Four Firkins Moving to 36th Street

With a new location at , Jason Alvey hopes to transform the from a small craft beer store to a “mecca” for beer enthusiasts.

Alvey, who owns the St. Louis Park business, announced Friday that the store would be relocating to a lower level storefront below a number of apartments and along what city officials hope becomes an . The new Four Firkins will double in size—from 900 square feet to 1,800—and Alvey said it will be much more visible than the current Minnetonka Boulevard digs.

Construction still needs to be done at the new location, and Alvey will have to apply for a new city liquor license. He said he sees the new store opening by August.

“We want to bring it to a new level,” Alvey said. “I’m excited.”

To bring the Four Firkins to the next level, Alvey said he’s going to make the store more than just a beer retailer. While there will certainly still be a large selection of craft beer at the new location, Alvey is also planning on creating a small museum of beer-related artifacts that he’s collected over the years, such as antique bottles and old-fashioned beer barrels.

“It’s a pretty impressive collection, if I may say so myself,” Alvey said.

In addition, the new Four Firkins will have a one-of-a-kind checkout. Alvey said he is having a large wooden archway crafted that will resemble something out of a Belgian Trappist monastery, an homage to the birthplace of some of the world’s most storied craft beer. The archway will be the center point of the new store, Alvey said.

The new space and the new bells and whistles will likely mean that Alvey will have to add a full-time employee to his current staff of two full-timers and two part-timers, but Alvey said the Four Firkins won’t become a mega-store.

“We don’t want to lose the intimate atmosphere,” he said. “We’ll never be a giant beer warehouse.”

With the new location also comes a gift card winner—Rick Tepe of Minneapolis will be getting $100 to use at the Four Firkins for correctly guessing the new location in a contest the business held through its Facebook page.