Gustavus grads open St. Peter's first brewery in former Red Owl site

While most of their classmates at Gustavus Adolphus College shoved off to other cities and states after graduation to fulfill their dreams, Eric Johnson and Luke Dragseth drank a lot of beer and literally went downhill.

This, too, was their dream.

"We knew it was a big enough town for a brewery, and a college town, so we knew there was a market for it," Johnson said. "We were that market."

Just a year after graduating — Johnson's degree is in a beer-adjacent major, philosophy — the two ex-Gusties achieved their goal and opened Paddlefish Brewery in January in St. Peter, the city of about 12,000 residents that lies down a hill from their campus.

Johnson and Dragseth, both 23, are now the youngest brewery operators in Minnesota.

Along with their third partner and Johnson's older family friend, Dave Long, they are also the first brewers to open a modern beer facility in the historic city that nearly became Minnesota's state capital, 70 miles southwest of Minneapolis.

And there's even more charming Minnesota lore behind their downtown brewery: The taproom and brewing facility are housed in what used to be St. Peter's Red Owl grocery store, a chain fondly remembered by Minnesotan boomers and Gen-Xers.

"Just about everyone over a certain age who's from here will come in and tell us they used to work here bagging or stocking groceries," Johnson noted. "We love it."

Paddlefish amusingly pays homage to all this history and local culture, starting with the brewery's name. Their site is just a block from the Minnesota River and a condensed population of American paddlefish — an odd-looking, sturgeon-like fish with long, flat "noses."

"They're just so weird and unique," explained Long, who serves as Paddlefish's general manager. "We thought they fit the vibe of the brewery."

Dragseth oversees the brewing operations at Paddlefish. The Milwaukee-area native — his degree in biology and environmental studies truly is applicable here — had been home-brewing since before he turned 21.

And Johnson, more the business and marketing manager who grew up near St. Cloud, is responsible for a lot of the branding, including beer names that also serve as homages to St. Peter.

The beers include:

• Red Owl Amber honors the building, which originated as a factory producing overalls in the late 1800s and — another sign of the times — became a movie-rental store in the 1990s after the Red Owl store shut down.

• Almost Capital American Pale Ale pays tribute to St. Peter's almost-famous status. In 1857, a bill passed to move the state capital to St. Peter, but St. Paul-based legislator Joe Rolette took the bill and went into hiding with it, preventing the change from taking place.

• The Jolly Green Giant Hazy IPA is a nod to the historic billboard on a bluff just outside St. Peter in nearby Le Sueur, which features canned-vegetable company Green Giant's mascot greeting visitors on Hwy. 169.

• Mountain Mama West Coast IPA coyly refers to Annie Martell, former wife and muse to the late singer John Denver, who referenced Martell in his hits "Annie's Song" as well as "Country Roads" ("Mountain mama take me home / Country roads"). Martell was born and raised in St. Peter.

• The Engesser Lager is named after St. Peter's original brewery, which lasted from the mid-1800s to 1942. There hasn't been another beer maker in town since.

"We love the history in St. Peter, and it's one of the reasons we wanted to be here," Long said while serving beers and greeting regulars one late afternoon last month, as a crowd started gathering for trivia night.

Opening a brewery wasn't necessarily Long's dream. He had been working as a youth minister and camp director when his family friend Johnson proposed the idea.

Paddlefish's elder partner had also been making road-trip adventures and documenting them on film in his dream vehicle: a refurbished, pea-green 1976 Volkswagen Westfalia camper van he nicknamed Seat Pea.

Long's van is now parked front and center in the brewery's taproom, visible (and drivable) through the garage-door walls along the front corner. And yes, Sweet Pea still runs great, but Long happily reports she hasn't been on many adventures of late.

"We've been too busy to use it," he said, pointing to expansion plans already in place to increase brewing capacity after beer shortages stymied the brewery's operations early on.

"Running out of beer is a good problem to have."

Other drinks on the menu at Paddlefish include a wide variety of seltzers made nearby by River Rock in Mankato, mocktails and root beer. There's no food service on site, but several nearby restaurants offer takeout.

While the origins of Paddlefish can be traced back to life on campus at Gustavus Adolphus — "I wish we'd had it while we were in school," Johnson said — the brewery has become much more than just a collegiate hangout.

"The whole town has been showing up," Johnson proudly reported. "I think all breweries should be so lucky to be tied to their community like we are."

Paddlefish Brewing

Where: 108 S. Minnesota Av., St. Peter.

Hours: 3-9 p.m. Tue.-Thu., noon-10 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Sun., closed Mon.

Info: 507-934-0061, paddlefishbrewing.com.