brewpubs

2015 was a banner year for breweries in the United States according to the Brewers Association.  They report that as of the end of November, there are now 4,144 breweries in the country, topping the historic high of 4,131 breweries in 1873. (link)
During 2015, 6 new breweries opened in Fargo/Moorhead and surrounding area:

• Bird Dog Brewing (Mandan)
• Kilstone Brewing (Fargo)
• Prairie Rose Meadery (Fargo)
• Rhombus Guys Brewpub (Grand Forks)
• Tavern Brewery (Detroit Lakes)
• Union Pizza & Brewing Company (Fergus Falls)

So lets look ahead into 2016.  A couple of new breweries have been recently announced while some others have been in development for some time.

Disgruntled Brewing

735 2nd St NE, Perham, MN
https://www.facebook.com/TheDisgruntledEmployeeBrewingCompany
https://twitter.com/disgruntledBrew

Disgruntled Brewing started with a bare lot and constructed their building and brewery in 2015 and have recently received their federal Brewers Notice approval.  They are still need to wrap up things with the city and the state before they can open.

They hope to be open in early 2016.

UPDATE: They will have a soft opening on February 7th from 10am-4pm.

From the Growler Magazine – Now Open (Or Damn Close) Disgruntled Brewing

Flatland Brewery

3140 Bluestem Drive, Ste 105, West Fargo, ND
https://www.facebook.com/Flatland-Brewery-692079760920076
http://flatlandbrewery.com/

Flatland Brewery signed the lease to move in to their space in Boulevard Square on Veterans Boulevard back at the end of October and they they hope to be open later in 2016.  They will have a 3bbl brewhouse and initially their beer will only be available their taproom with local distribution possible after that.  They will strive to source as many of their ingredients as locally as possible. Flatland also plans to always have cask conditioned beers available – with two beer engines pouring when they open and may more as time goes on. In addition to mainstay beers plus rotating seasonals and one-off’s, they look to casks for a unique opportunity for experimentation as well, with in-cask additions.

Revelation Ale Works

146 Atlantic Ave, Hallock, MN
https://www.facebook.com/revelationaleworks
http://www.revales.com/
https://twitter.com/revelationales

Located in an old service station in Hallock, MN which is 70 miles north of Grand Forks, Revelation Ale Works hopes to be making beer for everyone by the Fall of 2016.  They are currently running a Kickstarter to help fund the brewery (Kickstarter Link).  The owners already own Red River Hops, a hopyard supplying fresh hops to other local brewers, but they also want to supply beer and a local meeting place to the community.  Their 3 bbl brewhouse will produce stable beers plus some experimental batches and donate a portion of sales to local non-profits.  Their taproom will be family friendly and they will also be brewing nonalcoholic gluten free kombucha and root beer.

Here is an article in the Grand Forks Herald about them – link

Drumconrath Brewing

Fargo, ND
https://www.facebook.com/drumconrathbrewing
https://twitter.com/drumconrathbeer

Drumcontrath Brewing is still working on financing for their brewery in Fargo.  A GoFundMe fundraiser is still on progress so you can help them out – https://www.gofundme.com/drumconrathbrewing

Little Deep Brewing

Minot, ND
https://www.facebook.com/littledeepbeer
http://littledeepbeer.com/

Little Deep took some time off from planning and fundraising in 2015 to spend time with the family and during that time, their very own Jon Lakoduk was one of the first two people in North Dakota to receive the title of Certified Cicerone® after taking the exam in early July.  They plan on coming out of the gate in 2016 stronger and more prepared than ever before.

Lakeside Tavern which is naturally right on the lake in Detroit Lakes has been building a large addition that will house the Tavern Brewery and its 5 barrel brewing system.  Detroit Lakes City Council gave them approval back in December and their brew system showed up in February.

They indicate that Lakeside will have 24 beers on tap and 2 of those beers will be their own beers with plans for a year-round ale along with a rotating seasonal beer.

Lakeside’s plans are for a Grand Opening over Memorial Day weekend.

Fargo Forum article about Lakeside Tavern brewpub

http://www.tavernbrewery.com/

http://lakesidetavern.com/

FMBeer has set up a Google Map of all the area Breweries, Bars & Restaurants, and Beer Stores.

The map is set up with 3 sections and initially only the Breweries are displayed. Click on the icon in the upper left to open the map menu and there you can click to display the other sections.

Breweries have red markers with those not open yet in orange.

Bars & Restaurants are blue markers with those opening soon in purple.

Beer Stores are have yellow markers.

Click here to open the map on a new page

The shape of the marker varies by location so when you look at the menu on the left, you can tell the general location.

Fargo/Moorhead area locations have upside down teardrop markers.

Bismarck/Mandan locations are marked with stars.

Grand Forks/East Grand Forks locations are marked with circles.

Other Minnesota locations are marked with diamonds.

Minot and western ND locations are marked with squares.

If you know of bar, restaurant or beer store that is not listed but you think should be added. Please let me know at dean@fmbeer.com. Any other suggestions for the map are also welcome.

UPDATE: Union Pizza & Brewing is now open and serving pizza.  Their first beer is on tap plus they do have a very nice selection of MN and ND brews.

Per the article in the Fergus Falls Daily Journal and Facebook, Union Pizza and Brewing Company is under construction and hope to be open in February 2015.  They will be located on Union Avenue just south of Lincoln Avenue where a Domino’s Pizza used to be.  The restaurant will serve brick-oven baked pizza and a variety of beers, some of which will be brewed on location.

Current city council member Ben Schierer will handle the pizza side of the business (he built a pizza brick-oven at home 8 years ago and just built another one for the restaurant) and he has brought in Matt Ecker as the brewmaster to craft beer on location.  “We want to keep things simple,” Schierer said. “We want to make good pizza and good beer.”

The sourdough crust pizza will be cooked in a wood-fire brick-oven that will get up to 800 degrees.  “We’re making our dough here,” Schierer said, adding that that goal is to purchase as much of their products locally as possible. They will also offer a small selection of appetizers, salads and desserts, as well as homemade rootbeer.

“We still want this to be a family restaurant,” Schierer said. “It’s not going to be a 2 a.m. bar.”  However, the beer stands to be the highlight of this venture.

“We have six 90 gallon tanks,” Schierer said about the brewing that will take place inside the restaurant.  All of the brewing equipment will be located at the front of the store so it will be able to be viewed from the sidewalk window, as well as through two windows inside the entrance.

“We’ll sell beer we make here,” Schierer said. “We will also sell local, Minnesota craft beer. As well as some from North Dakota. There are a number of places that are small, independent, breweries.”  They will make a pale ale, an IPA and a porter to start off as well as some seasonal beers, according to Schierer.  “We will offer the whole range,” Ecker said. “We will have 10 on tap. Our goal is to cover the whole gamut, whether we make it here or whether it is made in Fargo.”  One of their goals is to offer varieties of beers that people have had the chance to try before.

The owners of the Rhombus Guys Pizzas (locations in Grand Forks, Fargo, and Mentor) purchased the historic Grand Forks’ Metropolitan Opera House (116 S. Third St) with plans on turning it into a brewery.  They have been looking for an experienced brewmaster and have been working with architects and construction firms on plans for the transformation to a brewery.   (FMBeer article from March 2014)

Per the September 19th article in the Grand Forks Herald, they have submitted an economic development loan application to Grand Forks’ Growth Fund Committee, which will discuss the request on Tuesday September 23rd. The request is for a $53,000 FlexPace loan, which would leverage a $100,000 Bank of North Dakota grant to help buy down interest on part of a bank loan.  If the Growth Fund Committee approves the request, it will go to the Jobs Development Authority for a public hearing on October 6th.

The Rhombus Guys are close but have not made a final decision yet as they say this is a big project with a final cost of around $2 million. They want to do their research before jumping all the way in.

UPDATE 10/7/2014 – Per the October 6th article in the Grand Forks Herald, the Grand Forks Jobs Development Authority gave final approval for the loan to buy down the bank loan and Rhombus guys will be moving forward with construction of the brewery.

That article also include several good bits of information for those of us here at FMBeer:

The application for the city loan states planning stages are already completed and construction could start this fall and finish in the spring of 2015. The costs of building improvements and purchasing equipment and machinery for the brewing portion of the project total more than $1 million.

“Rhombus Guys Brewing,” as the application refers to the business, would make a line of craft beer that will be sold on location and distributed to other establishments throughout the region.

“We aim to package the beer in kegs and cans for distribution, as well as growlers for sale at the brewery,” the application states. Its distributors will sell to other restaurants, bars and liquor stores. “The goal is to have the beer distributed in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota initially.”

“We ultimately envision Rhombus beers will be sold and consumed throughout the entire Midwest.”

Winjum said the brewery could produce about about 6,000 half-barrel kegs a year. It would also employ a head brewer, assistant brewer and two brewers, according to the staff report.

That beer would also be sold at a bar on location, and a restaurant would sell “high-end pub food,” Winjum said.

Rhombus Guys Pizza who have locations in Grand Forks, Fargo, and Mentor (seasonal), recently purchased the Grand Forks’ Metropolitan Opera House and are planning on turning the first floor into a brewpub.  Over the last few months they have advertised for an experienced brewmaster on probrewer.com and brewingworks.com to find a head brewer to work with them through the startup with the planning, design, construction, hiring and managing of the brewpub.

When Rhombus Guys first opened in Fargo back in 2011, their liquor license carries a microbrew designation, meaning Rhombus can add a microbrewery in the future, though they had no imediate plans, they had hopes for the future.  They bought the Opera House in mid 2013 but recently there have been a few articles in their plans (link, link) and the GF Herald’s article from 3/14 spells out more of their plans.

Rhombus Guys fine tuning plan for brewpub

By Christopher Bjorke & John Hageman on Mar 14, 2014

The Rhombus Guys are fine-tuning their plan to transform downtown Grand Forks’ Metropolitan Opera House into a brewpub.

On March 21st, ND Governor Dalrymple signed SB 2284, the Brewer Taproom License bill, into law.  Breweries with this license producing up to 25,000 barrels of beer a year can have a taproom and sell their beer for on-site consumption, distribute their beer with their own equipment throughout the state if they want and not use a distributor, and they can sell the beers they make off-sale at the brewery for people to take home and drink at home.

Some sources predict a large boom in breweries starting up with this bill.  We will have to see what happens.  These changes should certainly help start up breweries so they can avoid middlemen like distributors when they are small and then use those extra dollars to survive until they are established enough to naturally need the help of distributors and middlemen as they expand.

SB 2284, the Brewer Taproom License bill, was passed by the ND House of Representatives on March 14th with a 92-0 vote in favor.  Thanks to everyone who supported this bill and contacted their Representative for this bill.

It is now off to the Governor’s desk for him to sign the bill which he should due to the overwhelming support this bill has gotten in both the Senate and the House.

The North Dakota Senate Bill 2284 for a Brewer Taproom License has made it out of  the House committee with a unanimous DO PASS recommendation and now it is off to the full House for a vote.

The full House vote will be on Thursday the 14th or Friday the 15th so contact your Representatives now!

More information on SB 2284 and how to find and contact your Representative and what to tell them is at the FMBeer SB 2284 page.

SB 2284, the Brewer Taproom License bill was approved by they whole Senate today with a 45-2 vote.  On March 1st, the Senate bills like this one move to the ND House of Representatives so you can now start to contact your representatives and ask them to support this bill.

More info on the bill is at https://fmbeer.andersoncreativemn.com/sb2284/