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Feb. 20, 2019

Remedy Brewing Co. is expanding to a second production site, allowing it to begin distributing its craft beer in cans across eastern South Dakota.

“We’ve been open for 1 ½ years, and we very gradually realized we can’t make enough beer for the demand in the market,” said Matt Hastad, one of three friends who started the Remedy brewery and taproom at 8th & Railroad Center with the help of investors. “In the summer, we were running out.”

Remedy’s second location at 611 N. West Ave., across from Terrace Park, will be able to produce 3,000 barrels of beer annually. If everything went into a 12-ounce can, that would be 1 million cans of beer. Remedy, however, also will distribute in 16-ounce cans and kegs. The craft beer will go to bars, restaurants and other retailers.

Now, if customers want to enjoy a beer at home, they have to stop down to the taproom and get it to go in a crowler. But it won’t be long before there’s another option.

“We’ll start getting it into cans by mid to late summer,” Hastad said.

Remedy’s five core beers will be produced at the second location: Espina, Queen Bee, Nonsense, Split-Shift and Hefe Metal. That’s 70 percent of what’s being brewed at the downtown brewery.

“If we can take that out to the production facility, that opens up room for funky beers that we haven’t had a chance to play with,” Hastad said. “This will be the fun stuff.”

Brewers are naturally creative types, partner Tyler Jepperson said, so “we’ll try to get new stuff out there,” including an expanded barrel-aged and sour beer selection. Craft brew drinkers are always looking to try new flavors, he said.

With the freed-up capacity downtown, Remedy hopes to brew some of those one-off creations in larger batches and send them out in kegs to bars. “Right now, we need all of the product here,” Hastad said. Some of the core beers are distributed in kegs to accounts from Yankton to Watertown.

In addition to the five main beers, Remedy will can some seasonal options. That selection could grow as people become more familiar with craft beer.

“We’re ready to hold their hands and start them on the journey,” Hastad said.

The brewery will continue to work with Dakota Beverage, the same distributor that helped Sioux Falls-based Fernson Brewing Co. expand its market, he said, noting that there’s room to grow in South Dakota.

“We are very proud to see the growth that Remedy has experienced since they opened their doors,” said Brandon May of Dakota Beverage, in a statement.

“This is a great group of people passionately making an exceptional product. We are thankful to be part of the team and we are very excited to see what the next phase brings.”

Hastad said he sees plenty of opportunity.

“South Dakota ranks near the top for beer consumption but near the bottom for craft beer consumption,” he said. “I see that as growth potential. I’m confident we can capture that.”

The new equipment will take only a small portion of the 80,000-square-foot former warehouse on West Avenue, so it could house 10 times that amount of production if needed, Jepperson said. One of Remedy’s investors purchased the building, and while there’s another tenant in part of the building now, “it does future-proof us with space to grow into,” Hastad said.

The new location won’t have a taproom initially.

“We’ve got big plans but not a timeframe,” Hastad said. “We want to do something unique that hasn’t been done already.”

But for now, “the focus is to get up and running and get more beer in the market,” Hastad said.

“This is the next phase for us,” Jepperson said. “We can bring our passion for craft beer to the city and the state.”