Breweries Opening/Closing in Minnesota 2018

It sounds to me like Boom Island may be spreading an excuse for closing sometime in the near future. The odds of raising $500-700k from crowdsourcing for relocation purposes are about none.

 

Hindsight is always 20/20, clearing out your savings and retirement to open a brewery in north minneapolis is mind boggling. That’s gotta be tough to admit the bad choice but good luck.

 

One thing to consider is that they launched before the Surly Bill was in place. There were no tap rooms and the business model was far different. Probably 100 less breweries in the state, and a small brewery could build a plan around sustained growth through on/off-premise sales. The issues they are facing now, for the most part, weren't something that they would consider back then. I don't know for sure, but I highly doubt their original plan included a tap room, and they had to adjust as best they could. Much easier, in many ways, for a new brewery to do so then to uproot and move an existing one.

Today, we all know what the scene is like, and breweries in existence needed to quickly modify their plans to include a tap room. Often their locations would not work, and they either had to retrofit or move (Lucid becoming Inbound and moving to the North Loop).

I feel for Kevin, a truly great human being who is extremely hard working and passionate.

 

Their original plan didn't include a tap room, that's why they moved to where they are now. They moved about two blocks over after the bill passed to have room for a bar, sitting space, and a patio. The previous spot had enough room for about 5-6 people in it, standing up.

 

Cool they are tying in the Schmidt memorabilia. I wonder if they could bring back some old Schmidt beer recipe that is no longer being brewed. I know someone has the Schmidt label and it is still being brewed but maybe City Club or something like that?

 

I agree that it would be pretty cool if they did that, but they’d probably have to run it by Pabst, which owns both the Jacob Schmidt (St. Paul) and Christian Schmidt (“Schmidt’s of Philadelphia”) brands, after picking them up from Heileman.

For what it’s worth, City Club was last brewed by Stroh (formerly Olympia/Hamm’s) in St. Paul, in 1997. And Stroh is now owned by Pabst. So there are a couple of paths they could take if they wanted to revive some old brands and traditions, but they’d have to have a really good notion of how to go about it without breaking the bank.

 

Word is Schram's Chaska location will have a beer-only taproom (no wine), but Schram plans to keep serving its beer (along with wine) at the Waconia location as well. Exactly how Schram will accomplish this legally is a mystery to me, but more power to 'em if they've figured out a way. As I've previously noted, my understanding is that Schram's Waconia location operates solely on a winery license (not a brewery license), improbable as that may sound.

 

I imagine they will move the brewery to Chaska as it is makeshift in the outbuilding they have in Waconia. Yea but how they will sell beer at both locations along with wine in Waconia, is a bit of a mystery. I am sure they have a farm winery license but not sure how that gives any relief when it comes to brewing. But then again I do not know of any other alcohol establishment that has had to deal with state liquor licensing and enforcement more than Schram. It has been 4 years of battles.

 

In summary, Minnesota's alcohol licensing laws are needlessly complex and stupid. I suspect they are more about protecting entrenched business interests than they are about any legitimate interests of the state.

 

La Doña Cervecería in Minneapolis appears to have opened its taproom to the public earlier today (Monday, 9-17-18), according to its Facebook page.

 

I spoke to a Brass Foundry representative at its Autumn Brew Review booth on Saturday. I asked where Brass Foundry brews its beer, and this person told me that Brass Foundry has its own brewery "in the Midway area" in St. Paul but wouldn't be more specific. I asked, Are you sure it's not a client brewer, say at BlackStack, and was assured that it is not. I was informed that a taproom is under consideration but not currently in development. The person to whom I spoke is not an owner, and I'm a bit skeptical that a new physical brewery opened in the heart of the metro area without anyone noticing, but that's the story I was told.

 

Maybe Urban Growler is contracting?

 

There’s no way they have a brewery operation in Midway without people knowing about it. They must be brewing at Dual Citizen or something . Wasn’t too long ago they cancelled their Minnetonka plan. That’s not to say I would not love to see them open their own taproom in Hamline-Midway.

 

I asked one of the Brass Foundry owners at a different brewfest where they were brewing their beer. And he would not tell me. Said there is a non-disclosure agreement. That was the first time someone would not tell me where they brew their beer.

 

I heard he was contract brewing at Leinenkugel’s over in WI...

 

Maybe Fair State production over by Transfer and Ellis Ave.

 

They have no problem that people know they're being contract brewed. But won't say by who.....?

Ok.

 

Yoerg Brewing, St. Paul, Facebook, 9-18-18: "Grand Opening is looking like November 1st, with the doors swinging open by the 15th of October so we can work the kinks out for a couple weeks."

 

I was told that Brass Foundry had a problem getting it's licensing (liquor license I believe???) and could not open a tap room as a result. Not sure if it was an issue with the background of one of the owners or not, but the city was behind opening a local tap room, so something went down.

I do not know this first hand, so I could be wrong.

Given that they were posting pictures of equipment moving into the Baker Road building, something sure went astray. And that misstep can not be cheap. FWIW, their facility was on the east side of Baker Road (the right side if heading north on Baker towards the old Lucid Brewing facility) before Culligan Way. One of those squat brick office complexes.

It's going to be hard for any brand without a taproom to be relevant (see Cosmos), and the margins in this type of model do not support strong cash-flow unless you have major volume, and you have to fund trucks, cold-storage, people etc, on top of this.

But hey - they have merch!

Super rough math, but 1000 bbls of brewery production would generate around $275,000 in combined keg/can revenue. Every 1000 bbls of production produces 13,780 cases. Given that a standard return is around 5% for something like this (when factoring all kinds of costs, and even 5% is being generous), there is not much left over, and the margins do not improve until you have scale, say 6,000 bbls. So if they can move 80,000 cases of year, more power to them.

That's a LOT of beer to push out there in a crowded space. And getting beer out there takes $$$$$$

Best of luck to them, but......

 

Heard thru the grapevine that a Belgian-style place will be opening soon in Northeast Minneapolis where Northgate formerly was. Falling Knife, I think it's going to be called?