by Cori Hilsgen
news@thenewsleaders.com
Aaron Rieland and Eric Geir of the Bad Habit Brewing Co. will soon be brewing and serving drinks at a new location at 24 College Ave. N. in St. Joseph.
They are planning to move to their new location, the former St. Joseph City Hall building, in spring of next year.
Rieland said a lack of space issues mainly motivated the move to the new location. They were running out of taproom space and are at brewing capacity.
“We love this building and its neighbors, but needed a larger space,” he said.
The new location will include more taproom space, a larger brewing space, a 2,000 square-foot outdoor patio, private-event space and a barrel-aged beer program.
Their space will increase from 1,800 square feet of taproom to 3,900 square feet on the main floor and 3,900 square feet in the basement. The basement will include the barrel-aged beer program and a future event room.
Customer seating capacity will increase to 150 people, and the brewing capacity will increase to 31,000 gallons per year.
The barrel-aged beer program includes brewing certain styles of beer and aging them in used bourbon, wine, rum and tequila barrels for extended amounts of time.
Rieland said half of their barrels will be used for stouts, porters, Belgian-aged beers, and the other half will be dedicated to sour beers.
Some customer taproom favorites include India Pale Ale, which is a hoppy beer style; and Dark Addiction.
“We have seen a huge uptick in fruited beers the last 18 months with concentrations on fruited IPAs and kettle sours,” he said. “People really like the varieties. There is usually something for everyone when they come in.”
Demolition has begun at the new location and the contractor, Rice Cos., will work on some of the larger projects.
Rieland said they are hoping to have little or no downtime with their transition to the new location.
Currently, Rieland and Geir are leasing their present location at 15 E. Minnesota St. and will be looking for someone to take over that lease.
“(We) would just like to thank all our families, friends and customers for all the support,” Rieland said. “The city of St. Joseph was great to work with on this project and we really wanted to stay in St. Jo(seph). We feel as if this is our home and want to create a destination brewery. There are so many cool things in St. Jo(seph) from eating to shopping, St. John’s and St. Ben’s, great nightlife with live music (and) Jon Petters’ new building with a great new restaurant. We want people to come to St. Jo(seph) and spend the weekend. It’s such a cool community.”
This rendering shows exterior plans of the new Bad Habit Brewing Co. location.
This rendering shows outdoor patio space plans of the new Bad Habit Brewing Co. location.
This rendering shows interior bar area plans of the new Bad Habit Brewing Co. location.
This rendering shows the interior seating area plans of the new Bad Habit Brewing Co. location.
