E-Malt.com News article: USA, MN: Fair State Brewing Cooperative opens as Minnesota's first cooperative brewery

Minnesota's first cooperative brewery opened its doors in Northeast Minneapolis, making it one of only three cooperative breweries the country, kare11.com reported on September, 8.

Minnesota is home to the largest number of cooperatives in the nation, with the most food cooperatives per capita in the United States, but Fair State Brewing Cooperative is now heralded as the state's debut cooperative of its kind.

Founders Evan Sallee, Niko Tonks and Matthew Hauck celebrated a "soft opening" at their taproom, inviting in new members and beer enthusiasts for the first taste.

"Our tagline is 'drink like you own the place' and we wanted members to come in and create the kind of taproom they wanted," said Sallee.

"The reason we came up with it is we were all home brewers and wanted to be more involved in the brewing industry but didn't really know how," said Tonks, who is now Fair State's brewmaster.

"None of us really came from money or had much in savings. We were thinking, let's start a brewery. How can we possibly afford it? This is a way to bring a group of people together to build the space we want and the co-op model really allows us to do that," said Sallee.

Sallee said his law degree allowed the group to pursue more complex legal avenues to creating a cooperative. Meanwhile, Tonks began working as a brewer at several breweries. It took several years to finally open the doors of Fair State Brewing Cooperative, putting the community in charge. Already during the first weekend, membership grew to more than 350 members.

Minnesota is home to more than 800 cooperatives, and cooperatives annually record about $34 bln in revenue. The Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild counts more than 50 breweries in Minnesota with up to ten more in the works, producing nearly $742 mln in economic impact in the state in 2013.

"We are seeing more and more innovative and creative ways for brewers to come to market. We have breweries that are farm-based and urban-based, we have shared-use breweries, those that are built to stay smaller and those that are built to expand and be large. And now we have a co-op brewery. It truly is an exciting time for craft beer in our state," said Clint Roberts, Executive Director of the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild.

Sallee said he hopes Fair State showcases a brewing concept that can be modelled around the country.

"We always said if we were going to start a brewery, there is no better place to do it than in Minnesota, which has such a great beer community," he said.



10 September, 2014