Howdy all! As you've probably already seen if you follow us on our various social media channels (and if you don't, you should! That way you'll have multiple different websites informing you every time we write a new blog post! And not much else!), late last week, Jared and Jimbo got a special treat just for doing what they like to do (which in this case was supporting a local* business) - a day at a hop farm!  

Yessir, the folks at Four Star Farms had a field day and invited a bunch of their customers** out for it. And oh man, what a day! We got a tour of their hop yards where we got to walk around (i.e. scamper like excited children) amongst the bines and pick off fresh hop cones and do that thing you always see in beer commercials where the brewer rubs the hops together in his hands and then smells them (note: this isn't as effective if you've recently gotten jelly all over your hands). 

But it wasn't all prancing around in a wet field - we got us some education too! In addition to a history of the farm, some details on how hops are grown, and an oddly impassioned speech about dirt,*** we got to see hop processing in action! Words can hardly do it justice, but suffice to say it involves machetes and some seriously terrifying-looking machinery (not at the same time). 

Speaking of which, I know that me rambling about hop yards can hardly convey how cool this stuff is, nor will it do justice to the hospitality**** the L'Etoile family showed us... so we'll try and recreate the experience for you the only way we know how - by using the magic of blurry photos we took with the shitty cameras on our phones!

Howdy, campers! We've had us another busy week down here at Bone Up Headquarters! Now, to an outside observer we've mainly been doing what my doctor* refers to as "daytime drinking." But that's one of the great things about our industry! It all qualifies as Legitimate Business Operations - this is what other, less cool industries refer to as "networking" (another great thing about this industry is that if you go around using words like "networking" you'll usually get told to shut the hell up). Meetings have been met, plans have been planned, and we've given a handful of impromptu tours of our brewery space, in spite of (or perhaps because of) our warnings about its... rough appearance.**

Speaking of which, there has been a (hopefully minor) setback in construction (remember that leaky roof we've mentioned like five times before? Fixing*** it caused more leaking somehow, even when it isn't raining), but that's pretty much business-as-usual. So once again, partly in effort to lead by example, our intrepid brewers have inexpertly donned their finest safety gear and set to work about the brewery. It's a project that will soon result in the sort of thing that passes for news around here, but for the time being we leave you with these pictures of them looking somewhat ridiculous. 

Lastly and arguably leastly, I should probably mention some news that's good in general but kind of a huge bummer for us: on September 19th, the City of Everett will be holding a block party right in our dang neighborhood. I say it's a bummer because there's at most a zero percent chance that we'll be able to serve beer at it (we'd previously been told that it was going to be in late October, which would have given us much more of a fighting chance of being ready in time). But even if our construction magically**** got finished today and the rest of our permits appeared instantaneously, we'd still have to rush around to have anything ready in time. We'll probably still attend, grudgingly having fun as we wish we could be serving beer. So if you go (and you should because our neighbors from Short Path Distillery and Night Shift Brewing will be there), come say hi if you see us! We'll be the ones wistfully staring off into the distance, thinking about What Could Have Been.

While we were spending the week on the beach daydreaming about all the cool stuff we'll be able to do once we're finally open (no, I still don't have an answer to when that will be. If it were up to us we'd have opened two months ago) we realized that we forgot to tell you, our loyal readers, what to expect when we start firin' up our kettles. Well that just won't do! I'm gonna set the record straight for you right here right now. 

Once we've got some finished beer that's suitable to put in your mouths (which should be about three weeks after we first fire up them kettles), our first priority will be making the taproom available to the public. Since it's pretty unlikely that we'll be able to serve pints by that point,* we'll be doing what's known as a "soft opening." For those of you fortunate/smart enough to have avoided the Hospitality Industry, that means that there'll be reduced fanfare when we first open (and we'll only have a couple beers at the very start) and then later on we'll throw a big ol' Grand Opening party with the brass band and the rented donkeys and all the other stuff you'd expect from that sort of thing. The big ol' bar we're installing might seem a bit... superfluous at first since we'll only be doing tastes and growler fills, but we'll put it to good use soon enough!

And unless we can sell all the beer we make through our taproom (which would be nice, but may not be "physically possible" given the hours we'll be keeping, especially at first), we'll be doing limited distribution** to some of the finer establishments in the area (which ones, you ask? You'll find out as soon as we do). It'll be draft-only to start with, but we'll be filling some bottles as soon as our bottling line, um, exists. But if you're interested in carrying our beers - in any format - please drop us a line and we'll keep you posted (and thanks to the bottle shop workers who have already gotten in touch with us! You certainly are an enthusiastic bunch)!

Lastly, I'd like to answer one of the top-ten most common questions that we get: "what will you be brewing first?" (at least three of the other top ten questions are mild rephrasings of "when will you open?" Often all asked by the same person. Sequentially). Well, I have no dang idea! It would be nice to start off with Wasted Life or one of our other mainstays, but we've never brewed on this equipment before and it'll take some getting used to*** (rumor has it the Double IPA was invented by somebody brewing on new equipment - he threw in a crapload of hops to cover any possible mistakes in the rest of the brewing process). So we'll see! Though hopefully we won't be too surprised by what comes out of our fermentors on that fateful day. 

What with all the excitement about the almost-news around here, we felt that we deserved a vacation (mostly so we don't keel over from exhaustion after jumping up and down and giggling with excitement all the time). But on our way to the beach, we got a sneak peek at a few pieces of the finished bar top and we couldn't help but share with you! Have a look and picture resting a pint or three of Wasted Life on this fine piece of craftsmanship!