Where has the summer gone? Feels like just this past weekend it was 90 degrees with equal percent humidity. And here we are, mere hours away from August.
Fortunately, yeah, it’s still basically that temp. I say fortunately because, after all, we are purveyors of all things cold! It might’ve been uncomfortably muggy for anyone at the swap meet this past weekend who stopped by the Klockow beer garden, even with the cold glass of crisp lager, but that’s why we maintain a perfectly cool taproom (open 7 days a week, starting at noon). We’ve been told that it’s a wonderful place to hoist a pint with your friends, and we tend to agree.
But what if your friend isn’t there at the same time, you may ask? Is there a solution for your desire to buy a round in spite of your friend’s absenteeism? I’m glad you asked. Guests to our brewery may have seen our Suds 4 Buds window, right next to the off-sale cooler. This ingenious system of purchasing power allows you, the humble and generous customer, to buy an unlimited number of pints for friends, family, enemies, even complete strangers! All you need to do is tell the beertender who you are, for whom you’d like to buy a pint, and how many said pints you’d like to buy. Leave the rest to us; we’ll write it down. in our very best handwriting, all of that information directly onto the glass. It couldn’t be easier! If it could, we’d do it that way.

Well, I suppose there is one more thing you need to do: Inform your comrade that they have a beer waiting for them! If you don’t, you run the risk of it not being redeemed (we’ve seen a few that have hung out for quite awhile). But admittedly, sometimes you can’t tell the person, because you don’t know them. We’ve had people buy pints for veterans, first responders, math teachers, even people wearing Minnesota soccer swag. We even had someone buy a pint for Clint (any Clint). It was up on the glass for over a year when, one day, I heard a lady say, “Hey Clint, look at this!” My ears perked up the moment I heard the name. I knew what that meant. Sure enough, Clint came up and redeemed his oddly-won free beer. He even returned the favor and bought a pint for Richard (any Richard).
Getting a free beer sure is fun. Hell, getting free anything is a lot of fun! For this reason, we’re going to challenge all of you next week to win a free registration to the Klockow Brewing 2024 Brewery Running Series 5k! See our website or the Minnesota Brewery Running Series website for links to register, or you can answer one of our daily beer or running trivia questions each day of next week. A total of five (5) free registrations will be given away, one each day to the first person to correctly answer the daily trivia in person at the taproom. Subsequent correct-answer-havers each day will receive a discount code for registration. Questions will be posted on the Klockow Brewing Instagram and Facebook pages by 11 a.m. each day.
Stay tuned!

We Barley Know You, But We Hop to Change That. It’s the Yeast We Can Do: Andrew William Klockow
Question: How long have you worked here?
Andy Klockow: I have worked here for seven years. Over seven years now, even though the brewery’s not quiet seven!
Q: That’s impressive.
AK: From the inception. [laughs] I think we officially became a business in January of 2017. Bought the building and got construction rocking all throughout the middle of 2017, and opened in October that same year.
Q: And in all that time, what is your favorite Klockow beer?
AK: Ooh, I’m going to go BHK (Nut Brown Ale). I feel like it’s the underdog, but it’s still very popular. There’s never a time of year, or time of day, where it’s like “that doesn’t sound good.” It usually sounds good in any situation.
Q: That’s fair. Well, when you’re not drinking Klockow beer, what do you like to drink?
AK: Love coffee. I would almost rank coffee over beer. It’s getting close. The boys lately have gotten me into Diet Pepsi too. That’s been an interesting turn of carbonated caffeinated things to sip on. You just need that little extra caffeine to get through the day sometimes before you drink a beer!
Q: Sticking with this theme, what are some of your favorite foods?
AK: Hmm, favorite foods. I mean, you can’t go wrong with pizza and, like, good barbecue. Tacos might top all of that though for me, because I think anything can be turned into taco or burrito form and become superior to the form that it was.
Q: Would you be able to give an example of that?
AK: Think of a big breakfast spread, breakfast hash. You pop that bad boy into a burrito and throw some hot sauce on there, it just makes it a little more easily eatable and super enjoyable!

Q: Bringing it back a bit, what do you do at the brewery?
AK: Uhh, short answer is everything.
Q: What is the longer answer?
AK: Longer answer is I wear many hats, and I’m the first person to jump in anywhere needed. Whether that’s brewing, canning, delivering, sales, cleaning bathrooms, taproom, coming up with the recipes, coming up with the schedule and the rhyme and reason why we’re doing things… My hands are in every aspect of the business.
Q: The coming up with the recipes, that seems key. What percentage of the recipes are yours?
AK: I would say the vast majority. There’s a few one-offs like Siduri’s Garden (Saison) that I had nothing to do with, because that was the women’s day brew. And a couple that Max has done, one-offs like Roundabout (Vanilla Stout) and Wanted (Red IPA). Usually the way we do it is Max has an idea, we come up with the way that idea could work as a recipe, then I scale it to the system to fit.
Q: So this all takes a ton of time, no doubt, being one with everything. But what do you do for fun?
AK: For fun? Well, I’m a musician. I love playing bass. It’s my instrument of choice. And little known fact… well, more known fact now, is that Andy plays in a band and gets to travel a bit. But that’s kind of my vacation, my getaway, hanging out with friends and playing music.
Q: The fact that you’re in a well-known metal band used to be a fun/interesting fact. Well, it still is, but it’s much more known. So that aside, what’s a fun/interesting fact about yourself?
AK: Ah, that’s a good question… I have a pretty good short game in golf. I enjoy golfing. I’m not a great golfer. But anywhere from, say, 50 yards in, I can be pretty ace.
Q: Does that mean that you’re really good at mini golf?
AK: I’m pretty good at mini golf, yeah. That’s one of my talents. Got a 30 foot putt, I might be able to sink it! Actually just did last Friday!
Q: The last question, if you had unlimited funds for a luxury, completely unessential purchase - this is f**k-you money - what do you buy? One thing.
AK: I’m going to have to say a golf course! Let’s go for a whole course… if you got f**k-you money, then, yeah! Heck, I could buy the old Wendigo, right? Get that rocking again. I mean, I don’t know if it would actually turn into a business or just be a private course for me, myself, and I.
Q: By the rules of this question, you can’t turn it into a business.
AK: Oh good, so it’s just my golf course!
Q: You can work on your long game!
AK: Yes, exactly.

~

Thanks for checking out our humble little brewery! As long as you keep coming by, we’ll do our part by making the best damn beer possible and serving it in our always inviting atmosphere.

The Klockow Staff

Beer and Shrubbery Drops this Week:

Local, etc -

38 Outpost - Grand Rapids
Sammy's - Grand Rapids
Timberlake Lodge - Grand Rapids
Pokegama Plaza Liquor - Grand Rapids
Pokegama Lake Store - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Foods South - Grand Rapids
SuperOne Foods North - Grand Rapids
Bottle & Brews - La Prairie
SuperOne Liquor - Grand Rapids
Smoke on the Water - Coleraine
Balsam Store - Bovey
Red Eye - Swan River
Deer Haven - Remer
Hollywood Bait - Bovey

Range cities -

Sawmill Saloon - Mountain Iron
Super Smoke Shop - Virginia
SuperOne Liquor - Virginia

Brainerd Lakes Area -

Jack Pine Brewery - Baxter

Duluth area -

Fitger's Wine Cellar - Duluth
Boulder Taphouse- Superior
SuperOne Liquor - Cloquet
27 Liquors - Duluth
SuperOne Liquor - Pike Lake
Dovetail Cafe & Marketplace - Duluth

McGregor -

Willey's Sports Shop & Spirits - McGregor
Mark's Bar - McGregor

Marcell -

Frontier Sports - Marcell