Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happpppy Newwww Yearrrrr!!!!

Well, the holidays are just about over and it’s the beginning of a new year.  We hope everyone got what you were wishing for this year!  If not, you can always pick up some Bruery beer at the Tasting Room to make up for it.

This weekend we will be closed Friday so that everyone can recover comfortably from their New Year’s festivities, however we’ll be open for normal business hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Also, if you’ve signed up for the Reserve Society, this is the first weekend your 15% discount will be in effect so come take advantage of it!

 

This weekend we’ll be pouring –

Orchard White

Saison Rue

Rugbrød (available for growler fills)

Berliner Weisse (available for growler fills)

Humulus XPA (available for growler fills)

2 Turtle Doves

We wish everyone a safe, happy New Year and we’re looking forward to seeing you in the first weekend of 2010!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

LAST CHANCE-- GET YOUR BRUERY RESERVE SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP TODAY OR TOMORROW!

We're closing our Reserve Society registration by the end of the day tomorrow (December 31st), so get your membership while you still can.

Buy through our website: http://www.brueryprovisions.com/-The-Bruery-Reserve-Society-2010-Membership_p_694.html

Here's the details on the Reserve Society:

The Bruery Reserve Society is a revered group of beer enthusiasts who wish to gain access to the most esoteric beers The Bruery has to offer. In this inaugural year, we'll be offering 400 memberships to the Reserve Society. Reserve Society members will have first pick at special releases. There will be releases that will only be available to Reserve Society members. As an inaugural member, you'll also have the first right of refusal to join in 2011.

Price: $195

Benefits:
- One bottle of Barrel Aged Autumn Maple, one bottle of White Oak, and one bottle of 2 Turtle Doves
- In October / November of 2010, members will receive one bottle of Black Tuesday (2010 version) and Barrel Aged 2 Turtle Doves.
- Reserve Society Zip Hoodie
- Entrance for two to the Reserve Society Initiation Celebration (January 16, 2010)
- Access to Reserve Society-only events (barrel tastings, release parties; additional charges may apply)
- Access to purchase special bottle release allocations (in person or through our website; allocations only for Reserve Society members. Bottle limits will vary from release to release.)
- Shipping of allocated beers (shipping cost not included, will ship only within CA)
- 15% off all tasting room and Bruery Provisions purchases (Cannot be combined with other offers or discounts)
- Access to special growler fills
- First right of refusal for 2011 membership

Anticipated 2010 Special Bottle Releases:
- Oude Tart - Flemish Red (scheduled release in mid-January)
- Melange #1 - Flemish Red / Imperial Stout Blend
- Melange #3 - Barrel Aged Strong Ale Blend
- White Zin - Sour ale with Zinfandel Grapes
- White Oak - Blended Barrel Aged Wheatwine / Golden Strong Ale
- 100% barrel-aged Coton - Barrel Aged Old Ale
- Black Tuesday Imperial Stout - Barrel Aged Imperial Stout
- 100% barrel-aged 2 Turtle Doves - Barrel Aged Holiday Beer
- Perhaps a few other releases up our sleeves

A few details:
The registration period will close on December 31st, 2009, or when all memberships have been sold. Membership begins on January 1, 2010 and ends December 31, 2010. Due to unfair and archaic alcohol laws, we cannot ship out-of-state. Those who are out-of-state may be members, but they must elect a trustee to pick up or receive your shipments within California. Please list the CA Trustee as your shipping address on this order. If you would like to pick up your items, please select store pickup at checkout. If you would like us to ship to you or your trustee in CA, please select ground shipping.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Oude Tart on tap - Happy Holidays from The Bruery!

Season's Greetings!

We will be closed on Christmas Day (this Friday), however we will be open this Saturday and Sunday for normal business hours.  Since it’s the last weekend of the year so we thought we’d go out in style – with a new beer.  Our Flemish Red has been aging in red wine barrels for 18 months and we’ve finally decided to share it. 

Oude Tart, as it’s been named, is a delicious balance of sour and funk with subtle hints of leather and cherry.  This will be a preview of the beer that will be bottled and released at the Reserve Society Initiation celebration in January.  Unfortunately, Oude Tart will not be available for growler fills.  Bottles will be available for sale after the initial Reserve Society allocations are made at the beginning of the year. 

Speaking of the Reserve Society, we’re getting to the end of available memberships and this will be the last weekend to purchase them in person at the Tasting Room.  Following that they will be available on line for a limited time if any are left unclaimed.  If you don’t get what you want this holiday, treat yourself to the gift of beer! 

If you do get something you don’t want this year, bring it to The Bruery!  We’ll be holding a “Misfit Gift Swap” this Sunday.  Bring in the gifts you weren’t thrilled about and choose someone else’s from the collection.  One man’s misfit gift is another’s treasure of course.

This week’s full lineup:

Orchard White

Rugbrød (available for growler fills)

Hottenroth Berliner Weisse (available for growler fills)

Saison Rue

2 Turtle Doves

Humulus XPA (available for growler fills)

Oude Tart

  We hope everyone has a happy, healthy, beer-filled holiday and we’ll see you soon!

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Need last minute holiday gift ideas?? We've got new merch!

It's a familiar scenario.  Just a few shopping days left and you have so much shopping left to do.  Maybe you're like me and you haven't even started yet.  Fear not, though my partners in procrastination, The Bruery has you covered.

We just got a fresh shipment of merchandise and these new items are definite winners in the gift category.  For the cooler weather we have these great new long sleeve thermal shirts with The Bruery logo and our tulip glass logo on the back collar.

We also have this very stylish long-sleeve baseball tee.  Here's the front - 


...and the back - 

Now you can all be members of Famille Rue!  A new short sleeve option is in as well in the form of this "vintage" blue t-shirt.  It's very soft!


And finally, if you're looking for the perfect stocking stuffer, look no further than this nice, warm Bruery beanie!



These are all on sale now at the Tasting Room.  We're also still selling our holiday gift baskets and the best gift of all - Bruery Reserve Society memberships.  It's the gift that gives the gift of beer all year!

Cheers and Happy Shopping,
Stef

Monday, December 14, 2009

Get out your holiday sweater...we're having a party!

Normally we don't post about Tasting Room events until later in the week, however I wanted to get this out asap early this week since I'm sure everyone has their holiday plans well underway. We've got lots going on so hopefully you can fit in a trip to the Tasting Room!

First off we'll be kicking off the weekend with that cask of dry-hopped Humulus XPA Tyler was telling you about.  Because really, can you ever have too much of a good thing (I'm referring to the hops, of course)?  

We'll also be holding our holiday party at the Tasting Room.  This party is a holiday sweater theme, so please come dressed to impress (or amuse) in your favorite holiday sweater.  If you need an idea, here's a good example of what we're talking about... 



 
Don't feel bad if you can't find one this good.  This is a medal-winner as far as I'm concerned; not easy to come across.  

This will also be a charity related event for Project 23, benefitting homeless and families in need here in Orange County.  We ask that you donate an unwrapped, first use toy for girls under the age of 12.  As a thank you for your participation, we'll be raffling off some items including a few of our favorite beers from the archive to those who contribute.  

We'll also serve a few light snacks, because what's a holiday party without snacks?

Speaking of snacks, on Saturday night our friends at Kogi BBQ will be stopping by to serve some of their delicious Korean BBQ for your enjoyment (and ours) so come hungry!

You can also pick up some last minute holiday gifts like Bruery Reserve Society memberships, Bruery gear (including our new beanies!), and gift baskets.  

Hope to see you there!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Just to recap...

Tyler and Ben made my job extra easy this week by already telling you all the cool stuff going on.  So just to recap - 

Friday we'll be tapping our new yet-to-be-named Humulus extra pale ale.  Together we'll celebrate the delicious hoppy session beer that is this Humulus (blank)!

Saturday we'll be starting Holiday Beer Geek Show & Tell around 5 pm.  Just a note - since these get-togethers have grown a bit in popularity, we're asking that you please limit your contribution to 2 beers.  This will help us make sure we get to each and every one of the delicious beers that you bring with you.  

As Ben mentioned, you'll also get to try some of the fry-licious concoctions from Frysmith, so come hungry!

We'll be serving Hottenroth Mimosas on Sunday, and you'll still be able to purchase gift baskets and Reserve Society memberships (while they last!).  See you there!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Two Years Now

Has it really been that long?...
It was two years ago when I first started here at the Bruery and after reading my very first blog post I kind of miss those days… See, back then a regular day was coming in around 8 am, maybe getting on the phone and placing a few orders, and then starting to build and place the equipment you see in the Bruery today. When I look back on it, I thought it was hard at the time but now realize how fun and easy it really was! I love creating and building things, from an early age you would see me following my father around with my toy hammer trying to help him out. As I grew up, so did my love for creating things; this probably explains why I wanted to become a brewer. After Patrick and I had everything settled in its final resting place, it was time to start brewing. Over the next few months we worked out most of the kinks in the system (some we still have today) and finally got the brewery running somewhat smoothly. Ben Weiss (now our Marketing and PR guy) was hired on and helped create some new kinks (cough...Black Tuesday...cough); Yes Ben, I am still blaming you for leaving the mash paddle in the tun and making the mess that it did (I know Patrick was there too, but he signs my checks!) but hey, I guess it worked out!

Fast forward to today and we still have kinks every now and then. When I left the brewery today Travis, our lead brewer, was dealing with a stuck mash that will probably land him at the brewery until late tonight. My regular day still begins at 8am, though you’ll find me here a lot earlier now. My day still consists of making phone calls, checking my e-mail (which seems to increase on a daily basis), and talking to the press every now and again, which is new to me (I feel like such a dork being in front of a camera, I don’t know how Patrick does it.) At some point in the day I try and make it out on the brewery floor but seem to be kicked out by Jay and Travis because I’m just getting in their way. I usually head back to my desk and start thinking about scheduling issues, raw materials, warehouse design (don’t get me started on this), brew house layout, cleaning kegs, water supply and all the work that has to be done before the holiday but we can’t fit it in (mostly because of our water supply!) Oh, did I mention how many kegs we are going to have to clean in the new year? Ahhh!

I may not be designing (I have a BA in advertising), building or even brewing as much as I used to but after looking back at the past two years I wouldn’t have it any other way. This sure beats the old days of being all alone while Patrick was off spreading the word of our newly opened brewery. Hell, now I even have four people in the brew house to bug all day. The most exciting change over the past two years for me happens when I call my vendors . They know who we are; this beats the long conversation of “what brewery are you with?” – vendor, “I’m with The Bruery” – me, “I know you’re with a brewery, which brewery?”- vendor. This happened on every phone call for at least three months!


A little info on our new, as of now “nameless” beer we will be tapping this weekend.

It was about three weeks ago when we decided to start yeast propagation for Saison De Lente. Seeing that we usually always have a steady supply of our proprietary yeast strain, we needed to prop up some Brettanomyces. Usually doing a yeast prop, I would harvest the yeast and dump the “beer” that we used to prop it; this time, since it would be tying up a fermenter, I thought it would be fun to brew a 100% Brett - Extra Pale Ale. I kept the recipe fairly simple with Vienna as my base malt and a little C-15 and Kiln Amber for taste and color. I really enjoyed the hop profile of Humulus Lager ,so I thought I would keep it along the same lines, I lowered the IBU level to around 40 and used half the flavor and aroma hops that Humulus Lager used. Jay and I first brewed seven barrels and were very happy with the end result; we pitched the starter yeast and went home. The next morning I came in at 7am and checked the fermenter; it wasn’t bubbling away. I climbed up the ladder and opened the man-way, I poked my head in and saw fermentation! At this time most brewers probably would have taken a gravity, pH and dissolved oxygen reading just to make sure it really was fermenting (it wasn’t by the way.) After climbing back down the ladder I headed straight to the mill and started milling for the second part of the batch. The first brew tasted great but was a little too dark for me, so Jay and I left all the specialty malt out of this brew. About half way through the brew Patrick came up to me and mentioned something about not dry hopping this beer. You see when we dry hop our Humulus Series beers we lose a lot of the product due to the hops. I loved this idea because this beer didn’t need any dry hops and it meant that we would have that much more of it to drink. I ran straight to the brew house where Jay was working away and eagerly told him to double the whirlpool addition hops (to make up for the lack of dry hops). Jay’s face lit up with excitement! We knocked out the second brew into the fermenter and were delighted with the color and flavor of the day’s brew. Everything went so well over the two day brew; the color ended up being a little darker than I would have liked but I should have expected that when we went with Vienna as the base malt instead of two row.

Over the next four days I walked into the brewery each day hoping to see the fermenter bubbling away, but nothing. How can this yeast starter batch that we brewed not ferment? I’m dead I thought, I’m really in deep sh**! After a few phone calls to Patrick to tell him the bad news we decided to pitch our house strain and forget about the yeast prop and 100% Brett E.P.A that would’ve come from it. At the time we only had pitchable yeast from our 3-4 week old Saison Rue that was getting ready to be bottled the following Monday. We already harvested yeast from this batch twice before and the only yeast that was left was either stressed or dead, not ideal either way. We pitched the yeast hoping for the best and came in the next morning disappointed again. Luckily, we were brewing this day which meant we would have fresh viable yeast; after pitching yeast for the day’s brew we attached the yeast hose to the E.P.A tank and added fresh viable yeast. When we came in the next morning it was happily bubbling away, what a relief! After its week or so ferment, I pulled a sample from the tank and Travis and I tried it: low to medium body, nice mouth feel, extra dry and great hop aroma. It was still a little darker than what I was hoping for though. Travis and I both agreed that it didn’t need much more, maybe a little bit of cold conditioning but hop wise we liked it where it was (what were we thinking, you can never have too many hops!) I told Travis to come up with a dry hopping schedule and he did: one pound of Columbus hops in a fifteen barrel batch. When he told me how much he added I started to laugh; I have never heard of someone using so little hops for a dry hop addition. After a week and a half of dry hopping and cold conditioning, we pulled another sample. It was delicious! That one pound of dry hops changed the flavor ever so slightly and in a good way. The beer ended up being a little darker than it should have been (reminds me of Sierra Nevada), 4.3% ABV, crazy dry (from the low mash temp we did when we thought it would be a 100% Brett beer) and with a great citrus hop presence that you can have pint after pint of. The Brett character mildly comes through for most people but I think it will grow with time, which hopefully we won’t find out because this beer needs to be consumed right now! Look for a cask of this sometime this month; we dry hopped it in the cask with the hops Kevin had growing outside of the home brew shop! As for the name, I think Tyler’s Birthday E.P.A (my birthday is on the 28th) sounds good but we’ll probably end up calling it Humulus something…

P.S. I think this long post makes up for the lack of posts by me!!

An extra gift for Holiday Beer Geek Show & Tell

We've got an extra little surprise for you guys this Saturday and I'm horrible with surprises so I'm just gonna spill the beans.

When you show up here on Saturday with your awesomely delicious beers to share. Or if you are just here to grab a glass of Two Turtle Doves or Rugbrød as a lovely holiday warmer and perhaps pick up a gift basket for that beer lover who you still haven't bought a gift for, we aren't going to leave you hungry.

Saturday, at about 5:30, the infamous Frysmith truck will be pulling up to our Tasting Room to share their delectable french fry concoctions. If you haven't had a chance to try this new LA food truck yet, this is a great chance, especially since it will be a rare OC appearance for them. And seriously...what pairs better with beer than french fries smothered with fire roasted poblano chiles, caramelized onions and shawarma-marinated steak with jack cheese? What?! I ask, What?!

Check out the Frysmith at www.eatfrysmith.com and start thinking about what you're gonna order once that Saturday night hunger emerges.

Rajas Fries


Chili Cheese Fries

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

First Firkin Friday; Upcoming Holiday Beer Geek Show & Tell

2 Turtle Doves, our winter seasonal, has been conditioning in a firkin with vanilla beans and for your enjoyment (and mine!), we’ll be serving it this Friday.  I’m thinking the vanilla will be a beautiful addition to the chocolate, nutty flavors that already exist in this beer.  Come down Friday and try for yourself!

On Sunday, we’ll continue to make Hottenroth Mimosas for anyone interested in trying them.  We’ll also continue serving Melange #3 until it’s gone. 

We’re planning lots of fun and festive events this month in honor of the holidays so keep your eyes open for these emails as we’ll be announcing them soon.  I do want to give everyone a head’s up that we’ll be holding a Holiday Beer Geek Show & Tell next weekend (Saturday 12/12) so you can start thinking about what you’ve got!  This will be a holiday themed BGST so bring your favorite winter/holiday beers to share if you’ve got them. 

Bottles of White Oak are still available, as well as new winter themed gift baskets (with 2 Turtle Doves as the seasonal).  We are also still selling Reserve Society memberships, however we are getting low on them so if they’re on your Holiday Wish List don’t wait too long!

We’ll be releasing a few new beers this month so be on the lookout for details on those as well.  We look forward to seeing you this weekend! 

Cheers,

Stef & the other folks at The Bruery

First Firkin Friday; Upcoming Holiday Beer Geek Show & Tell

2 Turtle Doves, our winter seasonal, has been conditioning in a firkin with vanilla beans and for your enjoyment (and mine!), we’ll be serving it this Friday.  I’m thinking the vanilla will be a beautiful addition to the chocolate, nutty flavors that already exist in this beer.  Come down Friday and try for yourself!

On Sunday, we’ll continue to make Hottenroth Mimosas for anyone interested in trying them.  We’ll also continue serving Melange #3 until it’s gone. 

We’re planning lots of fun and festive events this month in honor of the holidays so keep your eyes open for these emails as we’ll be announcing them soon.  I do want to give everyone a head’s up that we’ll be holding a Holiday Beer Geek Show & Tell next weekend (Saturday 12/12) so you can start thinking about what you’ve got!  This will be a holiday themed BGST so bring your favorite winter/holiday beers to share if you’ve got them. 

Bottles of White Oak are still available, as well as new winter themed gift baskets (with 2 Turtle Doves as the seasonal).  We are also still selling Reserve Society memberships, however we are getting low on them so if they’re on your Holiday Wish List don’t wait too long!

We’ll be releasing a few new beers this month so be on the lookout for details on those as well.  We look forward to seeing you this weekend! 

Cheers,

Stef & the other folks at The Bruery