Every bag of malt is printed with a QR code that identifies the specs, all the way down to the exact field where the grain was grown. And Two Track provides their breweries with posters, coasters, and table tents, so beer drinkers can scan the code with their smartphone and read all about their beer’s origin story at Two Track.
Jared Stober says the traceability is one of their best selling points with brewers. “My brother (Donovan) tracks everything. He can pinpoint where the barley came from, what was put on that barley, when it was planted and harvested. That’s information that can get lost when you’re growing barley for a large malthouse. You become one number of 10,000 for a supplier,” Jared Stober says.
The farmer grows the barley, but is usually the least recognized in the process. Two Track Malting changes that. “It’s a sense of pride, because you spend all that time growing and harvesting,” Jared Stober says. “So you know [your barley] is going into some beer, and with our operation, you know exactly which beer it’s going into.”
Beaver Creek Brewery, Wibaux, Montana
If you spin your wheels down Interstate-94 in Montana and stop in Wibaux at just the right time of year, there is a chance you can get a taste of Beaver Creek Brewery’s most popular seasonal beer, Chokecherry Wheat. But the chance is slim.
Sandy Stinnett, head brewer, says he brewed 40 kegs of Chokecherry Wheat in 2019, and it sold out within 60 hours, or 16 retail days at the brewery. The beer is made using chokecherries that locals bring in by the gallon-bag or even five-gallon bucket. In return, the pickers get a gift certificate for some free beer or merchandise.
Beaver Creek opened in 2008 after an 18-month renovation of an abandoned grocery store in town. At the time, there were 16 craft breweries in Montana. Today, there are nearly 100.
Stinnett says the ancillary businesses growing around the craft beer industry have been interesting to watch. For example, there are now “ma and pop” distributors catering to craft beer. “You’ll get those phone calls, say, from Fargo, North Dakota, and they’ll tell you they’re coming along and picking up kegs of craft beer and move them to bars, restaurants,” he says.
“Creates a lot of opportunity in Montana. Not only for the brewers, but for the taprooms that hire individuals in small towns,” Stinnett says. “Then there’s glass; I get my growlers and logoed pint glasses from a small town, Stevensville, Montana. That feller opened up when he saw the brewery industry starting to grow early on. He enjoys a booming business right now, so much so that he can’t keep up with all the breweries in Montana.”
John Sokoloski, Goldenwest Electric Cooperative, a Basin Electric Class C member located in Wibaux, says of the brewery and its adjacent restaurant and music venue, “We live in a pretty small town, about 400 people, and for us to have access to this caliber of food and drink is so appreciated,” Sokoloski says. “We know people travel from miles around to come to the brewery, but our members and employees are able to visit right here in their own community. In fact, we held our employee Christmas party there this year.”
TractorLift Brewery, Humboldt, Iowa
Larry Beilke’s love for good beer goes all the way back to his military days. The 21-year veteran was stationed in Germany in the late 1980s. “When I came back to the United States, I thought, 'Why don’t we have beer here, like they do in Germany?’”
Fast forward many years to a Christmas party where Beilke received a Mr. Beer kit. “I spent all winter in my basement reading and learning to make beer,” he says.
He kept brewing at home, upgrading from the beer kit to all-grain brewing, earning a few blue ribbons at the Iowa State Fair and the admiration of his friends.
Several more years later, a group of friends in Humboldt, Iowa, were looking to buy a local restaurant that was for sale. “They came to me and said, ‘Hey we think your beer is pretty good, what do you think about opening a brewery and making beer for the restaurant?’”
Beilke, whose full-time job is as a Midland Power Cooperative member service representative, sold his first beer from TractorLift Brewery in 2016. ”I am strictly a wholesale producer, so I only have four customers,” he says. The customers are two bars and two restaurants, all located in Humboldt. “The end goal would be to have a taproom of my own,” he says.
His time working for the co-op means his brewery is energy efficient. “We have an air source heat pump and use a high-efficiency water heater,” Beilke says. “We’re conservative with our water. The cold water that comes into the brewery is used to chill the nearly completed batch of beer. As it is pulls the heat off the beer, it is gradually warming the once-cold water to be used in the next batch of beer. Doing it this way allows me to use both less energy and less water.”
Beilke sees huge value in using local suppliers whenever possible, which includes growlers, pint glasses, t-shirts, tap handles, and logo design and printing. Aside from those services, his daughters help with bookkeeping and marketing. “On occasion I can talk one of them into helping fill kegs,” he says. He works in the brewery in the evenings and weekends, spending roughly 20 hours a week there.
“People are always asking for what’s new, and being smaller like I am gives me the flexibility to change beers regularly,” Beilke says. His most unique brew? A blueberry stout. His most popular? The cream ale.