Bank Brewing to Open Brewery in Hendricks, MN!

In my attempt to cover upcoming breweries, I came across Richard Drawdy, the brewer for the soon to open Bank Brewing.  The brewery is located in the small border town of Hendricks, MN and I'll let Richard tell you more about that in his own words!  When I first looked up the brewery I discovered that they are responsible for the Beer for Wildlife series of beers that include Rooster Lager and Walleye Chop.  They have been donating to wildlife conservation with profits from those beers for a couple of years now.  A friend of mine won a whole case of Rooster Lager at a Pheasants Forever benefit and shared a bunch with me a while ago.  These are pretty easy drinking lagers (and I have to admit that I had so many that I boiled up some amazing locally made brats in some of it!) that certainly appeal to the majority of beer drinkers.  The company is poised to make some big changes in the coming months!

So without further ado, here is the interview:

JABlog:  I like the wildlife conservation aspect of your current beers.  What made you want to take that path? 

RD:  The Beer for Wildlife line of lagers were born out of love for hunting, fishing, beer, and the desire to develop a way to give back to the land and preserve hunting areas.  When our proprietor Jason Markkula was on a hunting trip to Hendricks, MN there was a unique conversation that occurred in an old bank building turned hunting lodge.  Jason and his hunting buddies decided that he should start a beer company, brew his favorite home brew recipes at local breweries and sell the beer to local hunting enthusiasts, contributing a portion of every sale to land purchase and wildlife preservation.  Since 2009 these brands have been brewed seasonally to coincide with the hunting season they represent and the passion for crafting beer grew.  The old bank building, turned hunting lodge, has now been turned into the taproom at 200 S Main St. in Hendricks, MN.

JABlog:  I'm assuming that the previously mentioned beers were contract brewed off-site since you are now planning to brew on premise.  What led you to make that change?  Also do you plan to brew those beers at your new site?

RD:  You are right, the beers for wildlife are made in 15 BBL batches at Brau Brewing Company in the 12oz bottle and Keg formats and the Walleye Chop cans are coming out of Cold Spring, MN being brewed 75 BBL at a time.  The decision to move to a brew on-premise was driven by an opportunity that presented itself in Hendricks.  The historic creamery building at the other end of the same city block as the bank taproom was screaming to have a brewery in it.  After years of renovations it has a new life making beverages for fans to enjoy much like it once did as a creamery, now with beer instead of dairy.  It’s been fully restored with a 15 BBL brew length, 1500 BBL capacity brewing system on the main level and a loft with apartment and office space as well as rooftop patio on the upper level.  

The beers for wildlife will continue to be brewed the way our fans have always enjoyed them, out of the Brau facility.  This will free up the Bank Brewing Company to start fresh with new beers, facility, and brewing team.   

JABlog:  Hendricks, Minnesota is long ways from the present craft brewery action of Minneapolis and Duluth!  Why open a brewery in a small town nestled on the South Dakota border?

RD:  The location was a derived out of a love for the area and the people of Hendricks. The two abandoned spaces on main street were begging for a new life. In working with area economic development associations and historic preservation organizations we were able to give these two buildings a new purpose.  Hendricks is a great, supportive community that has been extremely excited to see this to completion from day one.  We have a burgeoning craft beer boom of our own over here on the border, with Brau just east in Marshall, MN, Wooden Legs Brewing to our east in Brookings, SD, Take 16 Brewing soon to open in Luverne, MN, as well as Gandy Dancer in Sioux Falls, SD, among others also in planning like Remedy Brewing of Sioux Falls, SD.

JABlog:  I like to know who my beer comes from!  Tell me a little about your brewing history.

RD:  I am a home brewer and will always be one.  It is really a homebrewer's dream come true to be given the opportunity to take over a commercial system.  I'm currently taking a Chemistry of Beer course with the University of Oklahoma, as well as studying all the brewing texts I can get my hands on.  I've watched or listened to every episode of of Brewing TV, Basic Brewing Radio, and The Brewing Network and have learned an amazing amount from those sources as well.  In addition to those learning opportunities I have been helping the guys at Brau to brew out wildlife lagers once in a while to gain some commercial brewing experience.

JABlog:  Tell me a bit about your personal connection to brewing and craft beer.

RD:  Brewing to me has become an obsession, something that I think about doing all day every day.  It has captivated me with its raw simplicity and its archaic techniques, while its intricacies, complexities, and unknowns are what keep me coming back for more.  I know that there is no way that one person could possibly know what all the different combinations of water, grain, hops, and yeast taste like.  However, I see it as a challenge to try and figure out many of themes that form those relationships.  I love being a craft beer fan and am guilty for getting caught in the frenzy of always wanting to try the latest and greatest things that breweries dream up.  I will carry this desire into my role as brewer, always pushing the envelope of innovation and creativity while brewing new and exciting things regularly. I want to focus the majority of our time on brewing interesting, exciting, thought provoking, conversation worthy beers.  Not only that, I look forward to developing the community of craft beer in and around the Southeast Minnesota/ Southwest South Dakota area.  I believe that offering a wide variety of palate entertaining and educating beers will be a fun and exciting experience for everyone.  I am excited to brew beers that will span the gamut from classic to eccentric and everything in between.  What you can expect from me as a person is friendliness, openness, humor and fun.  I truly believe that life should be fun everyday and if its not then you are doing something wrong, this is why I am so grateful to be given the opportunity of taking a dream to reality and brew beer for a living!  

I am a very open person, willing to share anything and everything with you about our brewery, our beers, and myself so please don't hesitate to contact me via email, Facebook, Twitter, Untappd or in-person at the brewery and taproom.

Brewmaster@bankbeer.com

@bankbrewer

@bankbrewingco

Facebook.com/bankbrewingco

https://Untappd.com/BankBeerCompany

JABlog:  What types of beer are you planning on releasing from your new brewery?  Are you aiming at the serious craft beer geek or more at the local casual beer drinker?  

RD:  I touched on this above as well but really what you can expect from us is things that excite the craft beer geeks and aim please the casual drinker with exciting flavors that temp their palates into further exploration.  There are a couple styles we plan to lead with the first of which is Wanted - a tropical hoppy punch of a session IPA.  This is a style that I have found myself wanting the most in the last year.  A beer that has all the hop punch and amazing aromatics you get in a Double IPA while allowing you to have a few amongst friends without worrying about the inebriation that comes with the DIPA.  Another beer that I have focused a lot of time on refining recently is Sour Bomb - a lemony, intensely tart beer that quenches my thirst for sours while being an everyday drinker. I look forward to playing with fruit variations on this one as well. 

JABlog:  How do you plan on  marketing your beer?  Taproom, bottles, cans, kegs?

RD:  I may be crazy with this idea but my initial plan is to take 80% of every batch into kegs and sell in the taproom as well as draft accounts.  The remaining 20% of each batch will be going into the 750 ml format with some great new label art, sold in the taproom only. So we will then be developing an archive of our bottle product since we will be taking some from each batch we can monitor how the beers develop over time. 

JABlog:  When do you plan to be up and running?

RD:  The facilities are nearing completion and we should be cranking out the first batches early this summer.

JABlog:  Thanks so much for the informative interview Richard!  I look forward to trying the beers and seeing how this new move for the brewery will go.  There may have to be a road trip involved!  I'll post an update here when the brewery opens as well.  For my readers, if you visit the brewery please post back here and tell us how it is!

Great Waters Brewing Company Review

I've focused recently on reviewing several of the new brewpubs in the Twin Cities, (see my entries on Free House and Day Block at these links if you haven't checked them yet,) but realized that I have not done reviews of many of the old veterans of the Minnesota beer scene.  With a recent trip to the Minnesota History Center to see their prohibition exhibit, I finally had a reason to return to Great Waters Brewing Company for lunch.  I'll be honest I'm a creature of habit and living in the Minneapolis (far) suburbs I rarely go to St. Paul.  My car's GPS also seems to dislike the Old City and will often send me on random wild goose chases at times.  It is always nice to get out of your safe areas and try new places though!  Sj and I met with our friends Bill and Jackie S. around 12:30 at the brewpub on a Sunday.  As with any review, I'll talk about the experience we had, but your results may vary!  I always encourage folks to comment on this post if you have had different experiences or thoughts--good or bad.

Great Waters Brewing Company opened back in 1997--one of the first brewpubs in the Minnesota and up until about a year ago, one of only about 4 that have remained in business over the years.  The brewery is in the Historic Hamm Building on St. Peter Street in downtown St. Paul.  I enjoyed walking past some of the old buildings after leaving the pub.  There is a pedestrian mall that abuts Great Waters and provides an outdoor seating area for warmer weather.  When we visited the temperature outside was just warming up and the Ice Patio from the Winter Carnival was just starting to melt.  I would love to be served a pint at the ice bar some time!  Yes we Minnesotans are incredibly weird.  Parking is at several area ramps as well as metered street parking (meters are free on Sunday!)

The quickly melting remnants of Minnesota ice culture...

The restaurant itself takes up a sizable area with a large bar at the entrance and a spacious dining area off to the right of the main entrance.  The bar itself is no shiny newfangled bar imported from Ireland, but rather a well-used working-man's bar-top.  The place has high ceilings and plenty of space to spread out in and get comfortable.  One can also see the small brewery through some logoed glass behind the bar.  The wall-paper and decorations are a bit dated, but not in need of desperate overhaul like some places I've been to.  The ambiance fits exactly with what this place is--an unpretentious and serviceable bar and restaurant. 

Regulars at the bar.

Where the newer brewpubs are trying unusual menus to differentiate themselves, (pizza, haute cuisine, smoked sandwiches,) Great Waters has a pretty old-school brewpub menu of sandwiches, burgers, pastas and salads.  They do have some fancier items like steak and duck breast on the dinner menu as well, but I can't speak to them at this point.  While I appreciate fancier foods, I'm also just as happy having a nice burger or some chicken wings with my ale!  I've had food here several times over the years and have not had a bad experience with it, other than the fact that those Rasta Wings are not "Minnesota Hot", they are "Jamaica Hot!"  On this most recent trip we arrived during Brunch on a Sunday and Sj got the Eggs Florentine, while I ordered the patty melt with fries.  The burger was done exactly to my specifications and my meal was exactly what I was in the mood for.  I think Sj was a little less excited about her meal, but I think she just wasn't completely sated after eating.  Bill ordered a huge open faced meatloaf sandwich smothered in gravy that he continued to rave about. 

Grilled meaty perfection...

Decent food aside, this is a brewpub--so lets focus on the beer!  This place has been brewing their own beers for 17 years, starting long before the current craft beer craze.  They were an anomaly back then but have waited out the years, continuing to craft unusual beers over that time.  Now with the craft beer boom, I feel like some of these old-guard places like Great Waters, Town Hall, and Barley Johns sometimes get ignored in favor of the next new thing.  I'll also admit, the last time I checked out Great Waters I was less than impressed with the beers I tried.  It has taken me well over a year to get back and try it again.  That last visit was right at the time when their old brewer left and they had just hired on Tony Digatono as the head brewer that very week!  I had just taken up using Untappd to keep track of my beer ratings around then and looking back now I was less than glowing about my tastings at that time.  Luckily, I was quite pleased by the improvement in the beers since that trip!

A nice mix of beers, with up to date info print-out to go give details.

Great Waters has an impressively large tap list of house brewed beers.  I ordered the full sampler to try them all and ended up with 10 different beers!  Their standard beers like the Saint Peter Pale, Brown Trout and Golden Prairie Blonde, were all decent and much better than I remember them.  The seasonals were interesting with a very flavorful and malty O'Byrne's Irish Red leading the pack.  But where the beers really shone for me were in the cask conditioned ales.  Firkins and casks have been getting more popular the last few years but these guys have been serving these for over a decade now!  I did not love the House Ale--it tasted a bit metallic to me--but the Joe Moment Mild and the Invidia Barleywine were very tasty and made the most of the smooth mouthfeel and warmer temp of the cask serving method.  And by far the best beer I had there was the Blackwatch Oatmeal Stout.  This is the beer I ordered a pint of once I had worked my way through all those samples, and may be one of the very best oatmeal stouts I've ever had! 

Overall I had a very pleasant experience at Great Waters, with tasty food, many good beers, and a great time hanging out with friends.  This type of place is really where the craft beer movement came from and it is worth it to pay homage to the folks who have been slowly and steadily educating our palates over all this time.  If you haven't had much experience with English cask conditioned ales, you owe it to yourself to check this place out--and get a pint of that Blackwatch!  Oh, and they have a nearly up to date tap list on line so you can get a good idea what's on tap before you head over!

Head Brewer Tony Digatono has been brewing for Great Waters over the past few years.  Tony is a really nice guy, somewhat quiet as many brewers are, and doesn't really live in the spotlight.  Because most of his work happens behind the scenes and only shows up in your beer glass, I thought it would be worthwhile to learn more about him.  Sj and I met Tony back when he worked for Town Hall and he was one of our favorite servers there.  We were very surprised and excited for him when we heard he had taken a professional brewer's job at Great Waters.  Look for Tony at beer festivals or Great Waters events and say hi--just look for the slim guy with the red beard!   

1) Tony, tell me a little about yourself: where did you come from and what did you do prior to becoming a brewer?

I went through my late teens and early twenties without any idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I started taking night classes so I had an excuse to go part time at my crappy warehouse job. Six years later I ended up with a B.A. from the U of M in Religious Studies. Naturally, after earning that degree I took a job as an apprentice with the plumbers union. Which, leads us to question two.

2) What made you want to become a professional brewer?  Did you have any formal training or did you just jump right in?

I made a ton of money working construction, but work became intermittent when the economy crashed. About that time I took up home brewing as a hobby. After getting laid off for the umpteenth time, I knew I had to do something else for money and wondered if it could be brewing.  I got my toe in the industry by getting a job as a server/manager at Town Hall Brewery.  Mike (Hoops) and his crew were incredibly generous answering my questions and letting me shovel grain on my days off.  After about two years, an assistant job opened up here at Great Waters. As soon as I accepted the job here, I signed up for the Brewing and Malting Science Course through the MBAA. The course was good, but in some ways I wish I could retake it now that I have more practical experience.  I am currently trying to find the right correspondence course to further my formal education. If I was younger and single, I would love to go through a long formal education.

3) I noticed that you guys had a LOT of different beers on tap at the brewpub.  Do you enjoy brewing this many different beers or is it difficult to keep up?

Yes and yes. I feel obligated to give our loyal customers something new to try when they come. I also feel it's good for the front of house staff to be able to have a wide variety of styles to recommend to their tables. At the same time though, I have to remember this is a business. Space is at a premium in the cellar and I can't risk running out of our best seller because I wanted to brew something fun for me.

4) Great Waters has always prided themselves on serving some of the beers in traditional English fashion.  Is it easier or more difficult to brew beers that will lend themselves to that method?

In my mind beers brew the same regardless of the style. We are very proud of casks though. Physically it takes a lot more work.

5) If you had to choose a style  (or styles) of beer as a favorite, what would you choose?

Like a lot of drinkers, my tastes go through phases. Right now my fridge is entirely full of German Pilsners. If I'm out to eat, I'm probably going to get a local pale. I'm also about out of my mind waiting for Maibock season to start.

6) Many of the beers on tap at Great Waters have been around for years.  Have you been able to experiment much since taking over as head brewer, or have you kept more to traditional Great Waters recipes? 

There's a reason those beers have been around so long. I count four former Great Waters brewers as friends and want to stay true to their legacy. That's not to say the recipes haven't been tweaked a little. Some tweaks were happy accidents caused by something being on back order and a substitution was necessary.  Other changes were made just to satisfy my curiosity.

7) Is there anything else you would like to talk to my readers about? 

I would like people to know how much I appreciate that their hard earned dollars allow me to make a living doing something I love. My assistant Shane and I are trying to make the best beers we can and always want the next to be a little better than the last.

Thanks again Tony! 

Cheers!