the Citra bandwagon and made a new IPA? Indeed has done some interesting stuff....but I wouldn't call any of it good...have you tasted LSD? Steel Toe seems to be just cranking out the same old same old. Maybe it is just me...but overall its a pretty vanilla beer scene in MN that seems to be catering to the local hipster crowd in their breweries respective neighborhoods(looking at you Dangerous Man).

 

To me, the smartest thing new breweries can do is forget about the idea of packaging for retail. Way too much competition. Focus on a taproom, growlers and crowlers. Give it some time and eventually if there is an overwhelming demand for the product in stores and bars, then think about it. Until then...Keep It Simple, Stupid.

 

But most new breweries feel they have to rush to market in order to pay off all that fancy new stainless. No patience in taking the slow growth method. Need to turn profits soon to please investors. Don't get me wrong, not every brewery is like that, but a lot are.

 

Speaking not as the biggest fan of either Surly or Dangerous Man. Surly has an extremely varied lineup with 20+ beers on tap at all times. They are working on expanding into the sours, as well, though those need work. Dangerous Man also has a ton of great beers, though I think they miss more than they should. Most of their great ones are anything but standard. Indeed has a core lineup of beers that is certainly pretty standard, but has had some solid ones with their sour series. Many folks enjoy LSD, myself included. If you think Steel Toe is mediocre or hasn't done anything great recently, you have already undermined yourself and, frankly, it makes you sound like you are trolling. BtD and Lunker are incredible. The barrel aged beers they have done are absolutely excellent. Size 7 is a top selling bomber for many stores and is a wonderful IPA. Idk what to tell you. I tend to agree that most breweries here are mediocre, but the ones listed are not.

 

My criticism of Steel Toe is the lack of variety....they have been producing the same or similar line up for a few years now. Sure Surly has a varied lineup...but it's the same varied lineup they have had for the last 3 years.

 

About time on the BA Darkness for sure. One through four? Sorry but resorting to re-releasing beers does not count in my eyes. Also throwing Cacao Bender around at every event gets boring as well. Playing with hops? Meh, here taste this slightly different IPA!

I am looking for something like oakhold. A good sour program. Something like funk factory here in MN. Someone to create a barrel aging program like CW. Someone to do something beyond creating hop bombs and run of the mill IPA's and other generic styles. We have a few in MN doing great things....but in my personal opinion there is a lot lacking.

Didn't mean to rustle jimmies...just a discussion.

 

It's not really a discussion when you refuse to concede points that you are clearly wrong about. There have been a huge variety of different styles listed just in the last few posts, and those are not an exhaustive list.

Edit: Simply wanting a certain type of brewery doesn't mean the whole MN beer scene is the same or a wash.

 

In the past 3 years Surly has added BA Darkness, Todd the Axeman, Blakkr, #Merica, Brett Michaels IPA, Overrated (3 yrs ago) and Xtra-Citra. That's not including anything just on tap and I probably missed something. Most breweries would die to have that lineup of packaged beers. Surly is not the right brewery to say you find boring.

I don't think you realize how good we have it with MN breweries. How many states have both world class sour and barrel aging breweries like a Funk Factory & Central Waters? I could drink nothing but local MN beers and be very happy.

 

I couldn't agree more. Sure not every brewery in MN cranks out amazing beer, but we are absolutely spoiled here. If people like the OP can't see that, I feel bad for them. It must be frustrating.

 

One? (a debatable position, but one which can be defended)

I don't think you meant to say "...people like the OP", as the OP is taking a position that is similar to yours. Others in the thread hold differing opinions, clearly.

Count me in the category of those who think we are spoiled with lots of great local options here.

Back to the OPs original post/link, I do agree there is a critical mass on how much tap space and shelf room there is to go around. For a consumer, this is a pretty great problem to have (with the exception of more frequent stale/dated beer, although I guess there was plenty of that in the old days as well), but for a bar/retailer it presents more challenges in deciding what to carry and forces them to be knowledgeable and nimble in predicting consumer demands and "managing" their distributors to ensure they are allocated high demand products.

 

I was just thinking about this the other day. Now that it's summer time, weekend trips are happening left and right, and with that comes stocked coolers on friday afternoons packed with ice. And the amount of MN beer in those coolers is less and less. Todd and 300, that's it. Hard to compete with the likes of Duet, Sculpin, Sue and now Racer 5 And 10Barrel Joe (is this rumor true?). MN beers are good, but not that good! And I'm a little off topic since I'm just talking about IPA's specifically.

In my mind, Todd and 300 have the market right now. Size 7 would too but I'm not taking bombers with me on weekend trips. Same goes for Fair State.

 

I thoroughly enjoy the scene we have here. I'd love to see some more sour and BA beers locally, but I think that will come.
I agree with the critical mass on tap and shelf space, as @bigdaddypolite stated. Name a brewery and they have 4 beers in cans right next to a similar things, not counting if they have 12 packs and bottles. Think of Fulton now, bottles, cans, 12 packs. I enjoy a few of their beers, but I'm not buying it much from stores. Multiply that by 15-25 local breweries... Bad Weather now cans... where are those going to sit??

As far as taprooms go, many of them start to blend together with blandness, both beer and environment. I'm in the southwest, each brewery out here has 4-6 beers on tap, and IPA, a lighter beer, a dark beer and a malty beer maybe... Name the place, they mostly follow the same list. Not much wrong with these, if you are Toppling Goliath, but if you are in Shakopee and have eh beer at a brewery in an industrial part of town, I'm less and less interested in stopping. I commend them for the special kegs and firkins they do, but still. Plus, they are better than others out this way.
LTD on the other hand is a great environment, great area and they have new beers every time I stop.

None of the beer are ruling the world, but they keep me happy.

 

There are two new sour breweries opening up soon, one in south MPLS and one south of Duluth...

 

This certainly seems to be the most profitable and sustainable business model for new(er) craft breweries that open. If they jump right into expensive packaging/distribution out of the gates, that model can take a LOT of time to recoup costs and start making meaningful, sustainable profit and if it doesn't take hold locally, they could fail.