The trip to Redhead Creamery in Brooten winds through central Minnesota farmland, past windmills and rolling fields—but what awaits is one of a kind. Co-owner and cheesemaker Alise Sjostrom says it’s the only place in the world where dairy farming, cheesemaking, and distilling spirits from whey happen in one location. Jerry and Linda Jennissen have farmed Jer-Lindy Farms since 1979, milking about 200 cows. Sjostrom launched the creamery in 2014, now producing about a ton of cheese weekly, with a winery, distillery, cheese shop, and restaurant rounding out the operation.
Photo by Katie Knapp
For a peek behind the scenes, visitors can take a dairy farm tour, offered Friday and Saturday at 12:30 p.m. year-round. Tours cost $10 and run about two hours, including a seated portion, a walk around the farm, and standing outdoors. Advanced online booking is appreciated but isn’t required.
After checking in at the cheese shop, Jerry Jennissen led us to the milking barn for an enthusiastic overview of the farm’s history and his family’s deep roots in agriculture. We visited the herd—month-old calves in hutches to full-grown Holsteins—before watching the fully automated robotic milking system in action. Throughout the tour, Jerry fielded questions on everything from cow care to why milk is pasteurized. “It’s really our passion to educate our customers about the food they’re eating and give them a way to see and experience it instead of just learning about it over the internet,” says Alise.
Photo by Stacy Brooks
The dairy farm tour also includes a short video about cheesemaking narrated by Alise. (Visitors aren’t allowed into the creamery for sanitary reasons.) To wrap things up, Linda Jennissen walked us through cheese tasting. Redhead Creamery produces over a dozen cheeses, including Lucky Linda Clothbound Cheddar, Little Lucy Brie, and fresh curds.
All of those Redhead cheeses—as well as items from other local producers—are available for purchase at the cheese store, which also offers a viewing window into the creamery. Visitors can taste their way through the lineup at the restaurant, which serves cheeseburgers, cheese paninis, and gluten-free, deep-fried curds, plus a bar menu featuring Redhead’s spirits. The restaurant is also the starting point for distillery tours, with a speakeasy-style lounge hidden behind a bookcase. Lucas Sjostrom leads tours on select Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., which cost $29 and last about an hour. Since capacity is limited, advanced online booking is recommended.
Photo by Katie Knapp
The speakeasy setting is a nod to local history. Although Redhead Creamery didn’t begin distilling until 2024, surrounding Stearns County was a bootlegging hot spot during Prohibition. As we tasted our way through a spirit flight, Lucas regaled us with bootlegging lore and the technical details of the distilling process. Somewhat surprisingly, whey-based Azro Araga doesn’t taste like cheese, although it does have a creamy mouthfeel and a hint of funkiness. The tour also included a trip downstairs to the distillery to see the still and other equipment, and to take a peek into the adjacent creamery’s cheese caves, lined with shelves of aging wheels.
Although that glimpse of cheese is an everyday sight for the team at Redhead Creamery, it’s extraordinary for most visitors—we rarely get to see our food and beverages being made. We grab our cheese and spirits off a store shelf, many miles from where they were produced. Visiting Redhead Creamery is a unique opportunity to shorten that distance, and even better, meet the hardworking, creative people behind the curds and cocktails.
Photo by Katie Knapp
