Hop & Barrel beer can now be enjoyed statewide, including in Door County

Rich Palzewic

Staff

November 25, 2024

HUDSON – Whether it’s the Brave Sir Robin, Crooked Grin, Ridiculous Idiots or Minnesconsin, thanks to a pair of recent distribution agreements, Hop & Barrel Brewing’s beers will now be available statewide.

“It’s very exciting,” Hop & Barrel Owner/CEO Justin Terbeest said. “We worked hard to get to where we are at today. From modest beginnings to opening the brewery in December of 2017, I’m proud to say we are now available statewide.”

An aggressive timeline

Rachel Kressin, head of sales at Hop & Barrel, said when she started with the Hudson-based brewery (310 2nd St.) in December 2022, it was working full-time with three different distributors.

“Additionally, the brewery had just started with a fourth distributor the week before I started,” she said. “That covered a good third or half of the state.”

After about a year to 18 months of serving its coverage area, Kressin said Hop & Barrel wanted more.

“We had hit those markets, and we were expanding nicely and becoming a recognizable brand,” she said. “We looked at each other and said, ‘What’s next?’ We took it upon ourselves to reach out to a couple more distributors, one of which covers the bottom third of the state, and then another one that covers Green Bay north up to Minocqua, the Iron River area and Ashland.”

After reaching out to both distributors, traveling to and spending a lot of time in their markets, Kressin said both of the distributors agreed to distribute Hop & Barrel beer.

“We didn’t honestly think both of them would bite at the same time, but we started with them both in January 2024,” she said. “We saw how much people loved the brand – it blew up fast.”

Despite gaining those two distributors, Kressin said that still didn’t cover the whole state.

“We went back to work and wanted to cover the whole state by 2025, which meant working with two more distributors,” she said. “We reached out to Larry’s Distributing Company and Flanigan Distributing Inc.”

Kressin said Larry’s covers the Manitowoc area, while Flanigan distributes to Door County.

“Both Larry’s and Flanigan are smaller distributors, so we reached out to both of them at the same time,” she said. “We got a plan in place, and it happened within a month – it was like, ‘boom, boom.’ Now we cover the whole state.”

With Hop & Barrel now being available statewide, some might think it would be difficult for a smaller brewery to suddenly ramp up its production to meet the demand.

“Part of it is still getting back to what we had been before COVID-19,” Terbeest said. “I think it’s something we can easily work with our facility on. Obviously, you have to increase production, and at a time when all costs are going up, it’s a little more of a balancing act.”

Terbeest said the facility is set up in a way that avoids bottlenecks.

“It’s mainly about getting the supplies we need,” he said.

Kressin said it will likely take a little time to learn the markets in each area of the state.

“What I have learned the most since starting this job is figuring out how different areas seem to favor different beers,” she said. “Eau Claire might love one style of beer versus going over to Wausau, and it can be a completely different style of beer they like (in) Green Bay. Every bigger city and surrounding areas seem to favor a different style of beer. Making sure we have the right beers in production at the right time has definitely been a learning curve.”

Terbeest said “everything is on the table” when it comes to the types of establishments he envisions people being able to purchase Hop & Barrel beers at.

“We do very well on-premise and in local grocery/liquor stores in every market,” he said. “We’ve also got a growing relationship with Festival Foods, and we’re trying to court Kwik Trips across the northern part of the state. We’ll see if that works out in the next few months.”

Chain stores, Terbeest said, are the next project for Hop & Barrel.

“Now that we are statewide, it’s easier to talk to the corporate side of some of these companies and say, ‘We now have access to give you alcohol across the entire state through this network of distributors,’” he said. “It’s a much easier conversation than being distributed only in Hudson or Eau Claire.”

Traditional start turns into reality

Like many other brewery stories, Terbeest said he got his start as a homebrewer.

“There’s nothing novel there,” he laughed. “I was an attorney, practicing in Minnesota at the time, and kind of fell into homebrewing. I got involved with a charitable organization in Hudson, and they put together a beer fest that led to my entry into homebrewing after that.”

Terbeest said as he started homebrewing more, he entered his beer into contests.

“My beers did pretty well (in the contests), and I was at a point where I was a decade into practicing (law) and it was either time to start my own firm or do something new,” he said. “I ended up feeling like jumping into the beer industry was a better choice.”

Doing well at the national beer contest in 2015, Terbeest said, planted the seed to open his own brewery.

“I got to nationals again in 2016, and it took off from there,” he said. “I think it’s your classic from the ground-up business. I put together a business plan and started researching the industry heavily – not just the making beer side of it but the taproom side. I looked at different distribution options and educated myself a lot about the industry.”

After putting together his plan and educating himself, Terbeest said “things happened quicker than I thought they would.”

“I was thinking it would be another year or two out,” he said. “But then this excellent location in downtown Hudson became available and everything ramped up at that point.”

Continued growth

Terbeest said Hop & Barrel has had three different phases in its seven years of existence.

“It kind of feels like we never have enough room for production,” he laughed. “Our 8,000-square-foot space has made for a great start out the door, but that takes up about half of our space. We self-distributed for a year and started working with our first distributor partners in Wisconsin in 2019, right before COVID-19 hit.”

Up until that point, Terbeest said Hop & Barrel was pretty divided between sales “in our part of Wisconsin and a lot more going into Minnesota.”

“After reopening and rebuilding from (COVID), we pretty much left Minnesota outside of the St. Cloud market,” he said. “We refocused everything on Wisconsin and have been adding distributors across the state since then.”

Now that Hop & Barrel is being distributed statewide, Terbeest said he’d like to focus on Wisconsin for the next couple of years.

“There’s plenty of beer drinkers here, and there’s plenty of markets within those distributors that either need attention or haven’t really had visits yet,” he said. “There’s enough work here to keep us busy for a while.”

Terbeest said state lines seem to affect sales much more than one might think.

“I was born and raised in Minnesota, but the (boundary) lines between states – and I don’t just mean Minnesota, I hear the same thing around the Illinois and Iowa border, too – are becoming more drastic and clear cut,” he said. “We are literally on the border, and there are large communities 10 minutes away where it takes twice the effort to sell beer simply because it’s from another state. We hear similar things from some of our friends up in Duluth crossing over to Superior.”

Terbeest said he thinks a lot of that is on the consumer.

“I don’t mean that negatively, but it’s just the preferences seem to have started to become a little bit more – I don’t necessarily want to say local – within your own state,” he said.

On tap

Terbeest said Hop & Barrel has 16 taps on-site in its Hudson taproom.

“We also have an event space for music, and a lot of different organizations meet here,” he said. “We like to call it a community center with beer. You really can’t just be a brewery with a taproom – you have to diversify a bit.”

Terbeest said Hop & Barrel doesn’t offer food, but patrons are welcome to bring in what they see fit – “preferably from the many great restaurants in the area.”

“Downtown Hudson is pretty tight-knit and a tourist destination,” he said. “We do a lot of work with takeout and bringing in food trucks.”

Additionally, Terbeest said Hop & Barrel has various games and is a dog-friendly environment.

The brewery is open from noon to 7 p.m. on Sunday, from noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

For more, visit hopandbarrelbrewing.com.