Fargo Breweries Extend Hours

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Good news for local beer drinkers. Breweries can now stay open as late as other liquor license holders in town

“It would be 9 o’clock or 9:30 and we’d have to start telling people, ‘Alright we have to close at 10.’ And we’d get a lot of funny looks,” explains Jesse Feigum, co-founder and head of nerdery at Drekker Brewing Company.

Fargo beer drinkers have something to toast.

“I think it is going to help other breweries open up in Fargo and create more of this craft beer culture that we’re trying to build here,” says Jared Hardy, co-founder of Fargo Brewing Company.

Now a refrigerator isn’t the only option for a locally brewed beer after 10 p.m. Breweries like the Fargo Brewing Company can stay open until 2 a.m.

Before this week, Fargo was the only city in North Dakota that required tap houses to close at 10 p.m. The City Commission decided to change that for homegrown brewers.

“Most of our crowd wants high quality not quantity. They’re not pounding drinks. They want to experience a good craft beer,” Feigum says.

But just because these breweries can stay open later doesn’t mean they will.

“Our staff room is typically staffed by people that have been here all day working in the brew house or in the cellar so by 10 o’clock a lot of them are ready to go home. But for the occasional event or private event that we do where they do want to stay later we’ll be able to offer that now,” Hardy says.

But regardless, this new law allows more people to enjoy an ice cold local beer.

Drekker will start trying out the longer hours this weekend. They will be open until midnight.

Fargo Brewing will extend hours on special occasions for now.