Surly Expanding? [Archive]

rose0529

02-09-2011, 06:41 AM

YAY! I read this in the paper yesterday at lunch, could be pretty cool to see this happen!

Surly brews up plan for $20 million expansion
The project could make it Minnesota's biggest beermaker, but requires a change in state liquor laws.
By CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER, Star Tribune

Already known for making audacious beers, Surly Brewing Co. unveiled bold plans Monday for a $20 million facility that would house a restaurant and beer garden, and could make it the biggest brewer in the state.

Before it can break ground or even pick a location, though, the Brooklyn Center-based beermaker will need a change in Minnesota liquor law. Prospects for that might be as murky as Surly's notoriously heavy Darkness beer.

"People want our beer, and we simply just want to improve the ways we give it to them," said Omar Ansari, who founded the brewery in his dad's old metal-scrap warehouse in 2006 and has expanded his operations several times since.

Last year alone saw a 32 percent increase in sales, to 12,000 barrels (about 3 million pints), Surly says. The new facility would have an annual capacity of as much as 100,000 barrels, a little more than either Summit of St. Paul or Schell Brewing of New Ulm. With that kind of growth, Ansari is confident that raising the $20 million won't be a problem.

"It's a lot easier to get banks to call me back now than it was five years ago," he said, before announcing Surly's plans Monday at a fifth anniversary celebration at the Muddy Pig, a popular beer bar in St. Paul.

The legislative issue is the linchpin. Only small-scale Minnesota breweries are allowed to sell beer for on-site consumption. Ansari has hired the lobbying firm Cook Girard Associates to work on his behalf in what could be a tough fight.

Among the figures Surly is throwing out -- which Ansari admitted are "a bit pie-in-the-sky at the moment" -- are estimates that the brewery would create about 150 permanent jobs, and as many as 85 more to build it.

Ansari also noted the rising popularity of "beer tourism," as evidenced in Colorado, Oregon and other states with multi-faceted breweries like the one Surly wants to be.

"The sad fact is that I could open up this new brewery today in Hudson, Wis., if I wanted, or anywhere in Wisconsin or Illinois, but I don't want to do that," Ansari said.

Those states have gotten a taste of Surly's beers, but demand for the beer is so high that Surly has pulled back to focus only on sales in Minnesota.

Still, the legislative matter could be a difficult fight. Just ask Jamie Pfuhl, president of the Minnesota Grocers Association, which is now in its third decade of trying to change state laws to let grocery stores sell regular beer and wine.

While Surly may not face opposing lobbyists -- the grocers have been blocked, in large part, by liquor store owners -- Pfuhl said that "finding the stomach and appetite for changing these laws appears to be a great challenge." Making it worse is the fact that legislators "certainly have full plates" in the current session, she said.

However, one positive might help Surly's case at the Capitol, she said: "Right now, no revenue stone should go unturned."

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658