Outside Magazine

On a cold, breezy morning in March 2017, I found myself shivering in a half-empty parking lot outside the entrance to the century-old Schmidt brewery in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The brick-walled landmark appeared abandoned. Beer hasn’t flowed through its industrial arteries since 2002, when brewing ceased permanently. Its whitewashed grain silos were yellowed and rust-stained; the chimney stack that once billowed fragrant, hops-scented steam had been capped.

But a rebirth was underway here, one that has nothing to do with cheap lager. It was happening inside an empty 85,000-square-foot warehouse once used for storing kegs. That’s where I stood waiting for Fred Haberman, the then 51-year-old cofounder of Urban Organics, who pulled up in a black Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid.

“It’s sooo easy to recharge,” he proclaimed, leaping out to praise its electric-hybrid engine. “I can plug it into a regular outlet. In. My. House.” Haberman adores anything that smacks of sustainability. If it’s good for the climate, the environment, or the planet, well then by God sign him up.