Breweries Opening in the Minnesota 2016/2017

Hah, sure.

 

It's the reason major brewers like Crooked Stave out in CO won't expand... they see the sour bubble bursting very soon.

Granted CO is ahead of MN... but if a very successful sour brewery refrains from expanding for that very reason, it makes you think.

This is from talking with the owner first hand...

 

How soon until a Breweries Closing Thread

 

You're making some giant leaps in logic here. Luckily, all I have to do is wait 2 years and we'll see where we're at. Seeya then.

 

Oh I'm pulling for the brewery Sean, believe me. I just hope it all pans out!

 

In non-brewery news: Norseman Distillery's cocktail room opens today at 5. It's a short walk from me so I'll certainly be there at some point.

 

So I'm not on BA all that much, so I apologize for not seeing this sooner and responding to your questions! If you want a (more) prompt response, tag me in a post. That might prompt me to answer in a timely fashion

A little background-

Some of you folks know us from Darkness Eve or WTWBA, where my business partner, Levi, and I have shared a lot of beers over the years. A few years ago (4+ now, I guess...yikes) we decided to leverage my microbiology background (a PhD in micro from the UofM) and our shared love of mixed fermentation beers (We drink. A lot) into a actual factual commercial brewery. Plans really started to solidify when my wife (and chief enabler, obviously) and I bought ~20 acres of land outside of Duluth a few years ago. Since then, we've been planting lots of fruit trees and shrubs to supplement the OLD apple and Juneberry trees on the property (we've planted Apple, pear, apricot, plum, cherry, cherry plum, honeyberry, aronia, artic kiwi, grapes, Juneberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, mulberries,and I’m sure I’m missing somethings.) The well for the brewery is getting punched 300+ feet into good, hard, Northshore rock this winter, and the barn/brewery is getting built in the spring. We hope to release about 100bbl of beer in our first year of production, and will see where things go from there. We aim to have beer in barrels before 2016 is out, and the beer will be ready sometime after that (so yeah, Spring 2017 seems like a decent guess at this point)

In the meantime, I'm currently working as an assistant brewer at Fair State- I simply didn't want to make the jump from home brewer to commercial brewer without any commercial experience. A number of people have done just that, and done it well and with great success, but I wasn't convinced that it was the best course of action for us. So, I've gotten to spend some time learning how what I've learned as a home brewer translates (or doesn't) to a production setting, refining some sour beer production techniques, and generally having a kick ass time with the fantastic group of people over at FSBC. Seriously, the guys there are awesome, and head brewer Niko is an amazing source of knowledge and brews some of the best beer in the state (I'm only a teensy bit biased). Our brewery in planning has a few collaborations out and in the works with FSBC- If you got to try Barrel 5 or Barrel 10, I grew up the microbes for those barrels, and Barrel 5 in particular was a recipe of Levi and mine. Be on the lookout for more barrel aged sour beer collaborations in the near future (a few to debut at Winterfest...)

As far as the eventual taproom is concerned, I'll reiterate what Levi wrote on the other site where I spend far too much of my free time: "We’re trying not to focus on any one neighborhood in particular, just because the scene could change so much between now and when we’re ready to get serious about finding a taproom location. I would hate to speculate and then let people down if we change our minds." Levi lives in that area, and I know we'd like to set down roots there for the long term. But we will see where this takes us.

A note to end this stream of consciousness: Levi and I are doing this solely for ourselves. I'm told we are both kinda nerds when it comes to sour beer production and mixed fermentation, and we will be brewing what we like to drink and hoping that others enjoy it as much as we do.

Cheers,

Caleb

 

Great info...thanks..but I'm confused...is this going to be South Minneapolis or Duluth?

 

Brewery will be in Duluth (or to be perfectly clear, just outside of it). There WILL NOT be a taproom on premise ("Get off my lawn!"). There WILL be an eventual taproom off site.

 

Definitely remember you from DDay this year, ya'll set up very near us. I was really really impressed with what ya'll had and I look forward to trying your stuff in a commercial setting. Very cool to see you growing your own fruits, and I wish you nothing but the best of luck! And I would say that a SOUTH MINNEAPOLIS taproom would be a cool idea, but I mean, I'm not biased or anything...

 

Inbound plans to have a soft open for their taproom in about a month. They've committed to doing a charity event for a friend with cancer at the taproom and they need to be ready to go for it.

(I was at the old Lucid brewery on Saturday, so now I finally understand what the heck is going on)

 

Josholson666, it looks like there already is a taproom going up in South Minneapolis to open this summer.

 

Those two breweries should totally collaborate.

 

http://thebitternib.blogspot.com/2016/02/minnesota-breweries-one-by-one-9-south.html

http://thebitternib.blogspot.com/2016/02/minnesota-breweries-one-by-one-10.html

 

Damn I am excited for those foudres.

http://www.southwestjournal.com/news/biz-buzzes/wild-mind-artisan-ales-under-construction-in-windom

 

Nice to see the honesty of the review. Too many people are afraid to say their honest feelings. Looking forward to reading them all.

 

Wait till you read the Maple Island review.

http://thebitternib.blogspot.com/2016/02/minnesota-breweries-one-by-one-12-maple.html

And get ready for Kinney Creek (haven't written that one, yet).

 

It sounds like Maple Island is trying to top the brewery across the river, and failing horribly.

Based on that review (and everything else I've heard) , I'll keep going to Somerset.

 

Right on the money there. Interesting sidebar info beyond just the reviews of the beer. Very impressive. You got a big job ahead to do that high of quality reviews for all the places in the state as you stated. I'll be reading them all. Thanks for passing the link on.

 

I like how this series shifted (yeah I just read them all.. nice job) from focusing on a beer or two to a more holistic look at the place. Your reviews of some places make me rethink my impressions and consider returning. I look forward to seeing reviews of a couple places in particular (don't necessarily want to call them out).