A Day in the Brewhouse

Message from our Head Brewer

Jared Almsted

People often ask what a brew day looks like—for me, it starts early.

By 7:00 a.m., the water’s flowing into the mash tun. The taproom is still, just the sound of steam rising and the music genre of the day blaring from the speakers. 

At 7:45, I start milling the grain. This is where things kick off—the smell of fresh malt fills the air, and the rhythm of the day settles in. Around 8:45, I begin the vorlauf, a step that clarifies the wort by gently recirculating it through the grain bed. It’s all about patience and precision here.

By 9:15, I’m moving the wort into the boil kettle. This is where things heat up—literally. By 10:45, we’re at a full rolling boil, and while that’s happening, I’m scooping out all the spent grain from the mash tun. It’s sweaty work, but it comes with the territory. 

The wort boils for an hour, until 11:45 – the aroma in the brewhouse during this part? Absolute heaven. If you’ve ever walked in during a brew, you know what I mean.

After the boil, I kick off a 20-minute whirlpool to help settle out the hop material and other solids. Then, around 12:10, it’s time for the knockout—transferring the wort into the fermenter. This is a delicate, steady process that takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. It’s a bit like handing off a baton. I’ve done my part; now it’s up to the yeast to work its magic.

Once the knockout is done at around 1:30, the cleanup begins. Flushing the system, scrubbing the kettle, and hosing down the floors. 

By 2:30, the tanks are full, the floors are clean, and the beer is on its way as doors open at 3. It’s a long day, but a satisfying one. Every pint you drink at Boom Island started with days like this—early mornings, elbow grease, and a whole lot of love for the craft.

See you in the taproom.

Cheers,
– Jared

Who We Are

Message from our Owner

Casey McCauley

Who are we? This is a question most breweries have been trying to answer over the last 2 years with the industry changing and evolving, especially in the wake of a global pandemic that shook everything up.

Evolving is a part of business; stagnation will inevitably lead to failure. Breweries are answering this question a bit differently, which is interesting to watch! Some are becoming more like restaurants, some are co-packing more, and some are exploring the new industry of THC beverages.

For us, I wanted to focus on great (award-winning) beer, entertainment, music, events, and the community. One of my favorite things to see around the brewery is people off of their phones, laughing, and enjoying conversations with their friends and family. We try to kick start that atmosphere even more by innovating in the event and entertainment space. A brewery with Karaoke? YUP! Music every week? YUP! Events that the industry hasn’t seen before? YUUUUPP!! The best membership club?? YOU BETCHA!!

Sometimes we don’t get it quite right, but that’s part of it. Not everything we do is for everyone, but we’re trying new things, innovating, and having a damn good time while doing it! For those that haven’t met me before, I’m always happy to chat if you see me in the taproom!

Why Boom Island?

A Fun Look at Boom Island’s History

Jim Barnard

Did you know that the original founders of Boom Island Brewing, Kevin and Qiuxia Welch, couldn’t obtain a loan from any bank in the city to open a brewery? They got the same question everywhere they went: “What makes you think a brewery will be successful?” That was 15-16 years ago now. They had to sell their belongings and borrow small amounts of money from friends to get Boom Island started.

The earliest days of Boom Island Brewing Company called a 700 square foot space home on N. Washington Ave in North Minneapolis. Complete with home made fermenters. We brewed in closets, literally. After acquiring our first clients, for nearly two years we delivered kegs and cases in a Corolla. Picture a Corolla with a keg in the backseat strapped in with the safety belt!

One of the first brewery maps I ever saw after we opened the taproom in 2014 had a picture of central Minnesota with 5 breweries on it. Five dots on the map. I’ve lost track of how many are open now. (I looked it up, there are 171.)

We started as Belgian-specific brewery. There was a short time in our North
Minneapolis location years ago that we didn’t have an IPA on our beer list. Although it was kind of fun to see people’s jaws drop when they found out that information, we did eventually come around and started offering IPAs again.

For many years in the North Minneapolis location we had a yearly event called “Boom Days,” in honor of Belgium National Day every July. Bands, food trucks, vendors etc. We couldn’t afford to rent a proper stage for the bands so we were forced to improvise. For years we stacked pallets and nailed large squares of plywood to the surface. It never, ever came out square so we had use shims and whatever else we could think of to level
it off.

In one year all of the pallets we had collected for weeks before the event were stolen. We had to scour NE Minneapolis to find enough pallets to create our stage and were forced to stay on site until 3 am the night before opening day to throw together a passable stage. Those were the days!