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Labels on printed cans provide flexibility

This brewery and tap house is known for small-batch experiments. To decorate the cans, it overwraps printed can stock, originally destined for its higher-volume varieties, with labels.

Jesse Pittman, head brewer, uses an in-line labeler to overwrap printed cans for small-batch runs requiring labels. When using higher volume printed cans that don’t require labels, the filled cans pass through the machine unaffected.
Jesse Pittman, head brewer, uses an in-line labeler to overwrap printed cans for small-batch runs requiring labels. When using higher volume printed cans that don’t require labels, the filled cans pass through the machine unaffected.

With five years now under their belts, Urban Growler Brewing’s co-founders, Deb Losch and Jill Pavlak have been slowly building their brewery through quality products and local participation.

Minnesota’s first woman-owned brewery, the St. Paul facility features a taproom, an on-location kitchen, and an outdoor beer garden. There are also indoor retail spaces that can be rented for hosting meetings, weddings, and local social gatherings. The building itself lends itself to being a gathering place. This brick-and-timber space once was home to the St. Paul Police’s horse stables in the late 1800s. It then became a manufacturing facility for wooden skis and hockey sticks—after all, this is Minnesota—as well as other warehousing in later years. Designers retrofitted the facility to support modern brewing while preserving the character of the old building.

Lately, much of its focus has been on a concept that Losch and Pavlak callPlow to Pint.They found their customers would rather drink locally and appreciate locally-sourced products. Some of the recent favorites include Blueberry Wheat, featuring blueberries harvested from a family-owned farm in Princeton, MN, and an Oak Aged Imperial Ale that uses classic oak barrels and Frontenac grapes gown outside Red Wing, MN. On a farther-flung project, they have even worked with the University of Minnesota and the Rainforest Alliance in Guatemala for a collaboration brew using the sustainable ramon nut in a stout.

Flagship brews include traditional beers like their CowBell Cream Ale, Midwest IPA, and De-Lovely Porter. They also brew an interesting Kentucky Uncommon Ale and a “West-Coast-hops-meets-East-Coast-maltiness” Golden Hammer IPA.

The brewery is agile enough to brew small batches and experiment with limited releases. Last year, Urban Growler brewed more than 40 different beers, some as small as half-barrel experiments. Most end up in the taproom where their popularity is voted on by their customers’ consumption. The more popular winners then might end up as a seasonal or limited release for distribution in 16-oz cans.

The 10-barrel brewery pushed out 1,900 barrels in 2018, up from about 1,250 in 2017, and is looking to blow past that number in 2019. Currently, distribution is limited to bars, restaurants, and liquor stores in the Twin Cities area; grocery retail can’t sell beer in Minnesota. This means there’s not much by way of secondary packaging at the moment but look for that to change.

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