HARTFORD – Even before Chris Tuschen moved back to his hometown he had plans to open a brewery.

He was just the type of entrepreneur Hartford city leaders were looking for to help revitalize the city's lagging downtown, so they convinced him and his business partners to open a brewery on Main Avenue.

Taps at Buffalo Ridge Brewing started flowing in early November, signaling an achievement of a dream for Tuschen and his wife and an economic development boost for the growing community.

"We're here. I don't want to say, 'we've arrived,'" Tuschen said. "We've busted butts all summer to make it happen."

Tuschen founded Buffalo Ridge with his wife, Callie and business partners Damon and Krystal Sehr. Their newly constructed brewery is 4,000 square feet with enough space to make 500 barrels a year.

The Tuschens are both from South Dakota but moved to the West Coast in pursuit of adventure, 36-year-old Callie Tuschen said.

They settled in Oregon and lived there for 11 years while raising three young children.

"It was definitely family that brought us back," Callie Tuschen said.

Along the way, Chris Tuschen gained a better appreciation for craft beer and the trend-setting styles made in the Pacific Northwest. He also became more invested the product, home brewing for seven years.

The collaboration between Buffalo Ridge and Hartford city officials is no accident. While the beer makers were looking for a place to start their business near Hartford, Hartford city officials were looking for beer makers.

Before they met the Tuschens, officials were already planning to reinvigorate Hartford’s downtown by leveraging a plot of land owned by the city, said Jesse Fonkert, director of the Hartford Chamber of Commerce and the Hartford Economic Development Foundation.

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“Downtown has been decaying for a number of years,” Fonkert said. “It’s mostly just regarded as a wasteland.”

Officials wondered in 2017 if they could bring a brewery to the site to take advantage of South Dakota’s growing demand for craft beer.

“It was more exploratory: ‘OK, this would be really cool if it happens, it’s OK if it doesn’t,” Fonkert said. “It’s just a pipe dream.”

Buffalo Ridge is always working on more styles of beer but currently serves a Belgian wit, a porter, an amber, a pale ale, an India pale ale, a Belgian blonde, a black ale and a Hefeweizen.

Tuschen's beer-making philosophy comes down to balance, cutting away the "rough edges," he said.

"I want people to drink a beer that they normally wouldn't drink and go, 'wow,'" Tuschen said.