North Dakota Beer

Before North Dakota obtained statehood and entered the Union as a dry state, the region’s commercial beer industry thrived. A lengthy era of temperance forced locals to find clever ways to get a beer, such as crossing the Montana and Minnesota borders for a pint, smuggling beer over the rails and brewing at home. After Prohibition, the state’s farmers became national leaders in malting barley production, serving the biggest brewers in the world. However, local breweries struggled until 1995, when the first wave of brewpubs arrived on the scene. A craft brewing renaissance this century led to an explosion of more than a dozen craft breweries and brewpubs in less than a decade. Alicia Underlee Nelson recounts North Dakota’s journey from a dry state to a booming craft beer hub.

Author Biography

Alicia Underlee Nelson is a freelance writer and photographer who covers craft beer, travel, art, entertainment, midwestern history and North Dakota news for Thomson Reuters, Delta Sky magazine, AAA Living magazine, Matador Network and numerous other travel, news and lifestyle publications. She lives in West Fargo, North Dakota, with her husband and son. Follow her adventures across the Upper Midwest and the prairie provinces of Canada at prairiestylefile.com.