Finnegans is leaving its East Town Minneapolis taproom at the end of August and moving to Fulton Brewing's North Loop location as part of a residency and production partnership.
Finnegans Founder, CEO, and "Rambunctious Social Entrepreneur" Jacquie Berglund announced the partnership on Tuesday.
"I think it's a really creative collaboration that we put together with the fabulous people at Fulton," Berglund told WCCO Radio. "I think for us it's reimagining the brand and the next chapter."
Finnegans' taproom officially closes on August 31st. Mosaic, which has a third-floor event space in the same building as Finnegans' taproom, will expand their event space to the first and second floors.
As for Finnegans, their beer production will take place at Fulton Brewing's facility in northeast Minneapolis with the beer available on draft and sold to-go at Fulton's taproom.
"Downtown has been a little bit of a different place from when we opened the brewery in 2018," added Berglund. "We found ourselves in a challenging time to make our business model work, when our mission is to have a self-sustaining business model for supporting social business activities. It's been increasingly challenged to make that model work."
Berglund said she reached out to Fulton CEO Ryan Petz and after a few pints, had developed a plan to move forward.
“We love FINNEGANS and the incredibly positive impact they have made on our community,” Petz said in a news release. “We are honored to be able to produce and soon offer FINNEGANS at our taproom for fans of both our brands. We see this as a positive evolution for the craft beer scene in Minneapolis.”
Throughout the years, Finnegans has focused on its mission of turning beer into food by supporting food shelves in Minneapolis and beyond. Those efforts have resulted in a total overall impact of over $2 million.
"We have two like-minded brands and people, they're very community oriented," Berglund said. "Our beer styles are very complimentary, so it's not like we make all the stuff that competes with them. Our sales cycles are complimentary, too. Typically the first quarter is the worst beer quarter of the year, well, that's Finnegans' best quarter because of St. Patrick's Day. We have different strengths that we bring to the partnership."
Finnegans and Fulton also plan to collaborate on events, including Finnegans' long-running St. Patrick's Day celebration.
As part of the transition, Finnegans will donate 50 cents per pint sold in their taproom through the end of August to the Finnegans Community Fund.