Valentines Day a day early!

Come out this Sunday for a special Valentine's Day beer and chocolate pairing!

First Firkin Friday FebRUEry Fourth

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.

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)

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!

An extra gift for Holiday Beer Geek Show & Tell

We've got an extra little surprise for you guys this Saturday and I'm horrible with surprises so I'm just gonna spill the beans.

When you show up here on Saturday with your awesomely delicious beers to share. Or if you are just here to grab a glass of Two Turtle Doves or Rugbrød as a lovely holiday warmer and perhaps pick up a gift basket for that beer lover who you still haven't bought a gift for, we aren't going to leave you hungry.

Saturday, at about 5:30, the infamous Frysmith truck will be pulling up to our Tasting Room to share their delectable french fry concoctions. If you haven't had a chance to try this new LA food truck yet, this is a great chance, especially since it will be a rare OC appearance for them. And seriously...what pairs better with beer than french fries smothered with fire roasted poblano chiles, caramelized onions and shawarma-marinated steak with jack cheese? What?! I ask, What?!

Check out the Frysmith at www.eatfrysmith.com and start thinking about what you're gonna order once that Saturday night hunger emerges.

Rajas Fries

Chili Cheese Fries

Thanksgiving news! Holiday food drive THIS WEEKEND at the Tasting Room. Oh, and White Oak too. And Berliner Weisse Mimosas!

I think that should get me the award for longest blog title ever.  

Thanksgiving is just 1 short week away and I can't believe it!  But believe it or not here we are, so in the spirit of the holiday, we’ll be holding a canned food drive all of this coming weekend!  The food collected will be donated to Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County, a fantastic organization dedicated to fighting hunger. 

To get everyone in the giving mood, we’ll try to do our part too!  Friday through Sunday, we’ll offer a discount on draft beer to anyone who makes a donation to our food drive.  Just bring in canned goods/nonperishable items and we'll give you a deal on your beer.  Let’s toast to the spirit of giving!   

Also, everyone has been asking, so I'm happy to announce that we will be serving White Oak on draft this weekend.  It is a very limited amount, so we will be unable to fill growlers, but we will be serving by the glass.  Also, we do still have bottles of it available, both for individual sale and as a part of Reserve Society memberships.

If you're in town on Sunday, stop in to try my favorite concoction Berliner Weisse concoction, the Hottenroth Mimosa.  Just substitute the beer for the bubbly and you have one delicious Sunday drink.  Sounds great, right?

On Sunday, we’ll be making Hottenroth Berliner Weisse Mimosas for just $2!  Come down and see what you think of this tart and tasty drink.  If your family makes mimosas for the holidays, take home a bottle and show them how to shake things up a little.  

And speaking of holidays, don’t forget you can still purchase gift baskets at the Tasting Room.  We’ll be making these little bundles of beer and joy though the end of the year, but we’ll have plenty of Thanksgiving/autumn themed baskets ready this weekend for you to take with you next Thursday.  Give them as a gift, bring them to your host, or buy one for yourself to pair with your turkey dinner.

We’ll also have a complementary holiday food & beer pairing guide for you to take home starting this weekend to help you plan your beer menu for the big day.  Because honestly what is a meal without the beer?!

So to recap - Food for beer, White Oak, Hottenroth Mimosas, holiday gift baskets...I think that about covers it.  See you there for all this beery goodness!

Korean BBQ Tacos at The Bruery?!?!

We usually wait until later in the week to get info on the Tasting Room, but I just couldn't wait for Stef to reveal this week's super awesomeness. After hoping and praying for months and months, the super famous Kogi BBQ truck will be parking outside of The Bruery this Friday from 6pm to 9pm!

For those who aren't familiar with Kogi, they are single handedly responsible for the recent food truck craze in Los Angeles. Their incredible Chef Roy Choi has combined the sweet and spicy flavors of Korean BBQ with the savory handheld meals that Mexico is so famous for. Short rib tacos, Korean breakfast burritos, kimchi quesadillas...its all incredible and will all be available right outside the Tasting Room doors!

If you have never tried Kogi, this is a great chance. If you have never been to our Tasting Room, this is an incredible chance. And if you ever wondered how many tacos each member of our staff can eat, this is a stupendous chance to watch us all gorge on deliciousness and then wash it all down with a beer. I'm thinking Rugbrød might help relieve my tongue of the spice...but we'll have to figure out that night what pairs best with a black jack quesadilla.

For those who want some more info on Kogi, here is a fun video.

And don't forget to follow kogi on twitter at @kogibbq and follow The Bruery at @thebruery.

OktoBRUEfest! and a few other new items!

We may not make and Oktoberfest beer, but we still know how to celebrate this beer-centric tradition!

This weekend (October 2-4) we've lined up a whole three days of festivities at the Tasting Room.  Starting Friday with First Firkin Friday and as always we'll have a special cask on - a sneak preview of a new beer we'll be releasing soon.

Saturday, we'll be offering our Stimulus discount of 25% off all draft beer including growler fills.  On Sunday, Patrick will be manning the grill and serving up some brats to go with your beers,  and we'll be ending the weekend with one of our favorite events - Beer Geek Show & Tell!

If you haven't been to one of these before, we invite you to bring a 750mL/bomber/2 12oz bottles of a rare/special beer/exceptional homebrew that you'd like to share with everyone.  You'll then have a chance to taste what others have brought in.  It's a great opportunity to try some cool beers and talk with some fellow beer geeks about them.

Another item I want to mention is a new program we're implementing starting this weekend.  We will be putting up a new chalkboard in the Tasting Room and starting BRUE-it-forward.  In the spirit of sharing a beer with a friend, you'll be able to purchase a beer for someone else and we'll write their names on our BRUE-it-Forward board so that the next time they come in, they can redeem their beer and see that you purchased it for them.  The only thing better than enjoying a good beer is sharing one, right?  So come down and BRUE-it-Forward starting Friday.

Finally, we'll be announcing details about Black Tuesday this week, so keep your eyes open for that.  I promise it'll be a night not to be missed!  

Looking forward to seeing you all for OktoBRUEfest in the Tasting Room!

A Very Important Message from James Wood & The Bruery

Check out The Bruery's first Vlog!   James did an awesome job delivering this message.  

For more details on the Contest, you can email stef@thebruery.com  We're looking forward to seeing what you come up with!!!

Beer Geek Show & Tell this Saturday!

For those of you who've been to a past Show-and-Tell, you know what to do. For those who haven't, Beer Geek Show-and-Tell is where we invite everyone to bring in one bomber/750ml/ 2-12oz bottles of special craft/exceptional home brewed beer to share. And by share we mean having the beer served by the tasting room staff-please don't just bring it for everyone just to look at and drool, that's not nice. Only those who bring beer can partake in the sharing. And, of course, we'll share some fun stuff as well! The tasting room will be open from 12-6p as usual.

See you there!

Special Release Beers for our St. Veronus Celebration!

Our St. Veronus Celebration is almost here!  As promised we'll be releasing some new beers for the event, and oh man are they exciting!

First, Melange #3 is a complex blend of three unreleased bourbon barrel aged beers, including our Black Tuesday Imperial Stout, White Oak Wheat Wine, and Papier, our 1st Anniversary beer (an Old Ale).  Weighing in at 15% ABV, and layered with flavor, this is a special release you won't want to miss.  Some of you may have had the opportunity to sample this one at the Tasting Room, and now you can come and fully enjoy it.

Another beer we'll be premiering is our Cuvee Jeune.  This is a Young American Wild Ale fermented with traditional Lambic flora and then aged in Chardonnay barrels, finishing at approximately 6.5% ABV.

Last but not least, we'll be serving White Zin.  Nope, not the wine.  It's a beer for which we've blended that Cuvee Juene with our Zinbier, a Belgian blonde fermented with almost 1000 lbs of zinfandel grapes.  It's approximately 7.5% ABV and will be available for the first time this weekend.

Hopefully this news has you even more excited for this weekend's event, I know we sure are!  See you there!

Tasting Room Update: 10/15/08

Starting this weekend, there will be many exciting/delicious events in our tasting room.  Here's the DL-

OktoBRUEfest- this Saturday, October 18th

Break out those lederhosen or practice your Sprockets dance- we are bringing Bavaria to you!  Come this Saturday for The Bruery's take on Oktoberfest.  Snack on some delicious Bruery inspired German food prepared by The Bruery Chef Anthony Latteri.  We will be tapping our LAST keg of Hottenroth Berliner Weisse which will go down faster than the Dow Jones!  It will be uber (read: ooh-beer) cool.

Beer Geek Show-and-Tell Saturday, October 25th

We are no dummies- we know The Bruery's beer isn't the only beer you drink.   As much as we love our beer, we do enjoy partaking in the fruits of other brewery's labor as well.  Here at The Bruery, we strive to remind those of the principles and values expounded to us in grammar school, such as "sharing is caring."  Thus was the creation of Beer Geek Show-and-Tell.  On this day, if you are so inclined, please bring one bomber/750ml/ 2-12oz bottles of special craft/exceptional home brewed beer to share.  By the way sharing equals having the beer served by the tasting room staff- please don't just bring it for everyone just to look at and drool, that's not nice.   This is also a lesson in quid pro quo= only those who bring beer can partake in the sharing.  Don't worry, we will be bringing something special as well.

Halloween Night @ The Bruery- Friday, October 31st

Why should kids have all the fun trick-or-treating on Halloween night?  Come to The Bruery to get your treats on Old Hallow's Eve.  We will open at 2 like normal, for those of you who like to cut out early from work on Fridays.  However, the Beer-witching hours will be from 6-11pm that evening.  During that time, those who show up in costumes will receive 1 free pint of Imperial Orchard White.  Sorry- dressing up as a Bruery employee does not count.  

We may not put pumpkin in our beer, but we do put beer in our pumpkin.  At 6pm, we will tap a special pumpkin cask of the Autumn Maple.  A costume contest will occur at 8pm (you have to be there to win), with prizes for the winner.  There will be many more spooky surprises that evening, so be sure to make it!

First Firkin Friday (aka F cubed)- Friday, November 7th

Hopefully by now you have experienced F-cubed, and look forward to the first friday of every month like children do for Santa Claus.  Our next tapping in the series will be on Friday, November 7th.  The beer de jour?  Our Humulus Gold- a hoppy golden strong ale.  Yep, that's a new beer, so you better be the first to try it so you can be the cool kid and tell all your friends!

AHA Rally- Saturday, November 15th

I know this one is 1 month (or approc. 100 beers in beer-time) away, but this one is a biggie.  We will be hosting a crazy awesome rally for AHA- American Homebrewer's Association.  More info definitely to come on this one.  For now, just start the count down, OK?

Cheers!

Rachel

Chief Style Officer / Owner

Tasting Room Update: 9/18/08

Thanks to those of you who have visited The Bruery's tasting room.  Our opening weekend on September 5th was a great success.  Here's a heads up on what's going on this weekend at our tasting room-

Logistics (aka boring stuff that you should probably know)...

Credit Card Payments- You can go back to saving those dollar bills for the gentleman's club- we now accept debit and credit cards.

Growlers- We still haven't gotten our new growlers yet, so please continue to bring your own in to be "rebranded" and filled with our draft beers.

Sports Addicts- You don't have to miss your Friday and Saturday sports watching to come and visit us.  We have a large projection tv and are more than happy to put on whatever sports are on the boob tube.  We accept all sports and team affiliations, as long as you let us beat you at darts.

Now to Wet Your Appetite...

Humulus Bruin Draft Discount- due to overwhelming response, we are continuing our special on Humulus Bruin growler fills, at just $8 a fill.  Come take some home on Saturday for that Sunday Football!!  We will also have a special Frogs Breath cheese accompaniment to try with this beer.

Imperial Orchard White (IOW)- What's better than a glass of cool, crisp, Orchard White, the #1 rated wit beer on Ratebeer.com?  How about one with more alcohol and a bit more malt?  Well we thought it sounded pretty damn good, so we created Imperial Orchard White.  IOW packs a pretty good punch, at 7.7% abv.  And since 7 is a lucky number, we predict that this beer will bring only good to those who drink it (or those football or baseball team picks, or stock market listings).  So replace that lucky rabbit's foot with a glass of this beer, and let the good times roll!  Only $12 a growler!

Autumn Maple Sneak Preview- What? Say it again yam?!?  We have a sneak preview of our Autumn Maple on draft.  Coming in at over 10% abv, Autumn Maple is quite malty with the spice background of pumpkin pie (yet not overdone like many other "pumpkin" beers). We won't be able to hide this beer for long.  Come by and try some off the tap, and see what 440 lbs of yams can do for a beer.  The bottles aren't ready yet, but we will keep you posted as soon as a release date is determined.

So hire the babysitter, feed the dog, and clean your growlers.  Then get your butt over to our Tasting Room!

Hours

Fridays- 2pm-8pm

Saturdays- noon-6pm

Cheers,

Rachel

Full-time Chief Style Officer / Owner