Award-winning Allagash Brewing is expanding into Minnesota
The award-winning Allagash Brewing, best known for its Belgian-style beers, is coming to Minnesota.
The Portland, Maine-based brewery is expanding its distribution footprint deeper into the Midwest after stepping into Wisconsin (2020) and Illinois (statewide last year) in recent years.
Allagash will start hitting liquor store shelves and bars in 15 Minnesota counties, all concentrated around the Twin Cities, throughout November.
While the expansion will bring a variety of its brews into Minnesota, beer aficionados may be most excited to see Allagash White hitting shelves. The Belgian-style wheat beer with coriander and Curaçao orange peel has been the brand's flagship since the '90s and is still going strong. It recently took home a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival.
"While our home Northeast market continues to be critical for us, our team is looking forward to further strengthening Allagash's ties in the Midwest," Josh Fruchtman, Allagash's Sales Director, said in a statement. "With our recent expansion in Wisconsin and Illinois over the past few years, coupled with Minnesota's rich brewing history, we're continuing our push to thoughtfully open in more Midwestern territories with plenty of potential."
Once confined largely to the East Coast, with distribution from Maine down to Florida, the company has been inching westward with a toehold in the upper midwest and distribution in Texas and California. Given the wobbly state of craft beer in the United States, expansion doesn't feel like the norm. Nor does its approach of opting not to expand into hard seltzers or canned cocktails (or insert next beverage trend here), but to instead double down on a flagship , especially when it's a flagship that isn't an IPA.
