I had a chance to check out the new brewery on Thursday and chat with some of the Surly family. Check out my notes from media day at the new Prospect Park brewery.

On the origination of the new brewery:

I asked owner Omar Ansari if he thought when he started that Surly would be here after 9 years. "That's just dumb, no that's silly" he said. "Everything has changed so much in nine years." He said the dream for this new "destination brewery" came about 4 years ago after Todd and Linda came back with a brochure from a brewery in Germany. When asked about the architectural design he said they were never going to build a historic looking brewery like Grain Belt in Northeast. Omar likes clean lines and he described the look of the new brewery as Danish Brewing Death Star. "Maybe you'll love or maybe you'll hate it" said Omar. "We hope people like it, we hope they say that's why we passed the Surly Bill."

On the future of their new neighborhood:

"The whole neighborhood is waiting for development. The whole thing is going to change because of the Green Line." said Omar. He mentioned that breweries tend to take up home in parts of town that need some love.

On the brewery:

Brewmaster Todd Haug talked about the new digs mentioning that the brewing equipment came from the same manufacturer as the one at Stone Brewing.

It was interesting to see that they now have a Hopnik which is basically a dry hopping machine that the beer runs through via hoses. He explained that there is a lot of risk involved in dumping hops in the top of a fermenter such as the the beer blowing up in the brewers face—and this device prevents them from having to dry hop that way. Another tidbit worth noting was that BLAKKR will now be a winter seasonal offering from Surly.

On the food:

Chef Jorge Guzman was a busy guy but he brought out some food samples which included charcuterie, salad, brisket, bone marrow, some toasted bread, caramels, and cookies. "We wanted to create a menu that goes with the beer" said Jorge. He mentioned that he was humbled to join the Surly team and that beer pairs better with food than wine does. He would know after working at Solera prior to Surly. He mentioned that the reason they chose to have barbecue on the menu was that it pairs well with Furious. "There is no other place in the cities like this" said Jorge talking about the communal seating arrangement in the beer hall.

Hospitality Operations Director Linda Haug on the scale of the restaurant:

As you may know Linda Haug ran Cafe Twenty Eight in South Minneapolis for ten years before it closed whereafter she switched her attention to the new destination brewery. When asked what she thought would be different she pointed to the service and the quality. For example they now have plenty of employees including three people for the front of the house wheras they'd only have one at the small cafe. They also have an HR person, and a cleaning crew. So they have plenty more help here at the new beer hall as opposed to having to do everything at the South Minneapolis cafe. Linda mentioned that they brought over some people from Cafe Twenty Eight but that there is one very important person missing, Elyse Stearn who was tragically hit and killed by a car in 2013 while riding her bicycle. "It still breaks my heart that she's not here. We can't have the band back together."

The new brewery will be open from 11 AM until 11 PM on Friday. Metro Transit is offering a free good from 6pm-3am on Friday, December 19 and 10am-3am on Saturday, December 20. Print your pass here.

Tap List:

Todd the Axeman
Damien
Doomtree
Cynic
Furious
Overrated
Bender
Cacao Bender
Coffee Bender
Hell
Eight
Devil's Work

Cheers!