Tap Talk: Lakes & Legends Celebrating 1 Year Anniversary

When discussing the Twin Cities brewing scene, the focus is often on either the history or the expansion.

From Grain Belt to Schmidt's to Summit, Minnesotans are happy to discuss the long-standing history of quality craft brews in the state. Then, in the next breath, they'll marvel at how quickly new spots seem to be popping up – especially in Northeast.

However, with new breweries opening faster than many Minnesotans can drink, we rarely focus on those who, while still young, are making moves to become part of the state's brewing history.

One such brewery is hoping they change the discussion as they celebrate one year.

On Nov. 11, 2015 Lakes and Legends Brewing Company opened its doors in Minneapolis' Loring Park.

Co-founders Ethan Applen and Derrick Taylor started their vision back in April of that year, hoping to bring farmhouse style beers to a rather underserved, when it comes to brewers, part of the city.

Like most brewery owners, the pair wanted to brew beers they liked the drink. Their focus was wheat, saison, farmhouse style beers, with a few IPAs thrown in for good measure. They also were passionate about highlighting local ingredients.

On Dec. 10, the brewery is celebrating one year of operation with a big blowout party. But before the celebration comes two beer releases and the introduction of the Brewer's Reserve Club.

Congratulations on reaching one year! It must be a very exciting time at the brewery. Tell me, over the last year what do you think has been the biggest change over the last year?

Applen: The incredible reception we got around our Farm Series was way more than we'd anticipated, and that has been really exciting. (The Farm Series includes beers made from ingredients sourced from local family farms.) That's pushed us to play with local ingredients even more, which in turn is connecting the farms to our customers. That piece was always part of our goal. But I think the reception has made us focus there even more.

Taylor: The Farm Series started right when we launched but we didn't claim it that way. We said more farm-to-glass. But from the beginning our staff has really wrapped their arms around it. Everyone has put so much work into those beers. It's really fun and rewarding. It's a great way to get us out of the brewery and meeting with people.

The Farm Series beers are always really unique and flavorful. I also really love hearing the stories behind the produce and farms. What an awesome way to celebrate the community! I know the Cranberry Saison, one of the first in the series, is being released on Nov. 17. It was very popular last year, have you made any tweaks to it?

Applen: We do a lot of new beers and refinement of old ones, but this one we left untouched. The cranberries just add this really nice fruit tartness to the saison, and we didn't want to mess with it!

I'm sure fans of the beer will be happy to hear that! Will there any other holiday beers being released?

Applen: We'll be releasing our Winter Warmer at our anniversary party on Dec. 10. We'll be doing a number of one-off beers in firkins that day as well, things you'll only be able to get at the party because the quantities are so limited.

Taylor: Further into the winter, after the holidays, we'll look at releasing our Wild Rice beer once again. We're also hoping to start playing around with more herbs in the future. And, of course, other favorite Farm Series beers will return.

I'm very excited to see what you'll come up with next! So, one of the things that you're doing to celebrate your one year anniversary is introducing the Brewer's Reserve Club. How did the idea for the Brewer's Reserve Club come about?

Applen: The key to our success has been our customers, and we've got a big number that are regulars at this point. We wanted to find a way to recognize them and make sure they had access to all of our limited releases that might sell out "in the wild," and also find a way to get them even further involved in the brewery and letting other people know about what we're doing.

Taylor: It was always part of our business plan from the beginning. We knew we wanted to do something like this to help build the community out further. As Ethan said, we wanted to find a way to show appreciation for our customers who love and appreciate us. The membership is $199, but members will get 15 percent off in the brewery, access to limited releases and special events and member-only items.

That sounds like a great opportunity for big fans of the brewery! How can people sign up for that? Will there be any added perks?

Applen: People can sign up online at Lakes and Legends. There will be a lot of additional perks beyond all the beer. Members can also get 15 percent off in the taproom, limited merchandise for the club only and a number of member appreciation events that we'll have across the year. The membership pays for itself really quickly.

Very cool! So, the other way you are celebrating the anniversary is, of course, with a big party! Tell me, what can people expect from the anniversary party? You also mentioned there will be a craft market during the party, what will that entail?

Applen: It's going to be an all-day party! For the Craft Market we bring in all types of makers and artisans from across the state who set up throughout the space and sell their goods – it's great gift buying for the holidays! Then we're going to start tapping firkins in the afternoon right as we're wrapping up the market, and will tap a new firkin each hour until we close. We'll have live music from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m., including Harbor City Project and Feeding Leroy, food from Flagsmash, beer releases and whatever else we dream up to throw in there!

Taylor: The market is called the Procraftinator and will run from 12 to 5 p.m.

Sounds like there will be something for everyone! Can you share any of the firkin flavors?

Applen: They're all going to be plays on our winter warmer, which is a big, roasty and chocolatey dark beer clocking in at over 10 percent ABV. We're playing around with some things like chai, Mexican chocolate and cherries. We'll have a lot of variety in there!

Taylor: Our anniversary beer will also be a winter warmer, we're calling it Year One.

Sounds like there will be a lot of fun flavors to explore. So, after making it through one year what changes can customers expect in the next year?

Applen: We're going to start to bottle a lot more of our specialty beers, hopefully around one a month. Those will come out in two series – our Farm Series and our Barrel Series. The Barrel Series is where we age beer in our cellar. We've got a ton of awesome limited releases that will start coming out in January, and we're pushing our creativity with the ingredient and barrels we age in.

Taylor: We also will be introducing our private tasting room – the Root Cellar. We can accommodate up to 50 people. Parties can come to do a private tasting, or there will be a television if people want to do presentations. Also, as I said earlier, we're hoping to expand on herbs. Belgian beers by nature are supposed to be improvised. They are an open book – anything goes. So we're going to see where the product takes us. The fun thing about the Farm Series, is nature dictates the beer. We'll also be looking into more sours and expanding on our beer dinners with The Gentleman Forager.

Sounds like you have a lot in store! Tell me, what was an unexpected challenge that you encountered over the last year?

Applen: We took on a lot this year, including starting distributing in bottles in April and changing some of our packaging from bigger 750ml bottles to 4-packs in October. Each one of those things takes an incredible amount of planning and coordination. It's one thing to say, "Hey, let's change this," and another to make it actually happen smoothly! Those types of things end up being big "all hands on deck" events and can be tough. But they've also forced us to refine our processes and get to a next level in terms of capabilities.

Taylor: We're a small team and we self-distribute. We're the manufacturing, the taproom, the sales force, the HR team and the marketing team. We came close to producing 1,000 barrels this last year. So, while it's an incredible amount of fun, there are a lot of moving pieces.

Wow! Sounds like a lot of responsibility. Really makes the one year even more special knowing all the work you put in. So, what changes do you hope to see for Lakes & Legends in the next five years? The Twin Cities brewing scene?

Applen: I think we'll continue to grow and keep serving the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota area. Our plans are to start adding additional tanks this coming year to keep up with demand. That reception by our fans is going to let us keep experimenting with fermentation styles and aging. Hopefully we can get some of our barrel-aged sours out soon! As for the Twin Cities, I think we're going to keep seeing breweries focused on underserved styles popping up, and increased competition really pushing up quality. That's going to get a lot of people nationally talking about the state's beer scene. I think we could get included up there with Portland, San Diego and Denver pretty soon.

Lakes and Legends Brewing Company will be holding its anniversary party from 12 p.m. to 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 10. Learn more on Facebook.