I was up in North Dakota a lot later than I wanted to be toward the end of 2015. I was in Fargo and invited my dealer to go out for something to eat. He said, "I'm taking you to a place that has some great beer before we go get some food." We pulled up in front of the Drekker Brewing Company along 1st Ave. N. in downtown Fargo. (see map)
The impetus for Drekker Brewing Company began many years ago when four friends - Mark Bjornstad, Jesse Feigum, Darin Montplasir and Mason Montplasir - started to brew beer together in the Fargo area. Like most home brewers, they all had a passion for good beer with dynamic flavors. They decided to start their own brewery complete with a tap room.
They found a space in downtown Fargo that is part of the Cityscapes Plaza project of retail and residential property along 1st Ave. N. The group then contacted the Bennett Forgeworks from Colorado that specializes in build-outs of microbreweries. By June of 2014 they had their fermentation and conditioning tanks from the Portland Kettle Works in Portland, OR in place. The Drekker Brewing Co. opened in October of 2014.
The group named their brewery the Drekker Brewing Co. The word is a combination of three different Old Norwegian terms - drakkar is a feared Viking ship with a dragon head on the bow (hence, the Viking in the logo), drykkr is a draught drink, and drekka is simply "to drink".
Pictured right - Darin Montplasir, Mason Montplasir, Mark Bjornstad and Jesse Feigum.
The partners soon discovered that one of the problems with running a brewery with a tap room in Fargo is that a city ordinance prohibited them from serving beer after 10 p.m. With a vibrant downtown entertainment district, when they would yell, "Last call!" at 9:30 p.m. they'd get stares of disbelief from a usually full crowd on the weekend. Mark Bjornstad was instrumental in getting the ordinance changed to allow brewpubs to stay open until midnight on Friday and Saturday nights in Fargo. (They still stay open until just 10 p.m. the other nights.)
And one of the reasons why my dealer wanted to take me to Drekker Brewing Company was that he was the one who put in the audio/video system in the place. He told me, "They're good guys and they make some pretty damned good beer." The space in which Drekker is located has a decidedly contemporary industrial look to it. The minimal decorations in the place gave it sort of a hard feel, but not something that was overly unpleasant.
The fermentation and conditioning tanks were out in the open back behind the bar area. The brewery had that faint brewery smell to the place, but it wasn't overpowering like I've found at other similar microbreweries. The one thing about the Drekker Brewing Co. - it was very clean and polished in there. They were in the midst of a brewery tour when we were there.
My dealer went up to the bar and ordered a couple of sampler flights for us. The beer menu was on the wall behind the bar area. I didn't know what he ordered unit the waitress brought the two flights to the table.
They were served in 8 ounce glasses and came in wooden holders. The first flight consisted of the Techno Viking Berliner Weisse - a wheat beer; the Ryessistance Rye Saison - a farmhouse ale; the Glacier Leavins NoDak Pale Ale; and the "Oh My Gourd, Becky" Pumpkin ale. I'm not big on wheat beers, nor farmhouse ale's, but I willingly took the pale ale and the pumpkin ale to try. The pale ale had a nice hoppy taste with a nice finish on the tongue. It wasn't forward in taste, nor did it lack body. It had a great fresh taste.
While I love the taste of pumpkin pie and pumpkin bars, I'm not usually big on pumpkin beers - a lot of them have a bitter flavor that gives the beer sort of a flat taste. But not so with the pumpkin beer at Drekker Brewing Co. It had a nice nutmeg after taste and was very pleasing. This was one of the better pumpkin beers that I've had.
The second flight consisted of the Broken Rudder Irish Red Ale; the Roastmaster Series Broken Rudder Red with 20 Below Coffee - they take the Broken Rudder red ale and mix it with coffee from the 20 Below Coffee company located just around the corner from Drekker Brewing; the Pillager Porter; and the Azacca Attacka American Pale Ale. I chose the American Pale Ale - not as hoppy as the NoDak pale ale, but with a very good taste and a fresh finish - and the Broken Rudder Red Irish Red Ale. The Irish Red had a nice body with a nice copper color. I found the Red Irish Ale to be refreshing and flavorful.
My dealer was raving about the Irish Red Ale/20 Below Coffee beer. He allowed me to take a drink of it and I have to say that it floored me in the quality of the taste. I've had coffee beers in the past, but they're usually thick and muddy. This was actually lighter with a deep brown color to the beer. The coffee smell of the beer was very forward and the taste was more coffee than beer. The two tastes went together very well.
As we were finishing up, my dealer's wife came in to join us before we went for dinner. I mentioned that I was sort of upset that they didn't serve food at the Drekker Brewing Co. - I wasn't certain that I wanted to go elsewhere to get away from the beer. She mentioned that we could bring food in from other nearby establishments, but they had a place in mind they wanted to take me. (Look for an upcoming entry on where we ate that evening.)
My dealer was certainly spot on about the quality of the beers at Drekker Brewing Co. The five beers that I tasted were all very good. It's good to find places like Drekker where a group of guys with a similar passion for good beer have developed a winning business formula. Fargo continues to surprise me with some of the eclectic eating and drinking establishments I've visited and Drekker Brewing Co. is certainly no exception.
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