Christmas Party 2010

We celebrated the holidays with what is now our 3rd company holiday party. It's been a pretty interesting way to track our growth over the past 2.5 years. The first party was just 5 of us enjoying a homecooked dinner at Patrick & Rachel's house. The second party was about 12 of us having lunch at a nearby gastropub. This year, between Bruery employees, Provisions employees and significant others, we had over 30 people celebrating together at our brewery.

Patrick coordinated with some of the other great brewers around the country and was able to obtain some pretty incredible (and hard to find on the west coast...or anywhere) beers for us all to share, plus we had one of our favorite local food trucks, The Lime Truck, cater the event. It was a pretty amazing time. Can't wait to see what next Christmas brings.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!!!

Charity

This year for our Batch 300 contest we are donating the $10 entry fee to a local clinic called Lestonnac. They are a free medical clinic that provides care for the poorest of the poor in Orange County.

Yesterday, Patrick and Benjamin had a chance to go down and visit the clinic to learn a few things about what they are doing and we were incredibly impressed. The clinic provides everything from dental care to general medical care to minor surgeries to pharmaceutical needs to psychiatric care to prenatal care. They even have a food drive on Thursdays and run a toy drive over the holidays where the director of the clinic dress up like Santa and rides in on a sleigh. Wow.

We also learned that the majority of the money we raise through the contest will be going specifically to a 4 year old boy who desperately needs surgery to keep from going deaf. He is currently hearing at only about 70% and that will continue to decline if he doesn't get treatment. With our funds, plus the support of a local hospital's surgery staff, we will be able to restore his hearing and keep him healthy. Pretty amazing what a few homebrewed batches of beer can do!

We are really looking forward to working with Lestonnac on this project and hopefully for future charitable events.

Good luck to all of you in the contest and thank you for your donations!

By the way, if you are not a homebrewer and are just interested in supporting Lestonnac, you can simply mail a check for any amount you choose and we'll include it with our entry fee donations. Simply write the check to The Bruery and write "donation, no entry" on the comment line. Send attn: Batch 300 to 715 Dunn Way, Placentia CA 92870

And of course, if you are entering the contest, you can always send a check for more money than the required $10 if you so choose.

Three Years

(Our first GABF)

Every December, not only do I add on a year to my age (I was born December 28^th), I add one on to my years here at The Bruery. Three years ago I started working here while finishing my Communications degree at California State University Fullerton. Three years ago to this date Patrick and I just finished placing the brew-house equipment in its current place. It's kind of fitting that exactly three years later I am now getting ready to move some of that equipment to make room for more tanks. For those of you who have been to our brewery, you will notice some big changes coming in the new year. Our 30 barrel bright tank will be moving almost up against the tasting room bar along with a new 60 barrel bright tank right next to it. In its place we plan on installing one 30 barrel fermentor with another new 30 barrel fermentor not too far away from it. On top of all of that, we plan on placing a new 45 barrel fermentor in there as well! To help make room for the bright tanks and our new 45 barrel hot liquor tank, the whirlpool vessel that so many of you lean on during tasting room hours will be moving between the mash/lauter tun and boil kettle. We should be getting these tanks in early January so you’ll probably see me in the brewery looking more like a contractor than a brewer in the next month or so. As I am writing this I am just thinking about all the stuff that has to be done in the next thirty days and I can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed and scared, but this is what I love doing, I get the chance to redo parts of the brewery and make it so much easier for the brewers to do their jobs.

It's kind of weird that I was doing the same thing three years ago. I didn’t have the knowledge back then that I do now but I'll probably say the same exact thing three years from now. Three years ago I was worrying about setting up our brew-house procedures and placing equipment so it couldn't limit us in anyway (I guess I didn't do that good of a job!). Now I’m looking at charts, graphs and layouts worrying about pipe capacities in gallons per minute, effectively heating our HL tank without a boiler, shutting down production to modify our current glycol piping and hiring two new people to help us package our beer once these new tanks are up and running. So if you see me stressed out at The Bruery, it’s because I am! The sooner I can get these tanks up and running, the sooner we can make more beer!

Esquire

It's always awesome when we get national press exposure and our Saison Rue is featured in the December issue of Esquire magazine. The article is a bit weird since it focuses on saisons, but also lists Chimay Grande Reserve (and i don't believe anyone categorizes that beer as a saison), but we're more than happy to be featured alongside some other amazing beers.

Check out the article here

Black Tuesday Release Party

Well what can we say? This year's release party somehow ran without any faults. Of course there was a debacle with the websales for tickets and we had our server crash the first day, but once the actual day arrived, everything went great.

Of course we are sorry that we couldn't have absolutely everyone here to celebrate with us, but its one of the downfalls of having such a popular yet limited in quantity beer.

For those who did make it out last night, thank you! We had a great time, got through the line extremely quickly, had a ton of great beers on the list for the night including Black Tuesday, Chocolate Rain, Cherry Chocolate Rain, Premiére, Gunga Galunga and Barrel Fermented Autumn Maple, we had some awesome chocolates and perfect cheeses for pairing plus a necessary visit from The Lime Truck right outside the doors.

Year two of Black Tuesday was much different than the 5 hour line of year one and hopefully year three will be different in that we can get even more beer made and celebrate with even more people!

It really was a great night and we hope that everyone who got to come and enjoy had a great time.

This morning we sold out of the remaining bottles of Black Tuesday within a few minutes, so for those who didn't get any, hopefully you can find a kind person with a bottle to share some with soon!

Until next year!

Cheers!

Black Tuesday

You all know its coming, but check out this really awesome video that RedTailMedia made for us just for fun! It even gets us excited!

3 French Hens

Our third beer in the 12 Days Of Christmas series is bottled and ready to hit shelves in just a few weeks!

3 French Hens is a Belgian dark strong ale, partially aged in French oak barrels...duh!

We think it's delicious, but we'll let you be the judge.

Cheers!

The NEWEST Beer on Planet Earth!

Here's Doug (beardless) mashing in our newest beer, a sour stout. Any ideas for a name? So far all we got is Sauerstout.

Estate Hops

Here's Tyler and Kevin sorting through all of our estate hops, which you may have seen growing out front of the brewery. We grew Zeus, Chinook, and Cascade. We threw a bunch of them into an estate hop pilot batch, so make sure you come by and try some when it's ready!

Cute Dogs Love Our Beer

Name: Rosko

Age: 2.5 months

Favorite Bruery Beer: Saison Rue

Bruery events around GABF

Looking for some amazing meals while in Denver for GABF? We have three fantastic events scheduled at some of Denver's best restaurants:

Tuesday, 9/14, 6:30pm: Mizuna Brewer's Dinner featuring Great Divide, Stone Brewing Co., Moylan's Brewery and The Bruery (of course). The dinner will feature two beers from each brewery paired along five courses. Brewery representatives will be on-hand to discuss each beer. Reservations required.

Mizuna

225 E. 7th Avenue

Denver, CO 80203

303.832.4778

http://www.mizunadenver.com

Wednesday, 9/15: Bruery Beer Dinner at Colt & Gray. Six exceptional courses paired with some of our best beers. Not to give away all of the secrets, here's a selection from the menu:

Two Plates: Baked Mussels with Coriander & Orange AND Oysters on the Half Shell with Lemon Grass & Lavender Mignonette, Trout Roe

Orchard White

Barbecued Pork Belly with Creamy Succotash and Cheddar Dusted Puffed Pork Rind

Saison Rue

Grilled Coffee Rubbed Lamb T-Bones with Cress Puree and Cherry & Rhubarb Compote

Oude Tart

Our mouths are already watering! Reservations required.

Colt & Gray

1553 Platte Street #120

Denver, CO 80202

303.477.1447

http://www.coltandgray.com

Saturday, 9/18, 9am-11:30am: Breakfast with The Bruery at The Cheeky Monk (Colfax location). Let's be honest, by Saturday of GABF week we can all use a good hangover cure. So back by popular demand, The Cheeky Monk will again be opening their doors early to The Bruery & their fans. Come meet The Bruery team and enjoy delicious brunch selections with Berliner Weisse & Orchard White mimosas, as well as a tasting flight showcasing The Bruery's diverse & creative beers. Very casual (pajamas welcome!) and pay-as-you-go, but reservations suggested.

The Cheeky Monk

534 East Colfax Avenue

Denver, CO 80203

303.861.0347

http://www.thecheekymonk.com

We'll also be participating in the Denver Rare Beer Tasting II at Wynkoop Brewery on Friday, 9/17. Hope to see you all at one or all of these great events!

Black Tuesday-- Apology and More Details

I apologize to everyone who wanted tickets to Black Tuesday and weren't able to get them. I hope you understand we are a small brewery that is just over two years old, and a release like this is something an organization of our size struggles to get its arms around. In addition, we've been consumed lately with opening a new retail store, brewing at capacity, and facing all of the challenges of being a recent startup.

There were 250 tickets available, and we believe around 1,250 people trying to get them. If we had executed perfectly, there would still be unhappy people. We do aim to execute perfectly, and given the circumstances I'm happy with how things went. After hearing from our customers on how it went for them, I hope you'll trust me in believing we're not patting ourselves on the back.

We created Black Tuesday, but we did not create the demand for it. That's all thanks to you guys. Demand is a wonderful thing, but it kinda sucks for everyone when the demand can't be filled. Perhaps that's part of the allure of Black Tuesday.

Here's a list of issues encountered, and my take on them:

-- eCommerce Site Issues: Our eCommerce supplier certainly has it's weaknesses, but it's the best we can afford. As some have suggested, if we did go through Ticketmaster, the same amount of people who wanted tickets still would not have tickets. I apologize for the several minutes of filling out a form to come short tickets at the end. That does indeed suck, and now we'll all know that tickets aren't guaranteed until the entire transaction is complete. I'm relieved after upgrading to a dedicated eCommerce server that it went as smoothly as it did today. Word of advice to other breweries planning releases similar to Black Tuesday: Do not trust your eCommerce provider when they say it can handle the demand of thousands hitting refresh at the same time. Just go with their most expensive plan for a month and cross your fingers.

--Reserve Society: For those disappointed Reserve Society members, I feel badly about the responses we've received. I felt we were being fair in allocating 2 bottles, plus the 1 bottle you get with your membership. Reserve Society members are guaranteed to receive Black Tuesday. If Reserve Society members were able to purchase the tickets for the release party first, there would only be Reserve Society members going and we'd be taking flack from everyone else. We'll announce details soon for a barrel tasting for Reserve Society members in November, and I can assure you Chocolate Rain and Cherry Chocolate Rain (along with a lot of other unusual stuff) will be pouring. I promise it'll be a fun time.

--Remaining Black Tuesday: We will be releasing more bottles on Oct. 27th through our website. Yes, the same crappy website, so please be prepared to complete your transaction before you find out whether you got any bottles or not. This release will account for the largest amount of bottles sold, but since we haven't yet bottled Black Tuesday, we don't know precisely what the bottle count will be.

As great as all of the attention is around Black Tuesday, it has become a curse as well. Today's events certainly did not enhance our reputation as a craft brewer. Business advisors recommend that we charge according to supply and demand (keep in mind these business advisors don't follow craft beer too closely). I'd hate to sell Black Tuesday for $50, $80, or even $100 a bottle, even though we probably could and still sell out within a reasonable period. I can imagine what nasty eMails I'd be receiving if that was the case. I feel $30 is a lot of money to pay for a bottle of beer, and it gives me a dirty, uncomfortable feeling inside to think of charging more.

For those who eMailed us today (we received hundreds of eMails, mostly from unhappy people), please be patient as Stef and Kevin get back to you. There are a lot of requests we simply cannot accommodate, so I apologize in advance.

I still feel this is a better way of releasing a beer that has so much demand, but as we all know it still doesn't fix that demand / supply problem. It does help that "sitting in a dusty, dark alleyway beerless and wondering if you'll be able to get beer anytime soon" problem.

As the old adage goes, you can't please everyone. In this case, I don't think we pleased the majority. Ulcers develop in my stomach as I imagine what next year will bring.

I am blessed to have such great fans and I hope we have the opportunity to win over those who are currently disappointed with us.

Cheers,
Patrick Rue
The Bruery

Weekend of August 13th at the Tasting Room

Highlights this week:

- Fresh Humulus Lager back on tap

- All 14 taps flowing this weekend!

• Kogi BBQ on Friday

• Crepes Bonaparte on Saturday

• The Lime Truck on Sunday

Happy Friday the 13^th to all! We hope you can stay out of trouble long enough to last the work day. To celebrate surviving this notoriously bad day, come down to the Tasting Room tonight and have yourself a glass Mischief. It only seems appropriate.

Each and every one of our 14 taps will be pouring this weekend so if you've got a friend who's never been to The Bruery, now is a good time to bring them in for a flight. We also have a fresh batch of Humulus Lager that we're tapping today for the first time and it's tasting great!

Our food truck lineup is as follows for the weekend. Kogi BBQ on Friday, Crepes Bonaparte on Saturday, and The Lime Truck on Sunday.

This weekend we're pouring:

Orchard White*

Saison Rue

Rugbrød*

Mischief*

Hottenroth Berliner Weisse*

Trade Winds Tripel**

Humulus Lager*

Humulus Rice*

Humulus Gold*

Seven Grain Saison*

Filthy Blonde*

Filthy Redhead*

Melange No. Sechs

Autumn Maple

* = Growler fill available

**= Reserve Society Growler fill

Hope to see you there!

Cheers,

Stef & the other folks at The Bruery

Our beer is in Belgium?!

Jay, one of our awesomely fantastic brewers, recently went on a trip with his family across the pond to Paris and of course he had to make a quick stop in Brussels, seeing as he was so close. No surprise, he happened upon many amazing beers that one could never buy in the US, but to great surprise, the world famous Delirium Cafe in the heart of Brussels had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR of our beers in stock!

If that wasn't cool enough...their giant, enormous, telephone directory of a beer menu has a page featuring our info with a photo of another one of our brewers, Travis!

Does the cool stop there? Not really. Jay bought a bottle of our Saison Rue to share with the bartender and other staff and was rewarded with a comment that it was one of the best Brett beers they had ever tried from America. This compliment coming from a bartender at what is often regarded as the best beer bar in the world, right in the heart of Belgium, is simply remarkable.

Slainte!

Fruit Delivery

We just got in an awesome delivery of various fruit to add to a few of our sour beers that are slowly aging away. Raisins, cranberries, tart cherries, grapes, kiwis, raspberries, dates and a whole slew of goodness. We just need to stop snacking on it all before we can get it into the beers.

Brewing Education

We like everyone on our staff to know as much as they possibly can about beer and here that means more than just tasting beers and studying flavor profiles. It means more than reading books about the history of barley and ancient fermentation techniques. It even means more than setting yourself up with a 5 gallon homebrew pot on your stove. Here, at The Bruery, it means you are going to get your hands dirty and your brow sweaty.

Today, we had our Tasting Room (and soon to be Bruery Provisions) staff put on some rubber boots, tie their hair back and get here early in the morning to help Tyler, Travis and Jay brew a batch of Autumn Maple.

There isn't too much to else to say on the subject, so we'll just let these few photos of Jarred and Kendra do the talking.

Our new brewers are rather tired, but Tyler gives them a big thumbs up.

The Bruery Provisions

If you haven't yet heard, we're opening up a brand new retail space in Old Town Orange!

Click here for the announcement and head on over to our new blog that will document the opening of the new space as well as keep you up to date with whats new in stock and what events are going on from week to week. brueryprovisions.blogspot.com

We're pretty darned excited about it all, but as anyone who has followed this blog from the beginning knows, opening a new business can be mighty stressful. So don't be mad if we snap at you from time to time at the Tasting Room over the next few months :)

Ohana Brewing Company

About four years ago when I was brewing at Bj's Restaurant & Brewery in West Covina I had the pleasure of working with Karsen Luthi. Today Karsen, along with Berne Bush and Leo Martinez, are opening a brewery in Los Angeles. Ohana Brewing Company (Ohana is the Hawaiian word for “family”) is located south of the Arts District and is currently in the construction phase. You can follow their progress on the company's blog at www.ohanabrew.com. Ohana will be brewing on a 7bbl brewhouse that was once used to brew all of the wonderful beers from Craftsman Brewing Company. Karsen says they are targeting a December 2010 opening with an IPA, Smoked beer, Pale Ale and a Session beer (as of right now) but don't ask him about the last one because they're keeping it a secret! I wish them the best of luck and I can't wait to try their beers!

You can chat with Karsen about his brewery at Stein Fillers (local home brew shop) where he works part-time.

anniversary party info

what's up guys!!!!

can't believe the party is tomorrow, but i guess that means we can finally stop making waffles and chocolate dipped bacon and get back to business soon.

We are closing off the online ticket sales today at 3pm, so make sure you go get your tix immediately if you haven't yet. http://www.brueryprovisions.com/Anniversary-Celebration_c_179.html

Since we'd like anybody who wants to come to have the chance, we will release some tickets for sale at the door. They will be sold for a total of $43.50 and will be cash only.

For the Tasting Room fans, we are open tonight (friday) and even have Kogi BBQ stopping by, but we are completely closed for the Anniversary Party on Saturday and Sunday, so if you don't have tickets, you can't get in.

We will not be allowing growler fills at the party. Sorry, there will simply be too many people and it will tie up the draft lines.

If you are a Reserve Society member who ordered allocations of Melange #3 or 100% Barrel Aged Coton, it will be available for pickup beginning Saturday and Sunday and continuing at the Tasting Room after this weekend.

For the rest of you, or for RS members who want more beer, the general release of Coton will be available at the anniversary party for only $15. After this weekend it will jump back up to the normal price of $20 at the Tasting Room.

Finally, we can't wait to celebrate with all of you!!!!

Cheers.

The Bruery

Our Second Anniversary Celebration!!!

It's pretty hard to believe, but our second anniversary is upon us. Seems like only yesterday when this blog began and we were simply describing the way we came up with the name "The Bruery".

So much has happened in the past year even, since our first anniversary party. We've gotten more employees, we've expanded to 21 different states, we've got plans for a retail/tasting location, we have an actual office with desks in it, we are about to purchase our first delivery truck so that we can take beer back and forth to the cold storage warehouse we're about to begin using to ensure our beer stays at top notch quality, Patrick got Lasik eye surgery and no longer wears glasses.... what a year it has been!!!

We are at a level of business that we never dreamed would happen in such a short time. Original business plans had us barely shipping outside of California at this point and maybe entertaining 5-10 guests at our tasting bar over the weekends, rather than being a hot spot for OC food trucks and thirsty residents from near and far. It's really crazy when we sit back and look at what we have become.

In honor of this momentous mark in our life as a brewery, we'll be throwing yet another awesome anniversary party. It will take place over four sessions, two each day, on May 22nd and 23rd. We'll be pulling out the stops and pouring all sorts of different beers. Things like Orchard White and Saison Rue will of course be present, but our Humulus Lager, Humulus Rice, Seven Grain Saison, Melange No Sechs, Melange #3 and 100% Barrel Aged Coton will also be pouring. One of our favorite restaurants, Beachwood BBQ, will be supplying their delicious smoked meats and southern style side dishes for all in attendance plus we'll also be making our legendary Liege waffles and bringing along some artisan cheeses and other snacks as well.

Head to our main website, http://www.thebruery.com, for a bit more info and to buy tickets for one of the sessions before they sell out!

GOLD MEDALS!!!

If you haven't yet heard, this past week was the Craft Brewers Conference in Chicago. Patrick, Rachel, Tyler, Jonas and Doug all went out there to attend some seminars, lead some seminars and drink a lot of beer. The week was pretty great and its cool going to events like that now that we have a bit of an established name in the industry. Kind of crazy how two years ago we were barely a professional brewery and this year Patrick was on a panel with some of the nations top brewery owners like Vinnie from Russian River and Sam from Dogfish Head.

The real fun of the weekend came on the last night. The CBC concludes with a banquet dinner and the World Beer Cup awards. Typically, we enjoy these events because there is good food and beer, but this year we had a bit more to be happy about. WE WON TWO GOLD MEDALS!!!

Our 100% Brett Autumn Maple, a version of our Fall seasonal fermented exclusively on brettanomyces yeast, won the Gold in the Experimental Beer category. This was pretty darned awesome.

But then, a few categories later, we heard our name called again! Oude Tart, our Flemish Red, won the Gold in the Flanders Style Ale category!

We seriously couldn't believe it. Not only did we win two medals, but it was two GOLD medals! That means two of our beers are the best in the world at the style they are aiming for. A bigger compliment can not be handed to a brewer.

Pretty awesome.

Thanks to everyone who's been sticking by our side since the beginning and thanks as well to those who may have just discovered our little brewery. We're two year and two medals in and have no intentions on stopping.

This weekend at the Tasting Room!

Highlights this week –

New pilot batch on tap! Humulus Humanless

Piaggio on Wheels Friday night

Brooklyn Boys Deli Saturday night

Growler fills of Humulus Lager

Well, we hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend – we're back to our normal hours this weekend. More hours = more beer, so that's a good thing!

This weekend we have another pilot batch to run past you. We're always trying to come up with new beers and we like to do a test run to see what you think. You may remember when we did this a few months back with Amulet: Tyler's magical Unicorn, that it was a very limited batch. We only have 1 keg, so come early!

This pilot has been dubbed “Humulus Humanless” by our brewer Jay. It's made from the second runnings of Black Tuesday and then dry-hopped with Summit and Sterling. Delicious!

We'll also have some of our favorite food trucks this weekend. Piaggio on Wheels will be showing up on Friday night to serve some Argentinian treats and Brooklyn Boys NY Deli will be making their second Tasting Room appearance on Saturday night. We loved their pastrami so much we couldn't wait to have them back!

This weekend we'll be pouring:

Orchard White (available for growler fills)

Saison Rue

Rugbrød (available for growler fills)

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growlers)

Mischief (available for growler fills)

Humulus Lager (available for growler fills)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growlers)

Hottenroth Berliner Weisse (available for growler fills)

Hops, hops, and more hops this weekend!

-3 Different Triple Hopped Pins of Humulus Lager this Friday!
⁃ Barcelona On The Go Tapas truck on Friday
⁃ Kogi BBQ on Saturday
⁃ CLOSED EASTER SUNDAY

Being that it's the beginning of April, we're gearing up for what is usually First Firkin Friday. This month, however, that's not the case. Sorry folks – no firkin at all this weekend!

We know this is upsetting news, but hopefully, the three pins that we'll be putting out for you will make up for it! Some of you might have made it out last summer when we did something similar, but if you missed it, what we're doing is a little study of hops in our Humulus Lager. Each pin is not once, not twice, but triple dry hopped – twice in the fermenter and then again in the cask with a different varietal. Here's what we're looking at:

Pin #1: Humulus Lager with whole flower Centennial
Pin #2: Humulus Lager with whole flower Citra
Pin #3: Humulus Lager with whole flower Simcoe

We'll offer a special flight of these three as well, in case you're having a hard time deciding! Also on Friday night, we have a new food truck stopping by. Barcelona On The Go is a Spanish Tapas truck that offers some tasty sounding dishes like manchego & ham croquettes and paella. Hoppy beer & Spanish snacks sounds like a great pairing to me!

On Saturday, Kogi BBQ will be back at their usual time – 6:30 until close. These guys don't need much of an introduction anymore, I think you're all pretty familiar with their delicious food!

Finally, please note that we will be CLOSED EASTER SUNDAY! I'm sure many of you will be hunting for eggs that day, so make sure you come pick up your bottles of Saison De Lente on Friday or Saturday so you have them for your celebrations.

This weekend we're pouring:
Orchard White (available for growlers)
Saison Rue
Saison De Lente (Reserve Society Growlers)
Mischief (available for growlers)
Rugbrød (available for growlers)
Humulus Lager
Hottenroth Berliner Weisse (available for growlers)
Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society Growlers)
Holiday Wine Cellar 45th Anniversary Imperial Porter

Hope to see you there!

Local Homeless Man Reformed As Brewer

Only in America...

BEFORE

AFTER

Happy April Fool's Travis...

This weekend at the Tasting Room...

Spring is finally here! And it definitely has felt like it over the past week. I hope everyone who made it to the St. Veronus Celebration enjoyed the beer – and the waffles! I apologize for the confusion in the newsletter last week regarding what day we'd have our special releases available. I hope everyone that wanted to try those beers got the chance! If not, you may still have the opportunity...

The Holiday Wine Cellar Imperial Porter will still be pouring this weekend. We also have a VERY LIMITED amount of Melange #3. If that's what you're after – come early!

This weekend we have one of our favorite food trucks stopping by to serve you some tasty snacks with your beer. Friday night Louk's Greek Gourmet to Go will be returning. A few weeks ago their truck was out of commission and we missed them, but they're back in business so come ready for some Greek grub!

This weekend we'll be pouring:

Orchard White (available for growler fills)

Rugbrød (available for growler fills)

Mischief

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growler fills)

Saison Rue

Saison De Lente (Reserves Society growler fills)

Holiday Wine Cellar Imperial Porter w/Vanilla Bean & Bourbon Oak Cubes

Melange #3 (LIMITED!)

Hope to see you there!

Brooklyn Boys NY Style Deli (Friday night), & our Second Annual St. Veronus Celebration!

This Saturday is the return of our second annual St. Veronus Day celebration!

As you know, we're a Belgian style brewery, so instead of throwing a St. Patty's Day party we figured we'd celebrate the patron saint of Belgian brewers – St. Veronus. Last year we had a great time releasing special beers, listening to some Belgian music (very festive!), and tasting some Belgian snacks. This year will be no different. Here's what you can expect:

Melange #3: We released this beer for the very first time at last year's St. Veronus celebration. It's a fabulous blend of Black Tuesday, White Oak Sap and our anniversary ale – all bourbon barrel aged. It's a complex and delicious mix that will keep you naming flavors. This will also be our next Reserve Society release, so if you haven't had it before, now's your chance!

Holiday Wine Cellar 45th Anniversary Beer: This recipe was the winner of a home brew competition held by Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido. I'm thrilled that this was chosen as the winner – it's an Imperial Porter with vanilla bean and bourbon soaked oak cubes – and it's tasting great! This is one of my favorite styles and it wears addition of the vanilla and oak very well.

Double Dry-Hopped Mischief on Cask: as if Mischief wasn't hoppy enough, we've added fresh hops to this firkin. It's first dry hopped with centennial, sterling and summit and then again in the cask with cascade and liberty (both whole leaf). This one is a hop bomb – just the way we like it! We also will have Mischief back on draft.

For those of you who've been asking, we'll be making The Bruery's famous Liege waffles! If you haven't had one, this isn't your average waffle – coated in pearl sugar and caramelized to crispy perfection - you'll have to come try it to understand.

Also, this Friday night we'll have a brand new food truck for you to try! Brooklyn Boys NY Style Deli will be swinging by to serve up some traditional New York staples, like ½ lb. Peppered Pastrami sandwiches and matzo ball soup!

This weekend we'll be pouring:
Rugbrød (available for growler fills)
Mischief (available for growler fills)
Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growler fills)
Holiday Wine Cellar 45th Anniversary Imperial Porter
Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growler fills)
Double Dry Hopped Mischief on cask

We're super excited about this weekend and hope to see you there!

This weekend at the Tasting Room...

It's a chilly week here in Southern California, but that should not stop you from coming out this weekend for a few beers!

We've got Oude Tart again this weekend, and this will likely be it's last appearance for a little while. Last weekend the keg was done by Saturday afternoon, so if you're interested in trying this tart and delicious Flemish red, you might want to come early! We also have a bit of Berliner Weisse back for this weekend – sour power!

Louk's Greek Gourmet to Go will be on site Friday night to satisfy your gyro cravings, and Saturday we will be hosting Kogi BBQ. Please take note that instead of their usual 6 to 10 pm timeframe, they'll be coming a little early – they arrive at 4 pm and will have to take off by 6 so come for a late lunch or just early bird dinner!

We're gearing up to release a few beers in the coming weeks so get excited! There might be a few special treats available next Saturday for St. Veronus Day...stay tuned!

This weekend, we're pouring:

Orchard White

Rugbrød (available for growlers)

Saison Rue

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growler fills)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growler fills)

Berliner Weisse

Oude Tart

Hope to see you there!

Brett Beers, Sour Beers & Wars this weekend at the Tasting Room.

I hope everyone enjoyed last weekend's lineup – we had a great time! Hopefully a little beer is helping everyone get through the end of the winter. Although I guess in Southern California doesn't really have winter...either way!

I mentioned last month when we released Saison De Lente that it's one of my favorite Bruery beers. Dry, hoppy, crisp and brewed with brettanomyces, this beer is great fresh but also tastes fantastic after six months or so (I had a bottle of '09 SDL over the holidays – wow, delicious brett-y goodness). One awesome iteration of this beer is the 100% Brett version. This super limited release is fermented entirely with brettanomyces and we'll have it on cask this Friday. I don't expect this one to last too long so come early!

Also, it's been a little while since we've seen a sour beer on tap at The Bruery. Pucker up 'cause we'll be pouring Oude Tart this weekend. In case you haven't had the chance to try, it's a Flemish-style red ale that was aged in red wine barrels for 18 months – and it's very tasty!

Some of you might be looking forward to the Academy Awards this Sunday night. While we don't think it made the list of nominees, one of our favorite movies of '09 was Beer Wars. In case you haven't seen it, we're going to hold a screening of it on Sunday. The movie will start at 2 pm, so bring a lawn chair if you'd like – we'll provide the popcorn – and come enjoy this great documentary dedicated to our favorite drink!

Finally, Piaggio on Wheels Gourmet will be returning on Saturday night. Bacon lovers will marvel at the bacon-wrapped hot dog, and if you are a fish fan, this truck puts out some seriously delicious seafood. Piaggio himself even comes and delivers your food inside when time allows! Look for this truck be at the Tasting Room on Saturday night for dinner.

This weekend we're pouring:

Oude Tart

Rugbrød (available for growlers)

Saison Rue

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growlers)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growlers)

Hope to see you there!

Brues, Q's, and food at the Tasting Room

At The Bruery, we love good food almost as much as we love good beer. Of course the beauty of that is we can have our food and drink beer too. This weekend at the Tasting Room, we'll have plenty of both.

Friday night, Piaggio on Wheels will be in town with their Argentine cuisine. Piaggio's been by before, bringing with him delicious interpretations of South American specialties, and we've always enjoyed it. If you haven't tried it yet, this is definitely a good time to do it. Look for the truck outside the Tasting Room on Friday night for dinner.

Saturday our friends at Kogi BBQ will be bringing the truck down to dispense the wonderful Korean barbeque that we all know and love. I know I can't get enough of that Blackjack Quesadilla (my favorite!), so as always we'll be looking forward to their amazing food.

Sunday, we're going to try a little something new. We think good beer is a great compliment to a fun game, so we'll be hosting Brues & Q's this weekend. We've got trivia from lots of different categories, including beer!

For example, do you know which US president was once a pitch man for PBR? Or which US state has never had a brewery?? You'll have to play to find out! Don't worry though, if you're not super beer savvy there's other categories as well. So bring your your wits - and your witty friends, because we'll be playing with teams - and see what kind of goodness we give out as prizes. We'll get this going at 2 pm.

This weekend, we're pouring:

Orchard White (available for growlers)

Rugbrød (available for growlers)

Saison Rue

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growlers)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growlers)

White Oak & Oude Tart - bottle only

See you there!

Become a Fan!

We restarted our facebook page (again) and this time we've done it the right way. Clearly we're better at beer than technology because it took us until now to figure out how to make a page where you can click that cool "become a fan!" button. We'll be using the page to let you know about releases, events, specials at the Tasting Room and give you some insight into our daily lives. So, without further ado.... become a fan of The Bruery on facebook!

www.facebook.com/TheBruery

photos

Once in a while we whip out the camera and take some photos, but then we tend to forget that we took photos and they sit on a memory card in a lonely camera in a drawer for a while. Well, here are just a few of the cooler photos from the past month or two. Enjoy.

Doug and Kevin getting our hop vine down so we can use it to dry hop a cask of Humulus XPA for the Tasting Room.

Just a few of our Reserve Society members lining up to try Papier aged in bourbon, brandy and rye barrels.

Tyler examines a glass of what would eventually be blended and dubbed Oude Tart

A line up of several barrels of Flemish red ale, we would blend these to taste. The outcome became Oude Tart.

Jay somehow organized a monstrosity of hoses in order to clean the brewhouse after a hard day's work.

This weekend at the Tasting Room...

We hope everyone had an enjoyable Valentine's Day weekend and if you joined us at the Tasting Room, thanks for coming!

For those of you who tried the Sechs & Chocolate pairing and were interested in procuring some of those delicious chocolates, you can find them at www.xuanpatisserie.com and order some for yourself now that Valentine's is over.

If you missed out on Melange No. Sechs last weekend, don't worry - we will still be serving it this weekend. It's our Valentine's Day blend made with beets, cocoa nibs, rose petals, and of course, love (as our bartender Jarred pointed out in his display for the beer). It's just as tasty after Valentine's Day, so come give it a try.

Louk's Greek Gourmet to Go will be returning this weekend as well. They were a big hit the last time they visited us and they'll be serving their tasty Greek specialties from the truck this Saturday for dinner – 6 to 10 pm. Try their delicious gyros, feta fries and Louks (mini Greek donuts drizzled with honey, nutella, and other tasty toppings) with your Bruery beer.

The 2010 Winter Olympics are well under way, and you don't have to miss the games to have your beer. In fact we think they compliment each other well. You can catch the Friday & Saturday night on our big screen at the Tasting Room – Go USA!

Finally, we are getting to the end of the available bottles of Oude Tart and White Oak for sale. If you've been holding out for the right time, that time is now! Both of these beers are rare special releases for us and would make great gifts for your beer geek friends, a nice addition to your own beer cellar, or you can just enjoy them immediately!

This weekend we'll be pouring:

Orchard White (available for growlers)

Saison Rue

Rugbrød (available for growlers)

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growler fill)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growler fill)

White Oak & Oude Tart bottles available for sale

Hope to see you there!

Bruery inspired Art!

Well this is a first for us. A super awesome artist who sampled our Melange no Sechs during San Francisco beer week was inspired to use the beer as the latest installment in her weekly art blog where she makes witty paintings and other art pieces that dissect different foods (mainly meats, but today, BEER!)

Be sure to take look at her site, she does great work.

http://meatsections.blogspot.com

Sechs, Chocolate, and Saison De Lente

We've got not one but TWO new beers on tap this weekend at the Tasting Room. Saison De Lente, our spring seasonal, is officially back – on draft and in bottles. Some of you may have had a chance to taste the cask of this beer last weekend, but for those of you who haven't tried this beer before, it's a crisp and hoppy Saison that's a bit lighter than Saison Rue and fitting for spring celebrations.

The next beer is the latest in our Melange series that's been brewed especially for Valentine's Day; this is number six - or No. Sechs as we've dubbed it. Melange no. Sechs is primarily made up of an experimental beer brewed with beets for a festive red color before cocoa nibs and rose petals are added. It's then blended with White Oak Sap (our bourbon barrel aged wheat wine) & bourbon barrel aged Rugbrød The resulting beer is 9% ABV and has an earthy flavor with a pleasant chocolate & vanilla nose and a subtle floral hint all wrapped in an incredibly smooth package. It's one Sechs-y beer!

On Valentine's Day, stop by the Tasting Room before your V-Day dinner plans for a little Sechs & Chocolate. We're working with local chocolatier Xuan Patiserrie of Fullerton and have developed a flight of craft beer and artisan chocolate so you can treat your sweetie. We think a Caramel Vanilla Fleur de Sel chocolate heart paired with Melange No. Sechs is a great way to spend V-Day. This is just one of the 3 beer and chocolate pairings that will be served on the flight. It should be a fun and unique way to spend your holiday. Here's a little shot of the chocolates - can't wait!

Finally, for you Korean BBQ fans, the Kogi BBQ Taco Truck will be at the Tasting Room on Saturday night from 6:30 – 9 pm. I think you're all pretty familiar with this concept by now – delicious Korean BBQ and Mexican fusion, all served from their handy mobile kitchen right on site at The Bruery.

This weekend we'll be pouring:

Orchard White (available for growler fills)

Saison Rue

Rugbrød (available for growler fills)

Humulus XPA (available for growler fills)

Saison De Lente (Reserve Society growler fills)

Melange No. Sechs (Reserve Society growler fills)

Mischief

Also available for sale:

Oude Tart bottles

White Oak bottles

See you there!

Cheers,

Stef & the other folks at The Bruery

new offices!

we're probably the only ones who care, but its a move that we've needed for quite a while since half of the staff had been working on laptops located on their laps for the past year or so. While The Bruery itself hasn't moved, our business offices moved down the parking lot to #737. We now have desks and are farther away from the beer, so hopefully we'll be getting some work done.

if we were as good at installing desks at making beer, it wouldn't take this many people.

Patrick painting the ceilings for our new fixtures.

Jonas takes a phone call while screwing brackets together under his desk.

Rachel enjoying our fresh desktop appliances, still in the boxes.

Jonas can now take calls from on top of his desk.

Valentine's Beer Clarification

just to put all the rumors and questions to rest:

Our Valentine's beer is called Melange No. Sechs (as in 6 in German, even though it's not a German-style beer, just seemed like a convenient name) and it will only be available on draft (NO BOTTLES) and only at very select Southern California bars and restaurants, primarily over the Valentine's weekend, as well as at The Tasting Room of course. Sorry, but it is a very small batch of beer.

First Firkin Friday, Super Bowl Sunday - and everything in between...

We have a lot going on this weekend so here’s the schedule of events!

First, we’re kicking off February with a cask of one of my favorite Bruery beers – Saison De Lente.  As our spring seasonal offering, this beer has a lighter body than Saison Rue and a pleasant hoppyness that is ideal as the weather warms up.  This crisp golden ale is brewed with Brettanomyces and is ideal for cellaring – but it’s just as delicious fresh!  We’ll have bottles available for sale as well.

Saturday night we have a new food truck stopping by to feed your beer munchies.  Louk’s Greek Gourmet to Go will be on hand serving some tasty Greek specialties like gyros, lamb chops, and tzatziki French fries so stop by and sample some of their delicious dishes.

For Super Bowl Sunday, we’ve decided to change things up a bit.  Instead of our normal business hours (12-6pm) we’re going to open early and close before kick-off (10 am -3 pm).  We know everyone needs beer for the big game so we’re offering 10% off growler fills for your game time drinking pleasure. 

Also, since we’ll be open early, we thought a little Super Bowl Brunch would be in order.  We’ll be serving some light brunch items for you to snack on while you fill your growlers and grab bottles for the game.  We’ll be pouring our Berliner Weisse Mimosas to kick off your game day so come down early and start your pre-game party at the Tasting Room!

This weekend we’ll be pouring:

 

Orchard White (available for growlers)

Humulus XPA (available for growlers)

Rugbrød (available for growlers)

Saison Rue

Mischief

Berliner Weisse (on Sunday)

Saison De Lente (on cask Friday until it’s gone!)

Hope to see you this weekend!

today at The Bruery

I feel like we've fallen off of the wagon a bit when it comes to what this blog used to focus on, the daily happenings at The Bruery, so we're going to try to bring back that aspect of the blog and hopefully let you in on a bit of what happens in the day to day at a craft brewery that has now been open for just short of 2 years.

It was actually an atypical day today. As we now have a bigger crew of both brewers and office staff, we've had to expand our real estate a tiny bit. We were able to lease an office a few doors down from the one we currently reside in (which is just the front portion of the brewery) so that our office staff can have desks instead of working on laptops that literally reside on their laps. So today, our staff was split into two offices for the first time. The brewing staff was busy bottling Saison De Lente for the Spring release as well as creating a new limited release concoction intended for a Valentine's weekend release in just a few SoCal locations. The office staff was busy painting the new office space to make it a bit more hospitable.

While we'll only be separated by about 70 yards, it's definitely going to be weird for part of The Bruery staff to be in one office and part in another, but I'm sure we'll adjust qu

ickly and all will work out for the best.

Here are a few photos from the today.

Jonas and Rachel helping paint the new office space.

Patrick oranging up the new reception area (not that we have a receptionist)

Tyler syphoning out that special Valentine's release.

Travis prepping the lines for love.

That's one ridiculous color for a beer. Looks like love.