Flat Earth Brewing Company

Located on the East Side of St Paul is Brewery unlike any other. Located in the Historic Hamm’s Brewery is Flat Earth Brewing. You can grab a growler to go or visit the taproom for a choice of 10 different beers on tap, they even have root beer & ginger ale. I stopped on a Saturday afternoon and the Guys behind the bar are very helpful and knowledgeable. I had a pint of the Angry Planet… a delicious american pale ale. I look forward to my next visit to Flat Earth.

Fun place to hang out and try new beers. The atmosphere is very relaxed. The folks who work there are friendly. Definitely a cool place to check out.
The actual location is sort of off the beaten path. Look for the signs to go between the buildings and you’ll see the brewery.

Pretty decent beer. The coffee stout on nitro is great for stout lovers. The IPA (usually what I drink) is too coppery for my tastes (similar in my opinion to a Nordeast). The exterior of the building is awesome, unique & creates a cool environment. The interior of the taproom is sadly not awesome. The lighting is poor and creates a sadly dingy atmosphere. The walls are sparsely decorated & they use patio furniture for seating. Has good potential, but isn’t living up to it now.

I love and support the fact that they took a run down area and are making great improvements at breathing some beauty and business into it!!! The building is fabulous although it still does have that musty smell of an old wet basement. They need to get some IONIZERs or air flow going on in there to dry it out and make it smell neutral. Once i got past that initial adjustment – I had a grand old time grabbing a beer and chinchillin with some buddies and playing Jenga. The staff were friendly (if not a little inebriated) but let’s all raise a glass to quality control!!! If you have not been here — certainly go check it out!

I love history, I love locally based products, and I love beer. And I found all of those things at Flat Earth Brewing Company. This place is great, situated right in the middle of the old Hamm’s Brewery Complex. Talk about history, it is so cool to walk into the large brick expanse.
I am glad that this place wasn’t torn down and that St. Paul has found a new use for the structure. And Holy Cow is the beer good! They always have something new and different that they try out and it is always good. The last time I was in I had the Holiday Porter; I was tempted to bring a growler home. Next time when I am not with a work group, I will! Their classics are also delicious. And at about $ 4-​$ 5 a glass for freshly brewed beer, the price is pretty great too.
This place is a great opportunity to come with friends and unwind from a busy day and relax with a good beer. Pure and simple.

Don’t be fooled by the bar you see when you come in That’s for growlers only. The Taproom area is hidden with a barely legible sign that points to the back. They were friendly but not super helpful in choosing a beer & they didn’t seem to have a description list.

I went here once before their tap room opened and there was a gentleman that helped us. He gave us a sample of all their beers that were offered since we couldn’t buy any pints. I don’t remember what their stout was called at the time but it was the best coffee stout I’ve ever had. It was smooth and really flavorful.
I went here again for their tap room opening and had a great time. Their bar was one long bar and service was still great even though there were lots of people. Everyone working took their time answering my questions and giving samples. I really admired that because some people have a hard time at bars with the busy business and tend to ignore others.
During the tap room opening, they had a coconut porter that so delicious. The best porter I’ve ever had! I’m not just saying this, the coconut flavor was prominent, not sweet or over powering and the texture was smooth, with a slight thickness. I would highly recommend flat earth to anyone that is willing to give beer a try or that already loves beer. I invited a lot of my friends to the tap room opening, even the ones that don’t normally drink beer and everyone found something they loved. That’s when you know you’re at a great brewery!

Hum, first time at flat earth and perhaps they were having an off day but for a new brewery being open for the second Saturday customer service may need to be looked at. Not many tables to choose drone (four total) for the size. Lighting is all natural and with some accent lighting it could bring a little more warmth. No help describing beers just felt like they wanted the order so they could be done with you.

Cool idea for a taproom location. They didn’t quite nail it in my experience of many other Minnesota breweries. Dark cold uninviting atmosphere. When we came it was shortly after their opening. The bartender was semi-​rude. No seats at the bar. Plastic cups. Their coffee stout must have been pouring foamy so they had poured into a pitcher who knows how long ago and were serving it that way. It was about 10 degrees warmer than the beer coming straight off the taps and probably getting stale and oxidized. The tender also stuck the cups directly into the faucets which is a bartender no no. I appreciate breweries who exercise a little more care into the presentation of their product.

I’ve been on a lot of brewery tours in my life, and this one by far was the best. First, the location — easy to get to off 94 and 35E in the Payne-​Phalen neighborhood of St Paul. Parking is right in front of the doors of the brewery in the half paved/​half gravel lot. Inside is a large room with a few tables and a bar to the right which sells growlers of the Flat Earth beers, and also serves as tour check in. Tours are free, but require a donation of a non-​perishable food item per person. We were then taken to another room which housed the «bar». As other reviewers have said, there are no permanent taps at the bar (aside from a few that are in a picnic cooler); most of the beer is poured from growlers that are filled in yet another room. All of the samples are free, and you can try as many as you like. They had about 12 beers on the list, and you get about a 4oz pour of each. They had the stapes: IPA, APA, Porter, Stout, as well as some interesting brews, like a Belgian with apricot that tasted like starbursts. Now the tour itself — amazing. The tour guide was the owner of the brewery, not some college kid working a part time job. He explained the history of the building (of which there was quite a bit) and then a very good description of the brewing process, down to little details, like the fact the fermentation process doesn’t create all the carbonation of the beer; that it needs to be force carbonated. No other breweries explain that. The overall atmosphere was okay, the bar area was a little cramped given all the space they have in the main room, but we were still able to find a place to stand and get served within a minute. They said they’re planning on opening an outdoor beer garden in the fall, so that will be really cool. Growlers ranged in price from $ 11 – 20 depending on ABV; a deposit would be $ 7 but I had an old growler that they exchanged for a brand new, filled one. I can see myself coming back once a month to sample new beers and fill a growler. This place is going to be great for the area, I hope they are successful!

Great brewery that’s definitely going to get more popular once the official tap room opens in April 2015. They are eventually planning on blowing out a wall to make a patio.
Since the tap room wasn’t open, they were selling growlers and sampling the beer at the brewery. Very generous samples and the bartenders/​staff were awesome. I really enjoyed most of the beers I tried — they are doing some good stuff.
The location is tucked inside the gorgeous renovated Hamm’s brewery. I highly recommend the tour — it’s pretty efficient and entertaining — and you are encouraged to drink during the tour. They will give you a nice shortened history of the buildings during the tour.

I love craft beer and I love seeing historic buildings find new life. Flat Earth Brewing Company is a prime example of both. I went here with my husband and in-​laws, and we had a great time. The exterior of the building is original brick, and is beautiful if somewhat run down. Other reviews mentioned feeling unsafe, but I didn’t get that vibe.
First, the beer. The taproom doesn’t presently have taps. Instead, they pour samples from growlers that were filled from kegs in the back. They have a wide variety of offerings, and they weren’t shy about letting us taste as many as we wanted. Some standouts were the Belgian tripel, the double chocolate stout, and the coconut stout. We ended up buying growlers of the tripel and coconut stout. Other choices included an IPA, an American pale ale, a lager, and a coffee porter.
Next, the history. We wandered to the back to see the brewing equipment, and ended up talking to the owner. The place is most recognizable as the old Hamm’s brewery, but we learned that Flat Earth is actually the seventh brewery to occupy the site. The area used by Flat Earth is the oldest part of the site, and it sat unused for decades. The taproom is strewn with pictures of the construction process, as they cleaned it out, installed modern infrastructure, and painted it. This is truly a passion project.
Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. Anyone with an interest in history and craft beer will feel right at home.

I ventured north to my homeland of Minnesota to celebrate my birthday this last Saturday. My original plans had been to tour Surly Brewing, but that was shot down on account of them being closed while they open their new location. I initially panicked, before a friend recommend this place. Providence, it would seem, was looking out for me that day, because despite the weather fighting us on our trek north, we were provided an excellent experience.
Flat Earth is located in the old Hamms brewery just off of Payne Ave in St Paul, and the ambiance shows it. A big brick, steel, wood, and concrete establishment, it just drips with character, like walking into something from a noir film. My kind of place. Though they clearly are still growing to fill out all the space (It’s recently opened, and there’s still work being done.)
We managed to get into the last tour of the day (courtesy of a donation of canned goods), and were led through the rooms currently in use for the brewing, as well as one dedicated to the history of the building itself and the company. Informative and fun. Definitely recommend it. We also got to sample some of the newer projects!
Having completed the tour (Short, but oh so sweet) we returned to the main area to taste more of their brew. There was a large table full of brewery merchandise (shirts, glasses, growlers, etc.), and a bar with a large glass-​front fridge behind it, populated by a number of the staff busily pouring out samples of their products. An interesting note, I must add, was that they only served samples (apparently something regarding tapping), but the samples are free, and you pretty much sit there knocking back as many as you’d like. By the end of our visit, I had sampled every beer they still had left, as well as their ginger-​ale and root beer. My tastes for beer tend to run to the heartier end of things (stouts, porters, belgians, etc) and while the bulk of American craft brewers focus obnoxiously on pale ales (Something I only enjoy from time to time), Flat Earth actually made sure to have a wide range of tastes. Of particular note, the Black Helicopter coffee stout stands up among the greatest coffee stouts I’ve drank (outdone only by the Stone Xocoveza Mocha stout, and the greatest of all coffee beers, Mikeller’s Beer Geek Brunch Weasel) And even given my tendency to avoid pale ales, I found theirs delicious and refreshing (You could taste more than just grapefruit and pine!)
The growler prices were extremely reasonable (starting around $ 10 for their staples, getting up to $ 20 for their more exotic seasonals, along with a $ 7 deposit on the growler, which of course is waived if you bring your empty growler back for a refill). and I walked out of the brewery with a pint glass and a growler full of their amazing Ovni bierre de garde.
A must stop for any beer enthusiast out there!

First of all, you get all the FREE samples you want, plus they have their pale ale and root beer on self-​serve TAP for free. It’s like a drinking fountain spewing beer and root beer – oh, yes! Their S’mores porter was my favorite, which I tried during my first visit in the summer. Sadly they didn’t have it when the BF and I went back last weekend, something to do with it being so popular at the State Fair. :(We bike to a lot of breweries in the MSP area and they were super nice to let us house our bikes inside while we partook in the beerness. They will crack open any beer you want to try and won’t pressure you into purchasing anything. Of course, you can purchase a growler or other items they have for sale, like t-​shirts, tap handles, pint glasses, etc. We did buy a growler and were pleasantly surprised to see that the text they put on the back of it is a tribute to Full Metal Jacket – how awesome is that?! The people are so friendly and it’s an amazing building. Do yourself a favor and stop in to check it out!

If you’d like to witness a vision turned into reality, see it here in person. Flat Earth Brewery Owner is Electric, and Perfect Host. By chance I stopped in to meet a friend for a chat. Now it’s a turned a memorable moment. Seeing the owner passionate about serving a great product and bringing back to life the Historic Hamm’s Brewery through his Hospitality and Historical knowledge. This business will improve the lives of every St. Paul resident by creating dozens of jobs and economic stimulus the neighborhood needs. Last time I checked this was a sad look at our past Hamm’s Glory, and as I sit here taking a sip of Flat Earth IPA I know this is the beginning of a brighter future for East St. Paul

I’m an architecture whore. I fawn over the interesting ceilings and old brick. New and shiny is not my gig and this place was so visually appealing I could plan a wedding here. But, I won’t because I’d never make it through the ceremony sober. The doors they put in this building totally give me a boner, though.
I wasn’t clear on whether the guy behind the bar was an employee or a volunteer but he was very knowledgeable about the business, the beer and the building. He was also very pleasant to talk to and dished up my free samples with a smile. The other staff I talked to, if only shortly, were nice as well.
What warms my heart about this place is the shelves near the front for food donations and that their tips are donated as well. It’s a good vibe and a good feeling purchasing their products when you can see they care about their community.
I will say that when we pulled into the brewery, the location gave me the heebies. It’s tucked away in a little alley surrounded by graffiti and dilapidated buildings. It was a little creepy but the more I think about it and it’s pure rawness, the more I love it. I could spend a whole day here with my camera and some pepper spray.
For now, I’m be doling out 4 stars and hopefully in the future I can enjoy their tap room and I could give them 5 stars.

I’ve been back a couple more times and bought a growler during one of these visits. The word is getting around and the taproom is getting busier, which makes me happy. They’re billing themselves as «St. Paul’s Brewery». I like this and I want to support it, so I’ll go back.

Just went on the Saturday tour, and the new location in the old Hamm’s Brewery is AWESOME! Great beer (free samples!!) and a fantastic staff. They had games for kids, and allow well-​behaved dogs. They have ambition plans for the location, and I’m excited to see what the future will hold for them. Did somebody say Flat Earth Music Festival?

I hope they get a taproom license soon but it is great to see the old Hamm’s/Stroh’s being reused after all these years. I definitely like the Monkey Business porter!