July 2, 2019

Remedy Brewing Co. is setting up the equipment for its second production facility.

The five tanks and four fermenters for the brewhouse near Covell Lake arrived Friday and were guided into the plant at 611 N. West Ave. on a remote-controlled forklift. Another important piece of equipment, the centrifuge, made it to Sioux Falls from Germany by boat, train and truck. It will spin some of the varieties of beer to separate the particles by mass, making it less cloudy and extending the shelf life.

“We want to set it up and let’s go,” said Matt Hastad,  who started Remedy’s downtown brewery and taproom in 2017 with friends Tyler Jepperson and Jason Davenport and the help of investors.

They expect to begin brewing this month or in August and have cans ready for the market by September or October.

“There are lots of moving parts and things up in the air that have to fall into place,” Hastad said.

The building has had several uses over the years but originally was a dairy processing plant. The Remedy team is repurposing some of the old features and updating others in the 20,000-square-foot section it occupies of the 80,000-square-foot building.

“Right now, some of the rooms look creepy,” Hastad said, joking that he has felt he might be the next victim of Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” In another section of the building, the “clown dungeon offices” are painted either firetruck red or bright yellow.

But the production floor, where Remedy will be able to produce 3,000 barrels of beer annually, is bright and clean. If everything went into a 12-ounce can, that would be 1 million cans of beer. Remedy, however, also will distribute in 16-ounce cans and kegs. The craft beer will go to bars, restaurants and other retailers.

Remedy’s five core beers will be produced there: Espina, Queen Bee, Nonsense, Split-Shift and Hefe Metal. In addition to the main beers, Remedy will can some seasonal options.

With the freed-up capacity downtown, Remedy hopes to brew some of its one-off barrel-aged and sour beer creations in larger batches and send them out in kegs to bars.

Eventually, Remedy will add a taproom, a patio and other offerings at the site. It will install windows between the production room and taproom so beer drinkers can watch the beer-making process.

“We have big plans for this that we can’t announce yet,” Hastad said.

They hope the new production site becomes another reason people come to visit Sioux Falls.

“We have some surprises up our sleeves,” Jepperson said. “The two-year plan out here will be phenomenal.”

Remedy Brewing to ramp up production, begin distributing in cans