The Bruery returns to the Beer Bloggers Conference, this time with Bruery Terreux, too

Our marketing team of Benjamin Weiss and Cambria Griffith headed down to San Diego last weekend not for Comic-Con, nor for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship series, and not even for BronyCon. We went to beer blogger paradise at this year's Beer Bloggers Conference, a three day journey through time and space with beer fans and writers from all over the nation.

The party began late on Thursday night with a very private hang out session in our barrel warehouse at the future home of Bruery Terreux.

Summer Camp Crafts with our Bruers: Benjamin's Barrel Stave Bottle Openers

I drink a lot of beer and therefore have quite a collection of bottle openers. Not like I really need them since I’m well versed in opening bottles with the edge of a table, a lighter, a ring or another bottle, but it’s always nice to actually have some sweet looking devices that are specifically made for popping the top on my favorite craft beer.

I had seen some examples of bottle openers made out of a piece of wood that uses either a nail or a screw as a the opener and I always liked these. They are used as a lever, applying force in the opposite direction from the standard bottle opener, which actually leads to a more “proper” manner of prying a crown off of a bottle. And if you are a bottle cap collector, this version of an opener won’t bend the crown.

You will need some tools for this crafty project, but it’s good to own tools, so here is an excuse to buy a few.

10 Tips for Better Craft Beer Videos

For our last how to guide we're taking a look at craft beer videos. Our marketing team of Ben and Cambria have watched videos aplenty and taken some notes on things we saw that were working for the better out there. Here are Benbria's top tips for those of you looking to get some facetime out there.

Keep it short

Around two minutes should be plenty of time to say what you need to say before losing people's attention.

Sensory School: We Need Words

The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. - Ludvig Wittgenstein

Language is a much debated subject in modern philosophies. It isn’t typically accepted as a truth anymore, but linguistic determinism would argue that our knowledge and thought is actually limited by our words and our cultural dialects; that we literally can not know things if we don’t have the language to talk about it.

The most commonly noted example is that the Eskimo-Aleut language has over 50 different words for “snow”. What is inferred from this is that when most of us look outside on a winter day and see snow, the people who are raised in the Eskimo culture and learn these 50+ words don’t actually see “snow”, they see a particular type of snow that the rest of us don’t have a word for and therefor don’t differentiate and theoretically don’t know exist.

What's in our Bruers' Cellars? Part 1 with Benjamin Weiss

For the month of December, we're taking a closer look at cellaring & aging beer. Our staff not only works with beer everyday, we obviously like to drink it too, so some of us have amassed our own beer cellar in the process.  We're opening our cellar doors (or maybe it's just a cabinet or closet door) to share our ups & downs of cellaring.

Check out what Ben, our Director of Marketing, has to say about his cellar. We had him fill out this Mad Lib so he wouldn't get bored with another Q & A asking him about his beer knowledge.

Check out the rest of our Bruers' cellars:

• What's in our Bruers' Cellars? Part 2 with Matt Becker
• What's in our Bruers' Cellars? Part 3 with Matt Olesh
• What's in our Bruers' Cellars? Part 4 with Andrew Bell
• What's in our Bruers' Cellars? Part 5 with Cambria Griffith

Holiday Beer & Food Pairings for the Season from our Certified Cicerone™

Our very own Director of Marketing has some thoughts to share on pairing seasonal beers with seasonal foods. For today's pairing suggestions, Ben give us his best Certified Cicerone™ thoughts on what to pair with Saisons, pumpkin beers, and holiday ales which fit this time of year all too well.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. The weather has changed and parts of the country are about to see their first snowfall. It’s time to fatten up for the winter. May as well do it in style. Right?

This is a great time of year for both food and beer. It’s not too hot to enjoy something hearty or spicy and it isn’t too cold that a frosty beer seems out of the question. There are great new vegetables popping their heads up at the farmers market and all of those malty holiday ales are starting to hit the shelves at the local bodega. So, where do we begin? As with any classic tasting, let’s go light to dark.

Staring into the Barrel -- Our Final Days in Belgium

What do they call craft beer in Belgium? Beer.

So many beers. So many personalities. Each a mirror of their brewer.

First, Tilquin, a "blenderie." No production here. Just blending of some of the finest lambics Belgium has to offer.

Belgium, Day 2

Note to self... when seeking to conquer a foreign land, be well rested.

Our 20 hour journey from Orange County to Chicago to Brussels to Brugge took its toll on us. We arrived in Belgium on Tuesday (though it might've been Wednesday), met our driver Serge, who took us the 90 minutes to Brugge.

Meet the Homebruer: Benjamin Weiss

Our third employee ever, Benjamin has worked in just about every role at The Bruery. From brewing, to packaging, to marketing, to arts & crafts, he's worked his way finally to Director of Marketing here. But he wasn't always working such a dreamy job. Ben came from the music industry and followed his passion for homebrew, which lead him to this very blog, before becoming a Bruer.

On a foggy Venice Beach day in late 2006, young Ben decided it was the perfect day to crack open his roommate's homebrew kit and boil some wort. Roughly a year later, he got to know a certain Patrick and Tyler.

What happened that made you start homebrewing? 

A Little Confession to the Central Coast of CA

Last week a good chunk of our team headed up to California's beautiful central coast to support our new relationship with Central Coast Distributing in the area. Those of you living in San Luis Obispo, the northern parts of Santa Barbara, and sections of Monterey can look forward to starting to see more of our beer out your way.



In case you somehow missed it, we do have a love of wine culture here at The Bruery. It's pretty spectacular to see how different industries can cross-pollinate, and we love to get out to wine country to let our imagination loose and find inspiration for new ideas.

Brandy Barrel Aged Bois -- Part 3 of 5 of Our Anniversary Beers

By now you may have read about (and tasted?) our 2013 anniversary beer, Bois (pronounced "bwah"). This ale was brewed in the English-style Old Ale tradition using our house Belgian yeast strain and to celebrate our fifth year of creating exciting craft beers, we're aging Bois in five different kinds of barrels: bourbon, rye, brandy, new American oak, and French oak barrels. 100% bourbon barrel aged Bois is available nationwide, while rye, brandy, and new American oak are for Reserve Society members only. French oak barrel aged Bois is a Hoarders Society exclusive only which will be available later in the year.

Last week we discussed rye barrels, and before that, bourbon barrels. Today we look into the world of brandy and brandy barrels. And no, not that kind.

Six Questions on Becoming a Certified Cicerone

The word Cicerone (pronounced sis-uh-rohn) has been chosen to designate those with proven expertise in selecting, acquiring and serving today’s wide range of beers ... Only those who have passed the requisite test of knowledge and tasting skill can call themselves a Cicerone. -- Cicerone.org

Tomorrow is another round of the Certified Cicerone® exam in Southern California and we look forward to supporting this organization by offering up our conference room to host the testing. Our very own Patrick Rue and Director of Marketing Benjamin Weiss are both Certified Cicerones® so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask Ben a couple questions about becoming a Cicy!