But their answer to the pandemic is a microcosm of how small businesses, great and small, are finding ways to hang on.
Judging by the brewery operators in the Brainerd lakes area, this is, in no small part, due to the loyalty of local communities: a veritable army of customers, regulars and out-of-towners alike, who have rallied around their neighbors during one of the most troubled and unusual periods in modern American history.
“I wasn’t expecting how much support the community gave us, because a lot of people showed up for us, just like we’ve showed up for them in the past. People really care about their little community that we have here,” said Jeremy Hodges, the lead bartender at Big Axe Brewing Co. in Nisswa. “Yeah, we had our ups, and we had our downs, but we’re still here and we’re feeling really blessed about that.”
“It’s not only the public support for the business, but compliance has been really high,” observed Patrick Sundberg, owner of Jack Pine Brewery in Baxter. “People have really been gracious to us and that’s been wonderful for our staff. That’s my biggest thing, if I could give a big public thank you to the people coming into the tap room.”
“It’s just been one of those things where you get a really good gauge for the group of people that are around you,” said Suli Furman, the taproom manager at Roundhouse Brewery in Nisswa. “I think the community has been super. You see people, even over the holidays, supporting local business."
Adapting during roughly a year of COVID-19 restrictions has been something of an art of taking chances and snatching opportunities when and where they come, Furman said. Roundhouse Brewery had to reorient itself, from a face-to-face business grounded in the ambiance and sociability of a taproom, to a brewery comfortable in the digital cybersphere where the bulk of hospitality, orders and transactions now take place.
“It catapulted us into the digital side of things,” Furman said with a chuckle. “We’ve had to think outside of the box, for sure.”
Hodges said operating Big Axe Brewing Co. has been a roller coaster experience, where the brewery had to ride the highs to make up for the lows, eeking out sales whenever or however they may materialize, even if that’s by setting up heaters and bonfire pits during single-digit temperatures to snag a few ice anglers or a couple snowmobilers.
A group of friends relaxes around a fire at an outdoor dining area set up outside Big Axe Brewing Company Saturday, Dec. 19, in Nisswa. Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch
“We’ve had to adjust multiple times over the past year. There were six months with indoor dining not being available,” Hodges said. “Every week it seemed like we were adjusting to something different. It’s up and down, but it’s stronger now, becoming more stable, because people are more willing to go out and people are getting more comfortable being inside with the restrictions getting lifted. We have some struggles here and there, we’re anxious, but we are definitely still holding on.”
Sundberg noted so long as these restrictions are necessary or in place, there’s only so much breweries can do to make up for the losses of 2020 rolling into 2021.
“I’d like to say we’re back to normal, but we’re definitely not,” Sundberg said.
The growler cap
Speaking of restrictions, the coronavirus pandemic highlighted a limitation on Minnesota breweries that long predated 2020, though the matter gained considerable urgency as the state scrambles to prop up its slumping local economies.
The primary issue is a cap on growlers imposed on any Minnesota brewery that surpasses 20,000 barrels a year in production — of which, there are six currently. These breweries are barred from selling growlers and it represents the only law of its kind in the Upper Midwest. Larger breweries in the Dakotas or Wisconsin, for example, are not restricted from selling growlers.
It’s been a long-standing sore spot for breweries represented by the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, which supported efforts by lawmakers to pass legislation to lift this cap. This cap doesn’t make practical sense, they argue, and now the growler cap is hamstringing a potential source of revenue for Minnesota breweries during a period of economic upheaval. It also hampers their ability to compete with craft breweries in neighboring states, or larger, more corporate entities like Samuel Adams, which produces 4 million barrels a year, bipartisan advocates for repealing the cap argued.
Dave and Penny Hogberg enjoy a beer outdoors on the patio by a fire Thursday, March 4, at Jack Pine Brewery in Baxter. Kelly Humphrey / Brainerd Dispatch
According to proponents, like the Teamsters Union of delivery drivers, the growler cap protects local restaurants and liquor stores.
“The pandemic has highlighted the need, even more, to allow breweries in our state to sell growlers,” state Sen. Sandy Pappas, DFL-St. Paul, stated in a February news release. “Breweries that have been allowed to sell growlers were able to keep their business from going under amid all the pandemic-related closures. These breweries that were open for pick-up orders kept workers employed, kept revenue up, and moved product off their brewery floor."
Sundberg said the growler cap on breweries that produce 20,000 barrels or more isn’t likely to affect local breweries anytime soon — pointing out, as he did, that Jack Pine produces roughly 1,600 barrels a year — but it’s the flagship issue in a comprehensive package of legislation that breweries are pushing to modernize the industry.
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