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LOCAL LOVE: Shops offer sweet Valentine’s specials PAGE 2
Honey Bee Club gets buzzed for bees at annual fundraiser BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER STAFF WRITER
STILLWATER — The Honey Bee Club of Stillwater partnered with Lift Bridge Brewing for a second year to present its “Beer for Bees” fundraiser on Feb. 9. Among Lift Bridge’s original brews, there was a specially made honey-infused beer to sample, specifically to support research at the University of Minnesota’s Bee and Pollinator Research Lab. The Honey Bee Club is completely run by volunteers and relies on donations. “It works out pretty well if we get one food fundraiser a year to cover some of the expenses,” said Honey Bee Club Executive Director Elizabeth Welty. Lift Bridge has incorporated the event into their regular, once-aweek “Townie Tuesday” event, which supports other local businesses. The event encourages attendees to purchase Lift Bridge brews—for every bottle, $1 of the purchase goes toward the Honey Bee Club. However, “Beer for Bees” is also family-friendly, providing root beer for the younger crowd and presenting different educational and interpretive activities for children and adults alike. “They brew a root beer, they have a popcorn machine, you can order pizza, and with the taproom you can bring your children if they’re supervised, and having the root beer and popcorn makes that a little bit easier. We’ll have a hive set up displayed, several master gardeners, several master beekeepers,” Welty said. “It was pretty lively last year.” This marks the second year the club has hosted its fundraiser in conjunction with Lift Bridge. The Honey Bee Club has been around since Jan. 2013, and there are now 372 members. The Honey Bee Club plans to SEE HONEY BEE CLUB, PAGE 12
JACKIE BUSSJAEGER | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
The Whistler Soda factory was packed with people eager to sample old-fashioned sodas and view the bottling line, with more than 3,000 visitors in six hours.
Whistler Soda tasting draws record crowd BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER STAFF WRITER
FOREST LAKE – On Saturday, Feb. 6, more than 3,000 people from the Forest Lake, the Twin Cities and beyond waited up to an hour in line for an open house and free soda tasting at Whistler Classic Soda, located just off Ninth Avenue SW. Owner Jesse Hopkins said that on a regular Saturday, the factory receives just around 100 guests. Saturday’s turnout was hugely unexpected, but a pleasant surprise. “It feels like a dream, it was just overwhelming,” Hopkins said. “I cannot believe the turnout.” The company’s unique, old-fashioned method of soda making means that batches are smaller, but there is more room for variety among flavors. Hopkins said the day started out with 38 flavors of soda available for purchase, with 30 flavors of samples. By the end of the day, Whistler had sold out of its new butterscotch root beer and caramelized pineapple flavors, as well as some of the classics: black cherry, cream soda and root beer.
“We did a thousand transactions, so that was a combination of cases and 8-packs, and with that most people had 2-4 other people with them,” Hopkins said. “So just by doing our counts, we’re estimating 3,000-3,500 people who came in a six-hour period. It’s just absolutely mind blowing.” The homemade Whistler sodas have gained popularity since the company started up in 2014, but renown for the soda has really been built in the St. Paul and Minneapolis area. Hopkins said that he is surprised how few people in Forest Lake know that there is a homemade soda factory practically in their backyard. “We’re pretty popular in Minneapolis, but it’s been difficult to get places in the Forest Lake area to carry the soda,” Hopkins said. “I’m hoping with added exposure we can get some hometown stores to cover it.” In addition to the free soda tasting, a raffle was held raise money for the Brad Engen Scholarship Fund, through the White Bear Lake Education Fund. The fund provides $1,000 to a graduating senior who attended Sunrise Middle
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School. The recipient must have a strong interest in history, in memory of Sunrise Middle School history and geography teacher Brad Engen, who died of brain cancer in 2014. Saturday’s event raffled off Whistler Soda T-shirts, North Star T-shirts, packs of soda, movie night baskets and some hand-crafted soda carriers to raise money for the scholarship. Hopkins had been a good friend of Engen, and said that one of his motivations in starting Whistler was in order to assist with the scholarship. However, since Whistler only started up in the last couple of years, Hopkins said that all of the business’s time and resources were absorbed by just starting up and keeping running. This year, Whistler’s success allowed it to finally contribute to the scholarship fund in the way Hopkins wanted. “One of the goals was to be able to find a way to help fund that scholarship in a huge way,” Hopkins said. “This is the first time we’ve actually been able to, and it will be a huge part of what we do in the future.” SEE WHISTLER SODA, PAGE 12
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