Photograph by Caitlin Abrams
Local and national beers at HopCat
A mix of local and national crafts at HopCat.
We did our first craft beer story in October 2010. We included a glossary, a beer history timeline, and a little beer graphic showing color range from pilsner to stout among our profiles of seven breweries. We were so young! The local craft brewing scene has grown amazingly in those seven short years—as of September 2017, the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild has nearly 120 members. And they’re still coming.
Plenty of people ask if we’ve reached “peak brewery,” and the insider answer usually refers to Portland, a city of similar size, to show we haven’t. At the end of 2016, Oregon had some 261 brewing facilities across the state. They are way ahead of us in craft brewing, simply because it’s been legal there for much longer than here. It was the legislative event commonly known as the Surly Bill, which passed in 2011, that allowed breweries here to sell pints onsite and lowered the cost for entrance into that small business. That’s when the boom really began.
One of the original locals, Lift Bridge Brewing in Stillwater (which we profiled in our 2010 piece), had released its first beer, the popular Farm Girl Saison, in 2008. But as soon as that bill passed, Lift Bridge met with the city about a taproom license. It helped build the language of the ordinance with the city council and opened the first licensed taproom in the State of Minnesota. Now, Lift Bridge is looking to expand to meet demand and is interested in creating a new taproom potentially in downtown Stillwater. “We’ve been brewing since before taprooms, but we love that people can come and sample all our beers and learn about who we are. It’s an added connection to the people,” owner Dan Schwarz told me.
No doubt, we all love a good taproom. Don’t we? They seem to have become part of our social fabric, in terms of eating and drinking and gathering. They’ve even become hot spots for yoga and yarn crafting. But has there been a darker impact? Some restaurateurs who carry the beers to support local feel a little scorned by the brewery business as some drinkers begin to skip those suds which they can drink more cheaply at the taproom down the road. In a weird twist, it’s turning some taps toward harder-to-get out-of-state beers that people can’t find on every corner.
On the other hand, it seems that we are being invaded by national mega-beer bars. Mayo Square’s City Works boasts 90 craft beer tap lines with 25 percent set aside for locals. It’s done well enough to expand to the Mall of America. Yard House in West End has 100-plus taps, HopCat just opened in Minneapolis touting 80 taps with 30 dedicated to locals, and World of Beer has been chugging along in Lowertown with 50-plus taps. Our hometown version of this format, lots of beer and elevated bar food, would be either Happy Gnome in St. Paul with 89 craft drafts, or Republic in Seven Corners, with 104 taps of local, American, and international craft beers and ciders. But instead of growing and expanding that concept, Republic’s owner Matty O’Reilly sees a different future. His last two restaurant/bars, Bar Brigade and Delicata, opened with more of a wine and cocktail emphasis. “I’d be silly not to look to the trends, and it seems like consumption of cocktails and wine is growing. And yet, some stats show that beer consumption is flat. People may be drinking more craft beer than before, but there aren’t more beer drinkers than before, they’re just switching brands,” O’Reilly points out.
What does this all mean for Minnesota beer? Perhaps we’re just hitting our awkward pre-teen years where we gangle along until we figure it all out. I think there are brewers in town who quietly make exemplary beer, like Steel Toe Brewing, without all the flash and glitz. There are places like Dangerous Man, which has created a singular destination for its beer. And there are new taprooms a-foot that represent the evolution of the scene, like the Barrel Theory guys, who cut their teeth at Surly. I’m sure before we reach that decade mark we’ll see some closings and some acquisitions, but if all the growing pains bring us to a higher-quality debut product with new breweries, and just better beer, we’ll be the richer for it.
