Black Star Beer: Dan Rasmussen

Daniel Lee Rasmussen was last seen hurling large vessels of bad, out-of-date beer from the front door of a bar in Hungry Horse, MT. Amid wailings of "Get this crap out of here!" and "IT JUST ISN'T RIGHT!!!" Onlookers were stunned as a 36 member SWAT team was unable to tackle the roguish brute. He is currently AT LARGE somewhere in Montana.

Dan is the Production Manager here at the Great Northern Brewing Company. This means that he wears many hats, overseeing every aspect of the brewing and packaging process, as well as coordinating the shipping and brewing schedules in order to make sure everyone has our beers. Not an easy job, but one that he does very, very well. Dan has invented an incredible beer stretching machine that gets us through those times when we just can't make enough. He can also squeeze blood from a turnip, walk on water and swim on land.

It seems that Dan was destined to be one of two things; International Spy or Beer Aficionado. Luckily for us, he chose beer.

(It is important to note that Dan was born a month late. In his own words: "I knew a good thing when I had it.")

He later moved on to Boy Scouts and eventually became an Eagle Scout in 1986 at the age of 17.

The Scouting experience taught him a lot about discipline and responsibility, and perhaps further fostered his craving for adventure. He had his first dirt bike at the age of 10. He and his brother, Rod, attached a soapbox to the back of it and discovered (after a chipped tooth) that bungee cords DO NOT act as safety harnesses. Still, this did not deter his need for a thrill. He and our friend Paul Nordquist have been known to hook up toboggans to the back of motorcycles for the occasional winter joyride. Yes, our Dan is the adventurous sort.

•He started with root beer at 6 years old. He was on a boating trip with his family and several of their friends when it was decided to have a dingy race. The rules went something like this: estimate how long it will take you to row out about a mile to a buoy, go around it and come back. At six years old, his estimation of his own time was 11 seconds off. THAT'S ELEVEN SECONDS. He was six years old, Folks. He won.

•As far as real beer goes, his first major influence was spending two months in Germany in his sixteenth summer: "Yeah. On my sixteenth birthday I drank a lot of beer...rode the roller coaster...had a huge time. I was hooked!"

•Dan has a plethora of hair. He grew his first beard at seventeen and started trying to buy beer at that point. Sometimes it worked. Actually, most of the time it worked.

•Dan was his senior class president. Dave was the ASB president. This meant that they were in charge of planning the high school luau. In an effort to throw the most authentic luau possible, Dan and Dave (with Paul in tow) decided to roast a pig. As they embarked on this monumental task, it became clear that they needed special "beechwood chips" in order to properly roast the pig. So, they took some of the pig roasting money and bought themselves a keg. I hear roast pig never tasted so good.

•After high school, Dan joined the Chi Psi fraternity at the University of Oregon. "Go Ducks!!" As is the case with most of us, it was in college that he really came into his own as a devoted beer lover. That is also where he got the nickname 'Hoss'. He would dress up in his cowboy duds and go to barn dances and have a good old time. He also woke up in many a hay loft or other strange place. After a while, people began to celebrate "Ground Hoss Day" on February 2nd and his friend Vern Alvin would wake him up to see if he'd seen his shadow.

• After graduating from college with a double major in Finance and Marketing, he moved back to Tacoma and ran his parents print shop. He also worked construction for his father from time to time. He was becoming more and more obsessed with his new passion: home brewing. A whole new, brew-infested world was opening up for Dan and he soon found himself working for George Hancock, the owner of the Maritime Pacific Brewing Company in Seattle. George started Dan out schlepping (washing and filling) kegs, but soon had him doing sales and deliveries as well as helping to filter and brew.

All of this was the perfect preparation for his destiny; to move to Montana and oversee the construction of our lovely brewery and his new place of employment:

He is a master of all things technical. He has an uncanny understanding of the space/time continuum. He can figure out anything. Even Snowboarding (except in the rain).

Injuries: 3 concussions, 5 broken little toes, 1 broken big toe, broken tailbone, slipped growth disc in hip at age 13, lower hernia, bruised ribs, broken right arm, broken left leg (8 places), pinned by motorcycle that burned his nylon pants into his flesh "but that doesn't count", walking pneumonia (twice) and a broken heart (awwwwwww...). He has had two CAT scans and wanted to make sure that I tell the world that he has no visible scars.

Childhood activities: scouting/camping, construction, motorcycling, boating, baritone horn (6th grade) and Trombone (10th grade).

FIRST KISS: Under a blanket, under a picnic table in grade school. No names-- he won't kiss and tell.

FAVORITE CARTOON: Speed Racer

FAVORITE COMIC: Spider Man

DREAM CAR: Batmobile or a Ferrari Deno

FAVORITE DINNER: Fresh BBQ salmon, crab salad, steamer clams, corn on the cob and Grandma's apple pie ala mode.

FAVORITE DISH FROM MOM: Potato salad. "It's just right"

FAVORITE MOVIE TOUGH GUY: Clint

FAVORITE MOVIE BABE: Sophia Loren

FAVORITE MUSIC AS A KID: 70's Rock

FAVORITE MUSIC NOW: 70's Funk

FAVORITE MOVIES BY CATEGORY: Comedy-M*A*S*H, Suspense-Jaws (he still checks the water), Adventure-Star Wars, Romance-Out of Africa, Animation-Yellow Submarine, Kids movie-Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, Thriller-The Shining

DREAM VACATION: "Besides living in Whitefish? Well, if it becomes possible in my lifetime, I'd like to go to the moon."

FAVORITE CHILDHOOD TV SHOW: The Muppets..."I loved it. If you don't love the Muppets, you need counseling; there is something wrong with you."

FAVORITE PRESIDENT: Teddy Roosevelt..."He's responsible for the parks, man."

FAVORITE CONDIMENT: Stoneground mustard

FAVORITE BOOK: The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

FAVORITE ALBUM: The Police, Ghost in the Machine

FAVORITE HOME-BASED PUTZING ACTIVITY: "Leaving sex out of it? A day of yard work and fixing stuff followed by a hot bubble bath, candles and a good book."

MOST PRIZED POSSESSION: His mind and his friends and family: his dad Otto, his mom Christine, his brother Rod, sister-in-law Carolyn and his nephew Ryan. The rest can work itself out.