Time Flies When You're Having TK
1990 The Thomas Kemper Brewing Company holds its annual Oktoberfest celebration for thousands of people in the small town of Poulsbo, Washington. For the kids and other folks who don’t drink beer, Thomas Kemper's Hall of Fame Brewmaster concocts the first batch of hand-crafted Thomas Kemper Root Beer.
1991 Riding the buzz from Oktoberfest (some claim the Root Beer even outsold the beer), the Thomas Kemper Soda Company is formed. With very few marketing dollars, the young company relies on advertising spread by word of mouth (with a foamy mustache.)
1992 In one of the craft beer industry's first mergers, Washington's Hart Brewery buys The Thomas Kemper Brewing Company. But the Soda Company remains independent.
1996 Thomas Kemper Sodas makes the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the world's largest root beer float. Using a 4,000-ton carbonating tank and 900 gallons of ice cream, Thomas Kemper serves up a 2,166.5 gallon root beer float folks in Seattle are all too happy to finish. The noise of straws hitting bottom is deafening.
1997 Thomas Kemper Sodas is happily re-united with Thomas Kemper Beer when Pyramid Breweries Inc. buys them both. This move helps the soda company rise.
1997 To kick off summer, Thomas Kemper Sodas introduces its smooth, refreshing, sun-filled Thomas Kemper Orange Cream Soda.
1998 Thomas Kemper introduces its third flavor: Thomas Kemper Black Cherry Soda. The sweet cherry taste is a big hit with old-fashioned soda fans.
2001 Thomas Kemper launches two new soda fountain classics, Ginger Ale and Grape.
2007 A small group of soda aficionados buy Thomas Kemper from Pyramid, and continue to make it the best premium soda you can find.
2008 Much to the delight of true soda lovers, Thomas Kemper introduces a delicious new line of Low Calorie Root Beer, Ginger Ale and Black Cherry sodas — each with 20 tasty little calories or less. Now opening in most of North America, alongside regular Thomas Kemper Root Beer, Vanilla Cream, Orange Cream, Black Cherry and Ginger Ale.
2008 All sodas are reformulated to include pure cane sugar, eliminating high fructose corn syrup from the naturally flavored beverages.