Tap Talk: Gull Dam Brewing, Inc.
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. As the summer tourist season approaches, we decided to find a place just a little bit north of the cities. Headed to the Brainerd/Baxter area? Learn about local brewery, Gull Dam Brewing.
We've all had those days. The days when you just need a gosh, darn drink. Well, now one brewery owner in the Brainerd/Baxter area is here to help you with those days. Only he's giving you a Gull Dam beer.
Mark Anderson and his wife Barb began home brewing years prior as a hobby on the side of his career as a pilot for business flights. As his hobby grew he began to bring the beer onto his flights to get more opinion on his brews. As the number of batches, and the number of positive comments, grew, Mark and Barb decided the hobby also needed to grow - into it's very own business.
So the plan was put into motion to open a brewery.
Anderson, who calls the Nisswa area home, had owned a bar and restaurant in the Gull Lake area previously and knew he wanted that to be the home of the brewery. He and Barb also wanted the name of it to tie into the history and culture of the area.
After some brainstorming sessions with Barb, and scouting out some locations, they decided the brewery should live near the site of the Gull Lake Dam. A location in the area iconic not just in its structure but in its name as well.
With the location set, some quick trademark research and an offer for the rights, Anderson had himself the name of his brewery – Gull Dam Brewing.
"The humor behind that name, and now apply that to a brewery?" Anderson said. "It led to the easy marketability to our brand."
Easy marketability is an understatement.
Before opening, Anderson had 70 businesses that wanted Gull Dam beer in their bar or restaurant, unseen and untasted.
And the excitement didn't stop with businesses.
After a tentative opening date in summer 2014 got pushed back, people all around the area kept approaching Anderson looking for an opening date.
"The anticipation for the whole summer and the fall for the opening was just overwhelming," Anderson said. "So by the time that we did open…we had 3,000 wristband. We ran out."
That's not all. The brewery went through 33 ½ kegs of beer in one day. A record that, to Anderson's knowledge, is unmatched by any other local brewery.
So, whether it's the name, the location or just the Gull Dam Beer itself, something makes Gull Dam Brewing Gull Dam special.
So, I chatted with Mark about just what it is that is.
Gull Dam Brewing Inc.
Follow them: on Twitter @GullDam_Brewing , Facebook at Gull Dam Brewing, Inc. or visit their website Gull Dam Brewing, Inc.
Owners: Mark and Barb Anderson
Head brewer: Luke Steadman
Location: 23836 Smiley Road, Nisswa
Hours: Wednesday to Friday: 4 – 9 p.m. Saturday: 12 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Contact: 218-963-2739
The Brainerd/Baxter area obviously has a good population of its own, but it's also such a tourist destination. Do you see that reflected in your business?
Well it's definitely a seasonal place. Summer is the peak. [But] we do get really good business traffic for winter because the [ice] fishing up here. We have that $150,000 ice fishing extravaganza. And if the snow is good, then the snow mobilers come up. Fall there's still a lot of people that come up to go hunting. Probably the lightest season is spring. But Brainerd itself I think, if the numbers are still fitting, used to swell from the local population of 25,000 to 125,000 during the summer with all the tourists and the summer locals.
How do you feel the craft brew scene in Brainerd/Baxter differs from that in the Twin Cities?
People like to just go hang out at some place that's actually producing something locally. And it doesn't matter if it's coming from Northeast Minneapolis; the locals like to go to their local brewery. It's the same thing up here. Locals are loyalists. Especially the locals in the Brainerd area, [they] will patronize their local breweries. Now, you get the locals up here that own the resorts and restaurants that when customers are coming through and asking "What else have you got to do?" [can suggest us as a destination.] What do you do if you're at one of these large resorts and you can't go golf? You talk to the resorts and they say "Well, why don't you run over to the Gull Dam Brewery for a beer." Using that as an activity for all of these resort people that are in the area for the summer is one thing. But as far as differentiating it between here and the metro, I think it's just a scale. The beauty of it is, the more breweries you have in the neighborhood the better it is for everybody because it brings more people in because they want to go on a brewery tour. Right now the closest brewery tour of that scale is Duluth, with six breweries up there.
There are a few others that are somewhat near to you though, aren't there?
One other one just opened in downtown Nisswa, so it's about a mile from us because we're not directly in Nisswa. We're on the south side. The other closest one is about 15 miles away in Baxter.
So, what are you hoping to see change as more breweries come to town and the brewery scene continues to grow?
What I'd like to see is that we get together with these three other breweries, as well as the Chamber of Commerce has approached us and some of these other tourist organizations, to create brewery combined events. Or put brewery tours in conjunction with other events. And then there are a lot of other local events that have tried to link in with the brewery events, either separately or combined. And we're considering other options to host our own events. Can we someday put together our own marathon? Wouldn't somebody like to run in the Gull Dam marathon?
I bet they would! So, let's talk about the beer. What do you have on tap?
We've got seven beers on tap right now. We've got a wheat beer; a Scottish ale. We do have an IPA. We have a Rye PA, which is a pale ale with a little rye in it. We've got a Winter Lager, and that's a session beer that [head brewer] Luke did and we still have some left. We've got a Helles Stout, which is a Munich Helles style lager. And then [Luke] saved half of that, he already kegged half and then the second half he just infused with 100 pounds of blackberries. And so it's this light lager with this little hint of blackberry. We just released it this weekend. It is just delicious.
Sounds like it would be perfect for summer. As you're still growing, will these be your flagships or will you add more on tap?
We'll still stay with a bunch of these as our signature beers, especially our Scotch Ale, and our Wheat and our IPA. Our Helles Lager, we're probably going to keep on as a signature beer because that's going to be such a big seller. The locals up here gravitated toward it. This is a beer that your typical light beer drinker, that person that doesn't want to have a lot of hoppy flavor and they just want to consume mass quantities, [enjoys.] But it's okay for these lighter lagers to have flavor, which is what this does have. And, [with the] Scotch Ale, that has been very well noted around the brewery. We get a lot of women around the brewery that say, "You know, I'm not a beer drinker. I'm a wine drinker," or something else. And we always say, "Here, just try this Scotch Ale." And it gets them every time.
Sounds like that one is a very popular beer. Tell me, in terms of sales, what is the most popular beer?
That kind of goes back and forth between the Helles style lager and our Scotch Ale. Our Scotch Ale is number one. [Then] it's a tie between our wheat beer and our lager for number two.
Being that you're not even a year yet, you may not have gone to festivals. But do you have a most awarded beer?
I think our Scotch Ale is going to become an award winner because we've had so many people that have commented on this Scottish Ale. Even the head bartender down at Spoon and Stable in downtown Minneapolis [has commented], which is the only restaurant in all of the Twin Cities that we have released it to. They were sampling our beers and the head bartender said, "This is the best Scottish Ale I've ever had." They have our IPA on tap down there,too. [But] we are so new that we've gone to beer shows, but as a far as doing any competition with it yet, we just haven't. We haven't been to any of those types of events. When we get to those events, I think we're going to have a winner. Especially with that Scotch Ale.
Sounds like that one is definitely a favorite. Why do you think that is?
Well it's made with a hint of pure maple syrup that we buy from local producers. And that's one of the things that we try to make known in the marketing of our beer, is that each one of our beers has some local ingredients. Each one of them does have some hops from a local farm. The honey that goes into our wheat beer is locally produced. And the water that we are using comes from a well that is a 143 feet deep, I call it the aquifers of Gull Lake, and we pump that up, we run it through a reverse osmosis system and it is some of the most pure water you will ever see. So, the good water and good ingredients, we're making some Gull Dam good beer with it.
So, I have to ask, what is your favorite beer?
I don't really have a favorite. It all depends on what time of day it is; how long am I going to spend at the brewery. I bounce around. I'm always an IPA fan. But this new light lager, this Helles Lager that Brew Man Luke has put together is something I can sip on for hours.
What would you suggest for someone who maybe doesn't know much about craft beer?
Just the wheat or the Helles Lager.
How about someone who gets a little uppity about their beer?
Go directly to the Rye PA.
What do you think is the future of craft beer in Brainerd/Baxter, and Minnesota as a whole, is?
Everyone is in [this business] together. It's just brotherhood. And no matter if you're going to a show in Minnesota or you're at a show out in Portland, Oregon, it's a brotherhood that's expanding exponentially. We're kind of catching up to the European model where you go over there and every little [town] has its own brewery. So that's the future right now, if we stay in the expansion mode.
I definitely can see that and I would say we are very close. So, final question. How would you define your brewery in one word?
Exceptional.
It's hard because Surly is using this brand called a "destination brewery," well we started using that two years ago! (laughs) Really, the best description of our brewery is "destination."
