USA, IA: Twisted Vine Brewery signs lease to occupy new space in Des Moines

Another brewery is joining the burgeoning downtown Des Moines craft beer scene.

On Monday, November 8, Twisted Vine Brewery signed a lease to occupy the 7,500-square-foot space that was the longtime home of The Garden nightclub in the East Village. The club moved out earlier this year to make way for a $6.3 million renovation of the nearly 150-year-old brick building at 112 S.E. Fourth St. as part of the planned Market District development.

Building developer and landlord Tim Rypma said the five partners in Twisted Vine will begin work on the brewery and tasting room in January and hope to open to the public in late spring.

Plans for the brewery also call for a 5,000-square-foot patio.

One of the partners, Brian Sabus, said the brewery will close its current location at 3320 Westown Parkway near Valley West Mall.

Twisted Vine began as a passion project for homebrewers Sabus, Steve Becker and Steve Breman in 2011, with a three-barrel brewing system in a 20-by-20-foot space inside the Madison County Winery in St. Charles.

In 2015 two additional partners, Jasen Garrett and Paul Galloway, joined the team, and by 2016, the operation had moved to the 7,200-square-foot building it currently occupies in West Des Moines, previously the home of Denny Arthur's nightclub.

The building at the planned downtown location dates from 1874 and originally was home to Central Oil Works. It is considered a contributing structure in the East Village's listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Twisted Vine will occupy the first floor. The second floor is slated to become two office spaces, one of which has been leased to St. Kilda owner Alex Hall. The third floor will house four high-end apartments.

"The transformation the Market District is going to have on that area is going to be really exciting and really fun over the next couple of years," said Rypma.

The building sits on the northernmost edge of the Market District. Plans for the initial 39 acres of the project, currently occupied largely by industrial buildings and warehouses, call for a $750 million redevelopment, with a concert venue, a 150- to 180-unit apartment complex with first-floor retail space, a hotel and an 8-acre park along the Des Moines River. Work to relocate and improve streets and utilities already is underway.

The new Twisted Vine location will be about a block south of Peace Tree Brewing Co.'s Des Moines branch, which opened in 2016, and its near neighbor, 1717 Brewing, which opened in 2018. News of Twisted Vine's planned relocation follows the June announcement that Big Grove Brewery will open a Des Moines location in the former Crescent Chevrolet building, 555 17th St. at the base of Sherman Hill, next March.

Downtown also is home to Exile Brewing and Court Avenue Brewing, and close by is Confluence Brewing on the south side of Gray's Lake.

Also bound for a yet-undisclosed Des Moines location: the first outpost of Decorah's Toppling Goliath Brewing Co., considered one of the nation's best craft brewers.

10 November, 2021