It started out as a conversation and has evolved into a three-part series of multiple location breweries. In episode 48 we discussed with Mike Doble of the Explorium Brewpub the challenges with opening a 2nd brewery across town. Not only did Mike open a new brewery across town, but he did so during the covid shutdown.
The podcast we are working on now is with a brewery that is in the process of opening a new brewery in a location across the state. And, in the episode you’re about to listen to we discuss the challenges in building a new brewery across state lines. A 5-hour drive between locations on a good day
Not only does the distance present some challenges, the state laws also present challenges. In their home state they are only allowed to have a single taproom. Over the past 10 years as they grew they had to decide if they wanted to become a contract brewery to push out volume as part of their growth or find a location to build a new taproom.
With the success they’ve had in their original brewery they chose the later as they wanted to share the taproom experience their beers provided to a new city and the customers in that area.
They chose Wisconsin as the customer demographics are similar to their home brewery with a strong midwestern ethic and blue-collar workforce. Milwaukee has many attributes that are similar, but still has a unique vibe that allows for the pilot house to develop creative new brews that are well received not only in Milwaukee, but in the Minneapolis taproom as well.