Tag Archives: Bad Weather Brewing

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Bad Weather Brewing Announces St. Paul Grand Opening

Bad Weather Brewing Company is announcing the Grand Opening of their St. Paul taproom and production facility at 414 7th St. W., St. Paul, MN. A welcome addition to Little Bohemia neighborhood, the 1200 sqft. brewing operation is just a few blocks away from the Xcel Energy Center.

The newest addition to the growing St. Paul beer scene is scheduled to open October 9th, at 3pm.


Bad Weather Brewing Company was launched by co-founders Zac Carpenter and Joe Giambruno in March 2013 as an alternating proprietorship with Lucid Brewing. Lucid’s alternating proprietorship arrangement allowed Bad Weather Brewing, and several other brewers, to enter the Minnesota beer market. Two years and many beers later, Bad Weather is expanding their brand and opening their own brewery and taproom.

Bad Weather Brewing Tank InstallBad Weather Brewing Company had some shiny goods delivered and installed in their new St. Paul space yesterday.

Posted by MNBeerActivists on Thursday, June 25, 2015

Making the transition from Lucid Brewing to the new facility is Andy Ruhland. After years of earning his stripes in the brewing industry, Andy will take on the title of Head Brewer at Bad Weather Brewing. Andy is an award winning brewer and has a degree in Intensive Brewing Science and Engineering from the American Brewers Guild.

“A lot of talk is going on right now on the booming brewery growth in Minneapolis,” says Ruhland. “I think St. Paul is an untouched gem. A relaxed, easy going city that is yearning for more breweries/taprooms. The overall reception here has been fantastic. So many people stopping by, I can’t wait for us to open our doors. Not to mention the fantastic water quality!”

The new St. Paul facility will allow Bad Weather to expand production capabilities to meet increasing demand. The taproom will provide an exciting place for craft beer lovers to enjoy a rotating list of unique offerings, in addition to Bad Weather flagship WINDVANE and seasonal favorites OMINOUS, FIREFLY RYE and MIGRATION. Four new beers will be available on opening day to compliment the current lineup.

“Our new space gives us the opportunity to really introduce drinkers to our brewery in a way that has not been possible to this point.” says Carpenter. “Increased flexibility in brewing out of our own space, and serving directly to the taproom will allow us to play with many more varieties of beer while keeping complete control of the process. We look forward to sharing our creativity with the community”

Bad Weather Brewing Grand Opening

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Q and A with Zac Carpenter of Bad Weather Brewing

Two years, Did you think you’d make it this far?
We certainly hoped we would! I don’t think you go into something like opening a business without planning long term. That being said, opening any type of business is very difficult and takes alot of time and dedication, so we are definitely grateful to be able to continue brewing up beers for Minnesota – we plan on doing this a very long time.

What has been the best part of starting a craft brewery in Minnesota?
I think that opening a craft brewery in Minnesota is probably a pretty unique experience compared to many of the other locations in the US. We have a really energized base of people who want a ton of craft beer, and they want it now. It would be much different, and probably much more of a slog to open a brewery in one of the more mature craft beer states like Washington, who already has over 200 craft breweries. It’s quite a bit of fun to be part of a young rapidly growing industry, there is just so much excitement surrounding what we do.

Bad Weather Brewery Zac and Joe mn beer activists

What has been the biggest challenge?
I think running a business is always the most challenging part. Beer is a lot of fun, but behind it you are still running a business with payroll, employees, sales goals and bottom lines. Balancing the passion with the business end can be hard.

Bad weather brewery coming soon minnesota beer activists

Bad Weather Brewing began with as alternating proprietorship, brewing at the Lucid Brewing facility. Is there any stigma from hardcore beer nerds about not having your own brewery?
I don’t know if there is a stigma as much as there has been a lack of visibility. For all the benefits that come with sharing a space, like lower costs, knowledge sharing and existing infrastructure, we don’t really have our “own” space. We don’t have that entrance point where beer fans can come see what we are all about, try all our beers, and just belly up to the bar and enjoy the atmosphere. The new taproom will fix that particular problem!

Looking back, would you do anything differently?
I really don’t think so. Launching the way we did, sharing space with Lucid, really allowed us to get to market much faster than we would have been able to otherwise. It has also made it much easier during the ramp up to our planned expansion. We obviously needed to get quite a bit of additional funding to build our St. Paul location, and when meeting with investors we had an actual product and sales history to show them.

Where do you see Bad Weather Brewery in 2 years? 20 Years?
In a couple years we will be buying more tanks and possibly a packaging line to move into our 2500 square foot expansion space adjacent to the taproom. In 20, I hope that Joe and I are retired and laying on a beach somewhere!

What has been your favorite beer, firkin, etc.?
Ominous with coffee! We launched with a firkin of that 2 years ago during our release party. We will have a small keg of coffee Ominous at our 2 year Anniversary party tonight.

Any new beers coming?
A ton of new beers when we open up the taproom. Stay tuned!

When does the new brewery open?
Summer 2015

Join Bad Weather Brewery at The Happy Gnome, at 5pm, on Wednesday, March 25th. Zac, Joe, and Andy will be celebrating and rubbing elbows.

Listen to an in-depth interview with the guys from Bad Weather Brewery on the Minnesota BeerCast.
Minnesota Beer Cast

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Batten Down the Hatches for Bad Weather

Bad Weather Brewing is a new partnership between long time craft beer fans, and brewing school graduates, Zac Carpenter and Joe Giambruno. Bad Weather Brewing works as an alternating proprietorship within Lucid Brewing’s facility in Minnetonka. Alongside Lucid Brewing and Badger Hill Brewing, Bad Weather will make full use of the Lucid’s 15 BBL brewhouse using 30 BBL fermentors. The alternate proprietorship gives each business control of their own beer from kettle to glass. By joining forces with Lucid Brewing, Zac and Joe were able to design a business model that allows them to start small and expand strategically. The unique cooperation at Lucid Brewing is fostering community and friendship within the small, but rapidly expanding, Minnesota craft scene.

Co-Founders Zac and Joe are both long time homebrewers following the long-term goal of starting a professional brewery. In pursuit of their dreams, Joe graduated from the World Brewing Academy with an Associate in Brewing Technology at Siebel Institute and Zac graduated from the American Brewers Guild and apprenticed at Lucid Brewing. The natural camaraderie they developed as homebrewing buddies soon evolved into a business partnership that picked up Zac’s home brewery name, Bad Weather Brewing (which comes from the fact that he and his dad and brother often brewed in bad weather).

Bad Weather Brewing will feature only one flagship beer. Their brewing plan allows Bad Weather to emphasize seasonal and limited beer releases. Bad Weather’s mission is to bring Minnesota unique beers throughout the year.

The flagship year-round release WINDVANE is a hoppy red ale. The use of American hops gives WINDVANE a swift bitterness with piney, citrus and resinous flavors. If you want something with strong malt shoulders, you have that too. Roast malt layers add complexity and keeps the beer dry to showcase the hops.

The winter seasonal is OMINOUS. This big, intense dark ale comes in at At 7.5% abv. American, English and Belgian malts come together with rich, nutty, roasted flavors. Dark candi sugar brings out hints of dates, raisins, plum and chocolate.

Besides OMINOUS they will be releasing at least three more seasonal offerings in 2013. The guys also plan to throw in some special release beers alongside the regular offerings. Bad Weather Co-Founder Joe Giambruno says, “You can expect at least five releases from us in 2013. They are beers that speak to the season, but don’t follow the pack. Our recipes utilize interesting ingredients that celebrate each season in a way we are proud to present to beer-loving Upper Midwesterners.”

Bad Weather beers will be in kegs and bottles early 2013, with growlers sometime later. Bad Weather plans on utilizing a distributor to deliver their beers to the thirsty masses, but are not quite ready to announce a distribution partner yet, but stay tuned.

Zac and Joe have both completed intensive brewing school programs. Zac Carpenter will take the role of head brewer at Bad Weather Brewing. He is an award-winning home brewer who graduated from the American Brewer’s Guild in July 2012 and worked at Lucid Brewing as part of the program. Part of Zac’s training was working at Hoppy Brewing, a brew pub in Sacramento, California. They have both been working and training on the facilities used at Lucid Brewing. Besides their commercial brewing experience, both have homebrewed for years and have invested countless hours and calories into the growing beer scene here in Minnesota.

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