Harriet Brewing Will Be Closing

Reads 1616 • Replies 12 • Started Tuesday, November 1, 2016 2:54:03 PM CT

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MNBeerHunters
14:54 Tue 11/1/2016

The brewery announced the news via Facebook early Tuesday afternoon, saying development plans with the property do not align with Harriet. The brewery will close after Jan. 31, 2017. LINK

 
JK
beers 7296 º places 442 º 14:58 Tue 11/1/2016

What a strange explanation for their decision not to relocate. I liked some of their beers, they did a nice doppelbock and dark Belgian strong ale.

If anything I thought their location held them back.

 
TheHOFF43
beers 2045 º places 169 º 15:33 Tue 11/1/2016

Their beers held them back, the location was bad.

Not surprised as I don’t know anyone who ever goes there or buys their beer.

 
TheHOFF43
beers 2045 º places 169 º 15:36 Tue 11/1/2016

Also, this is likely the few of many (or at least a few) breweries to close. Market saturation + not good beer + poor location will lead to the demise of others.

 
bnielsen13
beers 265 º places 1 º 18:57 Tue 11/1/2016

Originally posted by TheHOFF43
Also, this is likely the few of many (or at least a few) breweries to close. Market saturation + not good beer + poor location will lead to the demise of others.

Agreed, been thinking it’s about time for some bad ones to start closing.

 
TheHOFF43
beers 2045 º places 169 º 19:28 Tue 11/1/2016

When is the last time anyone on here drank a Harriet beer? I loved a small burger place across the street so I’d get it to go and eat at Harriet and drink a beer, but that place closed and I haven’t been back

 
BVery
beers 13631 º places 750 º 01:04 Wed 11/2/2016

I haven’t been there in a long time. Selection was usually pretty small, new beers infrequent, quality okay with the occasional nice one, and usually I seemed to run into a cover for the music - which would be fine if I was there for the music, but not so much if I wanted to pop in for a quick beer.

 
BVery
beers 13631 º places 750 º 01:13 Wed 11/2/2016

Originally posted by TheHOFF43
Also, this is likely the few of many (or at least a few) breweries to close. Market saturation + not good beer + poor location will lead to the demise of others.


Not so sure I agree with market saturation, generally speaking. I think there’s plenty of room for good new breweries, but it’s pretty crowded for the mediocre to not so good places. I think some of those will fall off. That said, there’s still geographic pockets in the metro that can (and are) supporting less than stellar places too, due to lack of competition close by.

 
islay
beers 3622 º places 18 º 11:22 Fri 11/4/2016

Originally posted by BVery
Originally posted by TheHOFF43
Also, this is likely the few of many (or at least a few) breweries to close. Market saturation + not good beer + poor location will lead to the demise of others.


Not so sure I agree with market saturation, generally speaking. I think there’s plenty of room for good new breweries, but it’s pretty crowded for the mediocre to not so good places. I think some of those will fall off. That said, there’s still geographic pockets in the metro that can (and are) supporting less than stellar places too, due to lack of competition close by.


I agree. There seems to be plenty of room for growth in the suburbs for breweries making beer of virtually any quality. Most beer consumers can’t tell the difference between good and poor beer anyway. Remember what was named third best brewery in Minnesota by a "panel of beer lovers" just two years ago? https://www.thrillist.com/drink/minneapolis/best-breweries-in-minnesota

Think of all of the prominent suburbs with no breweries and no publicly reported active BIPs (Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Plymouth, Woodbury, and Eden Prairie, for instance, all with populations in excess of 60,000). Minnesota still has significantly less than half of the breweries per capita of the top brewing states. Shelf space and tap handles are pretty scarce, but, if you’re willing to work on the bakery model with modest distribution and limited aspirations toward expansion, and you don’t need to hang out in the cool part of town, you’ll have a lot of thirsty local customers eager to come to your taproom. If you’re looking to be the next Summit or Surly (let alone Lagunitas or Ballast Point), on the other hand, yeah, you’re probably late to the party, although I’m sure Utepils and BlackStack would like to prove me wrong.

That said, another big recession could dry up funding for BIPs and push a lot of teetering small businesses (including craft breweries) into the red. If I were planning a brewery, I’d worry more about the implications of another potential broad economic downturn than supposed saturation in the beer market in particular.

 
TheHOFF43
beers 2045 º places 169 º 11:31 Fri 11/4/2016

Islay, the "3rd best brewery" might be one that currently has empty fermenters because they aren’t selling beer and lost distribution, so they are self distributing, killing their margin and volumes. Another one with empty fermenters might have a guy who hates people that rate beer and thinks his consumers are stupid for not having the same BJCP credentials he does.

Just some thoughts.

 
maximum12
beers 32 º 12:02 Fri 11/4/2016

Originally posted by TheHOFF43
When is the last time anyone on here drank a Harriet beer? I loved a small burger place across the street so I’d get it to go and eat at Harriet and drink a beer, but that place closed and I haven’t been back


From what I could tell, this seemed to be a neighborhood joint & not aimed at "us". The beer they brewed wasn’t my thing, but it was never bad or off, which I can’t say about many of the breweries around the Cities.

I have friends in the area that visit the place frequently. The handful of times I’ve been there it’s always been lively & they never seemed to be lacking patrons. Places like that - i.e. trying to recreate the local watering hole - have a much better chance of surviving than those pinning their hopes on breaking onto liquor stores shelves.