Craft brewing booms in Minnesota

STILLWATER, Minn. (AP) — The Lift Bridge Brewery’s tripled its size when it moved from a one-car garage to a three-car in 2007.

Six years later, the craft brewery stands in a nearly $2 million in a Stillwater industrial office park. It’s on pace this year to produce about 6,000 barrels for nearly 1,000 bars, restaurants and liquor stores. And it still can’t keep up with demand.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that Lift Bridge is a prime example of the growth of craft brewing in Minnesota.

According to the Brewers Association, a national trade organization, Minnesota has become the No. 10 craft beer-producing state, with about 50 craft breweries. The amount of suds they produced in 2012 skyrocketed to 308,000 barrels, an 80 percent increase over 2011.