Tag Archives: Junkyard Brewing

Junkyard Brewing Company’s new taproom at 1416 1st Ave N in Moorhead is now open.  Normal hours have shifted a bit as they get a feel for the taproom but are currently 4:00PM-9:00PM Tuesday-Thursday, 4:00PM to midnight on Fridays and noon to midnight on Saturdays.

The Juhnke brothers built out this new taproom and brewery a block or so east of their original location and did most of the work themselves using lots of reclaimed wood, old church pews, metal tractor seats and much more to keep their Junkyard theme.  The taproom as 10 taps featuring their own brews.  Most beer will be $5 for a pint and $3 for a half-pint.  Stronger beers are available at $4 for a half-pint.

They won’t be able to offer our Growlers until they determine if they can keep up with the amount of beer in the taproom, or until they build their new 7 barrel (14 kegs) brewing system.

They have moved their old brewery to the new location and are brewing there.  The Kickstarter they did to fund larger fermentation tanks was successful and they will be purchasing the new tank(s) and working on upgrading their system so they can brew larger batches soon.

Junkyard Brewing in Moorhead has started a Kickstarter to fund a larger brewing system for their new taproom that will run through September 15th – LINK

UPDATE: The Kickstarter met it goal with a final amount of $12,240.

From Junkyard Brewing’s website:

Help us build a bigger brewing system: Our Kickstarter project

August 19, 2014

A “Kickstarter” project is kind of like one of the pledge drives which you may remember from watching public television. The differences are: a Kickstarter is less annoying because we don’t interrupt what you’re doing, and the rewards are something that you really, really care about, maybe more than that Ken Burns documentary you were watching.

Here’s the way it works. People donate/pledge/give money to our project in exchange for a nice reward, like a shirt, sticker, keg fridge, or chance to brew a custom beer and have it served at the brewery. If we meet or exceed our goal, we get to keep the money raised and put it toward building a bigger brewing system, and we’ll send out all those awesome rewards. If we don’t meet the goal, the whole thing goes down in flames, so if you buy in and help us out, tell your friends to do it too.

We chose to do this project because we think there are a lot of people in the Moorhead and Fargo communities that want to see local breweries succeed. More importantly, we want people in our community to feel like they’re a part of the brewery, and helping out is one of the best way to make friends!

Click HERE to visit the project page on Kickstarter right now.

Here’s a picture of a couple of the dairy tanks we picked up to repurpose into the new 7 barrel brewing system. There’s till a lot of work to be done.

The Summer of 2014 is turning into ‘Brewery Construction Season’ with a new brewery building up, another brewing setting up a new location with a taproom, and the area’s first meadery their production area and tasting room.  For more pictures and updates, check out the Facebook pages for each of these businesses.

Junkyard Brewing – New Brewery with a taproom

Junkyard Brewing is moving from their current location in the back of the Country Cannery at 1320 1st Ave. N. in Moorhead a couple blocks east to a new location with more room to grow the brewery and space for a taproom.  Their new address will bee 1416 1st Ave. N.

Some of the work done so far includes a new water line installed, cutting up the cement floor for drains and the filling the trenches, framing the new brewing area and removing the old garage doors so they can be replaced with new insulated ones with windows.  Junkyard Brewing on Facebook

Prairie Rose Meadery – Building a production area with tasting room

Mead is fermented honey and water that may have some spices or fruit added.  There are not that many meaderies in the United States but we are getting one here in Fargo.  Prairie Rose Meadery is building their production area with a tasting room in the 3100 block of 39th Street South in Fargo.  It took a while to get the lease worked out but construction is finally in progress, again cutting of the floor for drains is needed.  They hope to be open by late summer or early fall.  Prairie Rose Meadery on Facebook

Drekker Brewing – Building the brewery and taproom

Drekker Brewing recently got in a big shipment of stainless steel tanks from their supplier, Portland Kettle Works.  They broke through the brick wall in the back of their location at 630 1st Ave N, Suite 6 in Fargo so they could add a garage door in order to handle large loads like these tanks and all the grain that they will need in the future.   Drekker Brewing on Facebook

You may have been buying growlers of beer at Granite City and the ND JL Beers locations but getting the beer right at the brewery is a different experience.  With Fargo Brewing Company and Junkyard Brewing both open and brewing beer, you can now buy fresh beer literally steps away from where it is made.

If you have never seen them before, growlers are usually a half gallon reusable glass container that the brewery will fill so you can take their beer home.  If you treat the growler with care, it will last a week or two without any issues but it is best to serve all of the beer in the growler at one time as soon as you can.  Laws vary by state but usually the brewery and the beer has to be identified on the bottle and the cap must be sealed by a sticker or  a heatshrinked plastic cuff.

Usually you buy the growler and the fill on your first visit and every time you come back for a refill, you save money since you don’t have to buy the container, just he beer.

Fargo Brewing Company
610 N. University Dr. , Fargo, North Dakota 58102
Taproom & Growler hours: Tuesday-Friday, 4-10pm (Happy Hour prices 4-6pm) and Saturday, Noon-10pm
Tours: Saturdays noon and 2:00PM, each limited to 25 people – click on the times to register,  cost is $1 or non-perishable food item (see below)
Prices: Growler & fill $15, refills $10, pints $5

Located on University Drive north of Main Avenue and just south of Sunmart, Fargo Brewing has a large building and large plans.  Before they can renovate the east side of the building as a tap room with a kitchen, they have opened a temporary tap room on the west side of the building right by the parking lot.  This does give easy access and gives a bit of industrial feel as the taps come right out of the cooler, seating is limited, and there are barriers so you don’t wander off into the brewery.  You don’t need much to make this place a cool hangout with $5 pints of regular beers and experiments from their 1 barrel test system that you might or might not see produced in greater volume.  Now that they are making their own beer, I can taste the difference as their locally made products are much better than what they contracted out to have made for them.

After you buy a pint or two you can bring your favorite home in a growler.  Also you might catch a food truck in the parking lot to make a meal out of it too.

Fargo Brewing is now doing tours for the public Saturdays from starting at noon and 2pm.   The tour includes a free pint of their beer.
You must register at the link below and there is a limit of 25 people per tour.
A non-perishable food item or $1 is required for admission.
https://www.eventbrite.com/org/4726699901?s=17915645

Junkyard Brewing Company
1320 1st Ave. North, Moorhead, MN 56560
Growler hours: Wed. 4-7pm, Fri. 4-7pm
Prices: Growler and fill = $15
Bottle fill= $12/single, or $10 each for multiple fills

The brewery is located inside the steel building behind (north) the Country Cannery homebrew store on 1st Ave.  Entry to the “parking lot” is from the westbound half of 1st Ave. only. Or turn into Ecowater and go through the alley.

After you go in the door you walk through a short hallway to the brewery where they sell the growlers.  They do not have a tap room where you can buy pints of beer but they will give you samples to taste what they have available.  Their selection will vary depending on what they have on hand and what experiments they want feedback on.  I had some Scrounger made with wild rice that was very tasty on a recent visit.

From River Cities Distributing:

Junkyard Brewing from Moorhead, MN will start selling beer in mid-summer. River Cities is proud to be distributing their products. Junkyard Brewing, owned by Aaron and Dan Juhnke, will be brewing two beers: Scrounger and Hatchet Jack.  There will be a launch sometime in late June at Zorbaz on Big Detroit.

The beer will come in 22 oz bombers and kegs.

On April 21st, Little Deep Brewing in Minot posted a long update on their status.

Highlights are:
Their current plan is a taproom concept but they have not ruled out packaging their beer in bottles/cans in the future.
The building they were looking at was going to cost too much to renovate so they are still looking for a location.
They will be purchasing at least a 7 barrel brewhouse from the pacific northwest; this purchase will also include at least five-15 barrel fermenters and at least five-7 barrel serving tanks.

On May 3rd, Junkyard Brewing in Moorhead, MN posted an update on Facebook:

“Since being legal we have been: making a contract with a distributor, registering brand labels, brewing test batches, and planning a release party for early this summer”

Thus we may be seeing Junkyard brews on tap soon.

A few weeks ago on a Saturday morning I rolled into the Country Cannery in Moorhead.  I was there to meet Aaron Juhnke, and later, his brother Dan as they brewed a batch of beer on the brewing system he built for Junkyard Brewing.  I had not been to the Cannery for a while but owner Ron Stroh was there, as usual.  He was also brewing a beer that day with his friend Mark.  The front retail section where the homebrewing supplies are sold was all back together with newly insulated walls and fully stocked with equipment and supplies.  What was really new was the brewing room added in the shop area in the back section section of the building .  Aaron had framed out a room in the south west corner of the shop that included the sinks, and entrances from back storage room and the shop.

Aaron stirring in the mash.

In the brewing room was Ron’s tower system that was getting prepped for a batch but also the Junkyard Brewing system which Aaron does admit fits the Junkyard name.  It is also basically a tower system, but instead of 16 gallon kegs, they are using 55 gallon barrels.  To the far right is the brew kettle which is made from a 55 gallon stainless steel barrel with 2 propane burners for heat and it is boxed in with cement board on the top and the sides to keep the heat in.  It also has a stainless steel tube immersion chiller already built in.  The water for the mash was heating up as I got there.  To the left of the kettle was plastic barrel for a hot water tank that could have many uses, including holding the sparge water and  heated water coming out of chiller which could be used to save time heating water for their next brew.

I got to help grind the grain for this batch of Jackpine Savage Stout using a hand drill to power the grain mill filling a big tub.  Aaron kept on adding more specially grains and modifying the amounts from the last batch.  It was only about the 4^th time they were brewing on this system so they were still getting used to how it developed flavors from specialty grains.  One thing I noticed on the grain bill was the lack of roasted barley and black patent or similar dark roasted malts.  There was plenty of chocolate malt and dark crystal malts, so I don’t expect this batch to be that roasty.  Ron actually calls this brew a porter instead of a stout.

At this point, Aaron’s brother Dan shows up.  It is hard not to notice is that Aaron and Dan are young: 24 and 21 respectively.  I asked about Aaron’s background and how he went beyond the macro lagers, and I got a nice story of how he was in college in Michigan on the rugby team and the upperclassman were getting some of the younger members some beer for a party. When asked what he wanted, not having much beer before, he started off with Guinness and never looked back.  Always going for beers with more flavor, he soon got into homebrewing .  Originally from Fargo, he came back after college, and is a carpenter and substitute teacher.  Younger brother Dan is still attending NDSU, and his brother’s taste in beer and homebrew heavily influenced his desire for real beer to the point he was soon brewing along side him.

Looking down the mash tun to see the false bottom

Now that the grain is milled, it gets hauled up to the Mash Tun, another 55 gallon stainless steel barrel mounted on a tower above the plastic water tank.  Aaron had to climb on a few things to get the grain all the way up there,  but they will be building a better platform and way to get to the top of the tower.  The mash tun barrel had a nice perforated false bottom and was also mounted on a swivel so it can be tilted down for cleaning but can be locked upright for brewing.

Once the water was up to temp and the grain loaded, they pulled out the pump and started filling the mash tun with the water from the bottom up.  This has worked well so far as they haven’t had a stuck sparge yet.  As we waited for the conversion, Dan was plugging in the recipe into his iPhone brewing app, looking for the predicted final gravity and color.  It was an interesting contrast of current technology compared to the  junkyard style of the brewery using different bits and pieces here and there, but still in a fully functional system.   They got close to the gravity target and started the sparge, using simple gravity to get the wort to the brew kettle just below and to the right.  A sample of the wort was clean and malty with some nice complexity but not, roasty as I suspected.  Unfortunately, they didn’t have any of their prior brews available so this was the only sample of Junkard Brewery beer that I got that afternoon (but were a few commercial beers around so I wasn’t left thirsty.)

Aaron Juhnke and his brother Dan of Junkyard Brewing

The sparge water that was heated during the mash,  was pumped to the top of the mash tun and it washed the rest of the sugars into the brew kettle.  The brew kettle was nearly full as they started heating the wort for the boil.  Aaron pulled out several packs of hops, as he decided on which one to use for this batch.  The dual burners in the cement board box heated the wort quickly and soon it was at a rolling boil and with a little adjustment to the burners, they backing off the heat a bit to prevent a boil over.  Well it helped for a while as they did have a slight boilover, their first for this system, but every system needs a boil over so they might as well get it over with.

I had to leave before the end of the boil so I didn’t get to see them use the chiller or put the wort in their fermenters and pitch the yeast.  For fermenters they have 60 gallon plastic conical fermenters mounted on wood stands they made.  These fermenters are designed for wine and beer they have had good luck with them so far.  An earlier batch that got infected due to location issues cleaned up well and the following batch had no infection.

Overall they have kept their investments to a minimum waiting to get all the approvals before they get too far ahead of themselves.  A week after my visit, they got their Federal approval and are one major step closer to brewing beer commercially.  Distribution plans are for kegs to go to local establishments and initially no tap room.  We talked about the pros and cons of bottling or growlers but it had not been decided yet so we will see how it all works out.

You can find out more about Junkyard Brewing on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/JunkyardBrewery

Junkyard Brewing Company announced on Facebook that they got their approval from the ATF and are now a recognized brewery but they still have many steps to take for state and local licenses and approvals before they can officially brew and sell beer.