Brother Justus Whiskey Company sits in Northeast Minneapolis, founded by brothers Phil and Matt Steger who launched their distillery in 2014 after years of planning and navigating Minnesota’s evolving distilling laws. The brothers, both with backgrounds outside the spirits industry, named their operation after their great-great-grandfather Justus Ramsey, creating a family connection that runs deeper than just shared DNA. They operate out of a converted industrial space on 5th Street NE, part of Minneapolis’s growing Arts District, where they’ve built a production facility and tasting room that reflects the neighborhood’s creative, unpretentious vibe. The focus here is bourbon and rye whiskey, though they’ve experimented with other spirits as they’ve grown. Phil handles much of the business side while Matt focuses on production, and both men threw themselves into learning the craft from scratch. They started small, installing a 500-gallon copper pot still and aging their whiskey in 53-gallon barrels, learning through trial and plenty of error. The early years meant waiting for their whiskey to mature while building a customer base through their tasting room and local partnerships. They’ve been transparent about their journey, sharing both successes and setbacks with visitors who appreciate the honest approach to craft distilling. The tasting room feels more like hanging out in someone’s well-stocked basement than a polished tourist destination, which seems to be exactly what the brothers intended. You’ll taste their whiskeys while learning about their process, and the staff genuinely knows the story behind each batch. The space showcases their barrels and still, giving you a real sense of the scale and craft involved. It’s not fancy, but it’s authentic, and in a city with plenty of polished establishments, that authenticity makes Brother Justus stand out as a place where you’re witnessing something real rather than just consuming an experience.