In Business: Bemidji Brewing Embraces Its Role As The Community’s Taproom

“We’ve got a couple of years under our belt, we’ve added more equipment, we’ve started canning our beer while we’ve been here, and now we’re able to send it to surrounding communities and beyond, too,” says Megan Hill, co-owner of Bemidji Brewing.

Whether you’re looking for their popular German Blonde, a seasonal IPA, or a more hoppy beer, Bemidji Brewing has been the place to go in Bemidji for a while now.

“Our brewer’s philosophy is he really likes to make beers true to style but believes that there’s still a lot of explore within that – especially related to process of making the beer,” says Hill.

But Bemidji Brewing is far more than beer. What makes it special is that it truly is Bemidji’s brewery. It started from a successful Kickstarter campaign six years ago, and along the way, they’ve expanded into surrounding areas like Walker, Park Rapids, Bagley, and soon Brainerd this month.

Hill says, “We’ve had great support from the community throughout all this time which has allowed us to expand, and so in 2015 we purchased [our current] building and renovated it, and then in 2016 we started brewing here and then opened our taproom that summer.”

Not only was it the community that helped get Bemidji Brewing here, but ever since opening, they’ve also given back. Fundraisers for area organizations are constantly being held in the building.

“With the support that we’ve gotten and the community that’s been built in the taproom, we like to give back to the community as well, too, so we do things like Community Pint Night, so that happens October through November. The 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday, we partner with local non-profits to raise money for these great groups, so a buck from every beverage sold goes to these organizations,” says Hill.

Hill says the brewing industry is exploding at the moment, and Bemidji Brewing is happy to be a niche spot in northern Minnesota. Hill says they want to continue to be the community’s taproom for years to come.

She says, “The community – it’s so interesting because you get such a different spectrum. You get a spectrum of people in the taproom. You can see young people to older folks and everyone can, you know, you can have a conversation. You can talk about things: what’s going on today, what’s going on with beer, kind of over the table.”

Bemidji Brewing has a wide variety of events and fundraisers coming up, and you can check out their calendar on their website or Facebook page.