| Surly Brewing Company | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Location | Brooklyn Center, Minnesota United States http://www.SurlyBrewing.com |
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| Owner(s) | Omar Ansari | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Year opened | 2005 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Surly Brewing Company is a Brooklyn Center, Minnesota-based craft brewery. Surly has a projected production of over 15,000 barrels in 2010. [1] As of June 2010, Surly is only available in and around the Minneapolis – Saint Paul metropolitan area.
Surly's brewing system is a 30 beer barrel (BBL) Sprinkman, one of four identical systems produced by Sprinkman of Wisconsin.
Surly Brewing Co. founder Omar Ansari had been homebrewing since 1994. After apprenticing at New Holland Brewing Company in Michigan and enlisting Todd Haug of Minneapolis's Rock Bottom Brewery, Surly Brewing began brewing in Brooklyn Center.[2]
In February 2011, Surly announced that it intended to open a restaurant and beer garden, which was expected to cost US$20 million. The new facility would also increase its brewing capacity to approximately 100,000 barrels. This type of installation was not in line with Minnesota's liquor laws, however. With the help of the Surly Nation, dedicated fans of the brewery's beer, some members of the Minnesota Legislature were convinced to propose changes in order to allow it. Minnesota's three-tier liquor sales system, would not allow breweries to distribute their beer for retail sale and sell on the brewery's premises, as a brewpub does.[3] After just a few months, changes to Minnesota's liquor laws that would dismantle this three-tier system, and allow Surly to open their facility, were passed in an omnibus liquor bill introduced by Rep. Jenifer Loon (R - Eden Prairie) and Sen. Linda Scheid (DFL - Brooklyn Park).[4] Known as the "Surly Bill", this bill was signed into law by Governor Mark Dayton on May 25, 2011. [5]