It’s been a long haul, but Brennan and Jessica Rosenow’s brew pub dream is about to become reality.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances — and there have been some of those over the past couple years — Half Bushel Brewing plans to open its doors this week in downtown Litchfield. The novelty of a local brewery, in addition to a new business on main street has stoked enthusiasm in the public, as well as for the new owners.
“I think it will be an attraction, which will be nice,” Brennan Rosenow said. “We’re excited.”
The initial plan is to be open from mid-afternoon to evening Thursday through Sunday, but adjustments could be made in response to demand, the Rosenows said. Along with 10 taps of a variety of local brews, Half Bushel Brewing has a kitchen where a limited menu including made-from-scratch pizzas, garlic bread and other items will be made.
The brewery is something that’s been, well, brewing for quite some time.
Brennan Rosenow grew up north of Litchfield and graduated in 2010 from Litchfield High School before heading off to Purdue University to earn a degree in engineering.
He says he was “bouncing around the Midwest for a couple of years” before he and Jessica decided to pursue a dream inspired by college experiences.
“I learned to brew in college,” Brennan explained. “A few of my fraternity brothers were really into it.”
“And we’ve always liked the brewery vibe, brewery crowd,” Jessica said, explaining that’s where the couple met. “It’s always been kind of at the center of our relationship. Any date night was at a brewery … and just something that we liked — the crowd, the vibe.”
Brennan’s dream was stoked further during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when many businesses shut down or went to remote work. His position as an engineer went remote, and his friend, who owns a brewery in Iowa City, Iowa, invited him to spend some time there.
“They had put in a canning line,” Brennan said. “He called me up (for his engineering expertise). We had both done a lot of process work together, and he’s like, this was kind of my wheelhouse.”
He spent the better part of a week there, observing and offering ideas to improve the canning line process. But as he watched operations from behind the scenes, Rosenow was convinced.
“I was like, ‘OK, yeah, I could do this,’” he said.
And they began to work in earnest on having their own brewery. The couple purchased brewing equipment as they saw it come up for sale. Most of the brewing equipment was purchased from Pitchfork Brewing in Hudson, Wisconsin, whose owners built a new building for their operation and invested in new equipment.
“So our system is their old system,” Rosenow said.
With family still in Litchfield, the couple thought the area might be the right spot for their dream brewery, and they began looking for the right place to put it. They toured a few buildings on main street before the former Pizza Ranch building at the corner of Sibley Avenue and Second Street West came up for sale.
“We weighed our options, and went with this one,” Brennan said of their purchase in December 2020.
Opening a niche business like a brewery in a town with population less than 7,000, on a main street that has struggled at times — and now, additionally, in the throes of a pandemic recovery — might seem daunting. The Rosenows don’t necessarily disagree, but they also didn’t let that deter them from their dream.
“Every business is a gamble, right,” Brennan said. “You’ve got to let water find its level, I guess, is what I’m looking for. Everywhere has got its ups and downs, and you pick the ones you’re comfortable fighting, and that’s how we ended up here.”
It’s been a whirlwind of work and planning ever since — some expected, much that wasn’t expected, the Rosenows said.
Some of the unexpected actually had positive influences, like the fact they could move back to Litchfield to begin remodeling the building that would be home to Half Bushel Brewing.
“That’s part of how COVID helped, as well, because I could work remote full-time, which enabled us to move back here,” said Jessica, director of data and analytics for an insure-tech startup. “Otherwise, my career would not be feasible in Litchfield.”
Though they knew it would take a lot of work, Brennan said, getting Half Bushel Brewing up and running was an enormous undertaking that always seemed to have at least one more hurdle to overcome — from remodeling the building, to acquiring equipment, to meeting licensing requirements.
“You know, there are just a lot of legal hoops to jump through in any alcohol-related business,” he said. “And I think I especially underestimated how much time a lot of those departments and forms and approvals would take. So, you’re kind at these steps where you can’t move on until you get approval and kind of ripping your hair out waiting for one form. But, there’s the government, right?”
They eventually satisfied all of those legal requirements, as well as their own expectations, to the point where the Rosenows had what they called a “soft opening” on a Saturday afternoon in late February. It was a kind of dress rehearsal, they said, allowing them to gauge how many employees they might need and to fine-tune processes for serving customers.
Lightly publicized via social media, the soft opening drew a large crowd of locals curious about the business whose sign they’d seen on the outside of the building for several weeks already. In addition, some patrons arrived from further-flung locales, including Jessica’s boss from Ohio, as well as some coworkers from the Twin Cities.
“A lot of people were excited that we’re in town,” Brennan said. “Kind of a different vibe than anything else in the area right now. We have a lot of people from out of town show up.
“People that just love breweries and keep their eye out for new ones that are opening, kind of like us,” Jessica said.
The soft opening saw eight of their 10 taps open, but Brennan — who’s the brewer of the couple — expects he’ll brew 30 to 40 different styles, many of them seasonal. For the February soft opening, more than half the menu board featured dark beers — two stouts, a black IPA and a brown ale. As spring approaches, lighter fare will be featured more heavily, he said.
“So, 10 (beers) at a time, but probably 30 to 40 different styles,” Brennan said. “It’s just economics, seeing what sells.”
The micro brewery industry has taken off, with options throughout the region, including breweries in Hutchinson and Glencoe, in addition to the St. Cloud and Twin Cities metropolitan area. The Rosenows don’t see that as competition or reason for concern, but instead proof of the, pardon the pun, thirst for the brewery vibe.
“We’re still at the rising tide lifts all boats kind of mentality,” Brennan said as he launches into a brief history of brewing.
Prior to Prohibition, the United States had almost 1,000 breweries, he said. The number dropped to fewer than 30 during Prohibition. Last year, breweries numbered in the neighborhood of 12,000.
“Relative to population, we’re kind of back to where we were pre-prohibition as a country,” he said. “I think a lot of people that don’t understand that are saying, ‘there’s breweries everywhere.’ It’s like, well, there used to be, too.”
They look forward to being part of that new generation, both as a brew pub and as small-town businesspeople.
