For Immediate Release, 5/5/16

Valleyfair Amusement Park and Badger Hill Brewing have partnered to introduce a new and exclusive craft beer in honor of the amusement park’s 40th anniversary. High Roller Extra Park Ale, a brew as classic and satisfying as the ride it was named after, will be available all summer long at the upper Midwest’s largest amusement park. Badger Hill and Valleyfair are located less than a mile away from each other so this collaboration was the perfect pairing. The tap handles for High Roller Extra Park Ale are made by ReclaiMNed and fashioned out of reclaimed wood from the actual High Roller coaster, which is also celebrating it’s 40th Anniversary, giving it an extra special twist.

High Roller Extra Park Ale is modeled after an EPA style beer. It is malt-forward, easy drinking and perfect for a day at the park. At 5.2% ABV and 43 IBUs it is approachable and just what Valleyfair was looking for. The Valleyfair marketing team joined the Badger Hill team in April and tried four brews, choosing the Extra Park Ale as the winner. This beer release on Friday, May 13th and will be on tap at three locations in the park, including Atomic Beer, Chickie’s & Pete’s, Depot Refreshments as well as at the Badger Hill Taproom.

Cheers to celebrating 40 years at Valleyfair!

Badger Hill Brewing Company was founded in 2012 and moved to Shakopee, MN in late 2014. The taproom has weekly tours on Saturdays and serves unique beers that you cannot find outside of the brewery. Growlers are for sale Tuesday through Sunday. Find them in 6-pack cans at liquor stores throughout the state and on draught at select bars and restaurants. They are nestled between Canterbury Park and Valley Fair. Taproom hours and more information can be found at www.badgerhillbrewing.com.

Valleyfair is owned and operated by Cedar Fair Entertainment Company, a publicly traded partnership that is listed for trading on The New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “FUN.” In addition to Valleyfair, Cedar Fair owns and operates ten other amusement parks, three water parks, one indoor water park, and five hotels. Cedar Fair also operates the Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park in California under a management contract.

The news has started to get out – we’re building a brewery! We are neck-deep in all of the crazy details that breweries go through to spring physically into existence. That includes a lot of unsexy stuff like drains, permits and HVAC as well as agreements with bankers, landlords and vendors. We don’t have a lot of money, compared to some, but we are trying to take the High Road and do it “right”. We want to build a place that feels like home, not just to us and our staff but to our customers, vendors, neighbors and friends. Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.

A brewery is complex thing. Making beer is (or at least should be) science-based, data-oriented, process driven and quality focused. That is the Foundation that makes the art of beer making possible. The tap room, on the other hand, is a place of comfort, humor, conversation, play and enjoyment. It is the part of this project that really inspires us. The tap room will be a canvas that you will all help us fill in.

We’ve identified 5 things that we call our Core Values. (Check out the book Traction for more information on this and other cool business methodology concepts.) They are:

1. Fun
2. Smart
3. Hard-working
4. Honest
5. Nice

That’s who we are, it’s who we want to work with, it’s who we want to work for, it’s the world we want to live in. While we sweat our way through the daunting and considerable challenges of building our brewery and tap room, making the sacrifices that all growing businesses make, we are dreaming of the days when we are gathered around the bar lifting a glass with 200 of our closest friends.

I heard a quote the other day that sums it up for me:

“If you want something you’ve never had, you must be willing to do something you’ve never done.”

We’re building a brewery! We’re living the dream. We hope you’ll be a part of it. Dreams don’t happen by themselves.

Cheers,

Michael

We are happy to announce that we will be moving to our own new production facility and taproom in the 2nd half of 2014! More details to come as soon as we  have them, but in the meantime you can take a look at the coverage by local media in the links below to learn a bit more.

• City Pages – Badger Hill Brewing is moving to Shakopee, opening taproom
• The Growler – Badger Hill building a new brewery in Shakopee
• Shakopee.Gov – City lands its first brewery

Here is overview of all events we have planned for the Fall. We will keep this updated as the year continues!

• September 26th – Taste of Long Lake
• September 28th – Autumn Brew Review
• October 2nd – Zekes Unchained – Meet the Brewer
• October 3rd – ESPN Radio – The Beer Show Apperance
• October 4th – Elevated Liquors Tasting
• October 13th  – Spill the Wine – Sip ‘N Streets
• October 17 – 20th – Golden Nugget West Side Takeover
• October 18th – Northgate Liquors Andover tasting
• October 19th – Rogers Municipal Liquors Tasting
• October 26th – St Anthony Wine & Spirits beer sampling

It has been a crazy past few months for us as we work toward the launch of our brewery in two short weeks. Now that our fermenters are full, we thought we would take a few minutes to tell you a bit more about ourselves.

Who is Badger Hill?

Badger Hill was founded by two brothers, Broc (Badger) and Brent (Hill), born and raised in the Twin Cities. We can trace our genesis to a camping trip in Colorado 17 years ago where the two brothers shared their first craft beer next to a reservoir high in the Rocky Mountains. That shared experience is what cemented our passion for craft beer and planted the seed for what would eventually become Badger Hill brewing.

Broc had been home brewing for over 10 years when he and Brent brewed their first batch together in the mid 2000s. We spent several years honing our recipes and learning the craft. When it came time to create Badger Hill, we decided we needed someone to rein us in (Broc can get a tad bit excited about beer) and run the day to day business operations. That is where our third partner, Britt, enters the picture.

What are we about?  We at Badger Hill have two main goals:  First and foremost, we want to brew great beers for Minnesota beer lovers (pretty straightforward!). Second, we want to work to elevate the craft beer community in Minnesota. We are proud of our Minnesota roots and want to help make Minnesota a premier beer destination.  A lofty goal perhaps, but something we hope we can help accomplish in partnership with the other great MN breweries.

What about the beer?