Beer For Wildlife - Good for Steelhead too!

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For most of our staff, and probably plenty of you, pheasant hunting is a big part of fall outdoor adventures. For some it might be simply a weekend hunt with friends and/or family, for others it is a weekly passion throughout the entire season. For the fly tyers out there it means fresh new materials for tying next springs nymph and wet fly patterns. For one Jason Markkula, it means Beer.

Jason Markkula is the owner and brewmaster for the Bank Brewing Company. You can find out all about him and the company HERE.  You can also find them on facebook. We won't go into the details of Jason or the company on this post, but we will tell you that he had started a pretty neat program a few years back called "Beer For Wildlife", a foundation of sorts that donates beer sales profits back to restore habitat.  Now we can all say cheers to that!

Pictured here is the 2012 label for Bank Brewing's acclaimed Rooster Lager, one of the beers associated with the Beer For Wildlife program. This brew has a limited production each year and it goes quick so keep an eye out for it later this month. He also is the brewer of Walleye Chop, another lager in the Beer For Wildlife line-up.

So you might be asking, what does this really have to do with Steelheading. Well, there is the habitat restoration angle that is simply cool and worth noting. There is also the fly tying material connection that ties things together. We also mention Jason and the Bank Brewing Co as we have been working with them over the past year as consultants, a fancy way of saying we have been enlightening him on everything TROUT in Minnesota. As the Beer For Wildlife line-up grows so does the interest in other game species for new varietals. As we continue our efforts with Jason, we hope one day the marketing plan for a Rainbow Trout brew comes to fruition. In the mean time, we encourage those of you who enjoy malted beverages from time to time, to support our friends at the Bank Brewing Company and their Beer for Wildlife program. Preserving our woods, wetlands and waterways is something all of us should be able to beed up on.

Safe hunting to all this fall.

DB

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