302 shares Share

Tweet

LinkedIn

Oct. 25, 2019

Lupulin Brewing Co.’s new location in Sioux Falls smelled like a brewery for the first time Thursday.

The brewery took over Hydra Beer Co. in August and has been stocking the taproom at 2425 S. Shirley Ave. with beers made at its home in Big Lake, Minn.

“It should smell pretty good in here today,” said co-founder Matt Schiller, watching the boil of Lupulin’s first brew in Sioux Falls. “It’ll actually smell like a brewery for the first time since we’ve taken it over.”

Getting the brewing system back in working condition after it hadn’t been used in a long time took awhile, Schiller said.

“Today, we’re making a beer we’re calling Baked. This first one’s got some chocolate, some cinnamon, a little vanilla and some maple sugar. Hot cocoa is the idea we’re going after, kind of like a Mexican hot chocolate but without any peppers.”

The beer is new to Lupulin.

“Everything we make here is going to be unique to here,” Schiller said. “We’re going to focus more on fruited sours, big stouts with lots of cool, unique flavors. Our goal is to make really cool stuff here, all small batch. It’ll be more of really unique, more risk-taking, more experimental type of stuff that should turn out pretty good.”

Baked, which will a stout, should be ready in late November or early December. It will be on tap and sold in bottles out of the taproom. Thursday’s batch will make 6 or 7 barrels’ worth, about 200 gallons.

Schiller and co-founder Jeff Zierdt started out as home brewers. They opened Lupulin in 2015, and it has grown to the point where they’ve taken on other roles in the business.

“I actually haven’t made beer in over a year,” he said. “Now, I run a business mainly. We’ve got a team of brewers that brew the beer now in Big Lake, so for me to get to actually get to mash a beer, it’s been awhile.”

But Thursday, Schiller was back in his element, excited to move Lupulin’s new location from being just a taproom to an actual brewery.

“We needed to start making beer here.”