Little Thistle Brewing's namesake flower is known in Scotland as a symbol of bravery, resilience, and protection. In the year since the husband-wife duo of Dawn and Steve Finnie opened their brewery in northwest Rochester, all three of those traits have shown themselves.

Commitment to community

In just a short time, the brewery has cultivated a reputation for three things: great beer, an open door to the community, and quality entertainment.

If music emanates from the single-story former loading dock sitting on two acres of industrial property, it’s usually fronted by high-caliber vocals, thanks to the booking expertise of Audrey Robinson, booking pro, beertender, brewing assistant, and from-day-one employee.

Saturday, however, might be a different story, when patrons of any vocal ability can take a shot at being front-person for a live band. From 6 p.m to 10 p.m., the ultimate live karaoke band, Party! Party!, comes north.

(Note: this event has passed.)

“They’re out of Des Moines, and their repertoire is ridiculous,” says Robinson of Party! Party!

Karaoke will have no cover, and if trends from the brewery’s first year in business continue, you won't be singing to an empty room. The Finnies have made a concerted effort to keep their brewery community-minded, and the community has responded in kind.

The brewery’s function room, which they make available for free on weekdays and for a small fee on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays has played host to everything from kids’ first birthday parties to retirement parties, from ukulele strumming groups to a Tesla club.

“I've been amazed at how we haven’t had to work too hard filling it,” says Steve. “That’s been really humbling and that’s been really cool.”

That is a credit to Little Thistle’s ability to follow-through on its intentions. In its first year, community events like a mayoral debate, screening of Master Chef with a local talent, and more, have solidified the brewery as a place for people to gather. Well, that and the top-notch beer brewed on-site.

Confidence in their craft (beer)

During our interview with Little Thistle’s staff last Friday, a trio of men walked into the brewery and sat. One produced a bag of John Hardy's Bar-B-Q and began distributing its contents.

“This group here, they come in every Friday, they have lunch, have a couple beers, it’s great, it’s cool. You can bring any food you want here,” says Taproom Manager Ben Ankeny, who jokes that his beard is his biggest contribution to the business.

The trio consists of Jon Fritz, Kirk Nelson, and an anonymous third.

“We just came one time, and then realized how good the beer was, and so we’ve been coming back every Friday since,” says Fritz

“They have something new we’re going to try it every time. Haven’t had a bad beer here,” adds Nelson.

That’s high praise coming from a regular. For non-regulars, though, the extensive menu of more than a dozen beers might seem intimidating. Luckily, Little Thistle’s staff of beertenders, educated by the brewer as well as Taproom Manager and Certified Cicerone, Nate Gustafson, are expert guides.

There are two principal rules: One, order at the end of the bar; and two, tell your beertender what you do like, not what you don’t. Other than that?

“Usually any brewery I walk into, the first thing I try is a lager or pilsner,” says Robinson. “They’re the simplest beers, but they’re the hardest to do right. So, usually, if you walk into a brewery and the lager doesn't taste like butter popcorn then everything else should be pretty okay.”

In a possible sign of growing confidence in their craft, Little Thistle’s menu boasts five lagers. One, Doug, is named after the Douglas Trail, which the brewery sits on and will gain a bridge for bike and pedestrian traffic to in the coming year. It drinks like a domestic lite beer. Robinson’s current favorites are the Helles Yeah, a collaboration with Dangerous Man Brewing, Garth Brooks, and the Med City Beet (brewed in collaboration with Queen City Coffee & Juice). Ben’s favorites at the moment were the Wake Me Up Before You CoCo and One Sick IPA.

Their Gathering in the Wood Festival, hosted in collaboration with Forager, which went down within nine months of opening, brought 31 breweries, several of which had never been in Minnesota before. They sold 500 tickets and were able to have an intimate barrel aged beer fest. The goal, to raise Rochester’s profile in beer-tourism, accomplished.

One of the brewery’s most loved and, literally, storied beers, is Brave Woman, their Scottish ale. The legend accompanying its name helps explain some of the energy of the space the Finnies have created for their community.

At some point during the reign of Queen Victoria (October 1884), Steve’s great-great grandmother was walking a beach in fishing community in northeastern Scotland. Cries from fishermen from a sinking boat caught her ears. Seeing them, she ran straight into the choppy water. The fishermen threw her a rope. She wrapped it around her waist, hunkered down, and pulled 15 men to safety. She cooked them supper after.

One of the surviving fishermen wrote a poem about the incident, titled A Brave Woman. Local artist Cassandra Buck’s mural of the poem adorns a wall of the brewery.

Culture of collaboration

That lineage of bravely offering assistance is something Little Thistle actively works to keep alive. Wednesday through Saturday they’ve usually got food trucks booked on the spot (on Tuesdays the purchase of a pint entitles customers to a free hot dog, and dogs on the patio get a free dog treat). The trucks park for free, since they’re providing a service, but the collaboration is a kind of business-style-boat-rope, by putting food in front of customers. True Smoke BBQ, for example, now operates a brick-and-mortar location by the REC Center. It was able to keep its food in local mouths over the winter by parking at Little Thistle.

Camaraderie with other small businesses extends further than mutual benefit; the Finnies also aim to reshape the cultural landscape of their city.

“We talk about that a lot, when you think about Rochester and the vibe that was here 10 years ago, the vibe now is very different. Part of that is because people have chosen to stay here because it’s a good place to live. There’s kind of a grassroots movement that is kind of like, let's make it better,” says Dawn, name-checking businesses like Old Abe’s Coffee, The Bleu Duck, and Cameo as other places on a mission to provide cool places for Rochesterites.

Anecdotally, the plan seems to be working. Audrey and her wife moved to Rochester from Waterloo, Iowa after flipping a coin between here and St. Paul. Imagine that ten years ago.

Little Thistle beer is spreading to taps in the community, too. Brave Woman is slated to get a spot at Chester’s, and Hot Chip is going to get some, too, putting their product in contention against companies like Budweiser and Miller.

Still, the mission always comes back to community. The brewery’s neighbor, Ability Building Center, is a dry campus, but, as Steve says, “they look beyond the beer.” ABC is generous with their parking lot for some of the large event weekends that the brewery has organized, and in return, the brewery hosted their first annual Septemberfest event with ABC, which raised $30,000.

“Several of our investors don’t even drink beer, but they get that idea of it’s a community thing. I think people like coming here,” says Steve. “We’ve seen people come in here with small babies, or even babies like weeks old. And you know that those parents, they need to get out more than anything.”

After all, he says, beer isn’t just a vehicle for delivering original flavors. It can also spark conversations, inspire friendships, and provide people a friendly rope-line into their own communities.

📝 Story written Bryan Lund

📷 Photography by William Forsman

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