Fads in bars:

• 1990:  every bar that could find three TVs was re-branding itself as a “sports bar”. 
• 2000s:  those same bars found a couple old church pews and a Guinness tap, and became “Irish Bars”.  
• 2010s:  Those same bars found themselves some brew vats and became “Microbreweries”. 

I don’t drink a lot of beer anymore – I think I’ve had less than half a dozen since 2018.  But as someone who didn’t start drinking ’til I went ot Europe, and so got kind of spoiled by really really good beer, I certainly enjoyed the rise of the microbrewery over the past decade or so.

But as microbreweries started opening on every corner in the North Loop, Northeast, Dinkytown, Lowertown, Downtown Minneapolis, Lowertown and the less blighted parts of University, I kind of thought a “market correction” had to be coming. 

Looks like we’re creeping up on it; Wild Mind Brewing, somewhere in South Minneapolis, has killed the keg: 

Wild Mind’s announcement comes less than two weeks after last call at another reputable beer maker, Alloy Brewing in Coon Rapids. Alloy’s team blamed their closure on “rising costs, supply chain hurdles and an incredible decrease in sales over the last three years.” That’s a common tale among breweries of late, with alcohol sales declining all across America as younger adults turn to nonalcoholic and/or THC drink options.

Among the other Minnesota breweries to cease operations over the past year are Minneapolis-founded Dangerous Man, Chanhassen Brewing Co., Mankato Brewery, Burning Brothers in St. Paul, Loons Landing in Savage and Finnegan’s in Minneapolis (whose beers are now brewed and on tap at Fulton Brewing).

The breweries are folding all over the place, so it’s not just “Minneapolis crime and taxes” – at least not entirely.

Now, Hudson does seem to be doing just fine…