Brewhalla

## Drekker Brewery at the Brewhalla Beerplex

*If Vikings had taprooms, they wouldn’t have been so pumped about Valhalla*

* **Location:**1666 1st Ave N, Fargo  RRDMZ  58102
* **Style:**Viking-Industrial
* **Gang:**Brawlhallans
* **P2 Rating:**6:14:45
* **Description:**Big former railroad shops, turned into a massive taproom, shopping center and Ascomanni hangout.

The Viking-themed Drekker Brewing was inspired by the voyage of the Hjemkomst  thirty years before Drekker was founded in 2014, riding the foamy crest of craft brewing in the Fargo-Moorhead area, and moved into its present location in 2018.

Drekker is traditionally the second-largest brewer in the area after Fargo Brewing, (Drekker beer can be found  throughout the Zone, in the Lower Yankton CF in the Oceti Sakowin and the state of Minnesota in the UCAS ), but it definitely has the largest taproom. Originally built in 1883 as a steam engine shop for the North Pacific railroad, it lay abandoned for decades before Drekker took it over. In the early days Brewhalla was just a taproom (and a private residence), but as the business grew so did the ambitions of the owners, until even the expansive industrial-chic railroad shop couldn't contain it, with new construction every so years to include new businesses, new features, new offices, until it became the Wagnerian monstrosity it is today.

And it IS a Wagnerian monstrosity. Never humble, it has now sprawled out into a multi-level complex that covers the space between 1st Ave N and the railroad, between 15th and 23rd Streets. It occupies a strange place between architectural categories, larger and more diverse than any Securitract, but not quite on the scale of an arcology like the Block. It is a tiny world unto itself, including eateries and craft boutiques, shops and a hotel. It even houses permanent residences in long-term leases with the property. Because of all that it contains, to those who frequent (or live in) it, it seems worlds away from The Block that overshadows it, a mere three blocks away.

The taproom itself remains the center of this little world, a huge, two-level sprawling space that includes the brewery, a bar, lofts, antique pinball machines, a stage, a dance/practice floor. It maintains a lot of the naked brick and metal of its industrial past, married to a sort of heavy-metal Viking aesthetic, more album-cover than history-book, swords and axes and metal-sculpture dragon heads. The high ceilings and heavy wood and metal furniture made it an early gathering place for Trolls, starting in the mid-20's, when those who first Goblinized as teens started hitting drinking age, and over the years has become the epicenter of local Ascomanni culture, and local 'Crews' of Raiders are allowed to use the dance floor for sword practice when the Hall isn't open for business, usually for free, partially as customer relations, and partially because its a fertile field for recruiting new Brawlhallans (who double as a security force for the Complex).

Which is why, on Saturday mornings, you can see trolls in leather and mail swinging swords sharing the space with dwarven curling-team-moms doing power yoga...

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