Tap Talk: Lakes & Legends Co-Founder Talks New Farmhouse Style Taproom

From Disney to beer, it's a transition many of us make.

But for Ethan Applen, co-founder of the new Minneapolis brewery Lakes & Legends, it was a little bit more challenging, and a little bit later in life.

Prior to starting the Loring Park taproom, Applen worked at a number of companies, including Disney.

While he enjoyed what he was doing, there was always one passion he wished to explore.

"I've been really into food and cuisine for a long time, maybe most of my life, and it was always sort of in the back of my mind that'd love to get into that industry," Applen said. "But I never knew how."

So, Applen went from a company that delights children to one that delights adults and created Lakes & Legends, along with his brother-in-law Derrick Taylor and brewer Andrew Dimery.

Earlier this month, the team announced the brewery would be opening their doors in summer 2015.

So, as the team begins construction, Applen took the time to chat with me about what he hopes will be the happiest place in Minneapolis.

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You expressed a desire that you'd always had to work in the food and industry business, but why beer specifically? What drew you to craft beer?

[Beer] was kind of and extension of food for me. About six years ago I had my first real Belgium beer and it opened my eyes to all the different kinds of beer that were out there, beyond the big macro brews in the U.S. And I started to get really excited about that. So, from there I started to sort of harbor this idea of "Could you take this gourmet approach to beer?" Beer was [also] an area where I felt we could do something really unique. It is a passion. I was a home brewer and that sort of gave me an idea of how much you can riff on certain things and kind of ingredients that you use. It was an exciting area where I saw that we could do something different, which I couldn't always see in other areas.

As a home brewer, why didn't you want to take on the position of head brewer? Why bring someone else in?

The jump from a 10 barrel garage to an industrial system is a big one. A lot of people do it, but I think Derrick and I kind of jumping into the industry really wanted to focus on something new. We wanted to bring in a brewer who had years of experience and who could really nail the production process, the flavors we wanted to get so we could focus on other areas. And when we met Andrew it was just a great fit. Most recently he was doing more traditional styles and that's one of the reasons he was most excited for the move. Because he was a home brewer as well, he's really interested on a commercial level on expanding the stuff that he is making. He really wants to be that kind of experimental brewer.

It seems that part of this "gourmet approach" is offering the saison style of beer, which can vary depending on the brewery. Can you define what a saison is to you?

Saisons are really about using whatever ingredients you have available to you. I think we may take it even broader and just call it farmer-style. But, they have that improvisational quality to them which I think is really neat. You're not looking at these incredibly rigid style guidelines. We're more interested in just kind of going, "OK, we don't care so much about style, what tastes really good? What would be really fun to brew with?" And I think that's where you see some really exciting beers coming out right now. And that's where we really want to be.

Speaking of where you want to be, why did you choose to build your taproom in Minnesota?

My dad's side of the family is from Minnesota, so we've got roots to Minnesota. My sister and brother-in-law live there and my mom lives there now, so it just sort of seemed [to make sense.] There's [also] a lot of things going on in the beer market there right now. Everything coming together at once, it just made a lot of sense. And I was looking at a lot of cities, Minneapolis really stuck out as a gem, as a hotspot.

Why Minneapolis, especially when there is such an influx of breweries in the Twin Cities and you're roots are outwards in Marshall, Minn.?

[In] Minneapolis, there's a huge demand, but Minneapolis is still a little early in the growth process. Some of that is because there weren't taprooms until Surly passed the Surly bill. So now you have this explosion in breweries, but I think that they are all really meeting consumer demand. I think demand keeps growing and the biggest problem all the breweries have so far is how to keep up with demand.

One of the [other] things for Minneapolis is that we were always wanting to do a big taproom that could really involve the community and I think just the size of Minneapolis lends itself to that, and the vibrancy of the city and how much is going on.

There's a lot of great beer out there. We definitely didn't want to come into the market and start making the same beer everyone else was. With all the great beer in Minnesota, we're going to focus on going deep into certain areas of beer where we thought there was still a lot of opportunity.

With your focus being strong on saisons and areas of beer where other brewers don't tread as much, will you still  have some of the styles that have become synonymous with craft beer. Specifically for the hops lovers, will you have IPAs?

(laughs) Well, stouts we'll definitely have! As for IPAs, I think that we've got some ideas to do our own version of a hoppy beer, of an IPA. You're not going to see a traditional West Coast IPA, or even some of the hop monsters that come out of Surly. Surly is known for hoppy beer. You're not going to see us do too many of those. You're going to see us do our own. I think more we want to adhere to the beer drinkers that might not love those hoppy drinks. What if we can give them some other options?

I think there is more of a market for that than some people realize. So, will you be a brewpub or just a taproom? What's the food situation?

At least at the start, we are not going to make food on premise. We are going to make food available, whether that's order in or bring in, we want to make food available there. So, we'll have food there but we're not going to run a kitchen. Longer term, what our vision is was to kind of do a "brewfarm." [We wanted] to have a restaurant and a brewery out in the country and maybe one day that's where well go, but for now it's sort of how can we bring that same vibe to the middle of the city.

Now that you're entering this industry, what is one thing you are hoping to see change while you continue to grow as a taproom.

Consumer knowledge. The biggest thing on all of us in the community is how do we educate consumers? And I think a lot of breweries are already taking this on. But how can we as brewers talk about our process, you know, where do our ingredients come from or the things you saw in the food industry that changed the way that people looked at food. I think we can do the same thing with beer. And that's ingredient process as well as how many different types of styles are there. Whenever anyone tells me they don't like beer, I tend to think they just haven't found the type of beer they like yet.

So, for my Tap Talks I like to ask the interviewee to describe the taproom in one word. Being that you haven't opened it might be difficult, but what do you hope you taproom will be (in one word)?

Can I have two? (laughs) Farmhouse community.

The farmhouse goes back to the farmhouse style brewery and the community being we've just always wanted the taproom to be a place that people come and hang out. It's not a bar where you're going to drink, it's not a pub where you're just going to get food, you're going [to our taproom] because you're comfortable. When you walk in it feels like your second home and it's really where people get together to hang out with each other, and it just happens that the beer is in the middle of that.

Lakes & Legends began construction in April, 2015. The taproom is scheduled to open in summer 2015. It is located at 1368 Lasalle Ave in Minneapolis. Hours will be announced at a later date. For more information, find Lakes & Legends online.