E-Malt.com News article: USA, MN: Boom Island Brewing earns a name in the craft brew industry

Boom Island Brewing, which set up shop at the end of 2011, has quickly become one of the most talked about breweries in the Twin Cities. Beer lovers, foodies and the community at large have been captivated by owners Qiuxia and Kevin Welch’s charming story and impressive command of the Belgian beer tradition, insightnews.com reported on December, 7.

Kevin Welch’s interest in beer, and especially Belgian beer, is hardly new.

“Belgian beer is something I fell in love with right when I started brewing beer about 13 years ago,” he explains.

Today, their 11-month-old business is hopping, and each member of the family plays a part. Kevin Welch shares brewing responsibilities with his father-in-law, Hu Yong Shou, a retired engineer. Quixia Welch manages Boom Island’s correspondence and bookkeeping.

“On bottling day, my wife and her mom do the majority of the bottling, while my father-in-law and I do the corking and put the wire cages on. Then as we have time, we’ll add labels one by one,” said Kevin Welch.

While the Twin Cities has several new craft breweries, Boom Island is exceptional in that it is the only one of its kind to brew exclusively Belgian-style beers.

“It just so happened that the vast majority of beers I wanted to brew were Belgian,” said Kevin Welch. He added as well: “I have a hard time understanding why someone would not be passionate about Belgian beer. It’s pretty easy to be passionate about it, I think.”

Kevin Welch’s enthusiasm is backed up by serious knowledge and experience.

“I spent a couple of summers in Belgium traveling and studying with some of my personal heroes in the brewing world, trying to learn some tricks of the trade and what really makes a Belgian beer Belgian,” said Kevin Welch. According to him, Belgian beer brewing has a lot to do with process technique and an attention to every ingredient, including the yeast, which is often overlooked. Knowing the behavior of a certain yeast strain with a particular malt allows Boom Island to produce flavors as varied as plum, floral, light fruit, fig and raisin.

This leads to another aspect of Boom Island’s winning business recipe. All their beers are distinct. Kevin Welch explains, “In Belgium there’s no law that restricts you from using different ingredients. You can use spice, you can use fruit. Belgian beer is pretty much wide open.”

The public has been very happy with the little brewery’s beer right from the start.

“We were at capacity by the third month,” said Kevin Welch. It has since increased its volume potential and now has a client base of 25 restaurants and bars and almost 50 liquor stores in the metro area.


12 December, 2012