Rick Brandvold is a founding owner/partner of Icewind Brewing, managing most day to day taproom operations, sales and distribution as well as the accounting. He attended MSCTC for Culinary Arts, formerly known as Northwest Tech. After homebrewing for nearly 20 years, and then being let go from his job for investing in a brewery, he knew that pursuing the entrepreneurial route and becoming involved in a brewery was going to be his dream come true.
Icewind Brewing was brought into existence by two teams of people that were planning on opening two separate breweries. “The teams joined forces, some people decided it wasn’t for them and we bought the old DCR brewery and the rest is Icewind! We have 3 Partners/Owners. Two operating partners, Myself and Tyler Mangin and our third is Scott Diamond.”
The brewery is located in Mapleton, a very short drive out of West Fargo. “We serve the Mapleton community as well as the surrounding area by making the best beer we can and educating people on styles of beer they may have never heard of.”
“Our mission is simple. Provide the best beer we can brew to the local community as well as be a social gathering space for the City of Mapleton.The business is all about brewing some classic beer styles and providing a great taproom experience.”
As he reflects on the high and low points, Rick shares, “One of the high points is seeing people pay their hard earned money for your product when they have so many other options. Low points are always having to worry about something, money, staff, material prices/shortages. Some of our challenges are growth. Making more beer doesn’t always equate to more money…sometimes it’s just more work for everyone involved. Success is being able to pay our bills and when we brought the other main partner (Tyler Mangin) on fulltime last summer!”
When he thinks of ways that the community can support Icewind’s next stage of growth, he shares, “Support local beer! Try a new beer and make the drive of 10 minutes out to Mapleton to have a beer in our taproom! We are available at all the major liquor stores in the area!”
You can follow Icewind on Facebook and Instagram, and visit their website for more info and current taplists.
