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Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.96

I can hardly believe it’s been seven years already for Fargo Brewing Company. I remember back to my retail days meeting with four young entrepreneurs with a dream of starting a brewery in Fargo, North Dakota. We sat in the break room and tried samples of the beers they hoped to contract brew. I would be lying if I did not say I was a little skeptical of their aspirations.

There was no brewery in Fargo at this time, let alone a brewery in North Dakota that produced commercially. Well, they proved all of the skeptics wrong, including myself. Their dream became a reality from the start-up days of contracting brewing to building a brew house, canning line and aging program.

They have continued to grow each year in terms of production, quality, community involvement and accolades.  Raise a pint and celebrate Fargo Brewing Company’s Past 7 years and bright future ahead!

CHEERS!

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.94

33 years ago, Jim Koch quit his desk job to follow his passion in brewing.

For those that have the guts, drive and perseverance to follow their own path, access to resources shouldn’t be what stands in the way. That’s why in 2008, we started our Brewing the American Dream program. The goal: Provide microloans, coaching, and other resources to people who are pursuing their unique craft.

The beers in our first ever Brewing the American Dream Variety Pack were brewed in collaboration with five rising-stars who participate in Brewing the American Dream. These breweries each have a story as unique as their beers, and we are excited to share them with you. We’ve also included Boston Lager, since this was the beer that started it all for us. And this beer doesn’t just taste good – it does good, too. All profits from the collaboration pack will be donated to program partner Accion to support future small business loans to food and beverage entrepreneurs across America.

Press Play Below – Brewing The American Dream

Boston Tea Party Saison

Brewed in collaboration with Jim Woods of Woods Beer Co.
from San Francisco, CA

Boston Tea Party Saison is a bi-coastal twist on the classic Belgian style, combining Woods’s yerba mate-infused saison with Sam Adams’ wild yeast blend, Kosmic Mother Funk. Mate’s earthy spice plays on the rippling, fruity haze of KMF’s funky bacteria, and gives a signature snap to the amber saison’s traditional dry finish.

ThreeNinety Bock

Brewed in collaboration with Chris Spinelli of Roc Brewing Co.
from Rochester, NY

ThreeNinety Bock is a slightly roasted Maibock with a sweet toffee and light caramel flavor, crafted from four hop varieties, combined with rye malt and oak smoked malt. Mosaic and Hallertau Mittelfrueh hops provide the balance that gives this dark golden bock a big, juicy character and slightly sweet and dry finish. ThreeNinety is a nod to the distance in miles between Boston and Rochester.

Time Hop Porter

Brewed in collaboration with Grant Fraley and Marta Jankowska of ChuckAlek Independent Brewers
from San Diego, CA

Driven by co-founders Grant Fraley and Marta Jankowska’s mission of creating “Old School Beers for New School Palates,” Time Hop Porter utilizes Zeus, Chinook, Cascade and Goldings hops and is 5.3% ABV. The hop character is balanced by three malt varieties: Sam Adams pale two-row blend, Crisp Brown, and Black malt. This porter has strong notes of citrus and pine that are balanced by a smooth, roasted malt character.

Oats McGoats

Brewed in collaboration with Rick Abitol of Brewery Rickoli
from Wheat Ridge, CO

Oats McGoats is an American stout brewed based on founder and brewer Rick Abitbol’s commitment to brewing full-flavored, gluten-reduced beers (if they didn’t say it, you wouldn’t know). At 6.5% ABV, the full-bodied, moderately carbonated beer is accented by earthy, spicy flavors and a hint of roasted coffee notes.

Desert Kaleidoscope

Brewed in Collaboration with Bosque Brewing
from Albuquerque, NM

Desert Kaleidoscope, pays homage to the Albuquerque balloon fiesta and features a mixture of flavors including citrus, tangerine, pine and honey malt to create a brew with a bold, hoppy aroma. With a 7.0% ABV, Desert Kaleidoscope is a deep amber, medium-bodied brew that leaves a clean touch of lingering bitterness on the palate.

Boston Lager

First Brewed by Jim Koch of Samuel Adams
from Boston, MA

Boston Lager is the original collaboration beer between Jim Koch and his father, using his great-great grandfather’s recipe – helping lead the American craft beer revolution and reviving a passion for full-flavored beer. Only the finest hand-selected ingredients are used to create this perfectly balanced and complex original brew, including two-row malted barley and Bavarian Noble hops. Boston Lager is full-flavored with a balance of malty sweetness contrasted by hop spiciness and a smooth finish.

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.92

Some Great News from Brian Hoffman, VP of Sales & Co-Founder of Fulton Brewing Company:

Draft Magazine just published a list of their top 50 IPAs in America, and 300 was ranked as #20 in the country!  The top 50 came from a total of 386 IPAs from all over the country, and “the IPAs were tasted blind (meaning the folks drinking them had no knowledge of what they were drinking) by our panel of judges, all of whom are either Certified Cicerones or Beer Judge Certification Program veterans with a certified, national or master ranking.”

One big takeaway for me from the article was: “According to market research group IRI, which tracks sales at grocery and convenience stores, sales of IPA have climbed from 8.9 percent of the total volume of Brewers Association-defined “craft” beer in 2011 to 25.2 percent in 2016. Get that? More than quarter of all the craft beer sold last year was IPA.”  That means that for a segment of craft beer that makes up 25% of all craft sold, our IPA is better than all but 19, none of which are brewed/available in the Midwest.

“Ordinary guys (brewery owners) discussing Fulton’s 300 Mosaic IPA” on YouTube

Below is the full Draft Magazine Article and Fulton Brewing Company Excerpt:

The 50 best IPAs in America

We asked every brewer we know to send us their IPAs: 386 bottles, cans, crowlers and growlers later, we found our 50 favorites.

ZACH FOWLE , JUNE 27, 2017

http://draftmag.com/50-best-ipas-america/

CHEERS!

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.90

This week we are releasing an all-new Continental Pilsner, simply titled “PILS.” PILS will be available year-round on draft and in six packs of 12 oz bottles. Why a Pilsner? Simply put, most of us at the brewery love this style of beer. It’s usually the first beer we seek out when we visit a new town or another brewery. Whenever the ageless “desert island beer” conversation comes up, one Pilsner or another gets an impassioned debate. The only problem was, Fulton had never brewed a Pils. So, we set out to make a great one. Ours is built on a base of Minnesota-malted Rahr Pilsner. It features a smooth, well-rounded bitterness provided by German Perle, and a pleasantly floral aroma provided by the style’s hallmark Saaz hops. Pilsner yeast punctuates the beer with a beautifully clean finish. At 5.3% ABV and 30 IBU, this is a beer that leaves your senses wanting for nothing – except another.

It’s always exciting to add a new beer to our repertoire. In the 10 years since we started homebrewing in a one car South Minneapolis garage, we have come to appreciate and enjoy nearly every style of beer. To us, a large part of what drew us to homebrewing was the ability to create any beer, with our imaginations being pretty much the only limitation. As the number of styles and substyles of beer continues to grow and evolve, and the quality and diversity of ingredients available to brew with grows as well, the permutations and combinations of recipe possibilities approaches infinity—or at least a number way higher than we can count. But as a production brewery, the unfortunate reality is that there is a finite number of tap handles and shelf spots in the world; we can’t brew every beer we want, all the time.

So begins the long process of narrowing down the world of endless choice to perhaps a couple dozen beers that will appear in our lineup over the period of a year. Many are small releases of only a few hundred cases and a few dozen kegs. Some are draft only, and some never even make it out of our taproom. A handful make it into our year-round lineup. If you’ve ever drank a Fulton, you’d had one of these. For the first five years of Fulton’s existence, we had only two Core beers – Lonely Blonde and Sweet Child of Vine. We were unusual in that way; most breweries have four or five year-round beers the first day they open for business. We chose to do fewer because we believed investing our efforts in perfecting just a couple beers rather than a half dozen or more made long term sense, in terms of quality of beer and of building brand recognition. Meanwhile we quenched our fans’—and our own—thirst for variety by releasing a growing number of seasonals. First came Worthy Adversary, then Libertine. Later on, it was Expat, Randonneur, and many many more. In 2014, after years of it being a taproom favorite, we added The Ringer to our year-round lineup. Last year, we increased our Core lineup to 5 beers, with the addition of 300 IPA and Standard Lager. In total, we brewed about 25 beers in 2016, with 16 of those making it out in both draft and package formats.

So we have finally have a full calendar of year-round and seasonal beers, and it took just seven years to build. What to do now? Tear it up, of course! Well, not entirely…but substantially. In the name of creative destruction, we’ve re-worked much of our lineup this year. We’re introducing some all-new beers, making some familiar favorites into taproom exclusives, and even retiring a few.

That gets us back to where we started—brewing what we want, when we want. At any given moment, we generally have 20-24 beers available in the taproom. The lineup changes on an almost weekly basis. Keep an eye on the taproom page of our website; we keep the taps listed there as fresh as the beer. Of course you can always find our perennial favorites on tap, and every limited release visits the taproom as well. Drop by for a beer sometime soo, and meanwhile, pick up a six pack of Pils next time you’re in the liquor store – it just might become your desert island beer.

Please check with your Bergseth Bros. Representative on Availability and Pricing (Some products not available in certain markets)

CHEERS!

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.89

Last September, we became the thirteenth state for distribution of Odell Brewing Company Beer. We considered it being lucky number thirteen! Odell continues to brew innovative and cutting edge beers with new year-round releases, seasonal packages, wolf picker selections, cellar series beers and barrel aged releases.

Today, we are going to look at two different packages available for the summer that awaits us …

Warmer days mean campfires, picnics, and backyard barbecues. If you were to look in our ice chests this summer, these are the beers you’d find. We’ve handpicked three of our favorites plus our latest Exclusive Release, Nail Knot.

Nail Knot, named for one of the most difficult knots in fly-fishing, Nail Knot is a lively, balanced brew created through the patient art of lagering. Featuring subtle floral aromas and a clean, crisp finish.

A mystical legend echoes in our brew house—that of St. Lupulin (loop-you-lin), the archetypal hophead. He devoted endless summers to endless rows of hops, tending to the flowers and the beloved resin within—lupulin. Extraordinary oils in this yellow resin provide this dry-hopped extra pale ale with an undeniably pleasing floral aroma and clean, crisp finish. One sip of this seasonal summer ale and you too will believe.

Available May through September

FOCUSING ON A REGIONAL SLOW GROWTH MODEL,

Odell Brewing is now the 34th largest craft brewery in the country distributing beer to just 16 states.. While the brewery crafts a variety of beers, its roots are built on British styles. Innovation and creativity meet balance, consistency and quality in each brew.

Press Play Below

This balance is a not just a philosophy for the beers Odell Brewing crafts, it’s a foundation for the company as a whole. The brewery’s managed growth strategy has created and fostered a culture of family and collaboration. In 2015, the Odell family founders sold the majority of the company to its co-workers (now co-owners) in a combined management buyout and ESOP.

Please check with your Bergseth Bros. Representative on Availability and Pricing (Some products not available in certain markets)

CHEERS!