NPEW 2018

Schell's Brewery is the latest craft brewer to release a Midwest sourced elderberry beer flavor. An Elderberry Sour made with native North American elderberries grown by the Midwest Elderberry Cooperative (MEC) was featured at Schell's recent Bock Fest in New Ulm, MN. http://schellsbrewery.com/events/02-bockfest/

As master brewer Jace Marti's describes his Elderberry Sour:

"We will be tapping it [the Elderberry Sour] this weekend for our Bock Fest celebration. We are excited to be finally tapping this and are really happy with the way that it turned out. It has a beautiful reddish-purple hue to it. The aroma has a really interesting rose water like character to it with a underlying earthiness. It has a pleasant tartness to the beer, with a complex fruitiness and a drying, tannic quality from the elderberries. Exciting!!

Schell’s Brewery is the most recent to release a craft production using native ingredients grown in the Midwest. Local artisanal apple cider company Panache, an approved Super Bowl LII vendor, released the purplish Bold North, which is a ready-to-drink apple juice infused with elderberry from MEC following principles of Ayurveda medicine.

Two years ago Able Seedhouse + Brewery released an Elderberry Sour, and The 11 Wells Spirits Company made an Elderflower Liqueur. Sand Creek Brewing Company in Black River Falls has produced a number of elderberry-flavored brews including an elderberry Hard Lemonade and an Elderberry Scotch Ale.

Dried MEC native elderflowers have been used in the past by Alexis Bailey Vineyards in wine. Minneapolis Du Nord Craft Spirits recently produced an Elderflower Gin. Ovalde Farmhouse Ales in Rollingstone, MN and Forbidden Root Restaurant & Brewery in Chicago are in the process of producing different versions of an elderflower ale to be released this spring.

Most of the elderberry ingredients used in US made supplements, foods and beverages is imported from Europe. The tiny berry grows on a perennial bush, which encourages sustainable, no till commercial production, and this indigenous plant supports dozens of wild pollinators. Both elder berries and flowers are hand harvested, and the coop looks forward to improved technology in order to reduce the fairly intensive labor now required to produce a viable crop.

Midwest Elderberry Cooperative (EXPO West Booth #N440) was founded in September 2012 by current president, Chris Patton, who was recently recognized for his efforts by the Specialty Food Association with a 2018 Award for Business Leadership. https://www.specialtyfood.com/news/article/2018-leadership-awards-business-leadership-christopher-j-patton-midwest-elderberry-cooperative-and-river-hills-harvest-marketers-llc/ The cooperative has fifteen grower members from eastern Wisconsin, through south central Minnesota to northwestern Iowa. The cooperative harvests about 100,000 lb. of native North American elderberries (Sambucus nigra canadensis) every year, weather cooperating, as well as hundreds of pounds of elderflowers, which are mostly dried. MEC recently sold 8,000 lb. of certified organic elderberries to a high quality supplements buyer in Canada. Besides bulk frozen elderberries, the coop sells dried elder berries and flowers. The Agricultural Research Utilization Institute (AURI) is working with them to develop an elderberry puree.

MEC also supplies elderberries and elderberry jam to the River Hills Harvest brand of cold-pressed, minimally processed native elderberry juice products available in over 60 retail stores in the Twin Cities, such as local food cooperatives, Hy-Vee Health Markets, Lunds & Byerlys, Fresh Thyme and hundreds more scattered across the country.