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Tap Talk: Hendricks' Bank Brewing Company

Over the last five years, the craft brewery movement has grown exponentially in Minnesota. The Associated Press says licensing records show two-thirds of Minnesota breweries have opened just since 2010. So, we decided to help you – and your livers – keep up with the taproom trend by stopping by some of these Twin Cities brewhouses. For the next brewery, Tap Talk travels to the border of South Dakota to Hendricks' Bank Brewing.

In the last three years, Minnesota has experienced a craft beer boom.

But, that's no longer news.

Now, what's news is if the boom has come to an end.

From 2014 to 2015, 36 new breweries were added to the mix, but from 2015 to 2016 the increase was just five, according to MNBeer.  So, it's not surprising that many are beginning to wonder when, if it hasn't yet, will the bubble burst?

A key part of craft beer, however, is community; this hope of bringing back a pre-prohibition ideal where each town had its own watering hole.

So, while competition may be tight in Northeast or St. Paul, what some fail to see is the potential that lies in areas outside the metro – areas like Hendricks, a town of 700 that sits on the South Dakota border.

Lucky for beer fans, Jason Markkula did see that potential.

Markkula began traveling to Hendricks when he was working as a power tools salesman over 10 years ago. After securing accounts out on the border, he also began to hunt pheasant on the weekends.

Markkula continued to travel out west and became enamored with the town.

"The town sort of grew on me," Markkula said. "It's truly a gem; a diamond in the rough so-to-speak."

As he continued to hunt, he bought a farm and in 2006 decided to purchase the old, dilapidated bank building on Main Street to be his hunting lodge.

Years later while sitting around in his lodge, which is now the taproom, Markkula and friends began to draw up plans for a production brewery.

They set their sights on the old creamery, just blocks from the lodge. As it would be another two years before the Surly Bill, a taproom was not in sight.

Despite building their brewhouse in the old creamery, Markkula decided on the name Bank Brewing Company. And in 2009, the brewery was born.

Soon after the Surly bill was passed and Markkula decided to once again bring a new identity to the bank-turned-lodge.

"We started construction in 2012 and got up and running in 2014," he said of the taproom.

Now, nearly 10 years later, Bank Brewing Company is not only helping to expand the taste for craft beer, but its expanding the craft itself.

 

bank-brewing-bankruptcy
(credit: Bank Brewing Company's Facebook page)

Bank Brewing Company

Follow them: on Twitter at @bankbrewing, on Facebook at Bank Brewing Company, or visit their website online.
Owners:  Jason Markkula
Brewer: Richard Drawdy
Location:  218 N Main Street, Hendricks
Hours: Mondays – Thursdays: Closed, Fridays – Saturdays: 4 p.m. to 12 a.m.
Contact: 612-309-2513

bank-brewing-beer
(credit: Bank Brewing Company's Facebook page)

When describing Hendricks, you mention it is a small, lakeside town. I'm curious, with it being smaller and rather dependent on the lake, do you get many visitors in the winter?

Markkula: [Yes.] The Lake Hendricks' Ice Fishing Tournament is always the first weekend in February. That draws hundreds of people. That'll be a big event for us.

That's great! I'm glad to hear that colder weather doesn't stop people from enjoying lake life. Tell me, being so close to the border, do you get a lot of visitors from South Dakota?

Markkula: Well, half of the town lives in South Dakota. The border goes right through the center of the lake. We sell more beer right now in South Dakota than we do in Minnesota.

Wow! It's wonderful to see Bank helping to spread the word about Minnesota beer and to have local brews cross borders. So, let's talk about those brews! What do you have on tap?

Markkula: We're known for our IPAs and sours. We have the Hop Lab series, which is our most popular, and we change the hops in it consistently in the spirit of exploration. So right now, we have Hop Lab Pink, which is all Mosaic [hops]. In the tanks we have Hop Lab Silver, which is all Azacca. Then, Hop Bandit and Sour Bomb are always on.

IPAs and sours are both really strong flavors. In fact, many people up in the Twin Cities are still hesitant to try making, or tasting, sours. How did you decide to do that?

Markkula: We make clean sours, a lot of people call them kettle sours or quickie sours, where we actually infect the beer and kill any bacteria in it before we send it on to the fermenters. With that style we don't run the risk of infecting anything in the brewery. [As for hops] there's a lot of new hops coming out and being the size we are we can be flexible and experiment.

So, being that Hendricks is a smaller town, was there a certain level of education when Bank Brewing first opened?

Markkula: We're constantly training people on how to experiment in their flavor profile. We've come a long ways in a short period of time.

With the offerings you have then, I'm curious what you might serve someone who is a craft beer "novice."

Markkula: We always start people off on the Hop Bandit. It is our session IPA. It's a little lighter in alcohol and it drinks really nice. It generally doesn't offend anybody. If we have a lager on at the time, we'll put that probably first and then the Hop Bandit. But we don't always have lagers on draft at the tap house.

Interesting approach! I don't know that I've talked to a brewery yet that starts off with any sort of IPA. Tell me then, what would you serve a craft beer expert?

Markkula: We would get them into our Smoke Bomb. It's a Porter base that is a light bodied beer that we use two different smoke malts in. So, there's just a lot going on there. Campfire with smoke meat is the flavor really. It's really good. Especially with a meal.

Sounds like a very intriguing beer! Do you have any seasonals or beers that may step outside the realm of IPA and sours?

Markkula:  We do. We have a really nice, hoppy wheat beer called Wanted that we do in the summertime. Then we do a Winter Sour beer called Overdraft, that's on tap right now, and that's a really malty, red sour. Then, we also do a Russian Imperial Stout called Bankruptcy. [As for outside of the IPA and sours] we have a Beer for Wildlife series. [This includes our] Walleye Chop Lager and Rooster Lager, which are lagers. They're not hoppy at all. Those are pretty seasonal as well. Walleye Chop we do about nine months out of the year and Rooster Lager we do in the fall. We [also] have a black lager called Swamp Buck. Then, we also did a barrel aged program that we're just launching now. We took Overdraft and we stuck it in some whiskey barrels and then we fruited some of the barrels. So, we have a raspberry, a blackberry, a cherry and then the original Overdraft.

It sounds like there is plenty of variety for someone who may want to explore other flavors. But, speaking of your flavors, what is the best seller?

Markkula: Hop Bandit is our No. 1 draft seller, Sour Bomb is our No. 2 draft seller and Hop Lab is No. 3. Believe it or not, one of our most popular drinks is a sour mixed with flavored soda. It's kind of our spin on the Berliner Weisse, but instead of flavored syrup we use pop. So, orange and strawberry are very popular, and, believe it or not, Monster Energy Ultra Blue is really popular. They call it the Dirty Smurf since it turns it kind greenish.

I like the name! Sounds like it would be a very unique flavor, too. So, as Bank continues to grow where do you hope to see the brewery in the next few years?

Markkula: [I hope to see us make] new Hop Labs and new styles of making IPA. Really taking IPA and making it Minnesota. Not West Coast or East Coast, but our own little spin.

I really like the idea. Putting Minnesota on the IPA map. I'm sure a lot of craft beer drinkers would like that too, especially since IPA is such a popular flavor. What about the brewing scene in Minnesota? Where do you hope to see that in the next few years?

Markkula: It's been really neat to be part of it and we hope it continues to thrive. It's so neat when people drive all the way from the metro to try our beer. That's pretty amazing – for someone to commit a whole day and six hours travel time all around.

That is so great to hear that people from the metro are making the trip to try beer from different parts of the state! There are truly some dedicated craft beer lovers in Minnesota! Speaking of, other than drinking it, what is your favorite thing about beer?

Markkula: To me, the coolest part about this whole thing is the comradery between the breweries. We have more new friends because beer has brought us together in the whole process. We share with multiple breweries everything we know and they share with us, and it's been very cool to be part of that. It's like we're all growing together. One of the benefits that we've had is we're in an area where we're training everybody. So, it's all upside for us. Sioux Falls has added two breweries since we opened up. Brookings is adding another one. Watertown added a brewery. We got a new one in Montevideo. Granite Falls is adding a brewery. So, all these little towns, all that does is help build our area. Which is very cool.

I agree. I'm very excited to see the expansion of breweries outside of the metro area. I think there is a lot of growth potential, and I can't wait to see it tapped. So, to end, tell me how you would describe Bank Brewing Company in one word?

Markkula: Premium.

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