Big Wood Brewery is moving its taps from White Bear Lake to Vadnais Heights later this year.
Jason Medvec, owner of Big Wood Brewery, purchased the property at 3429 Centerville Road, known as “Garceau’s Corner,” in 2021.
“This is a famous corner, and it’s home to the oldest two buildings and first homestead in Vadnais Heights,” Medvec said. “We ran out of space in 2018 at the White Bear location. We love White Bear, and it’s a great community, but we can’t make any more beer.”
Medvec and his crew are excited about the new location, which sits on approximately 3.67 acres.
“We’re going to have a lot more room for activities with the big outdoor space,” Medvec said. “The building portion here is about three times the size of our existing location. We have a view of Lake Vadnais across the street, and the sunsets are just gorgeous.”
The new location will have 16 beers or seltzers on tap, a more extensive patio, a bonfire pit and live music.
“We’re going to have great music,” Medvec said. “It’s going to be top-notch, and it’s going to be the best in the area.”
Jamey Worley, Big Wood’s vice president, said the new building will have an event center for weddings, parties and corporate and private events.
“The events that we wanted to do at White Bear we can now do here,” Worley said. “The taproom is so small, and it really did limit our capacity for the things we really wanted to do. We were able to be successful to a certain degree, but we always were a bit handcuffed just by our indoor space size and then our outdoor space was owned by the city.”
Master brewer Ty Mcbee said the brewery is in a great location.
“By moving 10 or 15 minutes closer to the cities, our home turf is within a 20-mile circle of cities like Little Canada, North St. Paul, Maplewood, Roseville, Shoreview and even Hugo,” Mcbee said.
Medvec said the White Bear Lake location will remain open until the opening in Vadnais Heights. “We would like to open on New Year’s Eve,” Worley said.
Big Wood Brewery’s first event will be Oktimberfest, from Sept. 29-Oct. 1. Worley said it will be held outdoors at the Vadnais Heights site. Future events planned include a car show, a swap meet and a farmers market in the parking lot. “We want to do more community centered events like outdoor movie nights,” Worley said.
“We’re really excited to be moving,” Medvec said. “I think this is a great location for us and for our customers to come to relax and drink a cold beer.”
