NISSWA - The opportunity to drink a cold Gull Dam beer on a warm day is getting closer.
Gull Dam Brewing's name is now up on the iconic water wheel building on Smiley Road in Nisswa.
In April, with snow melting beneath a cloudless deep blue sky, Mark and Barb Anderson signed the papers closing on the former Werneke Water Wheel Center property. After taking ownership, anticipation was for a June opening day. The aggressive construction schedule proved to be overly optimistic. By early August, building renovations were still taking shape. An opening day is anticipated in early autumn.
Head brewer Luke Steadman recently returned from a trip to his native Pennsylvania. There he worked with his brothers and uncles to take down an 1870 dairy barn on the farm that has been in the family for five generations. Steadman joked he left the farm but was bringing part of it back with him.
In the late summer heat outside the brewery, Steadman was unpacking the barn wood. It will be used for the wall face of the taproom's bar. Tape outlined where the counter will take shape. Work continued on the skeletal frame of two-by-fours.
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The Gull Dam name and logo is in place on the taproom floor and the massive stainless steel tanks dominate what was an empty room in April.
The tanks came from Portland. The stainless steel to make them comes in flat sheets, which are hand-molded right down to the domes on top. The tanks can handle 80 kegs of beer or 40 barrels. Gull Dam Brewing has the capacity to brew four different varieties at a time, perhaps a stout with vanilla bean, or an amber wheat or Empire hops working to make a rich pale ale. Computerized control boxes monitor the temperatures from a hot side to a cold side.
Steadman wants to do a craft lager that is cask conditioned, aged in a keg and naturally carbonated.
"Dabbling in both covers a full perspective," Steadman said. And it allows for more creativity in developing a new beer to taste test before it is produced on an even larger scale.
Seating and high-top tables will place customers 5 feet from fermentation tanks where beer is in the making.
"By the end of it you'll feel you are part of the brewing process," Steadman said. "We aren't hiding behind the glass. You are part of it."
To that end, Gull Dam Brewing staff will be available to answer questions and show customers behind the virtual curtain. They are also taking suggestions for beer ingredients but stopped short of promising to create a suggested red velvet cake variety.
On the brewery's hot side, where the batch spends eight to 12 hours, a wooden paddle is used to mash and stir the mix.
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"Essentially, you are trying to canoe through oatmeal," Steadman said. Through the process, there are opportunities to be creative by adding Indian corn, squash, roasted chestnuts, Clif Bars, maple syrup, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg, or maybe orange peels.
A heat exchanger takes the heat from about 212 degrees on the hot side of the brewery to the 70 degrees in the fermentation tanks on the other side of the room. The batch will remain in the fermentation tanks for 10 to 21 days. On the cold side there is still an opportunity to add a level of flavor, perhaps honey or vanilla beans.
"There is always room to make a better beer," Steadman said.
Even when the batch didn't turn out the way Steadman expected, such as a raspberry wheat that soured, he said there were sour beer lovers who went crazy for it. Early in his career, Steadman collaborated to make a Smorgasbeer using a complex recipe and a host of ingredients. It had an amazing flavor. But no one wrote down everything in the mix that included Clif Bars, sweet corn and honey.
"I'm well-documented now," Steadman said.
Steadman is an advocate of farm-to-glass brewing and incorporating local growers and ingredients from maple sap to Indian corn, squash, pumpkin, cinnamon and honey and even spruce tips.
Jon Lehmann, Gull Dam Brewing operations/sales director, said there are plans for patio events, live music and a mix of beer and catered food.
Owner Mark Anderson, a pilot and state legislator from Lake Shore, said they were waiting for a state inspector before they could start brewing beer.
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The brewery won't serve food but expects to work with caterers, other restaurants and resorts to provide food for events. The building's front with open space and expansive loft will be available for special events from weddings to other gatherings and beer tasting.
"We're going to be pretty creative," Lehmann said. "We're going to do a lot of stuff to pique the interest of everyone."
A new variety of hops from Michigan, looking more like pelleted horse feed, conveyed a citrus and grassy scent. New Zealand hops combine a kiwi and melon flavor. For wine buffs, a beer batch is expected to be aged in a wine barrel for beer with a twist of wine infusion.
For Anderson it was amazing to see the tanks now filling what was empty space equivalent to a basketball court.
"We're close," Anderson said of opening, adding they are all anxious to get started. "Oh gosh, this is going to be too much fun."
For Lehmann, a key ingredient is bringing customers into the process so they feel part of the brewery. "We want this to be a fun environment," Lehmann said. "We want everyone to feel they are welcome. We want to be here for awhile. We want to keep growing with the community.
"There will always be something changing here - that will really be the exciting part."
Gull Dam tidbits
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• In brewing terms, a "hot liquor" tank actually means hot water.
• The brewery plans to have a 10-head tap system in the taproom. Head brewer Luke Steadman had carving the tap handles from wood on his to-do list.
• Not a beer drinker? The brewery plans to make its own root beer.
• The stone and wood brewery building, has its own waterfall (recently restarted after a long dry spell when the building wasn't fully used), water wheel and 9-foot deep pool. It is readily visible from the northbound lanes of Highway 371. The brewery is just south of Schaefer's Foods.
