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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.

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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!