What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.105

This is one of my favorite times of the year to be in the beer business with the release of Oktoberfest beers, coinciding with the hop harvest and ultimately Fresh Hop Ales. Every year I look forward to my first sip of Fargo Brewing Company’s Super Green Fresh Hop Pale Ale. It certainly has become one of my favorite beers of the year. Many other breweries release Fresh Hop Ales, sometimes called Wet Hop Ales. Below is an excerpt explaining how unique and scarcely limited these beauties are.

THE FRESH FLAVORS OF WET HOP ALES

Examining the Mysteries of an Annual Harvest

All About Beer Magazine – Volume 35, Issue 5

November 14, 2014 By Heather Vandenengel

Excerpt Below – Follow this Link for the Full-Story http://allaboutbeer.com/article/wet-hop-beer/

For America’s brewers, the hop harvest is like Christmas. From about mid-August until the end of September, hops—the female cones of the plant Humulus lupulus that contribute to a beer’s aroma, flavor and bitterness—are picked, dried and baled or made into pellets and safely stored for breweries to use in the following months and years.

While the delicate hop flowers must be dried to be preserved, a sliver of those hops harvested skip that process and are set aside. Called wet or fresh hops, they are unkilned hops that retain all of their oils and contribute delicate, almost ethereal flavors. There’s an element of timeliness as well: After they are picked, they need to be delivered to the brewery in 24 to 48 hours or else they will begin to deteriorate, become soggy and rot.

Throughout the late summer into the autumn months, the wet hops appear in seasonal beers across the country, often in IPAs and pale ales that showcase the fresh, green aroma and flavors of the whole hop. Yet even as these beers appear more frequently in breweries’ fall lineups, the wet hop ales retain an air of mystery, and sometimes confusion. They are called wet hops not because they would drip water if you were to squeeze a cone, but because they retain a higher moisture content, about 75 to 80 percent when harvested, compared to 8 to 10 percent when dried. Then, there’s the question of semantics: Wet hop ale and fresh hop ale are used interchangeably, along with harvest ale. The Brewers Association Style Guidelines—used to judge beers at the Great American Beer Festival—classify it as “fresh or wet hop beer,” and for breweries, it’s more a matter of preference.

A fresh hop ale can be logistically challenging to make and difficult to brew, yet many brewers say it’s one of their favorite beers, and drinkers anticipate its arrival—a true product of the harvest only available for only a few months out of the year.

Fargo Brewing Company Super Green Fresh Hop Pale Ale – This super hopped up pale ale used over 300 pounds of whole cone — “fresh” — hops grown right here in North Dakota! We worked with Link Farms in Casselton and Ostlie’s Sunnyside Acres in Carrington to get some fresh and sticky Cascade, Chinook, Columbus, and Centennial hops. We also used Okefenokee pale ale malt that was grown in North Dakota and malted by Two Track Malting in Bismarck. This refreshing pale ale is brimming with intense citrus and tropical fruit notes. The body is light and crisp, letting the green goodness shine through. The flavor is dominated  by flavors of citrus rind, pineapple and sticky-icky resin. The finish is dry and hoppy. We brewed Super Green the same day we picked up the hops from the North Dakota farms to capture the freshest possible hop character. This is a liquid testament to our favorite flower, made with ingredients from our favorite state. That sure is Super!

Odell Handpicked Pale Ale – In early September, the Odell Brewing team ventured 20 miles north of the brewery to help harvest hops from the Celestrina Hop Farm. Two hours after returning from the farm, 350 pounds of fresh local Chinook hops were added to the hopback. Hand Picked Pale Ale has a bright were hop character and hints of lemon zest and pine. It’s a labor of love and a treat for the palate

Lagunitas Born Yesterday Fresh Hop, Unfiltered Pale Ale – Born Yesterday is a newborn version of our re-born Pale, a Newer New Dogtown Pale with a fresh addition … We added some wet, lupulin-drenched, un-kilned, whole-cone, fresh-picked-and-rushed-straight-from-Yakima hops for your immaculate reception. This Un-Freakin-Filtered, wetter-than-wet beer has 11lbs-per-barrel of Simcoe, Equinox, Mosaic and Indigenous Catawampus. Whoa

Please check with your sales person on availability and pricing (please note some products are not available in certain markets)

CHEERS!

What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.104

Guided by geeky imagination, influenced by sub-pop culture and never satisfied with the status quo, B. Nektar aims to bring a modern twist on mead as well as diversify craft mead, cider and beer.

Nektar Meadery was founded in 2006 by Brad and Kerri Dahlhofer, with the help of their good friend Paul Zimmerman. Brad has been an avid homebrewer since 1998, making beers, meads, ciders and wine for his own enjoyment. When Brad and Kerri got married in 2005, he made a mead to toast with at their wedding and received great reviews from the guests. Jokingly, he said that he’d someday open a meadery. Paul, a long-time friend and fellow homebrewer, soon began making meads along with Brad in the Dahlhofers’ basement. Their meads quickly began winning awards at homebrewing competitions

In the summer of 2006, Kerri was laid-off from her job. While sipping a glass of vanilla cinnamon mead made by Brad, she thought, “Why not try to sell this?” It was then that the three decided to take their mead making to the next level. In the spring of 2008, Brad too fell victim to layoffs, and the three worked night and day to prepare for their opening. After nearly two years since its inception, B. Nektar finally opened it’s doors on August 2, 2008 (National Mead Day).

Nektar’s session meads and hard ciders are now shaping the craft revolution.  To say it’s been a long road from the home-brewing days would be a tremendous understatement but B. Nektar continues to increase their production capacity and is currently the largest meadery in the U.S.A.

Nektar was the first meadery to join the ranks on the top 100 best breweries in the world by Ratebeer.com, and has remained there since 2013.

Proud of this story as they may be, they put a lot of effort into not taking themselves too seriously.

PRESS PLAY BELOW: B. Nektar | Episode 6 | Season 3 | Pure Brews America

Nektar Meadery was founded in 2006 by Brad and Kerri Dahlhofer,

with the help of their good friend Paul Zimmerman

CHEERS!

What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.103

California Cider Company is the first family owned cider in the US. We have been making ACE ciders since 1993 in the beautiful Sebastopol area of Sonoma County California just north of San Francisco. We are located among some of the world’s most renowned wine makers and apple orchards.

Ace founder Jeffrey House created Ace Space in honor of his wife, Angela,

who appeared in the cantina scene in the original Star Wars.

It’s time to try something new and exciting. Cider is lower calorie and gluten free in comparison to other alcoholic beverages. Ace ciders are a refreshing alternative to beer and wine. No sugar is added to our beverages, the only sugar occurs naturally from fresh fruit, making our ciders crisp in taste and flavor. Our award winning ACE ciders are pure, clean and refreshing because we use only the best eating apples for our juice and the best ingredients we can buy. We use champagne yeast in all of our cider and ferment them 10 -14 days. We then cold – filter 4 times and add the perfect amount of spritz to quench your thirst.

We guarantee you will notice the care and quality we take to produce every bottle. That’s what makes us ACES!

Ace  Founder, Jeffrey House, talks more about Ace Premium Craft Ciders – Click Play Above

CHEERS!

What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.102

2017-30th-anni

Wow, not many breweries can say they’ve been in business for thirty years. Lakefront Brewery this year is celebrating 30 years of blood, sweat and beers! Let’s raise a pint and celebrate with them…

Below is an article from Monique Kleinhuizen of The Growler along with a video from Lakefront Brewery.

Press Play to Watch: Lakefront Brewery Brand Anthem

lakefront video

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30 Years in the Brew City: Milwaukee’s Lakefront Brewery celebrates craft brewing milestone

August 15, 2017 by Monique Kleinhuizen

As a Milwaukee girl, beer runs deep in my family. And there was one name that almost always made the list of beverages in the cooler for a weekend away: Lakefront. Bottles of Fixed Gear, Riverwest Stein, and Hop Jockey Double IPA would chill next to the signature green eyeball on a neighboring bottle of Lakefront IPA.

Nestled on Commerce Street along the Milwaukee River on the southern edge of Milwaukee’s Brewer’s Hill, Lakefront Brewery  is the veritable anchor of Brew City’s craft brewing scene, and this year marks 30 years in business.

We took the opportunity to chat with Lakefront owners, brothers Jim and Russ Klisch about what’s made the company successful in its first three decades, what’s changed in that time, and where they’re headed next.

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The Growler: It’s 1987. Why did you decide to get into brewing?

Jim: Russ bought this rudimentary book on brewing for my birthday, and we literally looked in the phone book for a place that sold equipment. A friend told us we should try brewing pale ale, and I had to ask him what that was. We just went from there and discovered this growing homebrewing community. And [Russ] was an engineer, so we thought we could build a brewery on the cheap from other people’s junk. We paid out of pocket for most things, and it grew, slow but sure.

Milwaukee was kind of slow to get into the craft brewing scene, though it’s picked up in the past few years. The big breweries kind of took all the talent at first. I think people thought that if you can get a nice, steady job with benefits, why would you go off on your own to brew? Plus the domestic brands had a lot of power in the state. Milwaukee in general tends to be a little behind trends—making sure things catch on before they go all-in, but then they’re out for quality. Now our city has come into the fold, and new breweries are springing up like mushrooms.

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Jim and Russ Klisch pouring their first beer, Riverwest Stein Amber Lager at Gordon Park Pub in Milwaukee // Photo courtesy of Lakefront Brewery

G: What’s changed in the last 30 years?

Jim: The craft beer business has really blown up. It used to be—when we started—that we looked in the checkbook, and if there was money in the account, we’d buy something. Now, to be successful as a new brewery, you have to hit the ground running with a million-dollar promotional and business plan.

Russ: Our building was a coal-burning power plant in its former life, and we were the first operational building on the street in 1999. Now there are condos everywhere—this street certainly doesn’t look like it did then.

Jim: Millennials are returning to the city to work, live, and play. And drinking habits are shifting, too—the “share of stomach” is following along with them. The taproom is where people want to hang out and drink right now. So we have food every day in the beer hall—you really need to have a fish fry to balance the 13% ABV barrel-aged Eisbock, I think.

Russ: When we started, beer meant Miller, Bud, Pabst, Schlitz—and if you were blindfolded, you couldn’t tell which one you were drinking. And at first we imitated European styles, and tried to replicate them. Now we’re innovators—we’re coming out and brewing something different. Not just us, but all the little guys. Now American beer is second-to-none in the world. In a way, we feel like we’ve helped change beer in Milwaukee—and in America.

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Photos courtesy of Lakefront Brewery

 

G: Lakefront has been at the forefront of many changes in the industry. Which stick out in your mind?

Russ: In 1981, Schlitz closed, and in 1996, Pabst closed. Those were sad days in the city, but they also signaled a change that was happening in the industry.

In 1996, we became the first brewery in the country to get a license and brew certified organic. 2005 was when we got label approval for gluten-free beer. Previously, anything without 25 percent malted barley couldn’t be classified as a beer. We helped come up with the new policy, and Lakefront was first in line with New Grist, made with rice and sorghum.

2011 was when we brewed our first all-indigenous beer—Wisconsinite Summer Weiss hefeweizen—made with 100 percent Wisconsin-grown hops, malt, yeast, and water. And in 2016, I helped develop the Cellar Certified hourglass labels for age-able beers.

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Lakefront Brewery co-founder Jim Klisch hoists a Riverwest Stein Amber Lager, the brewery’s flagship beer // Photo by Kevin Kramer

G: What would you say to someone just getting started in brewing?

Jim: You have to understand the three-tiered business—brewers, distributors, retailers—and know how much money it’ll take to succeed at each of those levels. If you’re going to build a $3 million brewery, how will you pay for it? You have to be prepared mentally to take on that challenge, because it can overcome you. You have to know if you can still walk away at the end of the day.

There’s more brewing capacity now than ever before, but beer sales overall are not increasing. Domestics are fighting back and effectively controlling prices by buying up smaller brands and fixing craft beers at $8.99 a six-pack. Many regional brands are feeling the pressure because of it. But once you start brewing, it changes your life. All of a sudden, you want to start experiencing the other flavors and great things in the world. You become aware of beer hot spots—like a “beer tourist”—and so much more interested in the flavors out there and what this human community has to offer.

Visit lakefrontbrewery.com for updates on 30th anniversary events and beers.

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Please check with your sales person on availability and pricing (please note some products are not available in certain markets)

CHEERS!

What’s Brewing Bergseth Bros.

Weekly Online Newsletter Vol.101

Frothy Orange Pumpkin Ale Ready to Drink

As I sipped on my Pumpkin Spice Latte® this weekend I was thinking what can be better in the fall with flavors of cinnamon, ginger, all spice and nutmeg…… Well Duh, all of these flavors in beer! The change in the weather and leaves not only brings us Oktoberfest beers but also Pumpkin ales, lagers and ciders. Pumpkin beer for me encompasses the flavors of fall in one glass. If you’re feeling really adventurous try layering these beers with Guinness. Another great combination is with Empyrean Dark Side Vanilla Porter mix half and half pumpkin beer to porter.

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Brewers get very creative when making these beers, most using real pumpkin while adding classic fall spices; ginger, all spice, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, etc. Brewers also change flavors with the style of yeast they use, whether they use traditional ale, lager or Belgian yeast all of these yeasts will influence the flavor profile of the beer.

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At Bergseth Bros. we’re fortunate to carry many brands that excel in making award winning pumpkin ales, lagers and ciders.beer-billboards-2000x560-pumpkin

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CHEERS!