Cattle ranchers brewing up new business venture

Wagon wheel and barbed wire chandeliers hang from the ceiling of the nearly 70-year-old round-top barn built by Jewell Doan Sr. Wood from an old cattle barn, some of it aged more than 130 years, hangs on the wall. A Soo Line railroad bridge running across the ranch’s section of Hawk Creek provided some of the lumber for the “saloon” and a petrified skull from an old buffalo jump on the property hangs above the bar. Each part of the barn turned event center at the Black Leg Ranch tells a story about the homestead, settled by the Doan family in 1882. And now Jay Doan is writing yet another chapter into the operation’s storybook that, like everything else in the building, harkens to the history of the homeplace. Black Leg Brewery is preparing to distribute its own beers within the next month. This business venture is just the latest the next generation has added over the past decade. “We’ve been trying to develop more agricultural-based tourism for a number of years,” said North Dakota Tourism Director Sara Otte Coleman. Alongside being a working cattle ranch, Black Leg stepped up to meet that need with hunting and a dude ranch-style experience called Rolling Plains Adventures. Doan is brewing his beer with North Dakota grown and malted barley from Two Track Malting in Lincoln. After the brewing is complete, a portion of the spent grains will be fed to some of the family’s cattle herd. The fully automated brew house is equipped with a 15-barrel, 30-keg system. Doan plans to distribute his brews in Bismarck-Mandan as well as serve it during events hosted at the ranch. Doan said Black Leg Ranch hosts 20 weddings each year, as well as corporate events, educational tours for area schools and international visitors...MORE

Why would anyone name their ranch Blackleg?