USA, MN: One of Minneapolis' largest churches wants to build a brewery

One of Minneapolis' largest churches wants to build a brewery and coffee house across from its main sanctuary in the Lynnhurst neighborhood, Axios reported on July 24.

While a church building a brewery is almost unheard of, Mount Olivet Lutheran senior pastor David Lose told Axios he came up with the idea as a way to curtail isolation that started during the pandemic and has lingered.

Lose noted that Martin Luther was a beer drinker, as was the more strict reformer John Calvin.

"It's deep in the Lutheran tradition," said Lose, a home brewer who also stressed that the brewery would serve customers responsibly.

The preliminary plans, still a work in progress with architecture firm HGA, call for tearing down the church's original 1700 Chapel along 50th Street and constructing a new, two-level building with a brewery on one side, a coffee house on the other and meeting rooms on a mezzanine level.

It would also have a patio facing Lynnhurst Park, a large video board inside with volunteer opportunities, and an open concept design with no booths to encourage people to interact.

The building would be owned by an independent nonprofit, with income given back to the community, Lose said. The nonprofit would hire a brewmaster and someone with coffee house experience to run those ventures.

Lose said he started the process wanting to preserve the rarely used 87-year-old chapel where Mount Olivet started, but when he explored bids he discovered it would cost about the same as building new.

Plus, the old building is drafty and was built using wooden foundations in a soggy area not far from Minnehaha Creek. He hopes to salvage as much limestone, stained glass and wooden pews as possible from the chapel for the new building.

First Mount Olivet will need approval from the Historic Preservation Commission to demolish the chapel and then it will need a rezoning of the property. Plans presented at a neighborhood meeting were received positively, Lose said.

"What we've said across the board is, if the community doesn't love it or doesn't want it, I don't want to do it," he said.

The earliest construction would start would be late 2026 or early 2027.