I love that we are a place that people can come together.”

Jen Fox

Spiral Brewery
111 Second St. E.
Hastings, MN 55033
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When staff, community members and residents raised their glasses to celebrate Spiral Brewery’s seven-year anniversary on Tuesday, April 15, it was a testament to all that has changed since opening their doors April 20, 2018.
“We made it through a global pandemic, we started some really interesting and fun programming that brings people together and keeps people coming back. We opened a rooftop patio, and […] expanded into a parklet on the street,” said co-owner Jen Fox.
To date, Spiral Brewery has brewed over 60 beers, averaging about 1,000 barrels annually since 2018. The idea for a brewery on Second Street, however, started long before 2018 as a joke.
Future co-owners Jen Fox, Nick Fox, and Amy Fox, joked about the idea in 2012, but it quickly turned serious: “If we are going to joke about it, we can put a business plan together about it,” said Jen Fox.
The intent was to create a brewery on Second Street to bring people downtown, which eventually landed at 111 Second St. E.
After drafting a business plan, however, the co-owners were presented with a problem: none of them knew anything about brewing beer. Enter Luke McGuire, the brewery’s first brewer and another co-owner alongside with his wife Claire Sandahl, who were college friends of Amy and Nick.
McGuire was able to “retrofit” their space downtown into a brewery and the eventual soft opening was April 20, 2018. According to Jen Fox: “we just had to pick a day and start brewing,” which led to the April 20 anniversary.
When it came to the beer of Spiral Brewery, the goal was never to “recreate the wheel,” but to brew traditional styles with excellence, said Jen Fox. In 2018, the brewery opened with six beers: the Townie, a Kölsch-style ale; the Downward Spiral, an IPA; the Hard Left, a stout; Oliver’s Grove, an American Style pale ale; the LeDuc, a red IPA; and The Bottoms, an American-style porter.
For the anniversary, the brewery unveiled a new beer for the event: Formula 7, a triple IPA. Unlike previous year’s anniversary brews, which were intended to be bottled and able to be aged, Formula 7 was simply meant to be drank. “I’ve been kind of pulling for this since we opened, so I’m stoked about it,” said Nick Fox.
Since opening its doors, “the industry in general has changed a lot,” said Spiral’s brewer Morgan Smith, who has been with the brewery since 2021. Younger people in specific are drinking less, in part due to increased competition from THC drinks which have flourished since being legalized in Minnesota in 2022.
Despite that competition, Spiral Brewery, unlike many breweries in Minnesota, has not stepped foot into the THC drink market due to the rocky rollout of the Minnesota Cannabis market and shifting legislation surrounding it, according to Smith. That doesn’t mean THC drinks are entirely off the table, however: “We’re not doing that here. Yet,” said Smith.
The slogan for the brewery is “brewing community through quality beer,” and that focus has not shifted. Spiral Brewery celebrated the week of its anniversary with events ranging from downtown walking tours to live music to Spiral-themed trivia culminating on the brewery’s official anniversary of April 20.
“I love that we are a place that people can come together,” said Jen Fox.
As to what comes next for the brewery, Smith cited several upcoming beers including a beer in partnership with Treasure Island Resort and Casino, a new summer sour, and a hefeweizen.
According to Jen Fox, “Spiral Brewery will continue to brew traditional styles of beer with excellence and build a strong community of friends.”