Press Release - August Schell Finalizes Sale of Grain Belt

August Schell Brewing Company Finalizes Purchase of Grain Belt Brand New Ulm, Minnesota - Wednesday, August 14th,2002 Ted Marti, President of August Schell Brewing Company, announced the signing of the agreement to purchase the Grain Belt beer brand today. ³We¹re very excited to have the sale completed. We did not see anything that would have blocked the sale so we started to prepare for immediate production. Knowing the consumers have already diminished the supply of Grain Belt has made this task of getting production of Grain Belt started at our New Ulm brewery extremely important. We have all the components of the Grain Belt beer recipe on hand, including the all important yeast, so we can get started at once. We know it is important to make sure the taste of Grain Belt does not change. I want to assure loyal Grain Belt drinkers they will get the same great American lager beer they are used to drinking. We take pride in producing a consistent product here and I¹m positive we will be able to do that with Grain Belt.² explained Marti. Look for distribution of the product to be in full swing shortly. ³It is imperative to not let the tap lines and shelves run out of Grain Belt. While this may happen in isolated cases, we are doing all we can to get the product to market as fast as possible without compromising the quality of the beer.² said Marti. One of the reasons August Schell Brewing Company is working hard to get full production ramped up is the upcoming Minnesota State Fair . ³ We view The State Fair as an important venue for Grain Belt. It has a long association with The State Fair and we don¹t want to disappoint the fans of Grain Belt by not having enough beer available for them at The Fair² explained Marti. The recipe and packaging for Grain Belt will not change. ³Why change what has proven to be a popular beer? We hope that with our distribution network we can make Grain Belt more consistently and more widely available. That¹s how we intend to make Grain Belt a more viable brand for the future² offered Marti.