Some of you may have heard that the doors of Roundhouse were open this past weekend. If you thought this Thursday was supposed to be the triumphant soft opening of Roundhouse Brewery- you would be correct. You see, we had to have a couple of test runs to make sure that we could deliver on our promise of delicious craft beer served right here in Brainerd.
We kicked off the weekend with a private event on Friday to test out the taps and our cash register. It also gave us a chance to get some coin out of those people who have been drinking for free for the past few months. Yeah, I am talking to you Darren.
Saturday we opened the doors at 2:30 pm to be ready for the Tapped and Corked event across the yard from us at the Northern Pacific Event Center. It was a slow afternoon with a few friends and curious people stopping in for a beer. Around 6:30 pm a few people started trickling in and we put down our slices of pizza and casually got ready to serve some beer. A few minutes later Nick and Chuck came running through the door screaming “They’re coming”! We looked out the windows and saw a wall of humanity converging upon the brewery. Our president Mark sprang into action and started to barricade the doors with picnic tables. Suddenly, Dan jumped on top of one of the tables and started to recite the movie Braveheart. Not any particular scene but the whole movie. We decided the safest place to be was behind the bar. We kept the crowd at bay by serving pint after pint of Cowcatcher Ale and Golden Spike IPA. We pushed Roundhouse to the limit and came out victorious.
We had to chain Chuck and Nick to the table to keep them from abandoning their post and sampling the other brewer’s products.
We found this guy living in an abandoned part of the NP Center. We slapped a Roundhouse sticker on his head and put him to work.
Beer Scout Troop 1551 L to R: Dan, Scott, Nick, Caroline, Nikki, Chuck, Logan, and Mark Motto – “Be Prepared . . . to serve beer”
The calm before the storm.
I did not take a photo of the people walking over from Tapped and Corked. If memory serves; it looked like this.
The storm.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by for a pint or two. We appreciate your business and are proud to serve the Brainerd Lakes area. Prost!
Keep on Chugg’n . . . Responsibly.