The Story Behind Our Farmhouse Ale

In the late 1960's near Erickson MB, our dad Lawrence Sr. purchased his neighbor's homestead to raise cattle on. The family that initially pioneered that quarter-section of land in the early 1900's were called the Lofgrens. Once our dad purchased the land, he always called it "Lofgren's" as a sign of respect, and us kids called it that too.

On the land was the Lofgren's homestead farmhouse, and growing up we explored and played in this house. Over the years as we grew up and started our restaurant and gastropub Lux Sole and Luxalune, we would periodically visit Lofgren's and use it as almost a restful retreat from city life, as the house was built on a small hill that overlooked the surrounding land, and had quite the view.

Then, when we started on our Farmery journey and started brewing, we realized another feature to Lofgren's homestead: there was quite the bounty of wild hops growing on this old farmhouse. We picked and used some of this unknown wild hops growing on this farmhouse in a couple of our harvest beers, such as our Fresh Hop Ale.



Recently we were able to reconnect with Kenneth Lofgren, who grew up on the farm with his parents, and mentioned these hops. He said the hops were brought over from the old country when the Logren's immigrated to Canada. Lofgren's hops were planted when the house was built and were over 100 years old!



The Lofgren's pioneer homestead and farm is a piece of prairie Canada history and heritage. We're proud to be part of the Manitoban farming community and we look forward to making more beer with such a real connection to the land. We are honoring this history and Lofgren's with our first in the series, our Farmhouse Ale, on which label is a beautiful and rustic farmhouse image and scene inspired by Lofgren's original pioneer house!