Behind the pub, the brewery and canning operation hums with activity. Workers monitor pink and purple cans as they're filled with the latest batch of India pale ale before machines fasten their lids and are finally gathered into packs ready for delivery.

That beer has now found its way into North Dakota.

Indeed announced in October that it would begin distributing to North Dakota followed by western Minnesota towns. Indeed co-founders Nathan Berndt, who is from Grand Forks, and Tom Whisenand, whose parents are from Williston, said their North Dakota ties inspired them to offer their beer there.

"North Dakota is not a state that we feel we have to sell beer in," Whisenand said. "We kind of looked at a map and looked at where we wanted to go next and what it would take. I think we were just more excited about going to North Dakota than any other bordering state at this point."

Good timing

Berndt graduated from Red River High School in Grand Forks in 1997. After spending a year at the University of North Dakota, he eventually moved on to the University of Minnesota, where he took up photojournalism and geology.

Berndt met Whisenand and another would-be Indeed co-founder, Rachel Anderson, at the university's student paper, the Minnesota Daily, where they worked as photographers. They went their separate ways after school, and Whisenand started homebrewing while working at a newspaper in Concord, N.H.

Whisenand moved back to the Twin Cities, where he and Berndt's mutual interest in craft beer began to morph into something more concrete.

"Over the course of time, we'd sit around and drink and make beer, and we'd talk about doing something bigger," Berndt said.

They began working on a business plan in 2010. About two years later, after gathering a team of investors mostly made up of friends and family, they opened Indeed Brewing Co.

They were the first brewery to open in northeast Minneapolis, Whisenand said. Moreover, a state law allowing for taprooms like theirs passed in the middle of their planning process, allowing Indeed to get in on a new trend.

"Now it seems like our timing was so good," Whisenand said. "Now you go to northeast Minneapolis it's like a beer destination."

Connections

Since announcing their plans to expand distribution into North Dakota, Indeed has landed in liquor stores and bar taps in the Grand Forks area. Earlier this month, Berndt returned to Grand Forks for an event showcasing Indeed beer at the Toasted Frog, a downtown Grand Forks restaurant co-owned by high school classmate Jonathan Holth.

"I've been bugging Nate ever since he opened the brewery," Holth said. "We always love doing these kind of fun things for our customers, but this just makes it more exciting to not only have a Grand Forks native who has done well in the industry but also is a friend of mine."

Their expansion into North Dakota signifies increased interest in craft beer here. But North Dakota has lagged behind much of the country with 1.1 breweries per 100,000 drinking-age adults in 2014, 33rd-highest in the U.S., according to the Colorado-based Brewers Association. Minnesota ranked 17th in that report with 1.9 breweries per capita.

But that trend appears to be shifting. Rhombus Guys Brewing Co. opened Grand Forks' first brewpub this fall, and Fargo, Bismarck and Mandan each have breweries.

"I think, in a lot of places, it trends with the younger people," Berndt said. "People are more willing to live in North Dakota because of the jobs."