Minhas Craft Brewery: Completes banner year

January 18, 2011, Monroe, Wisconsin: Gary Olson, President of the Minhas Craft Brewery announced that 2010 was a banner year for “the oldest brewery in the Midwest” on 3 different fronts:

PRODUCTION

The Brewery packaged just under 250,000 barrels in 2010. This annual volume matches the highest annual barrels ever produced by the Brewery in its long and storied 166 year history. The last time the Brewery achieved these high production numbers was in the early 1980s when the renowned Augsburger brand was produced by the Brewery before it was sold to Stroh’s of Detroit, MI. Many people in the area believed that the lofty production numbers of the “Augie” years would never be matched again. Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of the Brewery staff and workers, this great production record has once again been achieved.

The record production was attained by the resurgence of the Brewery’s heritage brands such as Huber Bock, as well as the new brands that have been introduced, such as Mountain Crest, Boxer and Minhas Light.

TOURISM

The Brewery doubled the number of tour center visitors in 2010 as compared to the previous year. This represents another all time record for the Minhas Craft Brewery. In June of 2010, the grand opening of the Haydock Museum of Beer Memorabilia, the largest brewery museum in America was held. The museum is drawing visitors to the Monroe area from all parts of the country and overseas. The museum and tour center are now open 7 days a week which adds to its appeal as a vacation destination. The Haydock Museum of Beer Memorabilia is also attracting the attention of the print media with magazine and newspaper articles appearing nationwide. This added exposure is great for increasing tourism throughout Green County.

LOCAL ECONOMY

The Brewery signed a 5 year contract with its Union. The record breaking production level has mandated a record number of employees and payroll dollars for the Green County area by the Brewery.

The leadership team and employees at the Minhas Craft Brewery look forward to 2011 with excitement as they expect the growth to continue beyond the current all time production records. They are planning for increased sales of 20%, by growing the current brands and introducing our new Boxer Light Lager. The Brewery will also be completing this year a six million dollar capital investment and expansion plan that was started a couple of years ago.

For further information, to set up an interview and to get relevant photographic images, Gary Olson can be reached at (608) 325-3191 or e-mail at Gary.Olson@MinhasBrewery.com