'Our customers called and spoke up for it. Surly Brewing founder Omar Ansari credits the so-called 'Surly Nation' for helping get the 2011 legislation passed. That's when the number in the state reached its initial peak of 123 breweries, according to Doug Hoverson, author of "Land of Amber Waters: The History of Brewing in Minnesota." There are actually less Minnesota breweries per capita now than there were in 1875.
"There still could be more changes to the laws to help us move much closer to the top."
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In fact, Minnesota still hasn't cracked the top 10 states with the most breweries per capita. But he also credited the local boom to the nationwide rise in craft brewers over the last decade.
Sallee said "it was extremely hard and expensive" to open breweries before the Surly bill legalized taprooms. "I honestly thought we were maybe too late to the game," he recalled with a laugh. That made a world of difference."Įvan Sallee, president of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, remembered there being about 60 breweries when he co-founded Fair State Brewing Co-op in northeast Minneapolis in 2014. "Our customers called and spoke up for it. "I knew it would pay off, because I knew how much demand there was in the market for quality beer," Ansari said, crediting the so-called "Surly Nation" for helping get the 2011 legislation passed. Surly had to wait out the three-year construction of its $30 million "destination brewery" near the U of M campus in Minneapolis. "Be careful what you wish for," quipped Ansari, who watched competitors such as Indeed and Bauhaus open popular taprooms soon after the 2011 law passed. About half of them are in the Twin Cities metro area. Paul), some Minneapolis brewpubs (Town Hall, Herkimer) and a few other hip, young Twin Cities breweries besides Surly (Lift Bridge and Fulton).Īs of December, Minnesota boasted 196 breweries or brew pubs, according to the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, stretching from Forbidden Barrel down in Worthington to Boathouse Brewpub up in Ely. Those included the second-oldest independent brewery in America (Schells in New Ulm), the local forebearer of the modern craft-brew era (Summit in St. The state had about 20 active breweries or brew pubs in the year preceding the 2011 legislation. The number of breweries in Minnesota nearly increased tenfold in the 2010s. "I like that there's a good mix of big, mid-sized and more neighborhood breweries."Īnd yes, there are a lot of them now.
"It's pretty different from Chicago," he noted. The Surly bill is at the heart of reader Ron Liss' question for our Curious Minnesota community-reporting series: "How many breweries existed in Minnesota before the current popularity of microbreweries today?"Ī Chicago area resident, Liss got hopped up on our state's brewery scene while visiting his son at the University of Minnesota. PODCAST Listen: Why do so many Fortune 500 companies call Minnesota home? Minnesota has more than its fair share of big companies that got started here with next to nothing - in a Minneapolis garage (Medtronic), a Roseau metalworking job shop (Polaris) and a stereo components store in St.
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