The Blog

Alright folks, it’s time to dust off your rims, pump-up your tires and get your bikes tuned-up! The inaugural running of the Northeast Ride is coming up June 2nd, 2012 and we’re proud to announce our support for the event.

The ride, which is open to all, weaves cyclists through the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District, touring past historical landmarks like the Casket Arts Building and the Grain Belt Brewery complex. And if touring NE on bikes with friends and family isn’t fun enough, there will be a plethora of pit stops along the way with creative activities sponsored by local businesses. Stay tuned because Indeed has some fun ideas up our sleeves. Even though we won’t have beer available quite yet, prizes will be awarded!

Be sure to visit the NE Ride website and register for the event here: http://www.northeastride.org/?conference=click-here-to-register, and "Like" them onM Facebook and "Follow" on Twitter.

Take note that if you register for the Urban Assault Ride (another great local cycling event, set for the week after NE Ride) using the coupon code “MSP12NERide10off” you receive discounted entry into NE Ride.

Lastly, “30 Days of Biking,” an idea to get people to ride their bikes on each of the 30 days in April begins April 1. In its third year, #30DaysofBiking is aimed to encourage non-cyclists to adopt more active lifestyles. The event, which has gone national and even international, say they signed up more than 500 people in 2010 and more than 2,000 last year.

So c’mon and join us, we promise a fun time will be had by all!

While the weather seems to tell us that it’s mid-spring already, don’t be fooled by Mother Nature’s trickery, it’s just the beginning of the season! And just as spring begins we are about to go in to full-throttle building out our brewery.

This week the Minnesota Department Agriculture signed-off on our production and tap room layout. The City of Minneapolis’ Planning & Development review signed-off on the building plans, which now clears the way for a building permit and for other trades permits like plumbing, electrical, and mechanical.

Since we announced our brewery in early February, we have painted the production area, sealed the packaging walls and ceiling, and also poured a new concrete slab that slopes to a trench drain. Demolition for a new slab near the brew house and trenching for the drainpipes started yesterday and has turned the floor into a slippery mess. But it’s a sign of progress!

Our behemoth boiler was delivered the other day and our chiller will be delivered next week. The canning line also is being fabricated as we speak down at Wild Goose Engineering in Boulder, Colo. Our friends to the north at Specific Mechanical are starting the fabrication of our brew house and hot/cold liquor tanks in Victoria, B.C., Canada, which puts us on track for a late April/early May delivery date.

We also bought a 16-foot GMC/Isuzu cube delivery truck. The turning radius on it would give your 1964 Volkswagen Beetle a run for its money in a u-turn competition in the busy streets of downtown Minneapolis.

So, while the temperatures may seem like it’s already summer at times (don’t be fooled by the early ice-out on White Bear Lake) we still plan to open our brewery in July. In the meantime you can get to work on your tan and get in shape to drink many-a-pint this summer. The heat and humidity will be here in no time, but don’t fret, our tap room will be air-conditioned!

Many of you already know Indeed Brewing Company will be sharing floor space with artists in a three-story brick building known as the Solar Arts Building. The location is a dead-end intersection of 15th Avenue and Quincy Street in Minneapolis' Northeast Arts District. We could not be more excited about our new digs and hope you will feel the same when we invite you into our tap room and to tour our new brewery this coming summer.

It's difficult to sum up the character and beauty of our building to be honest. It is old, ca.1914, with bricks, giant timber beams and columns, and wooden ceilings. Freight trains and the North Star Commuter Rail pass just outside our tap room patio. There are old industrial sliding fire doors, an industrial in-floor working scale and we are putting a brewery inside of it, with a tap room, and canning!

Indeed will officially be on the books for 12,000 SF, or will occupy about 38% of the leasable floor space (not counting common areas). Not included in our demised space are our bathrooms and a shipping / loading dock. We will also have about 1,500 SF in a basement, but that will remain untouched for the time being until we can figure out what to do with it…possibly future storage or a barrel-aging room. It is possible if you combine the lease space, the basement, the common bathrooms and shipping area, we’ll be pretty close to 14,000-15,000 SF.

For now take a peak at our most recent floor plans for the brewery (hi-res PDF), tap room and patio. We will continue to work with the city and architect (Rachel's dad) as we finalize our plans. Ask questions or make suggestions before we build the walls.

For more pictures click through to Building Indeed Brewing Company.

Now that the building lease has been signed for our brewery, we are finalizing our fit and site plans before we can apply for building permits. But that isn’t stopping us from getting the work done that does not require a building permit, like painting.

After receiving four estimates for painting the production and canning rooms, we chose the services by Quality Painting on the recommendation from the Logan Park Neighborhood Association.  David Scott and his crew are going like gangbusters after priming the entire production area in one day. Scott expects to have it painted by the end of Thursday, at the latest Friday morning. Just seeing the primed walls is a night and day difference in appearance.

We also chose to preserve the look of the historic-looking brick. It’s one of the many characteristics that drew us to the building. It would’ve been cheaper to use paint, but it’d be hard to cover up those freshly sandblasted walls!

Other things that drew us to building are the modern conveniences of a new building; like the brand new heating and air conditioning throughout our space and rest, brand new energy efficient double-hung windows, a security/camera surveillance system, and even the solar panel array that will be installed atop the roof in March (we won’t see much of that power in our brewery, only in the bathrooms, common hallways, and entrances).

Once the painting is done, we hope to start some concrete work. We will replace the slab under where the bright tanks will be located. There are some “hollow” sounding spots and replacing it seemed like the “smart guy move.” We’ll start trenching for drains after the electrical and mechanical rough-in are complete, so the open trenches don’t get in the way of any "cherry picker" lifts.

It’s great to finally see some progress in our build-out, but we have several more months construction before you’ll be able to drink the beer. Trust us, we’re moving as fast as we can to get this done!

As Minnesota Public Radio reports: "Small breweries ready to tap into market - or fall flat"

Small beer-making operations have been popping up all over the city — and around the state. At least 10 new breweries opened in Minnesota last year, from Castle Danger Brewing on the North Shore to Olvalde Farmhouse Ales near Winona.

and the Journal & Courier (IN) reports: "Beer Man: Minnesota waking from brewing slumber"

It looks like the state is waking from its slumber, however, with several breweries opening the past several years and more in the works. Surly Brewing Co. opened in 2005 in a Twin Cities suburb and has quickly made a name for itself.

Visual.ly, a data visualization startup in Silicon Valley, has created a motion graphic depicting the history of the U.S. brewing industry. From the heights of the saloon era to the lows of prohibition, the brewing industry has gone through a number of changes, finally coming to a head (literally) with today's craft brewing renaissance. --via CraftBeer.com

We at Indeed Brewing Company can't more happy to be contributing to the "American Beer Revival!"