Alpine Beer Co. Expands Production To Cold Springs in MN W/ Commentary

Patrick  McIlhenney justs announced Alpine Beer Co.’s decision to move their packaging production to Minnesota. We’ve heard before this went to press that Alpine would be using Cold Springs Brewery to contract brew as an alternative to a large capital investment in San Diego County.  21st Amendment Brewery does their production brewing at Cold Springs as well.  As huge fans of Alpine, we will hold out on judging one of the best brewers in the world making beer at one of the most notoriously worst contract breweries in the country. Why? Because Alpine will be in charge of the beer. Here’s what Patrick has to say, and make note that he does not mention Cold Springs by name, and we’d be fine with being corrected:

More info on the increased production of Nelson, Duet and Hoppy Birthday, it appears on track for when the hop crops are harvested, plucked, pulverized and pelletized and ready to ship. Nelson uses hops from the southern hemisphere and should be available after mid-year sometime. The North American hop crop is ready to use very late in the year, look for Duet and “Hoppy Birthday” early next year, most likely. A recent development has made it possible for us to make the extra keg beer locally and the bottle and can beer made in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes. Bottles will be our current 22 oz. amber beer bottles and cans will be the Alumi-Tek 16 oz. can with a large screw cap.

“ELEVEN PLUS TWO” can be rearranged to “TWELVE PLUS ONE” (and it’s still unlucky)

Now I’d like to say a few things about contract brewing. There has been much ado made about contract brewing and not in a positive way. Most consider contract brewing to be inferior, cheating or unethical. I would like to point out that our collaboration with New Belgium Brewing, where we made nearly our annual production at one time, turned out to be a fantastic beer that really resembled an Alpine IPA, for sure. That is very much what contracting for us would be like, hands on utilizing our unique techniques and ingredients. Yes, I will be in Minnesota directing the brewing and packaging of our precious beer. Much like we will be doing when we can jump through enough hoops to get our own production brewery built. Another major consideration with Minnesota is the fact they have an incredible abundance of phenomenal water. Their “glacial melt” water leaps from a spring at the brewery and has an almost identical composition as our brewery water, which is awesome. So, fear not that we are contracting to have more beer made for you, our thirsty friends, embrace it and I promise you will not be disappointed.
Some of the negative publicity surrounding contract brewing was warranted. Some breweries tried to hide the fact they were contracting out of the area yet advertising things like they were “the first local brewery” or something equally deceptive. Plus, they weren’t putting in their own techniques and quality control, something we won’t have a problem with. For us, it will be like borrowing your favorite Uncle’s awesome, modern brewery of size and racing it down the craft beer highway.

Ever look at a clock three times and still not know what time it is? Me either.

All my bad decisions would make an incredible, unbelievable movie.
You almost never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren’t going to do anything productive for the rest of the day. My time has come.