Black Star Double Hopped Golden Lager Re-Launches In San Francisco and the Pacific Northwest

Minott Wessinger, fifth generation brewer and great-great grandson of brewing pioneer Henry Weinhard, has announced the re-introduction of the popular Black Star Double Hopped Golden Lager (www.BlackStarBeer.com) to the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.  First brewed in Montana in 1995, Black Star has been on hiatus from the market for the past seven years.  Wessinger has introduced it to select natural food stores and on-premise locations this week.

“Given our family history of brewing – which dates back to 1856– Black Star is a true legacy beer and I am thrilled to return it to the marketplace,” said Wessinger. “Black Star is a traditional European-style Pilsner beer, refreshing with lots of taste, and the perfect beer for summer.”

Black Star is a double hopped (dry-hopped) golden lager based on traditional European Pilsner beers made with both Bavarian Mittelfrüh and Czech Saaz hops and two row malting barley.

“By hopping it in the kettle and then again prior to finishing, Black Star opens with a distinct hop aroma and a rich, full-bodied flavor while remaining remarkably crisp and refreshing,” noted Wessinger.

Black Star is brewed at the Great Northern Brewing Company in Whitefish, Montana, a traditional gravity flow style brewery built by Wessinger in 1994.  The mostly automated brew house is one of the most complex for its size in the country.  The Lauter Tun filter screen was custom designed and manufactured in Germany for the expressed purpose for creating fine lager beers. The fermenting and packaging area, known as the Cellar, is open and roomy, allowing for many brewery operations to take place at the same time.

Consumers will recognize Black Star by the distinctive bright gold labels, meant to “reflect the golden color of the beer inside,” said Wessinger.

As demand for Black Star grows, it will continue to be brewed at its original home in Whitefish, Montana as well as in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  “Black Star is a true passion project and something I’ve always wanted to bring back when the timing was right,” Wessinger says.  “Providing a beer to consumers that combines flavor and the refreshment of traditional lagers is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.”

Black Star retails for $7.99 for a 6-pack and $14.99 for a 12- pack and will be available in select bars and upscale natural and organic grocery stores.  Black Star is available in both 12 oz bottles and cans.  Consumers can also find Black Star cans onboard a young, rapidly growing and trend-setting California-based domestic airline.  For more information and a list of accounts where Black Star beer can be found please visit Black Star’s Store Locator http://blackstarbeer.com/beer-locator/.

About Black Star Beer

Black Star Double Hopped Golden Lager was first brewed in Whitefish, Montana at the Great Northern Brewing Company in 1995.  The beer was created by Minott Wessinger, a fifth generation brewer and great-great grandson of West Coast brewing pioneer Henry Weinhard.  After seven years of brewing Black Star, Wessinger chose to stop production in 2002 when other projects prevented him from giving Black Star the time and energy it deserved.  In February 2010, Black Star returned to the kettles at the Great Northern Brewery and was first reintroduced in Montana.