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FAIRMONT - If you look around southern Minnesota for 150-year-old businesses that have been owned and operated by the same family for five generations, you'll toast the one you find.

August Schell Brewing Company of New Ulm has survived and thrived since 1860, outlasting Prohibition and a bitter market that wiped out many other small town breweries in the 1960s and 1970s.

Today, Schell is enjoying steady growth in revenue of 5 percent to 10 percent per year, a resurgence in its Grain Belt line (acquired in 2002) and a nice reputation in its Midwestern market.

Having the company president come to your town to help sample some beer doesn't hurt.

Fairmont had that pleasure Saturday when Ted Marti drove down from New Ulm to help the Fairmont municipal liquor store celebrate its grand opening.

"I get out to about two to four (tastings) every couple of months," Marti said.

Many of those outings involve the introduction of a draft series of beers, giving consumers a chance to help pick what should be bottled the following year. This interaction with Schell's is available at www.schellsbrewery.com, which also offers more information on Schell's operations, tour information and history.

Marti talks with pride about how Schell's remains at its historic brewery site in New Ulm, and how it survived an Indian uprising, Prohibition and the onslaught of the large breweries in the 1970s. He credits luck, family-led persistence and the support of the New Ulm area, which kept drinking Schell's beer.

Surviving meant Schell's was around for the renaissance of craft brewing in the 1980s and 1990s. This era saw beer drinkers take a more active interest in a wider variety of styles and flavors, especially if they were brewed nearby.

Schell's had been dabbling with different beers and brought out styles such as Bock, Pils, Weiss and Octoberfest. Its line grew from there, today including five seasonal varieties and five year-round brews.

If that sounds like a lot to take in, Schell's understands. Its variety packs are some of its best-sellers, introducing consumers to its products and letting them choose which they like best.

"The thing is, our sampler packs continue to be a top seller, so people are buying them and continuing to buy them," Marti said.

He says this is not unusual, since people who drink specialty beers tend to like to keep sampling. It's what makes it fun. (Marti himself prefers Pils, Octoberfest and Firebrick. If he knows he'll be drinking a lot, he picks Schell's Light.)

Marti says a combination of luck (a lot of it) and some fortuitous planning were involved in Schell's acquisition of Grain Belt, a legendary beer in Minnesota that had fallen on extremely bad times in the early 2000s. Schell's acquired the label and recipe and had to quickly come up with product.

"Our (version) tends to be a little drier, but we've seen that some people like it better," Marti said. "The biggest thing is once we took over, it became a viable brand, not something you'd find at a major discount. The wholesalers got behind it and consumers have slowly come around. It's been growing ever since."

Schell's beer is distributed primarily in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, the Dakotas, Nebraska and Michigan. Marti wants to see the territory grow ... slowly.

"We still have a lot of work left to do in Minnesota," he noted.

What excites him most these days is the 150-year anniversary party he is planning next year in New Ulm. The brewery will host tours, concerts, displays and countless guests on Sept. 17-18, 2010. He and his 47 full-time employees are putting out the welcome mat to the region, hoping folks will come share a drink with Schell's.