Craft Is Community: WoodGrain Brewing

Ambitious, Unique, and Good

In just around two and a half years, Steve, Jason, and Ryan of WoodGrain brewing have had a deliciously prolific tap rotation, but their definition of "craft beer" stretches beyond beer. Whether it's offering a free drink to the runners of a 5k fundraiser or intentionally working with local producers for ingredients, their concept of craft extends past beer and gets at the heart of what it is to be community.

I sat down with Jason and Steve recently, and I expected to hear two business partners talking about a shared project. I quickly realized these are two friends helping me understand something they love as they contribute to the development of Sioux Falls--that just happens to take the shape of running an impressively inventive brewery.

My first questions for them was, "What does 'Craft Beer' mean to you?"

"It's story." Jason said. "Some people say craft brewing is 60% art and 40% science. Whatever the numbers, there is such a tremendous amount of art and risk in craft brewing and some science."

Steve jumped in to add, "It's about community, relationships, and developing those new friendships. People I wouldn’t typically be friends with just off the streets."

"That Kind of Community Doesn't Just Happen."

They had story after story of the people they've come to know through brewing or meeting at their brewery's taproom.

"There's something different about a corner pub compared to the environment that a brewery brings in. Because we don't serve hard alcohol--just beer--it creates a different atmosphere. So Saturdays are really interesting because we get families. They'll get a pizza, parents will get a beer and kids can get a root beer and we get families sitting down and playing board games." Here, both Jason and Steve get a big grin on their faces."

Jason continues. "Here's another way to put it: one of our favorite couples that always comes in was hanging out waiting for a table--they were going out for dinner because it was their anniversary. Then this older couple walks in, maybe twenty-five or thirty years older, and it was their fiftieth wedding anniversary. So these two couples start talking, having the time of their lives, and the one couple's reservation time comes and goes because they were enjoying themselves. Then the younger couple's reservation comes up and they say, 'You guys should come have dinner with us!' Now, just about every month, they still meet up, have a beer, and spend the night talking. That kind of thing just doesn't happen unless you have a place where people feel safe, can come in and just talk."

To Steve and Jason, craft has as much to do with who they serve as it does what they serve. It's story, community, and friendship.

A Different Beer In Less Than Two Weeks For Two And A Half Years.

Now, that's not to detract from their brewing. In only two and a half years, WoodGrain has produced more than 70 different beers. 70!

That's a different beer in less than two weeks.

For two an a half years straight!

That's a wildly high number for a small, local brewery, and Jason explains, "We have our standards on the board, but that kind of surprise, that 'you never know what you’re going to get'-flexibility ingratiates us to the community."

Chuckling, Steve adds, "I’ve never had customers say, 'You guys should stop brewing new beers!'"

I asked them, "What's one thing every customer knew so they could enjoy beer better?"

Steve didn't even blink before saying, "Dark isn't a flavor."

All of us laughed, and Steve continued, "You get people coming in all the time saying, 'What’s the lightest thing you've got?' I'll offer a sample of our wheat and our milk-stout. 60% of the time people want the milk-stout because the flavor is there. That's why we give samples, so you can try something you might not have realized you like."

Jason was adamant, saying, "We can’t judge people for what they’re drinking. I still might have a bloody-PBR and that’s great in certain circumstances, but we’re not helping beer-culture if we negatively judge people for drinking something they like."

They both agreed with Jason's sentiment: "Drink what you like and like what you drink."

Craft Is Community

This coming week, WoodGrain will release a new IPA with hops from two area farms--Hoppy Trails from Inwood, IA and a farm called Star Sister from just outside of Sioux Falls. The beer is mostly Tahoma hops but includes a special hop called "7 Blend" from Star Sister, and those hops from Star Sister farms were grown by Cade Stensland who passed away in a collision just weeks ago. This tragedy is amplified by the fact that only two days prior to Stensdland's passing, Cade and his wife Christina had just brought home their new baby boy from the hospital.

Steve explains, wading slowly into his words, "So, with the connection to the Stensland family--we've used their hops in a pale ale almost a year ago--when we heard about the accident I was like, 'Well, we gotta do something here.' And we talked, and everybody here was on board, so we were going to just do a beer with their hops and do a donation with some of the proceeds. But then we were like, 'Well why don't we get the family in here to actually help brew?' So his daughters came in to add daddy's hops to the beer."

Here, Jason helps Steve finish the thought, "Steve got a little misty when that part happened."

"Well yeah," Steve interjects, "It's hard not to when his mom comes up and starts saying, 'Thank you,' when all I'm doing is making a beer."

It's moments like this where a neighborhood struggles to find ways to express love and support, and this is where we see WoodGrain being the community they've been speaking to. They've taken something as simple as 'just making a beer,' but offered an opportunity for friends and family to celebrate Cade and his endeavors.

Join them on January 24th for Cade's IPA Release Party, and enjoy those hops Cade grew and know that a portion of that sale goes to Cade's family, or donate to the family directly at their GoFundMe site.

Ambitious, Unique, Good

The name WoodGrain is a play on the grain used to brew beer and the grain of wood because Steve is a talented woodworker. All the tables, the bar, and every piece of wood in their taphouse was made by Steve.

So from the tables you sit at to the drink in your glass, Steve, Jason, and Ryan have given Sioux Falls a truly craft brewery where friends come to enjoy an ambitiously unique menu and find community.