Ben and Nicki Peterson purchased the former Lion’s Club building in downtown Grantsburg in the fall of 2017. The building was originally a creamery and built in 1919. The original reason for the purchase was to have an office space for Nicki’s marketing business, Spry Content. However, the location, being set across from Memory Lake, and the character and history of the building led them to consider doing more with it.
Nicki formed an organization called the Grantsburg Revitalization Operation (GRO) in 2014 which works on projects to bring more people to town to enjoy the amazing assets we have in Grantsburg. So, to align with GRO’s goals, once they realized the building could actually be theirs, Ben and Nicki started talking about what type of business could bring people to town, give residents a different option for gathering and could succeed in a rural community with a large tourism base. A micro-brewery was the obvious answer. So it began…
Ben & Nicki knew right away they wanted to tie the brewery into Ben’s family dairy farm, Four Cubs Farm. Ben is the 5th generation dairy farmer, working alongside his parents Gary & Cris. We are proud to offer a true Grain to Glass brewing experience where we are growing barley to have custom malted for our beers as well as feeding the spent grains leftover from the brewing process back to our cows. Since opening we have been featured on an episode of Discover Wisconsin, interviewed by Twin Cities KARE11, Eau Claire WEAU and La Crosse WLAX.
Interview with KARE11
Twin Cities, MN
Interview with WEAU
Eau Claire, WI
Interview with WLAX
La Crosse, WI
Before
We purchased the original 1919 creamery from the Grantsburg Lion’s Club. Their primary use for the space during the ~20 years they owned it was to hold their monthly meetings, store supplies and have an occasional garage sale. The Lion’s Club has been an instrumental community organization over the years, having organized The World Championship Snowmobile Watercross which is held each year in July at Memory Lake. They also give back to the community with park playgrounds and more. We are very thankful they were interested in selling us this great historical building!
(De) Construction Phase
We began (de)construction in December 2017. Wayne Lake’s construction team gutted the former Lion’s Club Den (meeting room and bathrooms) and the old garage/office (to be Spry Content’s future office). In January, with the help of Ben’s parents Gary & Cris Peterson, we spent 5 weeks ripping out approximately 350,000 pounds of concrete. All concrete floors were removed except where our current walk-in cooler is.
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In the early 1900’s there was a large clay deposit located in Memory Lake, across the street from Brickfield Brewing, which was known as “Brickyard Pond”. The clay was dug with hand labor from a pit over 70 feet deep. The clay was formed into bricks and sold for building and chimney construction.
While we were tearing out all of the concrete inside the building we found a lot of bricks from the “brickyard pond” that you’ll find on display in our taproom.
Construction
Once we removed the concrete floors we could finally start (re)construction. We put in new plumbing, in-floor heat and then poured new concrete. Then came a new brick wall, bathrooms, new electrical, lighting, painting, the large outdoor patio with firepit, and everything needed to get the building up to code.
Finishing Touches
Our vision for Brickfield all along was to keep it industrial, link it to our dairy farm and work with as many local businesses and individuals as possible to get the job done. We absolutely love our Grain to Glass ‘mural’ turned out as well as all of the finishing touches – all with a little help from A LOT of friends!
