​Flatland Brewery in West Fargo

By Chris Larson

Cjlarson75@gmail.com

Located in the rapidly expanding commercial and residential development off Veterans Boulevard in West Fargo, Flatland Brewery has been pouring pints of their locally crafted beers since they opened near the end of July.

President of Flatland Brewery LLC and head brewer, Frank Clemens served me up a couple samples of two of the more popular brews, their IPA and Oktoberfest and explained that after just a couple of months, production was up enough to expand their tap room hours and add a cabaret license.

They are excited to be West Fargo’s first brewery and are eager to serve a rapidly growing population in this area of West Fargo. Friends and fans of their homebrewing efforts of the last ten years or so helped push them to choose West Fargo for their location and their taproom at 3140 Bluestem Drive is in the heart of an area of town that is not only experiencing more and more businesses opening every month but more and more residents moving in and bringing with them a thirst for all things local, including beer.

They opened with very limited tap room hours and have been anticipating this expansion of hours ever since.

But first, they wanted to worry about the beer. Keeping 12 taps full of options (including a non-alcoholic soda) is no small challenge for a startup brewer but with four brewers and over 40 collective years experience brewing, Flatland was ready to meet the challenge head-on and are now comfortable that they will be able to keep all of their taps supplied with a variety of options to choose from.

Expect to see four of five beers become standard “flagship” beers that will always be on tap and the rest a rotating cast of experimental and seasonal brews.

After sampling a few, I could see their Irish Red, IPA, APA and Brown Porter making the list of flagships. Each of these beers seemed mostly true to style with nuances that made them interesting or different than what I expected.

The Irish Red seemed a bit hoppier than standard and maybe even approaching the flavor profile of an imperial hopped up red ale.

The Brown Porter intrigued me because they created a beer that, to me, sits right in the middle of a traditional brown and a porter. More tan than black and a bit more nutty than chocolate, this beer finished slightly creamy and was certainly not the fully robust porter that many are putting out these days. It’s full of flavor and enjoyable but not at all what I expected.

Their IPA has plenty of bite, while their APA is quite smooth and approachable and I could see this being a favorite of people who didn’t think they liked craft beer.

Like many other brewery taprooms, Flatland aims to provide you with a bit more than just beer to experience during your visit. On Wednesdays, Ben from Two Lanterns Trivia will head up their trivia night where contestants compete for free beers.

While their license does not allow them to provide their own food, Spicy Pie is just a few spots down and you can order from the Spicy Pie menu, pay for it and your beer in the same transaction and catch a game on their TVs while you enjoy a beer and wait for your food to be delivered to you. Popcorn and chips and salsa are always available on the house and on Sundays, Three Lyons will be bringing in beer cheese soup that is made from beer brewed at Flatland. Next summer they hope to add ice cream as an option on its own or in a delicious beer or soda float.

During Bison football games, Flatland will be partnering with Spicy Pie to offer 15% off Spicy Pie with purchase of a beer or soda. The special begins one hour before kickoff and lasts throughout the game.

The newly expanded hours mean that Wednesday and Thursday they will be open from 3 to 11pm, Friday hours are 3pm to midnight, Saturdays from 11am to midnight and Sundays from 11am to 10pm.

They are now making growler fills available during Sunday hours for those who want Flatland beer to go. There are no immediate plans for distribution while they focus on developing recipes and keeping the taproom flowing, but in the future they hope to do limited runs of growler cans.