Badger Hill Brewing Teams Up with Lucid Brewing

With a wave of new micro-brewery openings in 2011 and more slated for this year, Minnesota is foaming with craft brewers.

Although beginning any new business is a challenge, – which launched last year– is actually supporting start-up success by offering alternative proprietorship brewing agreements. Badger Hill Brewing Company is the first to take advantage of this opportunity and is poised to embark on their first batch in early June.

Alternative Proprietorship Brewing is an arrangement through a special federal license that allows two companies to act completely independently yet share space and equipment.

“It’s a bona-fide tenant brewery operating within another bona-fide host brewery,” explained Jon Messier, Lucid Brewing partner. “Having multiple independent breweries operating under one roof maximizes efficiency and minimizes cost for all parties. The challenge for start-ups is keeping costs low but allowing for expansion. We designed our brewery for greater production than we expect to achieve during our first few years. So rather than let equipment sit idle, partnering with other start-up breweries sounds logical.”

Badger Hill Brewing’s strong marketing and distribution plans make it an ideal first partner for Lucid.

“We have different recipes that reflect our different philosophies, so we actually complement each other and offer beer aficionados a wider selection,” said Brittany Krekelberg, Badger Hill Brewing partner. “We purchased our own fermentation tanks, operate as brewers, control our own distribution, employ our own people, pay separate taxes, etc. We’re two completely separate companies who simply share the same space and save capital costs. In fact, the savings is helping us install bottling equipment in July, which we’ll co-operate with Lucid.”

Incubator for home brewers

Lucid Brewing is also collaborating with local home brewers and the general public on limited release beers. Like an incubator, limited releases provide an opportunity for new brewers to market their brews before they invest in building a brewery.

“We were home brewers before opening our brewery,” said Lucid partner Eric Biermann, “so we understand the need for a testing ground before taking the plunge and investing in a brewery. Home brewers can test a recipe and bring it to market for a fraction of the cost. If it’s successful, we’ll help you figure out how to take that next step, either as an APB (Alternative Proprietorship Brewing) or going solo. In the long run, we believe we’re shaping a larger market by bolstering competition.”

About Lucid Brewing, LLC

Lucid began brewing in early November 2011 as Minnetonka's first production brewery. Lucid beer can be found on draft in the Minnetonka Lake region and Twin Cities metro. Additional information is available here.

About Badger Hill Brewing

Located in Minnetonka, Badger Hill Brewing is distributed throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area by Wirtz Beverage. More information on our beers and upcoming events can be found here.