Greg Darling took on the tough duty of going over to Outstate Brewing so we could enjoy a virtual tour of the establishment, with Patrick Lundberg our presenter and Shawn McCardy (sp?) the video production manager, head brewmaster and assistant brewmaster respectively. Patrick's partner in the business is Dan Mohagen. There opening day was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2019 but after three months the business was forced to shutdown because of the pandemic; Outstate has not been fully open since. Patrick said they normally have 15 beers on tap in the tap room, which was designed to give a feeling of being in a cabin in outstate Minnesota. Wood on the walls came from a bar in Wendell that the Mohagen family owned. They also have a family room that can be rented out or used for overflow. Windowed garage- like doors open to create an outdoor feeling and onto what was described as a "dog friendly patio." The company has a distribution contract that gets the beer out to one-third of Minnesota and two-thirds of eastern North Dakota. Patrick took us through the brewing room and stated this is one of the largest outstate breweries besides what they have in Fargo/Moorhead. The business currently has the capacity for over 5000 barrels of beer a year, working with 20 barrels, each with 31 gallon capacity. Patrick said going from one barrel to 20 barrels or 620 gallon capacity was a big undertaking but that his personality is "go big or go home." They can easily increase capacity by adding fermentation tanks; three or four more of those would allow them to produce 10,000 barrels annually. They are about to add a 65,000 pound silo that will hold base malt. Outstate also has a one barrel system that allows them to brew smaller batches of seltzers and specialty beers. Patrick said he might use this "pilot" system to brew regular root beer, possibly within the next six months. Seltzers have less carbs and are made by adding different flavors to water, sugar, yeast and nutrients; they are also gluten free and are very popular right now.