Back at that point, the only brewery in town, production brewery was some of them, so it was quite a different scene.
That's really the reason I thought I might be able to make it work.
I thought the twizies could support one more brewery.
Times have changed, and now brewers from Italy, Belgium, the UK, Germany,
they're looking at what American brewers are doing, and they're trying to emulate us.
You never know what's going to be out there two or three years from now, much less 10 or 15 years from now,
so it's great because it's made the beer industry much more nimble, much more intelligent, much more adaptive.
My approach to it is to play and see what would be creative and see if we can push the boundaries of what you find up here.
The Grower Law changed, and it brought all this awareness, like there was all this media coverage.
It picked up momentum, and it's still picking up momentum now.
Quickly it was like, wow, we barely scratched the surface on what our brands could do, how many people we were reaching.
It kind of got to the point two years ago, we could sort of see the end game for this building,
that we're going to fill it up, and actually sell it here. You can build this really big kick-ass brewery that you've already built for.
From all not just Minnesota, but from all over the world, and I'm checking.
You couldn't sell anyone a glass of beer, it's been that way since the prohibition in Minnesota,
and that law had to change for us to build that new brewery.
Regulars who drink here, who have raised chickens, we give them the grain, we get great eggs.
You're keeping it green, and you're not throwing it away, and the pigs are happy, and the chickens are happy.
It's great. And local businesses.
I think Hibbidy hops farms, and they're cascade hops, and we use most of their hops that they grow.
This is the first year that we're actually getting some hops from the Midwest.
I think our challenge has gotten me that we buy so damn many of them that a few acres isn't enough.
We're going to get local wet hops this year.
And it's going to be exclusive to that sort of Garhart hot bar.
I think that there's been a great brewery community here for a long time.
I mean, the people that I learned from the brewery for over a decade.
You know, the guys at Tom Hall.
You got guys like Mark Streller at Summit, and Shells, and there's been, it's exciting what's been happening lately.
There's been a great brewery, and David's man at 612, but I think you don't have to look far back,
and there's been great beer viewing in the city for decades.
And now we are proud to say that we have 125 founding members in our company.
About 90% of them live within walking or biking distance of the brew pub.
I think that's really cool.
What you see is kind of a really cool beer subculture that's growing this sort of.
That's people like craft beer. When you do a beer fest, you're getting the core.
You're preaching to the choir at that point. But Minnesota State Fair, that's the great Minnesota get together.
So it's was an awesome opportunity for us. So successful.
The guild was it was integral in getting craft beer at the State Fair.
So I think that just also drives home on how much Minnesota is interested in craft beer.
It never gets sick of drinking beer. It never gets sick of watching other people drink beer.
People come up to us and say it's so nice to be able to shake the hand of the person that's actually producing that they're drinking.
Yeah.
It's been driven by people that actually have breweries, you know, they've got a stake in the ground,
and they primarily started local.
You know, just kind of reinforce that sense of community in the Northeast neighborhood.
Born and raised here in Minneapolis, I have a deep passion and love for the city.
The countryside out here is absolutely gorgeous. And there's a lot of old tradition in family farms out here.
I didn't want to put up a big, intrusive brewery building out in the beautiful countryside.
I really wanted it to blend right in with the buildings that already existed.
When you support a business like this, you're supporting your neighbor.
They know when they come here and buy a beer at the bar here, they're directly supporting our business and, you know, helping pay my mortgage.
And they joke about it.
Being a cornerstone of a community and being, you know, having beer and artisan craft ales and loggers as part of still water culture
and St. Croix culture and then spreading as we're seeing throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin and the whole region.
Being a part of that, it's so rewarding.
We've been part of this town since the beginning, and we're proud of it.
And this is our home, and we're not going anywhere.
