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There’s some more information available on the brewery-in-planning for Chaska "to open in August." Hat tip to morimech at the other site. The name of the brewery isn’t given, but I hope it ends up being "Biweekly Report Brewery Company" (hopefully "Total Loss Brewing Company" wouldn’t prove more prophetic). http://www.swnewsmedia.com/chaska_herald/brewery-to-open-august/article_c5f83ccf-3359-597f-b874-a4d75a8b4e4f.html
Another BIP scheduled to open in August is the Stone Saloon in St. Paul, which will serve beers in "traditional German styles... while putting interesting modern and local twists on them." Well, it’s not actually going to be called "Stone Saloon" (sadly, to me) because "[owner] Tom [Schroeder] discovered that too many people associated the term saloon with the establishments of the Wild West..." http://growlermag.com/the-stone-saloon-one-mans-quest-to-resurrect-a-civil-war-era-lager-house-in-st-paul/
The BIP for Eyota (near Rochester, outside of the Twin Cities metro area) will be called "The Lincoln Brewery." Brett Lincoln, the (apparently) former head brewer at South Fork in Delano, is the owner/brewer for that plan. Hat tips to JakeJohnson at the other site as well as Chaz. Speaking of South Fork, there are rumors of changes afoot: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/breweries-opening-in-the-minnesota-2016-2017.375254/page-29#post-5175359
In Rochester proper, the former head brewer at Grand Rounds, Steve Finnie, has left the brewpub: "Differences in philosophy about the direction of the brewpub created a rift between him and his business partner, and Steve stepped down as head brewer of Grand Rounds in December. But his optimism in the face of hardship is still unwavering, and he fully intends to reenter the brewing industry after taking some time to regroup with his family." http://growlermag.com/brewer-profile-steve-finnie/
Outside of the metro area, Copper Trail Brewing Company in Alexandria is open to the public. Hat tip to Chaz. http://www.coppertrailbrewing.com/ and http://growlermag.com/now-open-or-damn-close-copper-trail-brewing-company/ |
Originally posted by islay
In Rochester proper, the former head brewer at Grand Rounds, Steve Finnie, has left the brewpub: "Differences in philosophy about the direction of the brewpub created a rift between him and his business partner, and Steve stepped down as head brewer of Grand Rounds in December. But his optimism in the face of hardship is still unwavering, and he fully intends to reenter the brewing industry after taking some time to regroup with his family."
I haven’t been to Grand Rounds in a while, and even though Dawn (Steve’s wife) works in my department, I had no clue about this. Nice story to read about his background and how he became a brewer. I knew the part about him growing up in Scotland and leaving his job at Mayo to startup the brewpub, but that was about it. |
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I’m working on a new thread for 2017, but I’ll quickly give some end-of-2016 updates here:
“TORG BREWERY is a microbrewery serving the northwest suburbs of the Twin Cities. TORG BREWERY crafts traditional ales and lagers and a unique line of “training wheel” beers for the craft beer novice. The brewery operates an engaging taproom which reflects the original qualities of the public houses of the British Isles.” https://www.facebook.com/Torg-Brewery-1539602649681285/ Hat tip to writerwithwrywit at the other site. It seems like the location is TBD, but Andover and Pine City (which would be beyond the suburbs and in a northeast rather than northwest direction of the Twin Cities) have been mentioned in connection to this plan.
Outside of the Twin Cities area:
"Hoppy Girl Brewing Co. (Wabasha) Bed & breakfast + nanobrewery is nearing completion." Chaz at the other site.
Local Artisan Brewery in the Brainerd lakes area has lost its original planned location, and its future as a BIP is in doubt. http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/news/region/4166520-nanobrewery-no-go-brainerd-school-district-opposes-brewery-location Hat tip to Chaz.
Portage Brewing Company, a BIP for Walker. https://portagebeer.com/#welcome Hat tip to Aaron8587 at the other site. |
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On the subject of the importance of taprooms, Bartley Blume of Bent Brewstillery recently discussed on the 1-6-17 Minnesota Beercast his "Free the Cocktails!" campaign to legalize joint on-site sales of beer and hard liquor at combined breweries/distilleries (i.e., he wants to be able to have a joint taproom/cocktail room):
"The thing that the cocktail room does, as well as the taproom has done in the past, is it increases brand awareness, which brand awareness increases demand... We saw this personally with our taproom. Our beer sales were just kind of chugging along, you know, slow growth. As soon as our taproom opened, and people were able to come to our taproom and try the products, all of a sudden demand went through the roof. Now we’ve got taps everywhere; we’ve got 600 accounts. This all happened because of these changes."
Are you listening, Cosmos? http://minnesotabeercast.com/category/episodes/
In other news...
MinnPost: "Has the [Minnesota] brewery boom peaked?" https://www.minnpost.com/business/2017/01/number-breweries-launched-minnesota-went-down-2016-has-brewery-boom-peaked
Minnesota Beer Activists covers the promising Tanzenwald BIP in Northfield: http://mnbeeractivists.com/newsfeed/tanzenwald-brewing-company-opening-northfield Hat tip to Chaz.
Outside of the metro area:
Cuyuna in Crosby opens to the public on 1-27-17. Hat tip to iRun2Beer at the other site.
Revelation Ale Works in Hallock is brewing its first batch today and presumably will be opening soon. Hat tip to HeadRetention at the other site. |
