Courtesy of Indeed
Indeed Brewing Company, a craft brewer that launched their brewery and taproom in Minneapolis in 2012, celebrated their expansion into Milwaukee with the Friday, Sept. 6, grand opening of their Walker’s Point taproom, 530 S. Second St.
The Minnesota brewery is the brainchild of Tom Whisenand, Rachel Anderson and Nathan Berndt, along with head brewer Josh Bischoff. Whisenand and Bischoff got their start at Minneapolis’ renowned Town Hall Brewery. “When you look at the family tree of Minneapolis brewers, a lot of them came from Town Hall or have connections to Town Hall,” says Kelly Moritz, marketing director of Indeed Brewing Company.
Minnesota law limits production breweries to only one taproom, so when Indeed Brewing wanted to expand, they looked to their neighbors across the Mississippi River, says Moritz. “Moving into Wisconsin, where there already is quite a thriving craft beer scene and beer community, we knew we couldn’t just send our beer in on a truck and call it a day. We thought hard about how to make our beer matter to people in Wisconsin when they already have so many great options.”
The Indeed Brewing team knew a taproom would be a key strategy to weave themselves into the fabric of Milwaukee’s brewing community and become more meaningful to this market. “We’ve got both Milwaukee and Minneapolis listed on the logo because we feel Milwaukee is key to our long-term success as a brewery,” Moritz affirms.
The Milwaukee taproom reflects the Minneapolis taproom with similar woodwork and furniture, tap handles and a big shuffleboard table. But the Milwaukee space is laid out in that the brew house up front, allowing patrons to walk past and see what’s happening en route to the taproom. The Milwaukee space also has the beautiful antique back bar from the original Hamm’s Brewery. There’s a back beer garden that can be closed off for private events and parties.
Indeed Brewing’s Milwaukee taproom opened with six brand new beers for Milwaukee: Triumph pale ale; Norwegian Wood kveik pale ale; Knock Off amber ale; Wamdoodle watermelon kölsch; Soft Shock, a New England IPA; and Hello, Milwaukee, an American lager developed in collaboration with Milwaukee’s 1840 Brewing Company.
“It’s cool that a Milwaukee brewery wanted to do a collaboration with us, being that we’re the new guys in town,” Moritz says. “It’s testament to the craft community and that they wanted to welcome us to town and work with us.”
Patrons can also find Indeed Brewing’s flagship beer, Day Tripper pale ale, as well as Minneapolis favorites like B-Side pilsner, Lucy Session Sour, L.S.D. Lavender Sunflower Honey Dates honey ale, Octoberfest Munich style lager, Strawberry Fields sour ale and Mexican Honey Lager. Moritz notes that many brewers make beer with honey, but Indeed Brewing sources honey from a specific region in Mexico. They also use both traditional hops along with experimental extracts and oils, which Moritz says gives the brews their hop flavors without the bitter vegetal aspects of hop pellets or cones.
The Indeed We Can program is the brewery’s charitable giveback program in which 100% of the Wednesday night proceeds goes toward a designated nonprofit organization. Indeed Brewing will translate that program to Milwaukee, as well.
The taproom is open 3-11 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; noon-11 p.m., Friday-Saturday; and noon-8 p.m., Sunday. There is a small cooler with beer available to go, and they also have growlers.
For more information, visit indeedbrewing.com.
