Local Tap Talk: 612Brew Celebrates 2-Year Anniversary, Unveils New Cans

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After two years of hard work, a northeast Minneapolis brewery is spreading its wings and branching out to local liquor stores this month.

612Brew is introducing its three best-selling beers – SIX, Unrated Rye and Gateway Park – at local retail stores in six-packs of 12-oz. cans.

The brewery increased production in 2014 and expects to nearly double its production this year, thanks to their new Wild Goose canning line.

"We are canning all of our beers right here at the brewery," co-founder and brewer, Robert Kasak, said. "We explored a number of options for packaging, but decided to purchase our own canning line and do everything in house."

The brewery chose cans because of their lightweight packaging, recyclability and "because cans protect beer from light and oxygen — two of a beer's greatest enemies."

The cans themselves look amazing.

Local artist Adam Turman designed the three unique cans with bright red, yellow and blue colors. SIX – named after the bus line that travels through Minneapolis – features a city bus, Unrated features a movie theater theme and Gateway Park features late-1800s imagery of downtown Minneapolis.

"Working with Adam to design the can art has been a blast," co-founder Adit Kalra said. "Each can is its own piece of art."

To celebrate their two-year anniversary and the new cans, the brewery will be hosting a party at their taproom on Friday. The party will feature free pints from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., live music from Kingsview and Justin Halverson, special edition T-shirts and more.

612Brew cans will be available in Twin Cities liquor stores starting Feb. 16.

Also: watch and learn more about 612Brew's beginnings in the video below!