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It's Shorts Weather, Which Means You Get to Start Hearing Us Ramble About Our Birthday Party

5/31/2022

Howdy-do kids and squids! We're comin' atcha with a buncha fun stuff and tasty treats and - of course - delicious, delicious beer, so check out all this stuff we got goin' on!

But first, wedding donkey!

But before we get to all that, we'd like to take a moment to shout about what is (to us, anyway) a pretty big milestone around here: our first interstate beer shipment has left the building! And sure, "putting beer on a truck" is maybe not all that big of a deal and also it's for a one-time gig (the Decibel Fest in Philly next week), but we started with a delivery radius of "places Liz can bike to* for sales calls" which then got tightened to "the taproom and one draft account, sometimes" for a while and now we're somehow sending a dang ol' pallet to a different state** and we never in a million years thought we'd be doing cool shit like this, especially after only six short (and/or long, but definitely weird) years and dang but when we start ruminatin' on that we start getting all misty-eyed about all the cool people we've met because of this brewery and how we couldn't have done this without all the support we've gotten from all y'all and anyway the point is that we put some beer on a truck and we're having Emotions about it.

EMOTIONS

But! We must move onward and/or forward, and honestly this is a terrible segue into the fact that we won't be having a cask this week on account of how we're doing casks every other week for a while (and at some point the cask schedule is gonna change to "after Labor Day") but it is what it is.

But wait! There is good beer news! We're gonna be releasing the first of our anniversary beers*** this week and I daresay it's one whose fanbase overlaps pretty significantly with cask drinkers and anyway that beer is Blood Built! This lil' beer is a dry stout brewed to pair with the musical stylings of Blood Built Empire and this is the fifth dang ol' year we've made it and it's been a favorite every time (even if SOME people**** get all "the first year's vintage was superior" or whatever) and it's gonna be in cans this weekend (and yes, we are setting some aside for the party, because you gotta drink some while they're onstage) and anyway you should come drink some!

It's never to early to start rambling about our birthday, you big silly

But enough about beer, it's time we're movin' on to the fun times for the weekend! On Thursday we've got Black Sabbath trivia! We (your humble bloggists) don't know a whole ton about the band, but that don't mean we won't be out there failing wildly but all that really means is somebody else might be able to snag our usual second-to-last spot in the trivia rankings and that could be you! So come hang out!

Insert heavy riffs here

And then on Friday we're hosting our friends from Wicked Retro will be comin' by and settin' up a whole mess of classic video games (free to play, of course) and also we'll have Blanche's Ice Cream settin' up shop and did you know that she makes ice cream tacos?! Anyway my point is that it will be a rad time and you should come eat ice cream and play video games with us!

ICE. CREAM. TACOS.

Then on Saturday we're hosting our first-ever Spring Bazaar! We've got a handful of local artists settin' up shop all afternoon (namely KT Lane and Ivonne Blanco and our very own Bananamasher) and The Nada Cart will be there slingin' snacks and then in the evening we've got some surf rock courtesy of The Electric Heaters and it's gonna be a great day!

A bizarre bazaar? Let's find out!

And then if you're the "planning ahead" type, it behooves us to let you know that next Thursday we're doin' Simpsons Trivia and the theme is Season Six and then next Saturday we're hosting New Wave Yoga in the beer garden! Grab a ticket here, it includes your first beer!

You can imagine if there was some new wave goth shit playing in the background

* And/or "places that are willing to accept deliveries in the evening" because Jared still had a day job at that time.
** There's actually a good chance that some of our beer will be getting sent overseas for a beer festival later this summer, but we're not the ones doing the organizing/sending on that so we'll wait until it's done to go into more detail.
*** Speaking of things that we get all sentimental about, we're entering the time of year when we're shouting nonstop about our anniversary party in August. But we'll spare you most of that for now.
**** BEN

In Which This Week's Beer Release Strikes a Certain Chord

5/25/2022

Hello again! We've got some big ol' news about a beer that we've gotten approximately eleventy hundred questions about, so we'll get right to it and on with the newsin' about...

WAIT FOR IT

...Yelling at Birds! OK fine this isn't the beer that people have been asking about, but it is on tap! Right now! For those of you who might not remember (since it hasn't been around for a minute) it's a tripel that's been aged in blueberry liqueur barrels and it's chock full o' barrel-and-blueberry goodness and you should drink some!

FWIW, this really is the last of it this time!

Anyway, back to the task at hand - on Thursday we'll be releasing our collab with The Red Chord: Fixation on Red Ale! We brewed this beer for the upcoming Decibel Magazine Metal and Beer Fest in Philly but we were too excited about this beer to wait two whole weeks to release it so we said "damn the rules" and then politely asked Decibel if they'd mind if we released this beer early and anyway it's gonna be on draft and in cans and soon you can have some!

I mean, it's got the thumbs up from Gunface here

And speaking of beers we brewed for the Decibel fest, we brewed another beer for the Decibel fest and that's a hazy IPA called Embrace the Chaos and it features a truly chaotic hop blend (which includes, but is by no means limited to, the hop named Chaos) and that's gonna be on tap real soon and also we'll probably have a little in cans but anyway keep them eyes peeled!

Put sassy caption about hazies here

And moving right along into this week's Fun Times, on Thursday we're doin' Wayne's World trivia!

There'll be good times and good tunes and prizes and friendship and all that good shit, so come on by!

Oh! Also! We're tappin' a cask of Shut Up Kelly on Thursday! This beer needs no introduction and it so happens to be fantastic on cask, so come getcha some!

PSA: This is probably one of the last casks of Kelly until the fall

And then on Friday we're doin' this month's Band Hangouts! We're gettin' heavy this month with Edict (who describe themselves as "unfriendly sounding" which is honestly wonderful) and Black Palm and they'll be swingin' by and slingin' merch and hangin' out and we'll be playing their tunes on the stereo and also new-to-us Koselig Posto will be there with Norwegian-themed* arancini and it's gonna be a great time and you should come hang out!

The music may not be friendly, but the bad members usually are. Come on out!

And then lookin' forward all the way to next week, we've got a solid lineup all weekend:

On Thursday we'll be hosting Black Sabbath trivia
On Friday we've got Wicked Retro in the house with a whole bunch of classic video games
On Saturday we're doin' a spring market with a bunch of art vendors (namely KT Lane and Ivonne Blanco and our own Matt Darcy) and live music (courtesy of The Electric Heaters) and snacks (from The Nada Cart) and it's gonna be hella fun!

* I have no idea what this means, but I must find out.

Fifteen Bands? Fifteen Beer Releases? You'll Never Get Away With It!

5/18/2022

Howdy friends! We got us a jam-packed weekend comin' up that definitely won't involve any sort of Secret Beer, I don't even know where you might have gotten that idea from. Anyway, let's get on with it!

Onto business! Beer business!

First and/or foremost, we've got a cool offsite event goin' on Wednesday evening (which is tonight if you're reading this today, or maybe it's in the past if you're reading this in the future) and that's a beer dinner at State Park! They're pairin' up a tasty-ass four course dinner with four beers from us and we'll be there to hang out and/or ramble about beer and it's gonna be a ton of fun, so if you want some last-minute plans for tonight maybe you should check it out!

Tickets! Tickets! Tickets!

And in decidedly less exciting news, we won't be tapping a cask this week because of Reasons,* but never you fear: we'll be revvin' up that ol' beer engine next week!

But gettin' back to Fun Timezz, we've got a whole spate o' fun stuff lined up for you on Friday! As the "main event," we're "dippin' our toes" into the "waters" of "more regular live music" and anyway the point is that we've got T. Bloodhound performing an acoustic set from 8-10! And if you wanna get your nosh on while you listen to some tunes, we've got HotChix AND Blanche's Ice Cream up in the house and it's gonna be a hoot and you should come by!

This food combo honestly sounds kind of perfect - gotta cool the burn and/or treat yourself

And for the rest of the weekend, we've got Lala's comin' by on Saturday and we're bein' joined by Wild Fox on Sunday and also we're having our regularly-scheduled sushi class that same day and there probably won't be any Secret Beer at any point so I don't even know how that keeps coming up. Anyway it's gonna be fun and the weather is supposed to be nice as hell and you should come hang out!

What we're saying is you should come help kick Out of Bounds so you can have secret beer

And! Movin' on into the future, we've got more fun times! First up next Thursday is Wayne's World trivia, which is sure to be excellent! And then next Friday we're hosting our monthly Band Hangouts night! This month we're featuring Edict and Black Palm and they'll be hangin' out and slingin' merch and also we'll be releasing our we'll be releasing our collab beer that we made with The Red Chord (who will unfortunately not be joining us, on account of "not being an active band anymore" and also most members "don't live in this state") and it's gonna be a good time!

Party time!

Oh! Lastly! Since we're talking about bands: it may seem a little early for us to start rambling on about our anniversary party (it's never too early** to ramble about our anniversary party) but we (finally)(we think) locked down the band lineup!

As some of you may recall, the first of our anniversary parties had but one band: The Weisstronauts (who have played our party every year since, which is kind of amazing). And then the year after, we said to ourselves "that was fun, but what if we added more" and of course that was a great idea so we went up to four bands that year, and seven bands the next. And then we realized that seven bands in one day was maybe a bit too much, so (after a "socially distanced" in-between year) the next time (which would be last year) we decided to have nine bands, but spaced out over three days (and eleven sets, since some played twice).

But! We ran into a hiccup again, which is that since we brew a beer for each band at the anniversary, trying to cram nine new beers into our schedule during the middle/end of summer was maybe a bit taxing in terms of both time and space.

So! After some careful thought and some less-careful getting carried away with ourselves we decided that this year we're gonna be hosting fifteen bands! And since, assuming my math is right, fifteen is more than nine, we've decided to try this "planning ahead" thing that people keep telling us we should be doing (and so far it still feels like a scam? IDK) which is to say that we'll be releasing all these beers on a rolling basis throughout the summer (making sure to set some aside for the party, of course) and anyway we haven't made the Formal Announcement of the band lineup yet so you'll be seeing some band names come through in drips and drabs (with some surprises and many non-surprises) but rest assured it's in motion and keep them eyes peeled for Anniversary Beers!

#boneupturnssix #bubcoanniversary666

* The reason is twofold: firstly, we start to slow down on casks around this time of year because nobody drinks cask when it's warm out (except for Jared and maybe Rick), though it is looking like this would have been a perfect cask-weather week. Oh well. Secondly, we haven't brewed anything suitable for a cask in like a month - our rule is: no fruit beers, and no beers over 7% (for our own health) and most of what we've been brewing lately has fit into one or both of those categories.
** In our defense, we start planning this thing in like March, so we've already been talking about it for months.

In Which We Announce Horatio's Reserve

5/11/2022

Howdy do, camperoos! We've been keepin' on keepin' on with the hip haps and fun times and tasty treats, so read on and check out all this cool stuff!

Pictured: our dog, Unimpressed by the selection of treats we used to bribe her into this photo shoot

What the hell Lilly, Goldfish are great

First and foremost we gotta start with a lil' tidbit what we shoulda mentioned last week, which is to say that the other half of our collab with GrandTen is out now! For those of you who don't remember tidbits from blog posts that we wrote four years ago, we did a cool collab with our friends at GrandTen Distilling in Southie - they took one of our beer recipes (specifically Oh My!) and made a whiskey out of it (including our house yeast, which is pretty rad to us) and we took one of their whiskey recipes (specifically their single malt, which is delicious) and made a beer out of it (it actually became all or part of several early Critters series releases on account of how we aged it in a few different barrels) and anyway that whiskey is out now!

And just to clear up any (more) potential confusion before it might happen, we do have to say that no, we are not selling whiskey at Bone Up. But! We have it on good authority* that it's downright exceptional and it's available right now at the distillery and they ain't got a whole hell of a lot of it, so if that sounds like your jam then you might wanna get a move on!

Drink it neat, or make an old fashioned with orange and a touch of maple syrup

Moving right along to a topic that people love to confuse with barrel-aging (despite them not being at all similar): cask! We took our beloved Extra Naked and dry hopped it with a new-to-us hop named Zappa that's supposed to be a trip to Fruit City and it's gettin' tapped on Thursday and you should come try some with us!

Casky cask cask

And speaking of new beers, we're pleased as punch to announce the release of this year's Pride** beer: Strut! And before you say anything, we are aware that we're a couple weeks too early for Pride. BUT, we tried this new thing that we're told is called "planning ahead" (and honestly we still think it seems like kind of a scam) and anyway the beer is gonna be going into cans on Friday and we're so excited for it we don't wanna wait to release it, so we're gonna release it! It'll be in cans on Friday (probably not right at the beginning of the day, on account of how we're canning it that day) and it'll be on tap whenever we free up a draft line and oh yeah it's a big ol' IPA fulla pineapple and orange and guava (and also hops that evoke those flavors) and it's good as hell and you should have some!

WOOP WOOP

And while we're on about new beer in cans, we've got another new(ish) beer comin' out in cans on Friday and that's Dr. Dankenstein! We needed a West Coast IPA for cans (because we love having West Coast IPA in cans) and when we were brainstormin' we had a blaze of inspiration but then we kinda forgot what it was and then we got to talking about this one beer we made as part of a joint venture with our buds from Brato like three years ago and we figured it was high time we brought that dank ol' beer back (on account of how it was stone-cold tasty) and so we did! And soon you can drink it!

Welcome back, old friend!

And moving right along into fun times, this Thursday we've got Simpsons Trivia! The theme this month is Season Five and oh man, that is honestly one of the best-ever seasons of television to ever grace our screens, so you better believe we're mighty stoked to check it out (and lose horribly, as is our style) and maybe you should join us!

Then on Friday we ain't got no trivia or anything like that, but we DO have The Nada Cart and since their food is tasty as heck, we think that's enough of a reason to celebrate! Come on out!

And then on Saturday for National Dog Mom Day we're doin' up a Dog Mom's Marketplace! We're partnerin' with Red Dog Pet Spa to do a whole buncha dog-and/or-beer-related fun times! There's gonna be a raffle basket fulla goodies for people and pups (and you enter by ordering beer, which is a bonus) and we're donating $1/pour towards Buddy Dog Humane Society and we're having Goodboy Wear and Beast Coast Design hangin' out and sellin' accessories and/or treats for your pups and we've got Just Wingin' It comin' by with some people food and anyway the point is that it's gonna be a great time and there's gonna be a buncha pooches hangin' out in the beer garden and you should check it out!

The weather is finally starting to cooperate with all our event planning

And then lookin' a little farther into the future, we've got some more cool stuff!
-on Friday 5/20 we've got T. Bloodhound comin' by to play a live acoustic punk set
-on Thursday 5/26 we're hosting a sure-to-be-excellent Wayne's World Trivia
-and on Friday 5/27 we're doin' more band hangouts, featuring Edict and Black Palm
and anyway I'll ramble a bit more about those in the coming weeks, but the point is to keep them calendars peeled because we've got a whole mess of cool stuff comin' up!

Come do the thing!

Oh! And! We'd like to say a big ol' thanks to everyone who came out to our Dungeons & Drinks festivities this past weekend! It was a whole buncha fun times fulla nearly-impossible trivia and video games and D&D and comics and art and we're super grateful for all the artists/authors/DMs/video game enthusiasts that came out (not to mention all you fine folks who enjoyed the fruits of their labors) and we hope to do something like it again soon! And as an "added bonus," one of the comic book authors/artists left behind a stack o' comic books for anyone who wants one, so if you wanna check out Head Lopper, we've got a bunch of 'em at the bar!

* And by "good authority" we of course mean ourselves, because we drank a whole bunch of it.

In Which We Get Our Nerd On

5/2/2022

Well hello again! It's high time we once again rambled about all the cool stuff we're doin', and ramble we shall!

But before we get to it, we'd like to thank all the fine folks who came out for Band Hangouts this past weekend! We had a tonna fun and we hope you did too!

We have so many new t-shirts

Anyway, first on up, we're keepin' that ol' Weekly Cask Train rollin' with more cask! More to the point, this Thursday we're tappin' a cask of our collab with Scattered Remnants: Scatterbräu! And while we do love this beer dearly, we felt it would be an interesting "change of pace" to "goose it up" with a little Masscade so that's what we did! Anyway we've got a strong suspicion it'll be straight-up delicious, so come on out and try some!

Say it with us: CAAAAASSSSKKKKK

Movin' right along into more Tasty Times, we've got a new Critters beer! This one (shockingly) goes by Critters XVII and oh man is it a wild ride of a beer - it's a dry 'n funky lil' brown ale brewed with pineapple and maple syrup and a little bit of soursop and that probably sounds like a weird combination (because it is) but it totally works and anyway it's on tap right now (with bottles coming soon) and you should grab some!

Enjoy your ride to Flavortown

And speaking of things that are both fruity and tasty, we're bringin' back Electric Juicer! We originally brewed this for the Electric Heaters' set at our fifth anniversary party, but we liked it so much we brought it back!* Anyway if you didn't have any last time and/or don't remember, it's a nice 'n light little beer with a whole buncha raspberry and lime in it and it's straight-up delicious and it's in cans on Friday and on tap soon (as in, as soon as something else kicks, and there are a couple things that are mighty close)!

*nudge nudge* come drink El Pulpo and Out of Bounds... we're on the last keg on each!

And while we're on about beers that are comin' out in cans on Friday, we've got another new beer comin' out in cans! On Friday! This one's a hazy IPA called Spacin' Out and it's tasty as hell and honestly I don't have a hell of a lot to say about it past that. It's hella good (as I mentioned) and it lets us explore the possibilities of a new-to-us hop that happens to be pretty exciting to us (Vista, though the reasons it's exciting are in many ways related to Hop Politics and we're not gonna go down that rabbit hole right now) but also there's only so much to say about IPAs and anyway it's goin' in cans this week and you should come grab some!

Incidentally, the label art is also the May coloring page

And movin' on into Fun Times territory, we've got a geektacular spate of events lined up for you this weekend and we're callin' it Dungeons & Drinks!

The weekend is kickin' off on Thursday with some Star Wars themed trivia! But it's no ordinary Star Wars trivia - this one focuses mostly on music! We're curious to see whether or not that will just be 16 questions whose answer is "John Williams," but you'll have to come play to find out!

And then on Friday it's video game night! We've got Wicked Retro in the house settin' up a bunch of classic consoles and settin' 'em to Free Play mode, plus we'll have Wicked Gaming and Lax Card Collectibles in the house selling games and trading cards and collectibles and all sorts of cool stuff!

And then on Saturday we're doin' it up (miniature) comic convention style! We've got a buncha comic artists and/or authors (and at least one non-comic artist) settin' up tables (full list of attendees/details here) and we're settin' up a D&D one-shot in the side room (which is, unfortunately, already full) and we'll have Hot Chix in the house slingin' tasty chicken sandwiches and it's gonna be fun as hell and you should come hang out!

Come check it out and tell us how much fun you had so we can enjoy the proof of concept and keep doing cool shit like this!

And while we're goin' on about fun events, we can't forget to mention our recurring fun times! We're still keepin' on with the sushi classes on Wednesdays and Sundays and we're doin' our regular Barks & Brews Pint Parties (where we encourage you to swing by with your pups and we donate a portion of the day's sales to a dog-related charitable cause - this month it's Buddy Dog Humane Society in Sudbury) on Sundays and Tuesdays and there's ice cream on Tuesdays (because your dog isn't the only one who deserves treats) and we'll probably be adding more fun stuff as it gets nicer out, so keep your eyes peeled!

We're trying to up our "weeknight experience" game here

Oh! And speaking of fun dog-related events, on Saturday 5/14 we're celebratin' National Dog Mom’s Day! We partnered with Red Dog Pet Spa and we'll have a raffle and some cool vendors (notably Goodboy Wear and Beast Coast Design) and we'll be donating $1 from each full pour to Buddy Dog Humane Society and also there'll be people food (specifically Just Wingin' It with wings and tenders and hopefully more of their special tater tots) and you should come join us!

Pictured: Duchess, a very good girl

Oh, but bringing things back to the nearer future, next Thursday is Simpsons Trivia! We'll be quizzin' you on all things Season Five and winners will get their pick from our grabbag o' terrible knockoff merch and it's gonna be a good time!

And lookin' farther into the future and also outside the cozy confines of our taproom, we're doin' a beer dinner! In our first beer dinner since... well, since a while ago, we're teamin' up with State Park and pairin' up some tasty beers with their delicious dishes and there's more details to come but it's all goin' down on Wednesday 5/18 and if you like tasty food and tasty beer then you should come on out!

Several reasons to come enjoy the taproom during this upcoming fine spring weekend

Oh! And! We picked winners for April's coloring contest! Adequate work, everyone!

* And also they won't be making it to this year's anniversary, but their frontman is playing sporadic shows at the brewery over the next couple months, so we thought it would be a cool pairing

It's Shorts Weather, Which Means You Get to Start Hearing Us Ramble About Our Birthday Party

In Which This Week's Beer Release Strikes a Certain Chord

Fifteen Bands? Fifteen Beer Releases? You'll Never Get Away With It!

In Which We Announce Horatio's Reserve

In Which We Get Our Nerd On

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