Toppling Goliath Brewing Company

A view of the spacious Toppling Goliath Brewing Company taproom.

Location: Decorah, Iowa
57 miles from PFC—La Crosse
76 miles from PFC—Rochester

Toppling Goliath of Decorah, Iowa, started in 2009 when Barb Lewey bought her husband, Clark, a five-gallon beer brewing kit and he discovered he was an avid brewer. It may run in the family. Clark’s grandmother, Dorothy, also liked to brew her own beer and Clark’s first commercial offering, a light-bodied lager called Dorothy’s New World Lager, was named after her. Clark attributes some of his interest in beer making to trying to recapture the flavors that he remembers from his younger days. Nothing on the market was as good as the beer he remembered from his grandmother’s house.

Judging by Toppling Goliath’s subsequent success, many people agree that Dorothy had the key to good beer. The 2021 U.S. Open Beer Championship rated Toppling Goliath the best brewery in the country. In 2021, the brewery won four gold and two silver medals in that competition. Their Kentucky Bourbon Barrel-aged Stout has been awarded first place, best-beer-in-the-world bragging rights, every year since 2015, according to the Beer Advocate. Pseudo Sue, a pale ale, has won silver medals in its category, and both Pseudo Sue and King Sue are listed on the Ratebeer website top 100.

From its humble beginnings with a tasting room just off Decorah’s Water Street, the brewery has grown and prospered. They moved into their spacious new taproom south of Decorah in 2018, more than tripling their production capacity. The new Steinecker brewhouse was brought over from Germany and custom built for the new brewery. Toppling Goliath is currently in distribution in 32 States – up from seven States in 2018 – with 40 different beers made in rotation throughout the year. Sarah Moellers, Toppling Goliath Marketing Director, notes that the business is looking for sustainable growth, “maybe we’ll go for all 50 States, but it’s not a priority.” With shipping costs and the price of fuel, “everything is hyper local in the craft beer world right now.”

Furthering the brewery’s commitment to sustainability, their spent grains go to a local farmer for animal feed and used hop matter is picked up by a local organic farmer for fertilizer. The brewery uses city water, though the water is re-filtered and filtered again through a reverse osmosis system. Each beer is given its own water profile before any brewing ingredients are added.

Jurassic Beverage

Pseudo Sue’s Tyrannosaurus Rex image will smile at you from any number of taverns, liquor, and grocery stores around the country. Sue is named after Sue Hendrickson, the archaeologist who found the famous T. Rex fossil in South Dakota in 1990. Sarah tells the story that Toppling Goliath’s Clark and Barb Lewey were at the Field Museum in Chicago admiring the dinosaur and decided Sue would be a good representative for their toothy pale ale. Pseudo Sue was a variation of another beer that was called Tsunami. They started calling this variation Pseudo Tsunami, and then shortened it to Pseudo Sue. Since it was a Pale Ale with some bite, the T-Rex Sue fit the beer perfectly.

In spite of Sue’s long-tailed or tall-taled evolution, the Field Museum did come calling with some concerns over naming rights. In this case, however, the T. Rex avoided another extinction event and Toppling Goliath and the museum entered into an agreement allowing the brewery to continue with the name, while the museum now serves Pseudo Sue exclusively at Field Museum events.

Pseudo Summer

The move to the more spacious digs in 2018 was fortuitous timing for the brewery; they had plenty of space for social distancing when Covid19 restrictions arrived. They were closed for about six weeks before cautiously re-opening. The tap room is open now with a full food menu. Don’t think you can roll in and take away a case of their Kentucky Bourbon Barrel-aged Stout, aka Best Beer in the World, however. Sarah laughs when I ask if any is available. “That one is sold only once in a year by way of taproom only release,” she says. But they are looking forward to many events and tastings this coming season where their flagship beers along with limited edition brews will be available.

People’s Food Co-op in Rochester carries Pseudo Sue, King Sue, and Pompeii, and will also have one of Toppling Goliath’s seasonal selections. Karl Erie, Wine, Beer, and Spirits manager, will feature Toppling Goliath as beer of the month in May.

In La Crosse, PFC has Toppling Goliath’s Pseudo Sue, Dorothy’s New World Lager, Cherry Fandango (a sour), and the limited-edition beers Think Piece Double IPA and Scorpius Morchella Double IPA – a spring brew to celebrate morel mushroom season.