GO DINING
Joe Helton Bergseth Bros.
W
hen the common patron sits down to enjoy a pint of the finest lager an establishment has to offer, very little thought goes into how it got there from where it was brewed. The journey from brew kettle to glass is a long one, with a lot of moving parts. Fargo native Joe Helton is one of those important parts. Helton is a delivery driver for Bergseth Bros., a local beer distributing company. He confessed that before he started delivering beer, he didn’t think much about how it got there. “I didn’t know anything about it. I’d just show up at a bar and say, ‘Hey, I’ll take this and be on my merry way,'” Helton said. “I didn’t even think twice about it. I didn’t think, ‘There’s somebody that brought this here and worked hard to do their job to get that here for us.' There’s a whole long line of people who are working to make this happen.” His role at Bergseth consists of driving a truck full of kegs, bottles and cans of his company’s products to all the different locations that sell them. On the face of it, it seems simple. But that doesn’t mean that it’s easy. On an average day, he’ll be making between 15-20 stops and hauling 50 cases of beer and up to 80 kegs per day. “There’s no shortage of drinkers in this town,” Helton quipped. “It’s no secret this town loves to drink.” The job can, at times, be
Delivery average weekly numbers 70 | MARCH 2016 | FARGOMONTHLY.COM
UNTHDEER
HOOD dangerous, too. Helton has seen and experienced numerous injuries, ranging from smashed fingers and hands to broken toes of feet from kegs getting dropped on them. “Accidents definitely do happen,” Helton said. “You’ve got to be mindful of the surface you’re walking on. If it’s wet from staff working or if a previous delivery was made and it was raining outside. T here’s a lot of different factors.” Helton said his day-to-day tasks don’t really change, but he never knows what to expect. “It’s the same thing, but it’s always different. When you come in, you always know what you’re going to be doing, where you’re going to be going on a particular day, but you
360 kegs of beer
1,000 cases of beer
don’t know if its going to be a big order or a small order,” Helton said. “Some days, I swear the kegs feel heavier.” Helton emphasized that being a part of the beer industry is what he’s passionate about. “I really care about what I do. I feel like I’ve found my niche in life and it’s this industry,” Helton said. “I want the best for my accounts. I want them to be happy. I want them to know that I’m here and I care. I’m someone they can count on. I’m really lucky to be with a great and fantastic company, with Bergseth. It’s family-owned and-operated. You’re not a number. They care about you, and they want to be the best. It’s awesome being part of something great.”
80 stops
Roughly 70,000 pounds of beer per week