Pryes Brewing Founder, Jeremy Pryes
Pryes Brewing founder, Jeremy Pryes
A mere three years ago, Jeremy Pryes brought the world the first test batches of his Pryes Brewing beers. Then he won two successive Mpls.St.Paul Magazine beer prizes for favorite brewery, and friends, that was just the prequel! I bring you news of the astonishingly gorgeous new taproom and brewery that's about to open just outside of downtown Minneapolis on the riverfront—and it is so beautiful. So beautiful! I hardly know where to begin.
Construction at Pryes Brewing's new tap room
First, let's start with where this gorgeous critter is: Just between the Plymouth Ave. and Broadway bridges, on the west side of the Mississippi on the river road. It's got a patio that overlooks the road and the river—what a view. If you're a Twin Cities insider you may be asking, 'Isn't that where the waterski trick team the River Rats have their free shows?' Yes, exactly! Pryes will have a big patio with garage doors that open wide to let the river air in, and I predict these will be very in-demand seats during River Rats shows. During those, and all the other times, Pryes also has (rather unbelievably) loads and loads of free parking.
Next, let's nerd out beer-wise: Pryes (pronounced Prize) earned the attention of the whole city's beer scene with their sparkling clean, razor-fresh Miraculum, one of the best American IPAs in town, and something I show off to out-of-towners for its lacy, bright finesse. The tap room at Pryes, however, will open with beers beyond Miraculum! Four more, in fact, including a blonde and a session IPA that has mango overtones, but of course no actual mangoes in it, and yet more beyond those. Pryes, which self-distributes, is set to vault from its current 1,100 barrel a year production to some 3,000 a year, founder Jeremy Pryes told me. The brewery has been built to allow storage for wooden casks, so you can expect all kinds of beer styles that demand long aging. Pryes designed the brewery himself—when you're there, ask for someone to point out the special sort of robotic malt habitrail he engineered to get straight from the mill to the brewing tanks.
Next, let's go deep design-wise. Do you feel like the Twin Cities has maxed out possibilities for super masculine man-cave tap rooms? But wait! This one is better. The bar is better: It's a woodworkers fantasy of inlay, brass, and steel. The bathrooms are better: There are seven, mostly handicapped accessible, and all unisex locking stalls sharing a hand-washing area, including one giant stall with a changing room. (Can we get a 'Huzzah!' for Minnesota's family-friendly beer culture?) There's a Belgian feather bowling alley, such as they have in Detroit. The beer taps light up so beertenders can see the beer they're pouring. (Yes, they're called beertenders now.) It feels great in there, even with steelworkers putting on finishing touches and paper protecting delicate surfaces. I can't wait to see it all done.
Pryes Brewing Taproom's Red Wagon Pizza Oven
Red Wagon Pizza founder, Peter Campbell
But that's not all! Are you ready for a Red Wagon pizza, downtown Minneapolis? I was so surprised to find that Pryes built a full professional kitchen on site—it's got a legit wood-burning pizza oven, four burners and a flat top, a dish line, fryers, the whole kit-and-caboodle. But I was a heck of a lot more surprised to find Red Wagon pizza founder Peter Campbell testing it out. It turns out that Red Wagon is going to do a sort of residency at Pryes for the first three months they're open—and after that, other chefs might take over, or alternate, or they'll figure it out. In any event, we now have our second Minneapolis spot built experimenting with a permanent economic model for pop-ups. And our first that seems to be designed for the coming $15 minimum wage without a tip-credit; this new model of pop-up in a brewery will have only beertenders and food runners—no servers. Campbell told me the pizzas will be slightly smaller than the flagship Red Wagon pies folks know and love, so they'll be a little cheaper, the whole experience a bit more casual. Jeremy Pryes told me that he hopes in the future that having the pop-up kitchen will be a win-win for the current restaurants that carry Pryes beer. For instance, Handsome Hog is a good customer, so what if chef Justin Sutherland did a pop-up, to get their brisket in front of a different audience?
Pryes Brewing Kegs
Now, I know what you're wondering. When? Soon. Grand opening is scheduled for June 17. From that point on, the brewery will be open Thursdays 4 p.m.–11 p.m., Fridays 3 p.m.–midnight, and Saturdays 11 a.m.–midnight. "This whole thing happened because I wanted to make a beer that was better," Jeremy Pryes told me, before letting me know of future plans to add a mezzanine, and, one day, a green roof with a patio for even better river views. I asked for the phone number for when the brewery opened. "612-78-PRYES," he told me. "I got that three years ago. We're going to finally get use it. Can you believe it?" In fact, I think the number will be ringing off the hook.
1401 West River Road N., Minneapolis. 612-78PRYES; pryesbrewing.com
