Wednesday, November 25, 2009

We're thankful for Melange #3...on tap this weekend.

Ah Thanksgiving. It’s a time for family, friends, and food. And if you’re anything like us, it’s a time for beer. To help celebrate this great holiday, we’ve decided to pull out one of our favorite beers to share with you – Melange #3.

The last time we had this beer on draft we had yet to release any of it’s components. This beer is a delicious blend of three of our biggest, most sought after beers – Papier, White Oak Sap, and Black Tuesday. We have since released all three, so now that you’ve hopefully had a chance to try them, you can see what they become together. It’s been a while and I’m very excited to have this one back in the Tasting Room for a limited time.

After Thanksgiving of course comes Black Friday (not to be confused with Black Tuesday). This is usually a time for fighting crowds and finding sales. We’re happy to provide an alternative to the shopping madness, or a place to go once you’ve finished. We’ll be open normal business hours all weekend so if you’ve got family in town it’s a perfect time to take them out for a beer, or to maybe to get away and get yourself a beer!

You can even do some of your shopping here, as we’ll be having little merchandise closeout on certain items on Friday. We’ll have all of our gift items available including t-shirts, hoodies, work shirts, keychains, bottle stoppers – we also still have gift baskets available. Plus, for the beer lover in your life Bruery Reserve Society memberships make great holiday gifts. It’s the gift of beer that lasts all year!

We will also continue to have Hottenroth Berliner Weisse Mimosas on Sundays, so if you didn’t get a chance to try them last weekend, you will still have your chance. They are a pretty tasty way to end your weekend.

Also, thanks so much to everyone who participated in our food drive last weekend! It’s great to be able to contribute to good causes, especially during the holidays.

There’s still a bit of White Oak on draft for those who missed it, and bottles are still available. We’ll be looking forward to waking up from a tryptophan induced sleep and sharing the rest of the weekend with you!

Cheers,

Stef & the other folks at The Bruery

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

A Little Homebrew Video

Our good friend Claire, who writes an amazing food and drink blog called The Kitchy Kitchen, stopped by a few weeks back to learn a bit from Patrick and pick up some homebrewing equipment along with a recipe for our Humulus Blonde. The beer she ended up making won a silver medal at the LA Queen of the Brew competition! Congrats Claire!

Here is a video of the entire process from purchase to tasting and also check out Claire's blog for other food and mixed drink recipes at www.thekitchykitchen.com

Home Brewing from Claire Thomas on Vimeo.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Thanksgiving news! Holiday food drive THIS WEEKEND at the Tasting Room. Oh, and White Oak too. And Berliner Weisse Mimosas!

I think that should get me the award for longest blog title ever.  

Thanksgiving is just 1 short week away and I can't believe it!  But believe it or not here we are, so in the spirit of the holiday, we’ll be holding a canned food drive all of this coming weekend!  The food collected will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, a fantastic organization dedicated to fighting hunger. 

To get everyone in the giving mood, we’ll try to do our part too!  Friday through Sunday, we’ll offer a discount on draft beer to anyone who makes a donation to our food drive.  Just bring in canned goods/nonperishable items and we'll give you a deal on your beer.  Let’s toast to the spirit of giving!   

Also, everyone has been asking, so I'm happy to announce that we will be serving White Oak on draft this weekend.  It is a very limited amount, so we will be unable to fill growlers, but we will be serving by the glass.  Also, we do still have bottles of it available, both for individual sale and as a part of Reserve Society memberships.

If you're in town on Sunday, stop in to try my favorite concoction Berliner Weisse concoction, the Hottenroth Mimosa.  Just substitute the beer for the bubbly and you have one delicious Sunday drink.  Sounds great, right?

On Sunday, we’ll be making Hottenroth Berliner Weisse Mimosas for just $2!  Come down and see what you think of this tart and tasty drink.  If your family makes mimosas for the holidays, take home a bottle and show them how to shake things up a little.  

And speaking of holidays, don’t forget you can still purchase gift baskets at the Tasting Room.  We’ll be making these little bundles of beer and joy though the end of the year, but we’ll have plenty of Thanksgiving/autumn themed baskets ready this weekend for you to take with you next Thursday.  Give them as a gift, bring them to your host, or buy one for yourself to pair with your turkey dinner.

We’ll also have a complementary holiday food & beer pairing guide for you to take home starting this weekend to help you plan your beer menu for the big day.  Because honestly what is a meal without the beer?!

So to recap - Food for beer, White Oak, Hottenroth Mimosas, holiday gift baskets...I think that about covers it.  See you there for all this beery goodness!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The Return of KOGI - plus Holiday Gift Baskets now available!

It's been a little under a month since the Kogi BBQ Korean Taco Truck first parked outside the Tasting Room.  We've been craving their sweet and savory offering ever since, and this Saturday night, we can satisfy that need!  

You can find the Kogi truck at The Bruery on Saturday night from 6:30 – 9 pm.  We heard about some great beer & BBQ pairings the last time around, so I’m looking forward to what comes up this time!  

Also, with Thanksgiving coming quickly, we’ll be selling holiday gift baskets for the beer geek in your life starting this weekend.  These baskets will come in two different themes – autumn and winter – and will come with 1, 2, or 3 bottles as well as some other goodies (hints: chocolate, glasses, more!).  We will have some ready made for pick up or if you’d like you can order a basket for pick up later.  They will vary a bit, but they'll look a little something like this...


You may even be the lucky one to win a free basket!  We’ll be holding a drawing for a free basket that you can enter just by making any take home purchase.  When you buy a bottle or growler of any beer, we’ll give you an entry form for the drawing.  We may just pull your name out of the hat (or box?)!

Don't forget, you can still get your Bruery Reserve membership; they're on sale at the Tasting Room.  Come in, sign up, andtake home bottles of White Oak, 2 Turtle Doves, and a special Barrel-Aged seasonal that day! 

See you this weekend!

Sunday, November 8, 2009

how do you say Rugbrød?

Many people have been asking how exactly you pronounce the name of our new beer, Rugbrød. As you probably know by now, rugbrød is the Danish word for rye bread, which we decided was an appropriate name for our new juylberg style Danish beer that is brewed with 30% rye malt and resembles the dark brown, dense rye bread of Scandinavia in both smell and taste.

Well, here to help you with your pronunciation issues are a bunch of fellow beer lovers as well as members of The Bruery team and even a few cameo's from the Stone Brewery team and elsewhere. Good luck! And if you are feeling extra confident in your pronunciation, feel free to tape yourself, post it to youtube and post the link in the comments!!!

The Bruery - Rugbrød Pronunciation from benjamin weiss on Vimeo.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

First Firkin Friday; Beer & Ice Cream Social - this weekend!

October was quite a month for us at The Bruery, and we finished it with a great Halloween party on Saturday night.  Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks to everyone who participated in the costume and donut-eating contests.  We had a blast!

Now that November is here, we’re getting geared up for the holidays.  But first things first, and as always, we will start the month with First Firkin Friday.  

This Friday, November 6th, we’ll be pouring a special cask of Rugbrød dry-hopped with Centennial hops.  I think that extra hop kick will be delicious in this big, malty beer.  

On Sunday, we'll be holding a Beer & Ice Cream Social.  That's right, beer floats all around!  Think of a scoop of your favorite ice cream enrobed by a complementary beer flavor like Pecan Praline & 2 Turtle Doves.  The nutty, caramel flavors of both coming together with the rich chocolate of the beer.  Ok, maybe we were thinking about my favorite flavors!  

We'll have a special flight available as well as a small ice cream bar where you can mix and match to create your perfect beery treat.  We'll kick this off Sunday around 2 pm, so come in hungry for some breakfast or lunch dessert!

Also this weekend we'll have Rugbrød and Mischief #3 back on tap in addition to our usual lineup.  So come try Rugbrød with Centennial on cask Friday and start thinking about your ice cream and beer concoctions.

We look forward to seeing you there!