By Brenda Erdahl
The Covid pandemic changed the landscape for small businesses across the country. To survive, owners found themselves having to rethink formerly tried and true business models. For Dangerous Man Brewing it was a wakeup call.
“All of our eggs were really in one basket,” said Sarah Bonvallet. “It was time to get into distribution.”
About a year ago, Bonvallet and her husband Rob Miller started leasing the old Kramer Sales building at the corner of county roads 8 and 37 on the north side of Maple Lake with plans to make it into a brewery. After months of renovating and installing the necessary equipment, in March the couple started producing. With 10 employees including themselves, they are now on track to reach their goal of brewing 2,400, 31-gallon barrels of Dangerous Man Brew this year to be shipped and sold around Central Minnesota including right here in Maple Lake.