Edina
Like most collegiate hobbies and past times, it started innocently enough. Seven years ago, then college sophomore and burgeoning beer aficionado Jim Diley received a very thoughtful gift from his girlfriend: a Mr. Beer home brewing kit. With the help of co-founders Ryan Petz, Brian Hoffman and Peter Grande, this little kit would eventually outgrow a basement and two different garages to become Fulton Beer, the present-day darling of the Twin Cities’ microbrew scene. Just introduced last October, the brewery’s IPA called Sweet Child of Vine is now flying out of the taps at some 25 bars—including the Edina Grill—across the metro area.
Beginning Brewing
Fulton’s beginnings were surely humble, and its current headquarters aren’t far from where they started—literally and figuratively. Both Diley and Grande—now brothers-in-law—are proud Edina High School grads (in 2001 and 1996, respectively); Diley went on to meet Petz and present Edina resident Hoffman as undergrads at St. John’s University. Post-college, the trio decided to take up residence together in the Fulton neighborhood, just a hop skip and jump over the border from Edina into south Minneapolis.
In 2007, the founders’ passion started flowing, as did the beer, and they soon labeled their trial and error brews after their beloved neighborhood. “Home brewing is a big fad,” explained Diley. “When people brew for the first time, they’re often surprised that they can make something that actually tastes good. Not amazing, mind you, but good and drinkable. That’s when they get the idea, ‘This would be awesome if we could really do this.’”
What makes the Fulton founders different than these average joe brewers, though, is that they figured out a way to turn their dream into reality. As the friends began to put more energy into their hobby, their operation soon moved from the trio’s basement into their one-stall garage and eventually, with the building of a 10-gallon brewery, relocated to Grande’s nearby two-car garage. “Like all great upstart businesses, we doubled 100 percent in size,” he said with a smile.
Not only had Fulton crafted delicious brewing recipes for success, they also happened to have the right mix of people and know-how behind their hops and barley—Hoffman is a biologist by day, Grande is a carpenter, Diley is an attorney and Petz is a grad student at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management . “It’s like we’re the Village People. We should consider donning those costumes at tastings,” Petz suggested with more than a hint of sarcasm.
