AI-assisted summary Beaver Island Brewing in St. Cloud is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.

The brewery will host a July 12 event to celebrate, with a car show, live music, food, games and giveaways.

Beaver Island has both expanded and faced downsizing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but remains committed to supporting the local community.

One of St. Cloud’s breweries is celebrating a decade in business this year.

Beaver Island Brewing will be celebrating its 10th anniversary on July 12, with an all-day celebration at the downtown brewery, including games, food and giveaways.

“It’ll be kind of fun to celebrate 10 years and how it’s all gone and started, and extensive, crazy growth,” co-founder Matt Studer said.

Brewery award: Pantown Brewing wins 2025 World Beer Cup gold medal for coffee ale

The 10th anniversary celebration will start at 10 a.m. with a car show and coffee from a local coffee shop, followed later in the day by live music from local musicians, including Minnesota Grateful Dead tribute band China Rider, and food from Up in Smoke BBQ’s food truck.

Beaver Island will host games, giveaways and a meat and beer raffle, Studer said, and will offer $5 micheladas, the brewery’s take on a bloody Mary beer, as well as its special 10th anniversary beer “kirsche zehn,” or cherry 10, beer.

Beaver Island started a decade ago. Studer had played with brewing beer in his basement and on his own stove at home.

Studer and fellow co-founder Nick Barth were soon joined by Chris Laumb to help grow the business, which opened its taproom in 2015. Beaver Island then grew from its 4-beer taproom to serving 20 beers on tap and adding its 10,000-square-foot production facility in 2017, allowing it to work with 27 distributers across four states.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, which Studer said completely changed the brewery, as they were forced to downsize and get creative with how to move forward.

“Our business model changed from brewing beer and marketing it out to multiple states, and distribution and growth, to filling out applications for grants and figuring out how you can dig out and keep the business alive, all while being shut down the entire time,” Studer said.

Since then, the brewery has cut back on distribution to focus on the local side of the business. The team has also been learning how to navigate a post-pandemic business with a scaled-down team, which Studer said can be harder than some people realize.

The brewery continues to develop fun flavors, from IPAs to stouts. Some unique brews include Blueberry Ripple, Tangerine Wheat, Peanut Butter Sweet Miss Stout and Muggsy’s Coffee Cream Ale.

Though it has been a tiring process, Studer said his love of beer and the brewery’s community helps him keep going, and that it has been a good learning opportunity.

“It has been humbling to get back to the basics of it and the beginnings of where it began, back to just the tap room, and doing it on a lot smaller scale,” he said.

Despite some of the stresses of the job, Studer said he loves what he does, and the brewery feels like a family, with many regulars.

“There’s a lot of people that come into this taproom that you can almost set your watch by, you know the days they’re gonna come,” he said. “Everybody knows their names, they come in, they all share their week … it all just is enjoyed and discussed over a pint of beer.”

Beaver Island also gets involved in the community through its Tending for a Cause fundraisers every other Wednesday, which raise money for a local nonprofit. The bar also hosts trivia, comedy, live music and other events.

This year has provided a good chance to reflect on the business so far, which Studer said has been “a hell of a ride.” In the coming years, he said he hopes the brewery can continue to be a go-to spot for people to both try new beers and find old favorites

“It’s fun and it’s rewarding, and I enjoy what I do; I enjoy the people that come in here,” he said. “I enjoy the smiles on their faces when they’re drinking the beers that we create, just all the past relationships that we’ve built … and it all comes back to the love of beer.”

Teagan King covers business and development for the St. Cloud Times. She can be reached at teking@gannett.com.