Thieves broke a window at Broken Clock Brewing on December 25. The brewery suffered around $10,000 in damages. (Luis de Leon)
It was the early morning hours of Christmas Day — around 2:45 a.m. — when Jeremy Mathison says his team received a notification that the alarms went off at Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative, 1712 Marshall St. NE.
“What we believe happened is they broke this back corner window,” Mathison said, pointing across the large taproom that has been on Marshall Street since 2022.
The longtime operations manager at Broken Clock told the Northeaster that police were dispatched that morning, but there was no sign that a burglary had taken place.
But the following day on Dec. 26, at around the same time, his team once again received a notification that the alarms went off. This time, it was the front door motion sensor, which Mathison believes is where thieves hauled the brewery’s safe out of the building.
“Obviously you feel violated because there’s some random person messing around with your stuff,” Mathison said.
The damages totaled to around $10,000, Mathison said, including $6,000 in cash. Minneapolis Police confirmed the incident to the Northeaster but had not indicated whether a suspect or suspects had been identified or arrested.
“I like to just hope whoever took the money needed it to feed their kids or something,” Mathison said.
Mathison shared relief that the break-ins occurred overnight when no one was in the building. After a brief period where Broken Clock Brewing stopped accepting cash payments, they have since resumed the practice.
In a Facebook post on the Cooperative’s page, community members can be seen offering words of encouragement and support for the longtime small business. It’s a sentiment that Mathison says was reflected in the days that followed.
“What we’ve noticed is anytime these types of things happen the community just rallies,” Mathison said. “They come out and support when people need it so the response has been awesome.”
While insurance may be able to help fix the damage, Mathison said it comes at a time where craft breweries everywhere are navigating challenges. The Brewers Association, which represents small and independent craft brewers in the U.S., recently published their annual industry recap in which they reported 2025 being the second consecutive year where brewery closures outpaced brewery openings. Additionally, a Gallup Poll released last year indicated an increasing decline in overall alcohol consumption.
However, Mathison remains optimistic for the Northeast-based Cooperative, as they’ve previously navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, among other challenges. Their business, he says, continues to focus on adding pieces of the Cooperative from non-alcoholic beer and mocktail options, to hosting more markets and other events.
“We’ll figure it out … insurance will replace the things,” said Mathison. “As long as we’re still here to serve our community and everyone is okay and feeling okay then we’re good.”