Fernson brings Twin Bing to a beer

April 8, 2020

While it’s a known fact that Sioux Falls residents are fanatics when it comes to Twin Bing candy bars in ice cream – B&G Milkyway and Stensland Family Farms have proven that – Fernson Brewing Co. is wading into deeper waters.

The Sioux Falls brewery is collaborating with the Sioux City-based maker of the candy bar, Palmer Candy Co., on Twin Bing Stout, which is being released in cans Friday.

Don’t imagine chunks of chocolate, peanut and cherry cream floating in the beer.

“Twin Bing Stout is inspired by the candy bar – there are no actual candy bars used in the brewing process,” said Evan Richards, Fernson’s marketing director. “It’s made with lactose, chocolate, Madagascar vanilla beans, cherries and raspberries. … We hope folks will agree with the text on the label: Twin Bing in a glass!”

The idea of making a Twin Bing beer didn’t come from just one fanatic on the Fernson team.

“We wanted to introduce a new, exciting dark beer to our offerings, so we started dreaming up what the craziest thing we could be,” Richards said, noting that they all love the candy bar. “We reached out to Palmer to propose it, and we’re thrilled they hopped on board.”

The candy company is extremely selective when it comes to such collaborations.

“When Fernson first contacted us, we were happy to meet with them as we love trying to assist young businesses, but honestly, we were a bit hesitant about combining the Twin Bing with beer,” project manager Claire Palmer said. “Yet the Fernson team really impressed us with their sample batches and the obvious effort they had put in trying to honor our almost 100-year-old candy bar.”

Developing the recipe took time, Richards said.

“Working with the federal government on gaining approval to use some ingredients not commonly used in beer is an occasionally tedious process,” he said. “This was also our most involved recipe development to date. We made a number of pilot batches until we had some positive options, we met up with the Palmer team to taste and take notes, and repeated that process until we all agreed on one specific recipe.”

The pastry stout came in at 8.8 percent alcohol by volume.

“We brewed a sweet candy bar stout with malted oats for nuttiness, flaked oats for creaminess, roasted malts, raspberries, cherries, cacao nibs and milk sugar to get a drinkable milk chocolate base,” Richards said. “We borrowed our finishing touch from the confectionery masters: Madagascar vanilla beans.”

The brewing team was able to get the nutty flavors using malted oats, so craft beer drinkers with tree nut allergies won’t have to worry – there are no actual nuts or extracts in the beer, he said.

Twin Bing Stout was brewed in a small batch – 9,336 cans to be exact – so Fernson isn’t sure how long it will be on the shelf.

“Sometimes these disappear in two weeks, sometimes a month or more,” Richards said. “You’ll be able to find this in off-premise accounts across South Dakota, much of Nebraska and in northwest Iowa.” Orders can be placed online for pickup at Fernson Downtown.

The beer has been in the planning and production stage for quite some time – long before the COVID-19 pandemic reached into the Midwest – but Fernson is pleased to bring any amount of joy that’s possible during this time.

“One of our favorite parts of working in the beer industry is how much joy we can bring by doing what we love,” Richards said. “We certainly didn’t have this social climate in mind during planning, but if this beer can make someone smile in a time like this, boy, I’m not sure what else to ask for.”

The biggest smile might come from the packaging. The beer will be sold in true “twin” form as a two-pack.

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Fernson brings Twin Bing to a beer

If you love Twin Bings, you’re going to want to try this collaboration between Fernson and the candy bar maker.

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