Northern Superior Brewing Company and Country 104.3 teamed up to release a new beer during Saturday’s Weekend Warrior Fest at Marconi Hall.
The evening featured a number of food and beer pairings - courtesy of Northern Superior and the Marconi - in addition to live entertainment courtesy of Jeff McNiece, Northwest and The Barn Board Trio.
But Saturday’s night event was all about the official release of ‘Weekend Warrior,’ a traditional German hefeweizen.
Northern Superior brewmaster Blake Winter describes the new brew as a wheat ale with German yeast and “a lot of banana.”
“The idea behind was when [Country 104.3] came up to us and asked us to do this kind of end of summer beer, all our brewers were kind of clinging on to the idea of summer, so we decided to do a traditional summer beer right at the end - just kind of hang on to those memories,” Winter said.
Wayne Watkins of KISS 100.5 and Country 104.3 says that the local country radio station promoted the bands that performed in the Northern Superior Brewing Company taproom during the summer, leading up to Saturday’s release of the Weekend Warrior wheat ale that was made specifically for the radio station.
“The Weekend Warrior is our wheat ale they made especially for the radio station, and this is just a party to kick it off and release it,” Watkins said.
Organizers says that Weekend Warrior Fest will be annual event, and not just a one-off.
“Next year we hope to be able to build on this, and learn what worked and what didn’t work this year, but continue this tradition,” Watkins said. “I think it’s going to be something to look forward to for next year.”