Lift Bridge suspends bottled beer

No more Farm Girl bottles

​Stillwater's Lift Bridge Brewery sent out a release today announcing that they are suspending delivery of their bottled product. No more Farm Girl on store shelves; at least for now. For the last couple of years Lift Bridge beers have been brewed at the Cold Spring Brewery near St. Cloud. According to the release, Cold Spring has made the decision to prioritize their own brands over those of their contract clients. While Lift Bridge acknowledges that Cold Spring is within its rights to do so, the short notice given has left them in a lurch with no bottled beer to sell.

Earlier this year Lift Bridge began production in their own brewery in Stillwater. They currently produce all of their kegged product at that facility and have capacity to keep up with draft demand. This new predicament has caused them to fast-forward some expansion that had been planned for the future. They are receiving new fermenters today that will increase their capacity by 66%. They are looking to purchase a bottling line that will allow them to move at least a portion of the bottled production to the Stillwater plant.

But these solutions won't happen quickly. Lift Bridge says that the plan will take several months to complete, but that they hope to have bottles back on shelves later in 2011. In the meantime Lift Bridge fans will have to seek out their favorite brews in the bars.

In some better news, the brewery does have some new beers in the works. These include an oyster stout, Oktoberfest, and a bourbon-barrel aged barleywine. They also plan to bring back the Belgian-inspired Biscotti. And you can always head out to Stillwater and pick up a growler from the brewery.

Cheers,
Michael Agnew
Certified Cicerone
A Perfect Pint