Forager Brewery Fosters an Inclusive Community (And Serves Great Beer)

Forager Brewery in Rochester has won enough awards to fill a couple of trophy cases. To name a couple, it was named the top brewery in Minnesota on The Takeout’s “Best Brewery in Every State” list, and its vanilla bean double stout, Nillerzzzzz, has been named the top-rated beer in Minnesota by VinePair for five years straight. Its taproom also boasts delicious food, live music and curated art exhibitions. 

None of those things are founder/CEO Annie Henderson’s favorite thing about Forager, though. 

“My favorite thing is, we are extremely inclusive, and the people that work there are so kind,” Henderson says. “I would go to bat for everyone that works there. They’re kind, thoughtful humans that I want to spend my time with, and I think that’s so important.”

Those kind, thoughtful humans are not only Henderson’s favorite part of Forager, but they also receive more praise from customers than anything else the brewery offers, she says. Those same customers, in turn, are also instrumental in forming Forager’s inclusive culture.

“We hosted our first drag show on Father’s Day,” Henderson recalls. “This is also like, let’s say nine years ago, where people were a little bit more surprised, I think, about a drag show in Rochester.”

“I love it that the people that come to Forager are also very like-minded and so inclusive,” Henderson continues. “You might not have planned on coming to a drag show, but you happen to come, and there were tickets available, and you’re like, ‘Yeah, that’d be cool.’”

In addition to drag shows, Forager hosts live music five nights per week (six if you count the DJ on Sunday nights), as well as open mic and jazz jam nights one per month. It also hosts a year-round visual art gallery, a monthly art social and two annual art fairs.

A unique part of Forager’s art offering is its CSA boxes, pioneered by its in-house art coordinator, Cassandra Buck. If that rings a bell, it may be because Forager’s CSA, community-supported art, uses a similar model to another CSA, community-supported agriculture.

“It was like back in the day when you got like a box of vegetables … But then like a lot of art organizations use it as basically an art box,” Henderson says. “So you get different things that you might not otherwise have bought that are handcrafted. We have a beer in there, there might be a CD in there from a local musician or artwork from a local artist. And then we have like a little pick-up party around it.”

Those beers — lest they be forgotten in an article about a brewery — are as numerous as they are well-regarded. Besides Nillerzzzzz, which will return to the menu on May 16, Forager offers a rotating tap list that includes, at time of writing, dozens of options ranging from the Twiated Zeig: Pineapple Upside Down Cake fruited sour to the Pudding Goggles imperial porter.

The return of Nillerzzzzz heralds one of Forager’s two big annual celebrations (which also include the aforementioned art fairs). The other is ForagerFest, its anniversary celebration in September.

Forager stands alone as Rochester’s only brew pub, meaning it has both a brewery and a full kitchen. Their food menu includes pizzas, soup, salad, sandwiches, tacos, curry and rice noodles. 

Forager isn’t alone, however, in its mission to serve good beer and good vibes in Rochester. Bill Von Bank, vice president of marketing & communications at Experience Rochester, says that all five breweries in Rochester — Kinney Creek Brewery, LTS Brewing Company, Little Thistle Brewing and Thesis Beer Project, alongside Forager — have a reputation for inclusivity.

Those breweries support not only their communities, but each other, too. 

“We’re all friends, we all work together in the same industry,” Henderson says. “We support each other. We were just at Thesis listening to live music on Friday night with Steve from Little Thistle. We spend a lot of time supporting each other in the industry. And so I do think it is a really cool, non-competitive thing that Rochester has going on.”

Whether it’s coming from employees, customers or even competitors, the culture of support and inclusivity around Forager Brewery and Rochester’s brewery scene in general runs deep. And yes, the beer is good, too.

You can learn more about Forager and check out its menu at foragerbrewery.com.