Tap Talk: St. Joseph's Bad Habit 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 is headed to central Minnesota to chat with St. Joseph's Bad Habit Brewing Company.
Everyone has their vices.
From nail biting to hair twirling to teeth picking, everybody has a quirk or trait that causes annoyance not just to others but to ourselves as well.
Beer could be one such bad habit. For many, it would be drinking it. But for others, like Aaron Rieland, maybe it's brewing it.
Rieland first began home brewing in 2001.
It didn't go so well.
Despite having good experiences enjoying beer, Rieland didn't have the greatest experience brewing it. And after a few explosions, unappetizing recipes and other mishaps, he packed up his brewing kit.
But, like a true bad habit, brewing was hard for Rieland to quit.
Eleven years after putting away his brewing equipment, he found the kit while cleaning out the garage.
"[I] decided to get it back out and try it again," Rieland said. "It turned out a lot better the second time around."
So, Rieland unpacked his kit and picked up where he left off. As he continued to brew up new recipes, he also began to concoct a new idea – starting his own brewery.
Like most homebrewers, the idea had been thrown around between friends for years. But, in 2013 he began to unpack it a bit more. And, like his kit, it was much better this time around.
"I started researching it and getting pricing together," Rieland said. "I figured out what it was going to cost and then decided that we should probably just give it a try."
While new to starting a business, Rieland did have years of experience working around a family-owned company. He brought his tenacity and knowledge to creating St. Joseph's first brewery in over 100 years.
Now, Rieland's bad habit has turned into a prosperous business.
Follow them: on Twitter at @badhabitbeer, on Facebook at Bad Habit Brewing Company, or visit their website online.
Owners: Aaron Rieland
Brewer: Aaron Rieland and Eric Geier
Location: 15 E Minnesota Street, St. Joseph
Hours: Monday – Wednesday: Closed, Thursday & Friday: 4 – 10 p.m., Saturday 2 – 10 p.m. and Sunday: 12 – 5 p.m.
Contact: 320-402-4442
So, let's start off with the name of the brewery – how did you come up with it?
Rieland: We just liked the name. My family had given me a hard time about all the homebrewing I was doing in the garage. It was turning into a bad habit, so it just kind of [stuck.]
I like that! It's a great connection to your start as a homebrewer but is open for interpretation from the consumer. Tell me, how did you decide on St. Joseph as the location for the taproom?
Rieland: We started looking in St. Cloud, and some things had fallen through. We knew that St. Cloud was maybe not going to work, so we started branching out a little bit. [As we started looking, this building in St. Joseph] just had a space open. So, we started talking to the owner of the building and there we are. We signed the lease in March 2015 and took over in June 2015, built it out and opened in Halloween of 2015.
Sounds very serendipitous! So, let's talk beer! What are your flagship beers?
Rieland: We have a chocolate milk stout, Dark Addiction, which we've had on tap since we opened. We have an IPA – our Habitual IPA. But, we're kind known for doing one-off beers. Every week, or every other week, we do one-off beers. So, we like to do a lot of 10 – 15 gallons of off the wall, small batch release stuff.
That must be fun to get to experiment with flavors without committing to large keg-full. Tell me, what kind of flavors have you experimented with?
Rieland: We're tapping our Cranberry Blond on Wednesday (Nov. 23). We have a brunch stout, which is a high alcohol percentage stout. We've done a dark cherry stout, chocolate mint. We've done some summer beers. Just stuff you can't get anywhere else.
The chocolate mint beer sounds delicious! I bet that was great. So, which beer would you say is your best seller?
Rieland: We sell a lot of our Blond Ale, but the stout and the IPA are our best sellers. The one-off we only do about 10 gallons. They are usually gone in a weekend. So, I think that those beers sell really well too, but it's hard to gauge [if they sell better] because we don't have enough to look at the sales comparably.
Interesting that two beers that are so drastically different are your two top sellers! Of your beer selection, what would you serve to someone who is new to craft beer?
Rieland: I mean, we usually tell people to start with a Blond Ale. We tend to see a lot of people who don't drink craft beer. However, they really like our Dark Addiction. It's a lighter stout that's chocolate-y and smooth. We get a lot of people who say, 'You know, I'm not a craft beer drinker but I'll give this a shot.' And they leave loving the beer.
I can see how a beer that is smooth and sweet is a good one to start a new drinker on. On the flip side, I can see its dark color being a deterrent at times! What about someone who considers themselves very knowledge about craft beer. What would you serve them?
Rieland: Maybe our Dark Addiction, or our IPA. We do offer a Scottish Wheat Heavy, which is 11 percent alcohol, or our brunch stout. Those are beers where you probably can't go anywhere else and try. So, it's fun to have craft beer drinker come in and try those.
Wow, 11 percent! That would definitely be one to surprise beer snobs. What is your favorite beer?
Rieland: I kind of flip flop back and forth. I love the IPA, but Dark Addiction has been my favorite for the six years that I've brewed it.
This Dark Addiction sounds like a beer I need to try! Aside from tasting/drinking it, what is your favorite thing about beer?
Rieland: I like going places and seeing the different kinds of beer that people brew. Obviously taste is a good thing, but I like going places and seeing what they make – like Lift Bridge's Mini Doughnut beer or Dangerous Man's Peanut Butter Porter. I think it's fun to go and see what these other companies are doing with their breweries or their beers. It's amazing how you can make a beer taste like a mini doughnut. It's fun just to do that kind of stuff.
Moving away from beer a bit, can you speak about how it feels to be St. Joseph's first brewery in over 100 years?
Rieland: It's been pretty awesome. We've been really lucky, our neighborhood and the community support has been phenomenal. I can't say enough about that. Everybody is just great. Neighbors are regulars now and we know a lot of people by name and face.
That's great that you have such strong community support. I'm sure that helped tremendously in the opening process. Tell me, how does the brewing scene in St. Joseph differ from that of St. Cloud or the Twin Cities?
Rieland: Well, it may not be known as well. I think in the cities, with the population and how many breweries there are, people just kind of know that Minneapolis is almost a destination now. Which is awesome. I think [up here], we're getting more people who are being introduced to craft beer for the first time.
Has it helped having St. Cloud nearby?
Rieland: Oh, absolutely. We have three [breweries] in St. Cloud now, which has helped bring traffic from the cities up. Probably one benefit we have too is we're pretty close to Interstate 94. You can get off I-94 and get to our place in five minutes with minimal traffic. For, people that are heading to Alexandria, or up that way, we're pretty easy to get to.
That is convenient that you're not far off of the interstate! Definitely makes it a quicker stop. So, what do you hope to see for Bad Habit in the next few years?
Rieland: I think just continued growth in the taproom. We've been lucky with how many people we do get to come in, but just continued growth. We're going to start a little bit of distribution – bars and restaurants. We're a pretty small brewery, so we don't have a whole lot of room for a canning line or anything like that. But we'll just keep plugging away.
Distribution is an exciting step! Hopefully as the town of St. Joseph grows you will be able to grow as well. Speaking of, what do you hope to see for the brewing scene in St. Joseph in the next few years?
Rieland: I don't think there will be another brewery open in St. Joe's. St Joe's is pretty small town. But, I hope we continue to grow as a city. It's growing now, which is part of the reason we picked it too. Great art scene, good music scene. They've reinvested some money back into the downtown area, so I hope the beer scene and the beer community keeps growing too.
As you continue to grow the beer community and invite new craft beer drinkers into your taproom, what is something you want people to know about it?
Rieland: That we only carry our beer, and to keep an open mind. We get a lot of people that come in and want to drink a liquor or wine, and I think getting people to keep an open mind and trying new things [is important.] We very rarely have people come in that we can't find something they enjoy. We've got some craft sodas on tap [in addition to beer.] So, people should be willing to try a few different things.
That's great advice! I think people should definitely be interested in trying a few samples and exploring new flavors. So, finally, how would you describe Bad Habit Brewing Company in just one word?
Rieland: Family. We're like a big family here. We've got friends and family that work [here] and friends and family that come in and frequent the place. [Family] is the best way to put it.