Via some Thursday afternoon tweeting from the Toppling Goliath twitter account, the Iowa brewery informally announced their move into the Minnesota beer market.
We now have a distributor for MN and will announce market plans in a press release soon. Licenses applied for. https://t.co/1X9wijdCH1
— TG Brews Hop Patrol (@TGBrews) July 16, 2015
Further tweets clarified that the small Brewery from Decorah, Iowa would enter Minnesota ahead of Illinois, a move that has been publicly speculated for a while.
Sorry, MN is next. IL on deck. https://t.co/AcwJFm0bar — TG Brews Hop Patrol (@TGBrews) July 16, 2015
The expanded distribution and talk of larger markets is 180° turn from where Toppling Goliath appeared to be headed just months ago. Toppling Goliath’s Head Brewer had left and people were grumbling about the consistency of the beer.
Toppling Goliath lost their head brewer? This is one our top rated breweries of last year.
— ratebeer (@ratebeer) February 23, 2015
@therealpdubb @ratebeer Yes. — Michael Saboe (@BrewmastaMike) February 23, 2015
Fast forward to present day: Head Brewer Mike Saboe is back at the brewery. Toppling Goliath has an alternative proprietorship agreement with Brew Hub. And soon Minnesotans will no longer need to drive to Hudson, WI to get their fix of Toppling Goliath Brewing’s Pseudo Sue (except on Sundays).
Moving production of Toppling Goliath’s top sellers such as PseudoSue, Golden Nugget and Dorothy’s to contract facilities like Brew Hub will allow the team in Iowa to continue to innovate and develop new beers.
– June 17, 2015 • By Chris Drosner | Wisconsin State Journal
7/21/2015 Update: Artisan Beer Company (Johnson Brothers) confirmed a new distribution partnership with Toppling Goliath via press release. Artisan will distribute Toppling Goliath beer for Minnesota and Iowa. No word if specialty beers like Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout and Assassin will make it to Minnesota. See press release below.
Toppling Goliath announces distribution agreement for Iowa and Minnesota.
(Decorah, Iowa)
Toppling Goliath Brewing Company President Clark Lewey is proud to announce that a strategic partnership has been formed with Johnson Brothers to distribute Toppling Goliath’s beers throughout Iowa and Minnesota.
“Johnson Brothers is one of the best craft beer distributors in the Upper Midwest and is the perfect fit for our brands,” said Lewey.“Johnson Brothers will take over all of the remaining distribution for Iowa, which will help us reach many more customers that have been patiently waiting for our beer. We have a lot of fans in Minnesota as well, and we can’t wait to launch our beer there as well.” “We couldn’t be more excited to offer this fantastic portfolio of beers to our customers,” said Todd Johnson, COO of Johnson Brothers. “This is a great day for craft beer lovers in both Iowa and Minnesota,” he added.
Toppling Goliath is no stranger to success. They have won dozens of awards and are consistently ranked as one of the best craft breweries in the world. They even have three of their beers listed in the top 50 beers on Beer Advocate. Later this fall, Toppling Goliath will be looking to begin building its second new brewery with an estimated completion date of June of 2016. This will more than double the current capacity and the new location will have much needed acreage for future growth.
“I am so proud of the hard work our team at TG has put in since we started 6 years ago,” said Lewey. “Bringing on a distributing partner with the type of reach that Johnson Brothers has will insure we will be able to bring our brands to more folks throughout the region.”
