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!