In the heart of Minnesota’s lake country, surrounded by 180 acres of lush vineyard and sprawling grounds, stands a brewery that looks as though it were plucked from the pages of Norse history. With its reclaimed wood, massive fireplaces, and Viking-inspired decor, 22 Northmen Brewing Company is more than just a place to grab a beer; it’s a destination. It’s the culmination of a 24-year journey for co-founder and brewmaster Keith Hefley, a man whose career has taken him from the ski towns of Colorado to the production floors of St. Louis, all in pursuit of the perfect pint.
I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Keith to discuss his remarkable path, the philosophy behind 22 Northmen, and his vision for a brewery that prioritizes experience above all else. His story is one of passion, dedication, and the deliberate choice to build something unique, far from the pressures of saturated craft beer scenes.
The Brewer’s Journey: A Path Forged in Experience
Every great brewery has an origin story, and the one behind 22 Northmen begins not in Minnesota, but high in the mountains of Colorado. For Keith Hefley, a 24-year veteran of the craft, the journey started with the perfect college job. While studying chemistry and microbiology at Western State University, his professors offered him a position at a brewpub they were starting. The offer was simple and irresistible: “we’ll give you a ski pass and free beer and food.” As Keith recalls with a laugh, “I thought that’s the perfect college job for me and then I just been doing it ever since.”
After eight years in the small ski town, a desire for greater experience led him to Fitger’s Brewery in Duluth, Minnesota, a fast-paced environment known for producing over a hundred different beer styles a year. It was the challenge he was looking for. “I just kind of wanted that experience and Duluth looked like a cool place,” he explains. From there, he returned to his Colorado roots at Shamrock Brewing Company before taking on a new challenge in St. Louis, opening a large production facility with a veteran from the acclaimed Schlafly Brewing. This move was about learning the other side of the business—the high-volume production world of a 50,000-barrel-a-year operation.
However, the corporate side of brewing came with its own trade-offs. “I rarely got to brew,” Keith admits. “I was meeting with, you know, we had four distributors and I… was doing stuff I didn’t want to do.” It was during this time that an unexpected opportunity arose. Tyler, the owner of Carlos Creek Winery in Alexandria, Minnesota, found Keith’s resume online and reached out with a proposition: they wanted to build a brewery on their winery. With Colorado’s market feeling saturated and St. Louis not feeling like the right fit for his family, Keith flew out to see what they were planning. “It just kind of fit my… kind of exactly what I wanted to do,” he says. In February 2019, he made the move, and by June, 22 Northmen Brewing Company opened its doors.
More Than a Brewery: Crafting an Experience
When asked to describe 22 Northmen in a sentence, Keith’s answer is immediate and definitive: “We’re an experience-based brewery.” This philosophy is the bedrock of their identity. Situated on the sprawling 180-acre property of the 25-year-old Carlos Creek Winery, the brewery was built with a destination mindset. They inherited an existing customer base and a location that offers far more than just a taproom. The grounds feature an event center that hosts corporate events and weddings, a permanent food truck, a wood-fired pizza kitchen, and multiple outdoor spaces perfect for Minnesota summers.
This focus on the overall experience directly caters to their diverse clientele. Alexandria is a resort town, its population swelling from 15,000 to 50,000 in the summer as people flock to their lake homes. 22 Northmen has become a “must stop” for locals bringing visiting family to town, capable of easily accommodating large groups. “On a Saturday in the summer, we’ll typically have 2,000 people here at any given time,” Keith notes. The brewery is intentionally and “extremely family friendly,” a core strength of their business model. There’s ample space for kids to run around, and they even host a kid-focused Oktoberfest with root beer stein holding and games.
Their events calendar is a major draw, with massive festivals that bring in thousands. Grape Stomp, a 25-year tradition at the winery, can see 15,000 people over a weekend, going through nearly a hundred kegs of beer. Their Oktoberfest is another massive, unticketed event that keeps the taps flowing. Live music is also a cornerstone, with four to five different acts performing each weekend during the summer.
The Art of the Brew: Technique, Tradition, and a Touch of the Unexpected
While the atmosphere is a huge draw, the beer is the heart of 22 Northmen. Keith’s brewing philosophy is a masterful blend of technical precision, respect for tradition, and a creative spirit. The brewery focuses on three main areas: a wide variety of lagers, IPAs, and wood and barrel-aged beers. However, it’s the lagers that truly define their approach. Keith believes a great lager should be a social lubricant, not the center of attention. “I want it to be really good,” he explains, “but you’re not going to focus on it. You’re going to focus on the people you’re with… that’s just going to be the social lubricant to help you have a good time.”
The Pursuit of the Perfect Light Lager
The brewery’s best-selling beer, the Norse Lager, is the embodiment of this philosophy and the result of a near-decade-long obsession for Keith. His goal was to create a craft light lager that was as “crisp and clean and fresh and bright as a macro logger” but made in a craft way, using 100% barley with no corn or rice syrup. This is no simple task. The massive breweries achieve consistency through high-tech processes like blending from multiple tanks and de-aerating water, techniques unavailable to most craft brewers.
For Keith, achieving this quality was a welcome challenge. “Honestly, our brewery is set up specifically for that beer,” he reveals. The entire facility was designed with techniques in mind that he had cultivated over two decades, learning from past mistakes to finally build a system that could produce the exact beer he envisioned.
Bold Flavors and Local Roots
Beyond their flagship lager, 22 Northmen isn’t afraid to push boundaries and have fun. Many of their most unique creations are born from a sense of place and local inspiration. A perfect example is the “Midwest Martini,” a light logger made with rye and blended with olive brine, served garnished with olives. The idea came to Keith, who is also a musician, while playing gigs in local dive bars. “I would see olives dancing around in people’s beers and I was like what’s going on with that?” he remembers. “And that’s when it hit me. I was like I should I got to make an olive logger.” The beer has been a surprising hit, a true ode to a quirky regional custom.
This connection to his surroundings drives much of his creativity. He created a Pueblo Green Chili Logger, a nod to his Colorado roots, using chilies imported from Pueblo that are roasted on-site. He works with local farmers, sourcing hops from a farm just 50 miles away for a wet hop beer and malts from growers in North Dakota. The synergy with the winery is also a major source of inspiration. They use grape skins from the annual harvest in special brews and age mixed-culture beers in wine barrels housed in a man-made cave on the property.
A Vision for the Future: Staying True to the Experience
From its opening in 2019, 22 Northmen experienced rapid growth, quickly expanding its production facility to meet demand. After building an entirely new, larger facility in 2023, they have finally hit their stride. So, what’s next? For Keith and the team, the future isn’t about massive expansion or getting into wide distribution. Instead, it’s about doubling down on what makes them special. “I think we’re just going to try to cater to our current customer experience here,” Keith states. “We’re just try to figure out how to make it more fun on site for customers.”
This deliberate choice to remain an on-site-focused brewery gives them immense creative freedom. Without the margin pressures of distribution, they can afford to spend more on high-quality, unique ingredients and avoid catering to a distributor’s demands. For Keith, it’s also a return to what he loves most. He gets to be in the brewery every day, experimenting with techniques and having complete creative control with his small, tight-knit crew. It’s the perfect balance he was searching for throughout his long and varied career.
22 Northmen Brewing Company is a testament to the idea that a brewery can be more than the sum of its beers. It is a destination built on the foundation of one man’s extensive experience and a shared vision to create a place for community, celebration, and connection. So if you find yourself in Alexandria, make the trip to Carlos Creek. And as Keith says, “if you see me, say hi.”
