Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Hoops.
Hi Dave, can you introduce yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Hello, I’m Dave Hoops. I am the owner of Hoops Brewing in Duluth, Minnesota. I started my career in the 1990s in the San Francisco Bay Area. I volunteered at local breweries and then attended Brewing Schools at the Seibel Institute in Chicago. Upon my return to the Bay Area, I worked at Pyramid Brewery in Berkeley, CA, as their lead brewer for 5 years. In 2000, my wife and small daughter moved to Duluth, MN, the town my wife grew up in, with the idea of having family around as we raised our children (we had a son in Duluth). At the end of 1999, when we moved, only 225 or so breweries were operating in the US, with 4 in Minnesota. One of these was Fitgers Brewhouse, which opened in 1997. I took over as the head brewer there. I stayed for 15 years brewing beer, watching the industry grow and continuing my goal of brewing great beer and educating folks as much as possible through a newspaper column I still write, tastings, and workshops on brewing, along with my entry into national beer judging mostly judging Brewers Association events like the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. In 2015, I moved into our current space in Duluth’s Canal Park and spent 2 years building and planning the brewery. We opened in 2017 as a 10,000 square foot destination beer hall featuring 25+ traditional beer styles on tap and supporting a family-friendly, community-friendly beer hall space in Duluth’s tourist district. We sell 95% of our beer on-site with a limited distribution model in our area.
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
After so many years of managing breweries, big and small, the transition to ownership seemed to be the next step. I enjoyed sourcing the brewery from Sprinkmann in Wisconsin and designing the space with my architect and contractors. As Duluth is a small, big town, I tend to be able to work with my friends, and that often makes the process easier. There are many challenges. First and foremost, I learned much about projections, EBITDA, licensing, leases, interviewing non-brewery staff, and countless other daily issues. I was naive about running a business angle and carried an employee mentality from 25 years of working for others. This served me well in building a team, and I survived COVID with no turnover and still worked with 90% of my full-time squad since opening. On the business side, the biggest struggles have been money-related, with COVID affecting breweries, and the landscape after COVID is much different than in 2019. I have learned to work alongside team members and not micromanage.
We’ve been impressed with Hoops Brewing, but for folks who might need to be more familiar, what can you share about what you do and what sets you apart?
Hoops Brewing is modeled after the Biergarten in Germany. Most cities have at least one and serve as a casual gathering place for locals and visitors alike. Family-friendly, all ages are welcome, and we include many games and weekly events like cribbage and backgammon tournaments. We are sports fans and televise most sports enthusiastically. We sponsor youth athletics and donate our event space to many nonprofits. We also host events 52 weeks a year, including weddings, birthdays, graduations, etc. We are a very traditional brewery; we do not name our beers, only assigning a number and the beer style to feature the style. We specialize in beers I was trained to make. German Lagers, Hefeweizens, West Coast style Pale Ales and IPA’s, traditional English, Belgian, and Scottish style beers, and a vast selection of fruit beers, many made with fresh cherries or blueberries. We are sometimes called the most traditional brewery in Minnesota (not meant as a compliment), but we take it as one.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
With over 30 years of brewing beer, many folks have mentored me and offered advice, training, and time. There are too many to name, but a few I want to single out are John Chamberlin formally of Pyramid Brewery, Shaun O’Sullivan of 21st Amendment, Arne Johnson of Marin Brewing Company, Tim Nelson of Earth Rider Brewery, Chris Bird (my brewing school instructor), Will Turner Open Outcry Brewing, and so many more. Our industry has always been known for its camaraderie and information sharing, which has endured chiefly to this day. I have been very fortunate to have been mentored by many of the founders of the craft brewing industry. I follow their example with the 35 and counting brewers I have hired and worked with over the years.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.hoopsbrewing.com
- Instagram: hoopsbrewing
- Facebook: hoopsbrewing
- Twitter: hoopsbrewing
Image Credits
Laura Mclean, Ingrid Johnson
