A typical week at the Brau Brothers Brewing Company in Lucan is divided into thirds: two days brewing, two days bottling, and two days cleaning up for the next batch.

“Brewing days are usually 18 hour days. We start at 3 a.m., and do two batches a day,” amounting to about 2,000 gallons per week, said co-founder Dustin Brau.

It all began years ago, when Dustin started brewing beers on his own, as a hobby. 

“You can tell the home brewers by the way their cars are parked on the street,” he said. “Their garages are full of tanks and copper tubing.”

Dustin and his wife Mary started the Brauhaus in Lucan about 10 years ago, after Dustin studied restaurant administration at Southwest State University.

“It snowballed from there,” he said. “Mary and I started brewing at the Brauhaus about 10 years ago. We brewed for about five years or so, small batches of four kegs at a time. We were able to get direct feedback from our customers about what they liked and didn’t. 

“And if we had a bad batch, it wasn’t a big deal to throw it out and start over.  We could try a lot of things, and bring our experience here.

“It was half-plan, half-dream to have a brewery. We had to find a reason for people to drive out to Lucan. We needed a draw. Beer was the draw, but food was the business.”

Dustin says the location actually works to the brewery’s advantage.

“People think Lucan is out in the middle of nowhere, but it’s actually great. We’re centrally located,” not just between a variety of small regional towns, but between the Twin Cities and Sioux Falls.

“We’re trying to give Lucan an identity as a beer town,” Dustin said, pointing out Milwaukee and Fort Collins, Colorado, as other towns known for their breweries.

 “When we started, the craft beer demographic was mostly male, aged 50-55. Many of them had served overseas in the military, and had already tried dark German and Belgian beers.

“Today the fastest growing demographic is women, aged 21-30.

“Beer is an affordable luxury. A good bottle of wine costs $60, but the best beers are $10 for a six pack. You can get real good quality for $7.99.”

Dustin sold the Brauhaus last year to concentrate on the brewery with his dad and brothers.

“We outgrew that little system we had at the Brauhaus, and my brothers Brady and Trevor joined us in early 2006. Dad is a jack-of-all-trades. He has a good sense of how to maintain the equipment, and a fundamental knowledge of the brewing process.

We moved our operations out here, and started distributing our first beers later that summer.”

The Braus moved into an unused cold storage building on the east side of Lucan.

“We self-distributed for a year; a lot of retailers liked dealing directly with a brewery,” said Dustin. “At one point we had 550 retail accounts in Minnesota. We couldn’t give as good a service as a full-time distributor.” 

Currently, Brau Brothers Brewery distributes its products among eight distributors across five states.

Brau Brothers Brewing Company currently brews five year-round beers, with some seasonal beers thrown in.

“This year, we hope to do a Christmas brew. It’s an oak-aged stout. We’re only making 150 cases of it,” Dustin said.

The Braus own their own hop yard; the 2.5 acres supply up to 20 percent of their yearly needs. They also grow about three acres of barley for their specialty batches. 

“We’re only in our second year of growing our own hops, so we’re still in the learning stage,” Dustin said. 

Even the company’s waste products are useful. The waste water has organic materials that make for great fertilizer. While the Gazette visited Tuesday, Dale sprayed several hundred gallons of waste water on the hop fields for next year.

Where does Brau Brothers Brewery hope to go from here?

“In the last year, we’ve gone to having to struggle to keep up with demand,” Dustin said. “We’re at about half-capacity now. We’d love to be at full-capacity, and see what comes next.”