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