[1] Minott Wessinger, 5th generation brewer and great-great-grandson of Henry Weinhard, started the McKenzie River Corporation, a beverage marketing company, in 1987.

[1] Other products introduced by the McKenzie River Corporation include: The Great Northern Brewing Company was designed by Joe Esherick and built in a traditional gravity flow arrangement.

Wessinger and Great Northern Brewing Company (GNBC) started production again in January 2010 and Black Star was officially reintroduced on February 6, 2010.

[1] Black Star was introduced to a Pacific Northwest test market in the early nineties, which was supported by an acclaimed advertising campaign by Wieden & Kennedy.

[6] In 1994, Hal Riney & Partners developed a Ken Burns style advertising campaign that chronicled the history of Black Star Beer from the building of the brewery in Whitefish, Montana to its projected future success.