Trip to the Excelsior Brewing Company

 Our Program on May 26^th was a lunchtime visit to the home of the Excelsior Brewery. They are located in the building that housed Harvey Phillips’ Chevrolet dealership for years.

After finishing our lunch, catered by Bayview, the founder and president of the brewery, John Klick, gave us a rundown on the operation. Started 3 years ago (they are having a 3^rd “beerthday celebration” early in July)  by John and two others, they now have a distribution area that includes most of Southern Minnesota, and North up to Baxter. They have 4 “flagship” beers that are always available, and 13 seasonal brews that are available during the year. In their current configuration, the have 11 fulltime employees. Their wide area of distribution is a result of having 4 large beer distributors handle their product.

 

John gave us the recipe for beer-making, but didn’t include enough details so we can go into competition with them. First ingredient is water, and the water they use is city water, but they process it with a reverse osmosis to put back in some of the minerals taken out by Excelsior. The first additive is barley, and most of their products use an Irish barley. The next grain added is hops. The final component is yeast, which gives it the carbonation. The bubbling is sometimes augmented with the addition of carbon dioxide, which makes the foam feel and taste richer.

 

They have a very good website that tells more about them ( www.excelsiorbrew.com ) which is worth visiting.