Flying Dutchman Spirits

Cocktail Classes, Live Music, NY Style Pizza, Over 40 handcrafted cocktails on our menu My story starts similar to most others: “A home brewer wanted to go pro.” It all started in 2007 with the gift of a Mr. Beer kit from my wife. After the first couple batches of extract beer, I quickly went to all-grain with the goal of recipe formulation and the dream of going pro. I’m three-quarters German, so

beer has always been an important ingredient in my life—so I shed the shackles of corporate bondage to strike out into self-directed business. I decided on the name “Bent” because most of the beers are not made strictly to style: they’re “bent” a little bit away from the norm. This sometimes comes from combining the best parts of two different styles. Sometimes this comes from just making something I think my friends and family will like. This is where the story departs from the norm. At Bent, we distill spirits as well as brew beer (hence “Brewstillery”). I think there’s a creative void in the Twin Cities that’s begging to be filled with craft spirits—and I read somewhere that whiskey is what beer wants to be when it grows up. We started small at first, while larger brewing equipment was being built, and then expanded. We offer tours of the small plant and have a taproom to sell pints and growlers. The taproom flows directly into the production area of the brewery and distillery. This brings visitors into the production side of the company, giving them a sense of how the process really works. The underlying concept of Bent Brewstillery is to create a destination that is more than just a location, but an experience to be shared—and repeated.