Knowing Your Neighbor: Lake Superior Brewing

DULUTH, Minn. — After purchasing Lake Superior Brewing back in 2020, Sarah and Seth Maxim chipped away at building their new vision for the brewery now located in the East Lakeside Neighborhood.  After nearly three years of renovations and dealing with supply chain issues, Lake Superior Brewing finally started serving beer this summer.

“We started brewing in May. We tapped our first beers in July, and obviously you make a beer, and then you make another beer. So it’s been, over the last few months where our tap list has gone from a couple beers to, I think we have eight beers tapped now,” said Lake Superior Brewing owner Sarah Maxim.

While the tap list isn’t expected to have more than 10 beers, it will have a mix of the more familiar beers but also some new recipes.

“We wanted to kind of preserve the best things Lake Superior Brewing did. So you can find Kayak Kolsch and the infamous Sir Duluth Oatmeal Stout on the menu. The plan is to rotate through some of the flagship and more well-known Lake Superior Brewing beers kind of as rotations, but keep the mainstays on,” said Maxim.

Beer isn’t the Maxim’s only passion. Having spent many years in the food industry and also having two small children, they also wanted to include a restaurant side of the business that was family friendly.

“We really enjoy creating and eating and serving delicious things, so this felt, going the brewpub direction felt more of something that we wanted to do and more passion focused than the manufacture side of it. We’re kind of that mix of comfort food, but foodie food. If you want to come in and have a burger and a beer, great. If you want to come in and have champagne and oysters, we gotcha,” said Maxim.

Every menu item and what is on tap is carefully selected to be sure they match well together.

“We’ve been very intentional about trying to create a beverage program that goes well with our food. That is intentional, that is really quality, and that is very much craft,” said Maxim.

Not to be forgotten is Lake Superior Brewing’s Brew-Tel, three vacation rentals just steps away from the Brewpub.

“We do have our ‘Brew-Tel piece. We have three guest accommodations. They’re available to view on our website and you can also book through our website or directly through us,” said Maxim.

Lake Superior Brewing does look different than what it did when it was located in Lincoln Park, but the Maxims think they have been able to retain waht made it what it was while also making their own creation.

“We wanted it to feel like it’s always been here. We wanted it to fit the neighborhood, and we wanted kind of a brewery restaurant place that felt different than the other breweries in town. Had this vision of purchasing Lake Superior Brewing, but rebranding it and making it our own, but preserving the legacy and all the heritage I guess of one of Minnesota’s oldest breweries,” said Maxim.