First Firkin Friday FebRUEry Fourth

Charlotte's Beer

We're brewing a very unique beer today at The Bruery in honor of the newest member of the Famille Rue. Charlotte Rue was born 11 days ago to very happy parents Patrick and Rachel Rue and what better way to celebrate than with a monstrous beer.

The plan is to make this a beer for Charlotte to enjoy herself one day, so we are brewing what we're calling a "bourbon beer". In typical bourbon fashion, we are using a 51% corn mash and that, along with the other malts and sugars, we are hoping will bring this beer somewhere close to 23% or perhaps higher in alcohol. The primary reason we need the gravity on this beer to be so high is because we now plan on aging it in brand new, dark charred barrels for 21 years - ready to be drunk on Charlotte's 21st birthday. Over time, the beer should pick up flavor and color from the char in the same way as a good bourbon would and the final result will be a very strong beer tasting similar to a fine whiskey.

Like many of our beers, this is going to be an interesting experiment and you'll have to stick with us until 2032 to find out what the end result is. Sorry about the wait.

We're Hiring!

Customer Service & Event Coordinator
The Bruery, Placentia, CA
Position posted January 14, 2011

The Bruery is looking for an organized, team-oriented, customer-focused, craft beer loving, outgoing person to join our team. The Customer Service & Event Coordinator is the lead contact for customer requests, handles the planning and execution of all Bruery events, and assists with office tasks. This position is full time and is Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm, with occasional work during weekends to supervise events.

Customer Service Tasks:

-- Responding promptly to all customer inquiries from customers via phone, fax, eMail (info@thebruery.com), Facebook, Twitter, BeerAdvocate, RateBeer, and in person
-- Promptly handle and resolve customer complaints
-- Keep records of customer interactions and actions taken
-- Gives tours and tastings for special customers and industry guests
-- Answering phones

Event Coordinator Tasks:

-- Assist with negotiations for space contracts and book event space, arrange food and beverage, order supplies and audiovisual equipment, make travel arrangements, order event signs, and ensure appropriate décor to meet the quality expectations of The Bruery
-- Conduct research, make site visits, and find resources to help staff make decisions about event possibilities
-- Create and revise site layouts for each event
-- Schedule Bruery employees and volunteers to assist in event execution
-- Propose new ideas to improve the event planning and implementation process.
-- Serve as liaison with vendors on event-related matters
-- Assist with managing on-site production and clean up for events as necessary
-- Prepare nametags, materials, notebooks, packages, gift bags, registration lists, seating cards, etc.
-- Close out all events as required
-- Assist with preparing budgets and provide periodic progress reports to staff directors for each event project
-- Keep track of event finances including check requests, invoicing, and reporting
-- Prepare and modify event contracts as requested

Office Tasks:

-- Answering phones
-- Forwarding faxes to intended recipient
-- Receiving and sorting mail
-- Filing
-- Document scanning

Qualifications:

-- Passion for craft beer
-- Knowledge of the brewing process and the craft brewing industry are a plus
-- Excellent communication skills, including writing, proof reading skills, and speaking.
-- Ability to manage multiple projects and work assignments from a variety of staff and volunteers
-- Excellent interpersonal skills both in person and by phone, with high professionalism
-- Ability to accomplish projects with little supervision
-- Fantastic customer service ethic and high expectations for quality
-- Bachelor’s degree preferred; significant work experience can substitute for the degree
-- Proficient using Word and Excel; experience with Macs is a plus

Salary rate is dependent on experience. Full time positions will have the option of receiving medical and dental insurance, paid vacation, paid holiday, and paid sick leave. Please eMail a cover letter and resume to careers@thebruery.com.

Pre-employment background check required.

The Bruery is an Equal Opportunity Employer and committed to workforce diversity. Qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, disability or veteran status.

Marrón Acidifié

We're very excited for the pending release of our first ever collaboration beer.

It's become a bit of a trend in the past couple of years for breweries to get together and come up with recipes to release together and its for good reason: its fun!

We had a great time working with the folks at Cigar City Brewing to come up with this one and we're stoked to finally release it.

More info will follow soon as we want to wait on all of the label approvals and what-have-you's before we send legitimate info out there into the blogosphere, for now, just enjoy this fun photo.

To our Reserve Society: We're Sorry!

Dear Reserve Society Members,

I'd like to sincerely apologize for the very long lines and disorganization of yesterday. Everyone at The Bruery agrees with the sentiments that more should have been done to accommodate the very large crowd.

When I woke up yesterday, I felt like it was going to be a great day for The Bruery. My soon-to-be-born daughter Charlotte hadn't forced my wife into labor, so I was actually going to make it to the largest party we've ever put on. I was up especially early so I could get a head start on the day, and I felt that we were generally well prepared. Then the party started.

While we were planning this event, we expected approximately 1,000 guests after receiving around 1,300 RSVP's. We checked in 997 people, so I'm happy to report this prediction was correct! We chose to have the event at The Phoenix Club because our small brewery can no longer handle the size of these events-- we'd need to have 5 or 6 sessions at this point. As far as check-in goes, we needed a method where multiple people wouldn't be able to check in under the same name, so having multiple lists of members printed out might have resulted in this happening. Using our database to check people in helped avoid this problem, but the process did take longer than it should have. With regard to the amount of beer stations, I felt that with ample room, lines would move more efficiently than they do normally at our brewery, and thought having three separate stations (with the truck station being the equivalent of 4 stations) would be sufficient. In retrospect, I was way off the mark and I feel like beating my head against the wall for not anticipating this. Not to make excuses, but we've all been under a lot of pressure lately with our latest expansion (which will almost double our capacity), and I've been distracted by thoughts of having to take care of another human being.

As we plan for our next big event, our Anniversary party, we are keeping track of everything that needs to change from this event. You can expect to see paper tickets for any event with more than 400 attendees. We will refine our estimates to determine how many beer stations and bartenders we'll require (one station per 100 guests for a 3 hour event). While I think our draft truck is remarkably cool, it didn't work out to be the equivalent of 4 stations that I was anticipating. We'll also have to work with our friends who run these fantastic food trucks to see what can be done on their end to speed the process. We'd love to get Beachwood BBQ back as well!

We will attempt to make this up to you throughout the year and I hope we can quickly convince you that you made a great choice by being a Reserve Society member. For starters, one project we're working on that will start in February is having more frequent Reserve Society gatherings. These will take place on a Saturday starting around noon and finishing around 3:30 PM before our tasting room opens to the general public. We might feature beers from our Nano series, pull a special keg from the archive, and have some sort of educational component. We'll have some sort of delicious food available, and we'll encourage you to bring bottles to share if you're so inclined. Since these events will happen at our brewery, we will have to limit the number of attendees. I anticipate receiving a good amount of flack from those who aren't able to RSVP in time! Oh well, they'll be fun events and they'll happen regularly. Perhaps we can call them "Clusterfork" parties?

We also have a lot of great beers in the pipeline that I hope you'll enjoy! Everyone at The Bruery would like to wish you a safe, healthy, and beer filled 2011!

Cheers,

Patrick Rue

The Bruery