Tremendous Brewing sets stage for summer opening; Co-op to expand menu in partnership

St. Peter’s Kurt Stoel has never forgotten the taste of his first craft brew.

While attending college in Rapid City, a young Stoel stopped by the Firehouse Brewing Company for a drink. The establishment, which took its name from being housed in Rapid City’s original 1915 firehouse, served him up a specialty stout, brewed on site. It was in that moment, when Stoel took his first swig, that he realized there was more to beer than what was being canned by the major brands.

Stoel said the experience “opened [his] mind,” to what could be done with a handcrafted brew. Inspired to try crafting his own recipes, Stoel spent the next 30 years diving into the world of homebrewing.

Now, after years of serving his homebrews with friends and neighbors, Stoel is ready to share his recipes to the wider public through a firehouse brewery of his very own. Together with co-owners Ben Findley and Greg Melchior, Stoel aims to renovate the old St. Peter Fire Hall on 227 Mulberry Street into a comfortable, family-friendly destination for locally produced drinks: Tremendous Brewing Co.

The establishment is a dream come true for Stoel, who sees the business as an opportunity to make his community of more than 15 years a better place.

“Being able to craft something, spending my days doing that, it’s really rewarding for me,” said Stoel. “We’ve always said this is the thing we can do to make St. Peter better, to make St. Peter a bigger and better place.”

Tremendous’ owners came together when Stoel learned the city of St. Peter was accepting proposals to purchase the fire hall in April of last year. He soon reached out to Findley, his longtime friend of 25 years he met while marching with the Govenaires. Findley leapt on board, and the duo recruited Stoel’s former co-worker Melchior to join in as an owner and managing partner. Following a highly competitive six-month process featuring seven proposals, the City Council voted to sell the fire hall to Tremendous in September.

The brewery is just starting to take shape within the old fire hall. The apparatus bay is almost untouched outside of a large wooden frame which divides the space in a taproom and production area. Work is moving fast, however, and by the end of the summer, the owners plan to have Tremendous Brewing Co. open to customers.

The owners’ vision for the brewery focuses on crafting quality takes on traditional standard beers — your lagers, ales, IPAs, pilsners, etc. Stoel doesn’t seek to rock the boat with his recipes, but instead deliver delicious riffs on classic favorites.

“What I think St. Peter needs is good, approachable beers. We don’t need to be crazy. A lot of microbreweries these days can get into these stange, interesting and possibly delicious beers, but what we want to have is beers that everybody in town is going to come in and enjoy,” said Stoel. “They can come down, sit down and have a pint with their neighbor and have a conversation over something crafted here in St. Peter.”

Tremendous’ menu will consist of at least eight regular beers on tap and between 10-12 that will rotate throughout the year. Beers will be sold in pint-size as well as 10 oz and 6 oz glasses. In addition to its roster of beer, Tremendous will offer non-alcoholic beer options, seltzers and prepackaged kombucha.

While there’s no food on-site, customers will be able to order meals from the St. Peter Co-op through a QR code and have their food delivered directly to them. With this new partnership, the Co-op is expanding its menu to include more typical pub fare. Customers will also be able to take in food from home or other restaurants to eat at the brewery.

“You can bring food from any restaurant. The idea is if you’re not from town and don’t know what to do, [the St. Peter Co-op] is also a nice easy solution,” said Findley. “And that’s not to say we won’t also bring in food trucks.”

In addition to its function as a brewery, the owners see Tremendous Brewery as a local cultural hub, showcasing the talents of St. Peter’s artists, musicians and comedians on an interior stage area. Findley said the owners have toyed with a number of ideas, including fostering a partnership with the Arts Center of Saint Peter, holding a runway fashion show with one of the local boutiques, hosting drag shows and running a pinewood derby.

The owners aim to keep much of the fire hall’s historic exterior intact while replacing the three of the seven garage doors with glass windows and installing handicap-accessible, double glass doors on either side of the building.

Inside the taproom, visitors will find elongated wooden tables reminiscent of those found in a German beer hall, an array of couches, board games and a bookshelf that Findley likened to Tremendous Brewing’s own free little library.

“It’s going to be very open,” said Findley. “We’re not planning on going with a theme of any kind other than comfort.”

At the southern entrance to the brewery, visitors will find the meeting room, which will feature a display dedicated to the history of brewing in St. Peter, harkening back to the days of the Engesser Brewing Co.

{p dir=”ltr”}“We’re a group of guys who were interested in making something awesome happen in St. Peter,” said Stoel. “Contributing to town, seeing if we can give back a little bit if we can. This is the thing that we can do.”