Breweries Opening/Closing in Minnesota 2018

Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative, Minneapolis, Facebook, 8-24-18: "We're pushing hard to have the Taproom done by the end of next month..." So look out for that in early November. As you may know, Broken Clock has been open as a brewery since 2017 in the original NorthGate/56 space in Nordeast Minneapolis but without an official taproom.

 

Kulturwerks (Roseville)

No longer planning for Roseville.
http://kulturwerksbrewing.com/brewery-site-news/

 

Interesting name... literally translates "Culture Factory".

 

Ursa Minor should be close to opening or doing tours with Duluth Experience in October..

 

Attended the VIP event at Birch's Lowertown on Weds. They sampled out tastings from the food menu (vegetarian main course options seemed a bit limited to this long-time vegetarian, but the only brewpub I know in the state that truly makes me happy is Forager, and Birch's 2 has potential to be the place in the Cities that approaches that level; you meat-eaters will eat very well).

The big news was that they now are shooting for a 9/11 opening. The space is getting close but is definitely still a work-in-progress. Beer is in tanks and I think most beer will be from the Lowertown location when they open their doors, but there may be a couple from Long Lake, especially any beer that they have a bit too much of in LL.

They have 10 taps and plan to run with 8 of their own, plus 2 guest taps, as a general rule (at least at the start).

We were drinking beer from LL at the event.

The space already looks very nice, and should be beautiful by the time they open. They have a fair amount of room for barreling, which will be very exciting in 6 - 12 months. Current thinking is that they will be crowlers only, once they are ready to handle off-sale, but that is likely a couple months out. They don't yet have a crowler spinner.

Also, I will confirm, from an earlier chat with the Lowertown brewer during APN, that the beers in Lowertown will diverge from what is being done in LL. He was expecting that Lowertown will allow for doing a few things that would be too adventurous out in the 'burbs, which excites me greatly.

if you get a chance to tour the brewery some time, do it. Lots of thought went into it and it turned out great. And the historic building led to several challenges that probably could be stories unto themselves.

Last tidbit -- there's a Mexican chocolate stout in one of their tanks. It sounded like a good one.into

Glad I went!

 

Urban Lodge Brewery & Restaurant (f.k.a., Urban Moose) in Sauk Rapids, which long has been for sale, has agreed to a sale with El Loro Restaurant Group, the Minnesotan Mexican restaurant chain. Urban Lodge will close on Saturday, and the sale is expected to be finalized in November, but El Loro plans to keep up brewing operations (perhaps after a possibly four-to-six-month regulatory moratorium) and serve El Loro-branded beers brewed at the Sauk Rapids location throughout its restaurant empire. I don't have a complete count, but I know there are over a dozen El Loro restaurants in the state.

 

Heading into Labor Day weekend, the social medias informed us that Ursa Minor Brewing has brewed their first batch (as of Thursday) and Stacked Deck has brewed their first batch (as of Friday).

The print media form is also pumping out brewing news, as the Duluth News Tribune reports that in Duluth's sister city, Thirsty Pagan has purchased the Soo Line Depot, a block north of their current location. They plan to transition to that space in January. The move affords them more space, event room capabilities and more parking.

 

Not a new Minnesota brewery...but close enough. Brickfield Brewing in Grantsburg, WI (5 minutes over the state line - about 20 minutes from Three Twenty Brewing in Pine City) had plans to open this Labor Day weekend, but is pushing their opening back to next week. Possibly on the way to cabin country for some of you folks.

 

Cabin country for some, for about 5 people I work with that's their daily hour-and-a-half commute each way.

 

Another brewery opening lined up for 2018:

 

Is F-town north still on? I thought it died after the dude defaulted on his loan.

 

Hope springs eternal.

 

Are they going to finance that in Venezuelan Bolivars?

 

Stacked Deck in downtown Saint Paul are now brewing and are targeting an October opening date .



Clutch opens on the 14th of this month so will be great to see the Keg and Case development and have beer flowing at that spot .



Islay- how many breweries have actually successfully opened so far in MN in 2018 ?

 

For the state, I don't have a great answer at hand, as I've been derelict in my duties of keeping the other site updated. I do have what I believe is an accurate count for the Twin Cities area (which I define as within an hour's drive of the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers): 11 as of this writing (including operations only with physical breweries, not mere client brewers like Brass Foundry or Hunyuck):

AEGIR Brewing Company, Elk River
Blue Wolf Brewing Company, Brooklyn Park
Boathouse Brothers Brewing, Prior Lake
Dual Citizen Brewing Company, St. Paul
Finnegans Brew Co., Minneapolis
Garphish Brewing Company, Bethel
Invictus Brewing Company, Blaine
Rustech Brewing, Monticello
Spiral Brewery, Hastings
Tilion Brewing Co., Cannon Falls
Wooden Hill Brewing Company, Edina

I currently show 117 total open breweries (not including second sites) in the Twin Cities area.

 

Anyone have opinions on Spiral Brewing? Didn't the guy work at firestone walker before moving back to MN?

 

To be fair Venn opened very late in 2017 and Arbeiter is may still open in 2018 or early 2019, both in South Minneapolis.

 

Half Pint Brewing Company in Waseca, which @Chaz first mentioned in May 2014, claims to be opening in October:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2231432963746249

 

I went to Spiral last week. They had a variety of sessionable styles (9 on tap), which were generally clean. There is nothing that will blow you away, but it’s worth a stop if you’re nearby. I wrote a bathroom review if you are interested: