Our Story

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The Warrior Brewing Company was founded by two disabled veterans who wanted to produce some of the region's finest craft beer while at the same time continuing to serve the military, veterans, and first responder community. 

Co-founder and Director of Operations Matt Caple was first exposed to craft beer and homebrewing while in the Army stationed in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

Like many homebrewers, Matt became fascinated with the intricacies of the brewing process. He would eventually find himself soaking up knowledge while volunteering at local craft breweries in Colorado. 

After returning to Duluth, Matt joined the Northern Ale Stars, a local area homebrew club, where he further refined his craft. Feeling somewhat incomplete after leaving the service, Caple found solace in continuing to serve veterans, volunteering at the VFW, and eventually co-founding the Lake Superior Warriors—a non-profit dedicated to helping disabled veterans reintegrate back into society following their military service by way of community service, and hockey. 

Co-founder and Head Brewer Ben Gipson shares a similar story with Matt, having a passion for craft beer and over a decade’s worth of homebrewing experience. 

However, Ben turned his passion for brewing into a career. He jumped into the professional brewers' circuit, serving as a head brewer at Canal Park Brewing Company for three years, earning awards for his regional and national masterful creations.

At this point, Matt—with his Lake Superior Warriors hockey team—and Ben finally crashed into each other’s lives after they organized a collaboration brew day in 2019 at Canal Park Brewing Company. The result was a monster Triple IPA that became an instant crowd-pleaser. As a result of the event's success, it was repeated the following year in 2020 with an Imperial Stout.

While having an annual collaboration event was fine, Ben and Matt knew they could take the concept and run with it—and run with it they did. 

With a golden opportunity falling into their lap, the duo took over the location that Lake Superior Brewing Company occupied in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. In late 2020, the pair began building their brewery. 

After countless hours of sweating copper, washing walls, sealing floors, and trudging through the permitting process, Warrior Brewing Company was officially brewing beer in May 2021.

True to their name, Warrior Brewing Company specializes in unique and high gravity offerings that aren’t typically found in the local area; barrel-aged Imperial Stout, Lactose Double IPA, and Golden Ale brewed with locally sourced wildflower honey. 

Local non-profits serving veterans and first responders will be given opportunities monthly to take part in brewing the barrel-aged Barbarian Imperial Stout, from which a portion of the proceeds from the collaboration beer will be given back to the non-profit.

This gives local area veterans and first responders unique opportunities to participate in the professional brewing process alongside Ben and Matt in the brew house. 

Over time, Warrior Brewing Company intends to open up employment opportunities for local area veterans.  

To all those who have served before and after, cheers to you!