** "Hurr hurr, it was last year." Shut up.
Hello friends! We'd like to start off by offering a big ol' heartfelt Thank You to everyone who was able to make it out to our Last Weekend Ever. And while we are... unhappy with the way the City of Everett decided to see us off,* we've honestly pretty much gotten used to the city being actively antagonistic towards us and right now we'd rather focus on the positives. And what positives they were - starting all the way back at the Hippo Auction (remember the Hippo Auction? That feels like it was forever** ago) it was just nonstop wall-to-wall good vibes and friendship and all that good shit. The auction was one of the most fun/chaotic times we've had in a long time and we definitely made a good call "playing it cool" on Friday because Saturday and Sunday were very very intense. They were incredible, but it turns out that spending two days partying full-steam-ahead with all your favorite people (some of whom came in from out of town just to hang out) and also having deep, heartfelt conversations with as many of those people as possible and then rocking out to some of the best, loudest, fastest bands ever until the cops show up and fuck it all up before we can even say "goodbye" or "thank you" to everyone who had come to see us off into the void - it turns out that that's a pretty intense experience. Words can't express how happy we are that so many awesome people came out to celebrate the end of the world with us, and even if they could I feel like at some point I'm just saying the same thing over and over again. So. One more time: thank you. Thank you for all the times you've come to hang out and drink beers and color in the coloring contest and all the times we've gotten to meet your dogs and thank you for taking part in our weird trivia nights and tolerating the terrible prizes we give out and thank you for enjoying all the cask beers we've made and thank you for eating so many hot dogs and thank you for letting us brew beer for your band and thank you for brightening our days when you came by because we're always glad to see you - y'all are some of the coolest people we've ever met and we're incredibly lucky we've gotten to know you. Thanks for making us part of your lives, and thanks for being a part of ours. We love you all, and we'll be back on the blog soon. <3 * In case you weren't there, they preëmptively sent out a police officer to stand around in the taproom for several hours before we closed, and then sent backup to arrive the minute it was time to get people to leave. The office on duty claimed that he was "part of a detail going to bars in the area," but that implies that other similar establishments would also have police detail (they did not). We're pissed about it - a lot of people were - especially because we weren't given any warning, but it does feel very on-brand for Everett.
** "Hurr hurr, it was last year." Shut up.
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Hi friends! This is one bittersweet-ass blog post to write on account of how it's the last ever one we'll be putting up while the taproom is open* but given the fact that it's kind of our whole thing to stay cheerful and live it up even when the shit's full-on hittin' the fan, we're gonna stick with what works and focus on the positives. Sound good? Of course it doesn't! But let's do it anyway! And kickin' off the weekend is our trusty Thursday cask! We're revvin' up the beer engine one more time and there's no beer better to grace your glasses than Kelly!** This time around we zazzed it up a bit by tossing in a handful of oak chips that we'd had soaking in some ginger liqueur and that's a little more "offbeat" than we usually go with Kelly casks but we're pretty dang sure it's gonna be tasty as heck, but also that's gonna be up to you to judge so come drink some! Oh! Also! We've got another new bottle release! Sure, why not? Anyway we went to dig out that keg of Pobody's Nerfect that we'd squirreled away when we realized that we actually had more of that beer on hand than we'd previously thought (on account of how several people who work here are maybe not great with the whole "numbers" thing) so we figured we'd bottle some off and have one more dang ol' bottle release and anyway it's in bottles right now and you should grab some! Movin' on to what all we got goin' on this week(end), on Thursday we've got our art and hippo auction! We've already sold off a fair bit of the art that adorns our walls (on account of how it would be a terrible idea to auction off like 150 different things) but we've saved some select pieces for live auction (which has limited seating, so get on it if you wanna be a part of it) which is gonna be emceed by two people who really have no idea how to run an auction and there's gonna be some curios that are available in a silent auction (which is open-access) and also we're gonna be auctioning off all the hippos hidden around the taproom (though in true Bone Up fashion we have definitely overestimated the number of people who care and/or know about the hippos***) and also we're gonna have Bonetown in the house slingin' some tasty eats and Jazz Funk Pregame providing some tunes and we're not saying you have to get all gussied up for our ridiculous auction, but also it would be funny if you did. Then on Friday we're intentionally not doing any kind of big things in the taproom - we're just gonna hang out and enjoy the vibes, so if you wanna come out when things are at their least chaotic then that's probably your best bet. And speaking of chaotic, on Saturday we've got the first of two consecutive shows! We're gonna have Glacier and Girih and Stryga gracing the stage and as an added treat in case three awesome bands wasn't enough for you we're also gonna have Dregs Liquid Light show providing visuals for you and also Wild Fox is gonna be poppin' up in the afternoon before the show and the point is that it's gonna be hella fun and you should come out! Then on Sunday we've got Wild Fox poppin' up in the afternoon again and then we've got another show at night! This time we're goin' for thrash, thrash, and more thrash with Goblet, Viqueen, Karate Steve, and Graviton and hot damn is that gonna be a lot of fun! Given all the circumstances surrounding this show, on top of the fact that we've got a completely stacked lineup, we're expecting this show to draw more of a crowd than our live music usually does, so we do suggest you come by on the earlier side if you want to make sure you grab a good spot, but also we'll be rockin' out for a while so come by whenever you dang ol' see fit! And then... that's it. It has truly been an honor to be able to run this weird little brewery for the past seven-plus years; we've gotten to do a ton of cool stuff, and we've met a lot of amazing people because of it. We certainly hope you've enjoyed having us be a part of your lives as much as we've enjoyed having you be part of ours; Bone Up is the best thing we've ever done and at the end of it we're just glad that y'all were there to share it with us. So to all our staff and our customers and our friends and everybody who's been with us in any capacity over the years: thank you. We couldn't have asked for a better group of weirdos to spend our time with, and we're glad we got to know you. P.S. Next weekend once all the dust has settled we'll be doin' an "estate sale" where we'll be selling off a bunch of stuff from around the taproom and/or brewery (stuff that's not really auction-worthy like games and glassware and seating and stuff) so keep an eye out for more details about that.
* Don't worry, my faithful readers (both of you), we'll still be puttin' up updates after all is said and done - for one thing, we've been doing this every week for most of a decade and it's gonna be hard to drop the habit. For another thing, even if all is said and done, we're gonna have plenty more to say and do, so we might as well keep shoutin' about it. Plus we'll probably be doing some retrospecting once we can get over that proverbial lump in our figurative throats, so you might as well keep checkin' back for a little while. ** I know I always say that Extra Naked is the best beer to have on cask, but let's be serious. It's Kelly. *** For those of you asking "why hippos," I just... I don't fuckin' know, man. Well hey there! We're headed right into the heart of that ol' "holiday season" which means things are a little quiet around here on the old Events Front* but that just means we can be "free range" for the weekend or whatever and it's still gonna be a good time, so read on up on what all we've got goin' on! First on up we should talk Holiday Hours and things ain't gonna be too crazy on that front but we should mention that we will be closing at 6PM on Sunday the 24th and we will be closed on Monday the 25th but otherwise it's smooth sailing for the weekend, hours-wise so come on by! And on a moderately related note we should note that there will be no cask this week, partly/largely on account of all the holiday hullabaloo - sure, the Big Day ain't until Monday but we figure people are traveling and all that nonsense so everyone's schedule is gonna be all topsy-turvy and also we've only got one cask left and we want to tap it on the 28th (it's mostly that last part, honestly). Anyway since we're already talking about Thursday the 28th, we should talk about what all we've got goin' on on the 28th and that's our hippo auction! For those of you who might not have any idea what hippos have to do with anything, the short version of the story is that we've pretty much always had hippos hidden throughout the taproom and it's turned into this whole thing with people not-infrequently gifting** us hippos to hide in the taproom and now there's quite a few of them and we thought it would be fun to auction them off and make sure they find good homes! We'll also be auctioning off some more normal stuff - some of art and/or stuff from the taproom walls, some other assorted paraphernalia, probably even a third thing, you get the idea. Anyway, we're gonna have some smaller-ticket items up as part of a "silent auction" which will be ongoing throughout the day and there's also gonna be a live auction that you have to rsvp for and at the very least it should be entertaining to watch us try and figure out how to host an auction on the fly, plus we're gonna have Bonetown in the house with some tasty eats, so come on out and buy some of our crap! And then on Saturday the 30th we're rampin' up the first of two big ol' bittersweet events and that means a show! We've finally - finally, after years of trying - gotten Glacier to play a show at the brewery, and they're playing with Girih (who is also incredible and who was supposed to play the brewery over the summer but that didn't pan out) and Stryga (who has played the brewery several times in the past, and we are always hella stoked to see them) and we've got Wild Fox Pierogi in the house (2-6pm) and it *is* currently looking like we'll still have a decent number of beers on tap unless things get particularly buckwild over the next week AND The Dregs is going to be doing a sick light show during the sets but I digress because my point is that it's gonna be a killer show and you should come out! And then. Lastly. As in, lastly lastly. We wanted to go out with a bang and Sunday the 31st is gonna bang one heck of a dang - we've got a night full of thrash planned for all y'all, with Goblet and Viqueen and Karate Steve and Graviton and they/we are gonna let it rip like there's no tomorrow! We've got Wild Fox in the house again from 2-6pm, and we're just gonna be goin' as hard as we can all day, so come on out and live it up with us! * This is usually the time of year when we put up our Year In Review because there's not much else to talk about, but somehow we couldn't quite bring ourselves to do a thorough reflection on this past year? At least not yet? Weird, I know.
** We do feel kinda weird auctioning off things that were gifts, especially since some of them were handmade, but ultimately it comes down to the fact that a) we want to give people the opportunity to bring home a piece of the taproom with a fun story behind it, and 2) we absolutely do not have room for 24 hippos in our apartment. We'll probably keep The Tippo, but we gotta draw the line somewhere. Hello again! We've got another week fulla fun times for all y'all (and also some full-on emo stuff, but we'll put that at the end), so read on up and check out all the cool stuff we've got goin' on! Oh but before we get to all the good and/or tasty times we should mention that tonight (Wednesday) we will be closed to the general public for our last-ever mug club social. So if you've got a mug, come on out and raise it with us! Comin' up first and/or foremost is cask! This time around we took a pin of trusty-tasty Shut Up Kelly and we "goosed it up" with a handful of oak cubes that we'd been soakin' in some blackberry liqueur and we don't usually get all fruity with ol' Kelly but that don't mean this won't be delicious (it will be) and it's gettin' tapped Thursday so come getcha some! And speaking of beer, we should probably mention that we released All The Critters Beers in bottles, like, just now. Moments ago, or maybe yesterday. And for those of you who ain't "old heads" who've been around this particular block a jillion times, the way we used to do our wild beers was a little different than it is now - we would take a bunch of beer and funkify it and then empty a barrel and serve that straight-up (well, we'd carbonate it first, but we didn't blend funky stuff is my point) and since these weren't always particularly large amounts of beer (take a 15 gallon barrel, subtract some loss to sediment, subtract more loss to the angels' share, you're left with an amount of beer best described as "not much, really") we wouldn't bother coming up with a name and a new label every time, they were just called "Critters" with a number attached. ANYway, emptying wild barrels took a bit of a backseat to the million jillion bottles that we needed to fill, and yada yada yada now there's like six new Critters beers! Mostly in bottles! And also one on draft (right now!) and one that will be draft only at some point. But! Amidst all that hoopla, we did still find the time for one last big ol' brett blend and that's Wolf Pup! This one's extra-extra special on account of how it's our last-ever wedding beer and it was blended to celebrate the nuptials of friends-of-the-taproom Steph (who is a former employee, not to be confused with our current employee Steph) and Nate! Anyway that's also available in bottles right now (and will be on draft at some point) and you should come drink some of that too! Alrightyroo, gettin' on to the Fun Times part of this here blog, we've got fun times! First on up is on Thursday and that's Simpsons Trivia! This time around Chris has taken it upon himself to make this the Extra Difficult Edition, which is certain to be interesting. And I promise I'm not trying to bring this up in every damn paragraph, but it is worth taking a moment to reflect on the fact that this is the last-ever Simpsons Trivia to be held here at Bone Up. It was an idea that we thought would have legs for maybe a few months but it's been going on every dang month for years and years - even after Chris moved away and quit bartending at the brewery - and we've had a lot of good times and a lot of laughs and a lot of hilariously terrible prizes (and, on the complete opposite end of that spectrum, one notable occasion when the prize was a signed poster sent to us unprompted by Matt frickin' Groening's office) and anyway as I've said a thousand times before, getting to do ridiculous stuff with y'all has been one of the things that has made Bone Up truly special and we're glad you got to be a part of it. Anyway. Moving on. We've got even more cool shit lined up through the weekend and that starts in the afternoon on Friday when we've got our friends from Heads Up back in the house for some live screen printing! It's basically the same deal as what we do at the anniversary (only inside this time) - Heads Up is bringing four cool Bone Up designs and will be printing them on demand for the evening! They'll have blank shirts available for purchase, or you've got the option to bring your own clothes and get them printed (we recommend flannels, but hoodies are always a good choice too) so if you wanted one last opportunity to get some Bone Up apparel, now's your chance! And then. Also on Friday we've got live music! This time around we're rockin' on out with Beneath Purgatory, Maidenhead, Dyhanna, and Vantablack and you know it's gonna be a hell of a time, so come on out! Doors are at 6:30, music is at 7:30. Then on Saturday we've got even more live music because it turns out that hosting live music is a lot of fun? Anyway we've got a stacked lineup full of a buncha bands that have played here a time or two before (though never inside) and that's Sundrifter, Blue Manic, Ballast, and North Star the Wanderer (most of whom are anniversary vets) and the doors are at 6 with music at 7, so come on out! And then next week we're "playin' it cool" on account of how there's some kind of annual celebration over the weekend next week (we'll be closed Christmas Day and I'm assuming we're closing early on Christmas Eve) but I might as well mention that the week after that is our Last Weekend so we're goin' out with a bang! On Thursday the 28th we're auctioning off all the taproom hippos (which I would explain here but this post is already 5,000 words long somehow) and then live music for two consecutive nights shortly after that with Glacier, Girih, and Stryga on Saturday the 30th then Goblet, Viqueen, Karate Steve, and Graviton playing on Sunday the 31st! And then after that we'll probably all need several days to let the ringing in our ears die down. Lastly, as though we haven't gotten emo enough for the entirety of this blog, we've got to say a couple bittersweet goodbyes. Firstly, today marks our brewer Ben's last day here at Bone Up.* He's been a part of the Bone Up family since spring of 2017 and he's been here for all the highs and all the lows we've gone through over the years - back when he started we were fermenting in plastic tanks and carbonating kegs one at a time (it was terrible and I will not elaborate on that) and thanks to some... questionable information we'd received on the power available in the building it would be several months before we were able to use those shiny new tanks that we needed so badly. Since then, we've not only increased the amount of beer we can/do make but also added a barrel-aging program and a bottling line (which was originally just a single-head homebrew bottle filler, which was also terrible thank you for asking) and we expanded within the building (which definitely didn't come with a mountain of bullshit from the city, that's for sure) and added another barrel-aging program and then covid happened (which, somehow, also involved a mountain of bullshit from the city**) which indirectly meant we had to get and also learn how to use a canning line and Ben's just been back there making beer and learning with us this entire damn time. I got a little sidetracked there but the point is that the dude's a Fixture around here and he will be sorely missed*** and it's hard to find the right thing to say when we're sending off somebody who's been here the entire damn time (and who has stuck around during some pretty low times) so instead here's a smattering of our favorite pictures we've taken of him over the years. We love you Ben! Thank you. And finally, we're saying goodbye to Extra Naked. That's right, the perennial best beer on our menu has been laid to rest and all of our lives are poorer for it. We've shared many a good time with ol' XN over the years and even though we may have periodically gotten distracted by the newest thing on tap (because there's always something new on tap), Extra Naked was always there - the beer that we were never not in the mood for. It's a deceptively simple beer, recipe-wise - just two row and corn and a dash of hops from our friends at Four Star Farms - but that really just embodies the "simple done right" ethos we've always tried (sometimes unsuccessfully) to imbue into most of our beers (it's also one of the easiest beers to make, but that's not why we love it). I could keep waxing poetic about this beer (and at some point I probably will), but for now there's a crossbones-shaped hole in my heart and I'm gonna go see if I've got any cans or crowlers kicking around in the back of the fridge. * He accepted a job at another brewery, and we're genuinely glad to see him land on his feet. Hell, we're the ones that told him to apply to this other brewery.
** The head of the building department threw a tantrum - about us specifically - so hard that it made the newspaper. *** It's less likely that we'll miss all the ska he tends to play on the production speaker, but you never know. Howdy do, friendaroos! We may not have any logo-themed holidays for you this week or any big ol' musical events, but we do have a whole buncha cool stuff lined up for you nevertheless so let's get right to gettin' to all the cool stuff we've got planned for y'all! Before we get into any of that jazz, we should start out with a brief note to all of you who have reached out about buying the taproom art (also, thank you to everyone who has reached out about buying the taproom art!): we are not selling the Dr. Orpheus painting. Enough of you have inquired about it that we feel the need to bring this up. It was a gift from a friend for our first anniversary - she also made the full-body Horatio and Henrietta plushies and did Jared's Horatio facepaint one year and also she's she unofficial third person who's not allowed to win the coloring contest because she would win too often and anyway if you're looking for some cool Venture Bros themed art you should probably holler and see if she does commissions. Anyway let's get back to business and that business is beer! More to the point it's our trusty Thursday cask and this week we're goin' "back to basics" with Shut Up Kelly! Truth be told, the next, um, all of the casks will be ol' Kelly, but we're gonna have a different variation every week and this week we're goin' with the proven-quantity straight-up no-nonsense regular ol' Kelly on cask! Anyway it's delicious as hell and you should come drink some, especially if you want a basis for comparison against the other cask variants we'll be tappin', but especially if you like tasty beer and want to drink some. Oh, and speaking of tasty beer, it's worth noting that our menu is gonna end up looking a little "it's still Horatio Day" for... a while. We've got a couple things going back on tap once kegs kick (specifically Three of Cups, Blue Manic, and Wasted Life) but also we're almost out of Extra Naked (get it while it lasts! Because it might not be here next week!) so it's gonna be more like a brief dalliance into "not having a menu that's entirely strong beer" before going back to all the barreled stuff and then there's a good chance there will be a nontrivial increase in funky beers somewhere in there but anyway we figured it might be worth to brace yourself or whatever (and yes, this is an unintended and unforeseen but not unwanted consequence of all the... everything that's happening right now). Anyway, gettin' on into the fun times for the week, the fun times for the week start on Thursday with Audio Triviality! And since it's Holiday Time (pretty sure Horatio Day already happened, but whatever, his heart's in the right place) Satan Claws is comin' to town! There's gonna be a night full of holiday-music-themed questions and also general merriment, so come hang out with us and get trivial! And since the one thing we get asked for the least is "more trivia" we decided that Friday should have more trivia! This time around, Liz and Jared are hosting which definitely won't be a terrible idea and the trivia's all about Bone Up! We'll be dishin' up the brain busters about the best damn brewery around and there's gonna be some extra-special prizes* for the winners and we think it'll be hella fun - we've tried to make it so it won't be, like, completely incomprehensible to people who aren't here constantly (though we may not have the best perspective on what does/doesn't count as "esoteric" but we did at least try) - and also we've got Wild Fox Pierogi poppin' up in the taproom and it's gonna be fun as hell and you should come hang out! Then on Saturday we're startin' off early with some Metal Yoga and then in the afternoon we've got our Krampusnacht Holiday Art Market! There's gonna be delightful offerings from Gate & Garden Herbal Apothecary, spooky ceramics by Clay Creep, Spicy Boy Jerky, and the horror/comic-inspired art of Theater of Creeps! We're also gonna have Seabiscuit poppin' up with a mess o' tasty pies, so come on out and drink some beer and support some local artists/artisans! Then on Sunday we're hosting our last-ever sushi class with the delightful Chef Harold - it has been a genuine delight to work with him and we're sad to see him go, so if you see one of his classes elsewhere we definitely encourage you to check it out! And then pretty much right after that class we're closing early for our staff party. And looking forward to next week, we've got hella fun stuff next week too! There's the "Extra Difficult Edition" of Simpsons Trivia next Thursday because Chris wants to go out on a frustrating note and then next Friday we've got live screenprinting AND a show featuring Beneath Purgatory, Maidenhead, Dyhanna, and Vantablack (screenprinting starts earlier so you won't need to shout your shirt orders unless you really want to) and then next Saturday we've got ANOTHER show, this one featuring Sundrifter, Blue Manic, Ballast, and North Star the Wanderer! And then there's a bit of a lull in events due to some non-Horatio-themed holiday that's happening but we wanted to touch upon the stuff later in the month on account of how that's all of our "end of the world" themed stuff. On Thursday the 28th we're hosting an auction for all the hippos** in the taproom and also some art*** and other stuff (we're aiming for a combo of live auction and silent auction, with a live jazz element for added class), and then we're having TWO consecutive shows on Saturday the 30th and Sunday the 31st. On Saturday we're hosting Glacier, Girih, and Stryga (several of whom we've been trying to book for months/years) and on Sunday we've got Goblet, Viqueen, Karate Steve, and Graviton (many/all, of whom we discovered at RPM Fest, which is a truly excellent time as well)! * I can assure you, we definitely know what those prizes will be, and have acquired them. They totally exist, don't even worry about it.
** Given the popularity of the Hippo Hunt, a surprising number of people don't know about it on account of how we never post about it (so you only find out about it if it comes up in conversation with the bar staff). So if you're not in the loop, it's pretty simple: we've got a number (currently 23) of hippos hidden in our main taproom, and if you find them all you get a sticker! We used to have a much more reasonable number (like twelve) but things kind of spiralled out of control and people kept giving us hippos and now here we are. *** We're mostly auctioning off the bigger stuff. If you're interested in any of the smaller pieces, drop us a line and make us an offer! Just please don't try to buy the Dr. O painting. We talked about this. Welcome back! I hope you're hyped to hear me ramble about one of* our best-ever Made Up Holidays because that's, uh, that's the whole deal right now. That's what we're doin'. Anyway we're gonna start off with something that is actually Entirely Not the thing I just said and that's cask! This ol' cask happens to be particularly near and/or dear to our hearts on account of how it's Blue Manic which is mighty tasty and we dry hopped it with a buncha Four Star Crystal (which is one of our favorite hops tbh) and it's gettin' tapped on Thursday and it's gonna be tasty and also it's probably gonna go fast, so come getcha some! And speaking of things, I probably should have started with the programming note that we will be closed to the public starting at 5PM on Friday because we have a mug club event all evening on Friday. But I didn't lead with that and I don't think there's any way to move text upward (could you even imagine? That would be wild) so now we all have to deal with it. Moving right along, we've got a new beer coming out this weekend! Somehow. This one's gonna be a treat for those of y'all who were fans of Skeleton Key (which is either a lot of you, or several extremely vocal people) because it was Heavily Inspired by that beer only also it's something different because of Reasons. Anyway the beer is called Civil Disobedience for Losers (named after the debut album by Indian Handcrafts, who were one of the bands that Liz and Jared saw on their first date many moons ago. Aww, etc) and it features Enigma (AKAed as Double Key Lime) that's been aged in three different barrels (SPD Apple Brandy, Summer Reserve, and a tequila barrel, also we tossed in some oak spirals that had been soaking in Summer Reserve for several years) plus a strong grapefruit beer that we brewed especially for this blend (also we used all of that batch for this blend, which in a way means it's a Bone Up beer that you can never have) and anyway it's tasty as all heck and it probably comes out on Saturday (on draft and in bottles) so come drink some! And speaking of Saturday, this Saturday is the start of Horatio Day!** For those of you who might be new around here, Horatio is the name of our dapper logo dude and we like to throw him a birthday party every year and we feel like the best way to do that is by tapping a fuckton of barrel-aged beer! In practical terms, what this means is that most of our draft list is gonna get taken over by strong and/or barrel-aged beer (or both! Mostly both!) and on Saturday we're gonna have Black Tongue in the house servin' up sloppy joes (and they're, just, so good) and on Sunday we've got Lionheart Confections servin' up small-batch donuts and we're doin' a "keep the glass" thing all weekend where we will be giving out glassware (we probably won't be giving out all of our fancy stemware, but there will be glassware to grab) AND this is the first Horatio Day to feature live music! Saturday is gonna have an afternoon of surf rock provided by The Weisstronauts and The Electric Heaters, plus Dirk Tiede is gonna be doing live drawing during some or all of the music (which is honestly a lot more fun than it sounds like it should be) and then on Sunday we've got The Guilloteenagers and DnA's Evolution rockin' out in the taproom and it's gonna be one hell of a time so come on out and hang out with us! Next we peer through the mists of time (which are admittedly pretty hazy on account of all the Horatio Day Shenanigans that are in the way) all the way to next week, when it turns out that we've got even more fun stuff going on! Next Thursday we've got The Final Audio Triviality and that means it's time for Satan Claws (i.e. holiday music)! And then next Friday we've got an event that we're super stoked about (which, as usual, means it's an event that nobody has asked for) and that's Bone Up Trivia! Liz and Jared put together a buncha noodle-scratchers about the best dang brewery around and YOU get to test your mettle and see how well you know your Bone Up Lore! And then next Saturday we're startin' the day off with Metal Yoga and then movin' right along to our Krampusnacht Holiday Art Market and anyway the point is that you should come do all this cool stuff! * For those of you keeping score, Horatio Day is second only to The Anniversary - partly because the anniversary is longer and has more stuff happening, but also because warm.
** You may remember it as "that holiday you said you were going to talk about, which you then proceeded to not talk about" which is fair. Howdy do, kids and squids! It's damn near turkeytime again and - you guessed it - that means that it's time for another round of our famous* Thanksgiving Beer Pairings although it's unlikely we'll have pairings for every beer on the menu this year (which is definitely not because we didn't realize that it was almost Thanksgiving until like two days ago. It's some other, more valid-sounding reason) but we've got some pairings comin' atcha nonetheless but anyway we gotta get with the goods in the here and/or now, so here's the now! First on up we gotta get to Holiday Hours! We'll be open from noon until sixish on Wednesday (i.e. Today) and we will be closed on Thursday. Also, as a more-or-less direct result of that, there will be no cask this week (boo, etc) but cask will return next week (yay, etc)! And speaking of beer, which is probably what we were doing before, we've got beer! More to the "point" we've got Wasted Life back on tap! This old-ish school IPA used to be one of our year round beers Once Upon A Time, but at some point it got demoted to Seasonal Status, in large part because the ingredients we were using in it had a weird tendency to stop existing (RIP Four Star Rakau) but also our attitudes towards IPAs changed a bit and we wanted our menu to reflect that.** Anyway it's on tap right now and it's tasting just as good as we remember, so come on out and grab yourself a glassful of nostalgia for the semi-recent past! And speaking of things, we know that Joybringer is a favorite to many of you out there in Blog Readership Land, so it's in your/our best interest for you to know that we've got Joybringer back in bottles right now, but we ain't got many! Long story short, we brewed ol' Joy to use in a lot of the blends that we're releasing for our Shitty Wednesday Bottle Extravaganza (more on that in a sec) but also we wanted to have some bottles of the Last Ever Batch of Joybringer, so we bottled some off! But we were only able to squirrel away a couple cases, so if you need some Joy in your life you might wanna get gettin' while there's gettin' to be got! And gettin' on down to that ol' Bottle Hoedown or whatever I called it, we've got some kinda Bottle Hoedown goin' down! More specifically, we like to do something special for the day we know as Shitty Wednesday (also known as the worst traffic day of the year and/or the one time of year that you go to a bar in your hometown only to be aggressively reminded of why you never bothered keeping in touch with people from high school) and that "something special" happens to be releasing a shitload of bottles! We've currently got SIXTEEN FRIGGIN' BEERS available in bottles and SIX of those were created and/or bottled specifically for Shitty Wednesday (and/or Horatio Day, when they'll all be on tap). Of the six new ones, two are rereleases - Joybringer (which I already mentioned) and Joyrider (this time featuring beer aged in the Horatio's Reserve whiskey barrel); one is a new spin on an old favorite (barrel-aged Biere de Krampus); and the other three (Close Encounters, Sam's Elven Explosion, and Tears of Krampus) are brand spankin' new! And. AND. To "sweeten the deal" and get you to come out on a day when it's objectively terrible to even think about being in a car, buying bottles (specifically six or more) gets you a free glass! Oh and also we've still got a bunch of other stuff, including Ginger Hootenanny and Calico which were originally supposed to be Shitty Wednesday releases but they were ready early and we got excited. Listen: we're not saying that bottles and glassware from Bone Up should make up your entire holiday shopping list, but we are saying that bottles and glassware from Bone Up should at least be most of what you give people for The Holidays this year. Movin' right along to the weekend, we've got Gratitude and Gloom Yoga on Saturday morning in case you wanna yoga off some of that turkey day feasting you did earlier in the week (is that how that works? I don't know how yoga works). Then on Sunday we've got another show in the taproom! This time around it's Throw, Billy, Unhinged, and Impulse Control and it's an early show (doors at 4) on account of how it's a Sunday but also we'll be staying open a little later (9 instead of 8) on account of how we've got a show! In the taproom! Anyway it's gonna be fun as hell and you should come hang out! And looking a little ways forward to next week, we've really just got the big one on the calendar and that's Horatio Day! It's Saturday and Sunday of next weekend (and also we'll be closed to the public next Friday because that's when the Mug Club Horatio Day Sneak Peek is scheduled for) and we're throwin' this party a little early because of Reasons but mostly we're completely stoked to have an influx of barrel-aged beers on tap all weekend (including all the new Shitty Wednesday bottle releases and also an extra, extra special release that we're putting out for Horatio Day) and we're gonna have food vendors both days (Black Tongue Sloppy Joes on Saturday and Lionheart Confections on Sunday) AND this is the first-ever Horatio Day that's gonna feature live music with The Weisstronauts and The Electric Heaters on Saturday then DnA's Evolution and The Guilloteenagers on Sunday and the point is that it's gonna be a whole buncha fun and you should come party with us! 2023 Thanksgiving PairingsOkay! Now that we've got all the nitty and/or gritty outta the way, let's get to some beer pairings! For those of you who might be new around here, it brings us great joy to come up with a bunch of extremely-seasonally-appropriate and definitely-not-illegal pairings for your Turkey Day pleasure and also we've thoughtfully included some ideas in case you find yourself in the regrettable situation of not having our entire menu on-hand in your house always all the time. Anyway, enjoy!
Extra Naked pairs well with... wishing you hadn't eaten so much the previous day and if you don't have any Extra Naked, we suggest... shame eating Shut Up Kelly! pairs well with... ooOOOooh! Somebody brought fudge?! and if you don't have any Shut Up Kelly, we suggest... trying to convince your elderly aunt to do shots of Allen's Coffee Brandy with you El Pulpo pairs well with... constructing increasingly-elaborate forts with your youngest relatives And if you don't have any El Pulpo, we suggest... acting so erratically at the dinner table that you get banished to the kids' playroom to go watch Dumbo like six times in a row because that's somehow the only movie they have. Again. Joyrider pairs well with... compressing, shaping, and re-baking the stuffing to use as hard taco shells And if you don't have any Joyrider, we suggest... pointing out each dish individually and making the argument that it "technically qualifies as a taco." Really fight to make your point. Make a chart if you have to. Joybringer pairs well with... making up songs about the foods you're about to eat while you fill your plate And if you don't have any Joybringer, we suggest... putting on a puppet show wherein you have the turkey carcass stage a Gallagher-style performance and messily smash the giblets with a potato Barrel-aged El Pulpo pairs well with... happily shouting And if you don't have any Barrel-aged El Pulpo, we suggest... angrily shouting Wasted Life pairs well with... a nap on the couch and if you don't have any Wasted Life, we suggest... taking a nap anyway, albeit a less satisfying one No Light Ever pairs well with... those weird "truffles" that are basically just crushed oreos and cream cheese And if you don't have any No Light Ever, we suggest... trying to convince people that the box of Oreos you brought for dessert is actually a "deconstructed cake" Barrel-aged Biere de Krampus pairs well with... making a raspberry pie with an Oreo crust and if you don't have any Barrel-aged Biere de Krampus, we suggest... crushing a bunch of Oreos and making Double Stuff Stuffing Artificial Reaper pairs well with... telling extremely inappropriate jokes at the dinner table And if you don't have any Artificial Reaper, we suggest... sneakily teaching a bunch of new and fun swear words to everybody at the kids' table Horatio's Reserve pairs well with... pecan pie And if you don't have any Horatio's Reserve, we suggest... leaving in the middle of dinner to shave off your facial hair and then refusing to acknowledge it when you get back (those of you without facial hair will have to improvise. Maybe just go to town on your eyebrows) Extra Funky pairs well with... dissociating a little bit when somebody starts telling a seven-hour-long story about how they went to a craft fair and wouldn't you know it? They just saw the cutest picture frames And if you don't have any Extra Funky, we suggest... interrupting any and all long stories with facts about bugs The Blurst of Times pairs well with... twice baked potatoes And if you don't have any The Blurst of Times, we suggest... thrice baked potatoes This is a Guilloteenagers Beer pairs well with... sneaking a little death metal into the background music playlist And if you don't have any This is a Guilloteenagers Beer, we suggest... changing the background playlist to be entirely scores from horror movies 700 pairs well with... probably turkey and gravy, honestly And if you don't have any 700, we suggest... setting out like seven kinds of gravy so that people can do a gravy side-by-side and we can finally decide what kind is best. You might need to roast several additional kinds of birds/animals to really make this work Three of Cups pairs well with... napkin origami And if you don't have any Three of Cups, we suggest... carving a face into the side of the ham like it's Mount Rushmore Calico pairs well with... desperately trying to avoid receiving Unsolicited Life Advice from a relative whose grasp on reality is tenuous at best And if you don't have any Calico, we suggest... agreeing with that relative and taking their advice past its logical extreme ("why yes, my generation *is* too vain and takes too many selfies, clearly we need to make mirrors illegal") South of Italy pairs well with... trying to convince everybody that there's a "traditional Thanksgiving dance" that's common where you're from. Make them participate. And if you don't have any South of Italy, we suggest... also insisting that said dance must be performed to "The Monster Mash" Tears of Krampus pairs well with... pumpkin pie And if you don't have any Tears of Krampus, we suggest... sitting in the corner by yourself, drinking an alarming amount of hot chocolate and muttering angrily to yourself Joining the War on the Side of the Whales pairs well with... coming up with devious schemes to make sure the new person at the family table gets cornered by that one uncle with Extremely Specific (and lengthy) opinions about lawn care And if you don't have any Joining the War on the Side of the Whales, we suggest... filling in for that uncle, only sub in "ways to make your apartment more gnomecore" for lawn care stuff Close Encounters pairs well with... trying to solve the mystery of why au gratin potatoes are always cold And if you don't have any Close Encounters, we suggest... eating directly off of the serving dishes, see if those are where the heat is lost Sam's Elven Explosion pairs well with... drinking out of a goblet and Proclaiming things And if you don't have any Sam's Elven Explosion, we suggest... pulling a Jay Gatsby and staring silently out the window in the side room for the entire day Ginger Hootenanny pairs well with... slogging your way through one of those long-distance phone calls with other relatives where the phone gets passed around the room (other people had to do this too, right? It wasn't just me? Do they still do that, or have they transitioned from uncomfortable phone calls to uncomfortable zoom calls?) And if you don't have any Ginger Hootenanny, we suggest... trying to start a barbershop quartet with the people not on the phone, try and swap members in and out as seamlessly as possible. You'll have to stick to songs that everybody knows, so it's prolly gonna be the Spice World soundtrack Blue Manic pairs well with... spending all your food prep time making one very specific appetizer (that nobody ends up caring about) and then scrambling to get everything else done And if you don't have any Blue Manic, we suggest... just putting the entire frozen turkey in the microwave to defrost. What's the worst that could happen? * Did you know you can just call things "famous" even if they aren't? Nobody usually even checks! ** The reason we demoted Key Lime to seasonal status was "we got better at making fruit beer, so why wouldn't we make more of the stuff that's better" but that whole issue is a bit more nuanced when it comes to IPA/Wasted Life. Well hey there! We'd like to start off by thanking y'all for all the kind words you shared in regards to our Even More Unpleasant Announcement from last week - we tried to respond to as many people as we could but the response we got from y'all was kind of overwhelming (in the best possible way) so if you felt like you were shouting into the void or whatever then know that we *did* see it, and it truly means the world to us that you reached out (or commented, or posted, or shared, or whatever, you get the idea). Y'all are great people and we're very glad we've gotten to get to know you. And moving right along to Less Sappy More Happy, we've got another cask gettin' tapped this week! This one's Three of Cups, which we released last week, and we figured the perfect compliment to that cask would be a buncha oak chips that we've been soaking in some maple liqueur, so we went ahead and chucked 'em in there and whoo-ee it gon' be good! And it is worth noting that this cask does *almost* break our one rule for casks (no beers over 7%, which was instituted for our own health), so really just remember that this sucker will be a lot smoother than you might expect and that can get you into trouble (or at least it's gotten us into trouble in the past) and anyway it's gettin' tapped on Thursday so come on by and drink some! And while we're on about beer, it behooves us to mention that we've got Blue Manic - our much-sought-after spruce tip pale ale - back on tap! Right now! We had a little bit of "wiggle room" in the brewing schedule, so we decided that we'd re-brew a couple "old favorites" that people have been asking about and/or clamoring for and since Blue Manic is probably our most-requested beer ever we brewed it again! Anyway there's gonna be another Old Favorite gettin' tapped pretty soon, though this one is much more "cult following" than "widely beloved" and also we stopped brewing it because a number of the original ingredients stopped existing, but anyway you'll just have to wait for that one. Movin' right along to the Fun Times portion of this here blog, we've got some fun times! We don't actually have a ton of events this weekend (for once), preferring instead to go more "free range"* BUT we do have another show in the taproom comin' up! See, our friends in Sexless Marriage just put out an album and they wanted to do their album release show in *our taproom* and of course we jumped at the chance! Anyway the show is on Saturday and they're playing with Dewey and Wire Lines and doors are at six ($10 cover) and it's definitely gonna be An Experience to have a Powerviolence show in our taproom, but we're betting on it being a Fun Experience, so come check it out! And then our regularly-scheduled Sunday sushi class is sold out this week but we might as well point out that there's only a few of those left, so if you've been curious about making some sushi, sign on up! Anyway headin' on into The Future, we've got some cool stuff lined up for you next week too! On account of how next week is already Thanksgiving (how? How.) we're doin' our annual Shitty Wednesday Bottle Release next Wednesday, which mostly just means that we're gonna have All The Bottles (I think there's... four new things? And one or two things that are returning after a while? Something like that. It's a lot of bottles, is the point) available and also we'll be givin' away glassware if you buy a bunch and then we're closed next Thursday and then there's Dark Alt Yoga next Saturday and then another show (a hardcore show this time) next Sunday featuring Throw, Billy, Unhinged, and Impulse Control and the point is that even though there's a big ol' holiday right in the middle of the dang week (and the worst traffic day of the year, also right in the middle of the dang week) we're still throwin' down! And then the week after that is Horatio Day, because what this time of year really needs is More Holidays. * I wrote this and I don't know what it means
Howdy friends! We here at Bummer Announcements Incorporated made another big ol' bummer announcement recently, so click on over here if you're not yet up to speed on that. And yeah, it is a massive bummer (I mentioned this), but we're still here for now and we're still doin' as much cool shit as we can possibly cram into our schedule, so let's party it up while there's still parties to be partied!* And we'll kick things off this week with what will hopefully be some "frown upside down" kinda news** for y'all and that's the triumphant return of cask! Our cask program returns from its lengthy slumber (two week hiatus) with taproom-favorite Extra Naked and in honor of this most auspicious of occasions we also dry hopped the cask with a buncha Pekko and it's gonna be great and also it's getting tapped on Thursday and you should drink some! And while we're goin' on about beer, there's more new beer on the way! This one's a collab with local black metal outfit Sacral and it's in celebration of their latest album which is called Three of Cups, so we went ahead and called the beer that too and it's a tasty-ass brown ale that's pretty much brimming with chai spices (or at least as "brimming" as we get around here, we tend to prefer subtlety with spices) and it's (probably) gonna be available in cans starting on Friday and you should drink some! It good! And now to get to the Fun Times portion of this ol' blog we're gonna take a bit of a step back chronologically all the way back to Thursday which is when we're hosting Simpsons Trivia! The theme this time is almost definitely Season Eight which is cool because that was a very good season and anyway it's gonna be hella fun so come hang! And getting back to things that are good and/or on Friday, this year's Pulpo Day starts on Friday! For those of you that ain't "in the know" on Pulpo Day, it's our annual celebration of our seasonal chocolate orange imperial stout El Pulpo! We're gonna be tappin' up a buncha variations/vintages of El Pulpo, including this year's version and also this year's barrel-aged release, plus several cellared kegs/bottles of El Pulpo from years past (both barreled and non barreled) and if you're into stouts or dark beer or barrel-aged stuff then you're in for a treat! (and yes, we did order more chocolate oranges this year, so you'll be getting treats with your treats, as it were) And much like most of our made-up holidays, Pulpo Day is a multi-day celebration! It starts on Friday (I mentioned this) and we'll have all that Pulpo goodness on tap and also we'll have Sekali in the house servin' up some tasty-ass Malaysian food, then on Saturday we're starting the day with some Emo Yoga and then gettin' back on the Pulpo Train and also Seabiscuit will be here with a buncha savory and sweet pies (seriously, the cheeseburger pie is pretty much the best) and anyway it's a buncha fun and you should come hang with us! And then on Sunday our regularly-scheduled sushi classes are back to their regularly-scheduled sushi focus and also it won't officially be Pulpo Day anymore but odds are very good that we'll still have a bunch of El Pulpo on hand, so swing on through if you missed the festivities and/or you want more stout! And then moving on to next week for a little bit, next Saturday we've got another show in the taproom! Our friends in Sexless Marriage put out a new album and we all thought it would be rad to have their album release show at our digs (we had a grindcore band play the taproom last week, power violence should probably go just as well, right?) and they're also playing with Dewey and Wire Lines and if you wanna see some cool local bands play in a space that was definitely not intended to host these kinds of things (it's part of the charm, trust us) then you should come on out because it's gonna be a blast! * If you end up thinking something along the lines of "dang, this blog seems mighty cheerful given the gravitas of the announcement they just linked," we definitely understand and we don't want you to think that we don't care or anything like that. It's more that we try to keep the tone light around here, and we've had lots of practice at pretending to be cheerful while the world crumbles around us (see: Kafka Day, covid times, most of this calendar year when we couldn't talk about this nonsense, etc)
** Though admittedly this good news is maybe just a teensy bit smaller in scope than the bad news was/is In news that won't come as a surprise to many of you, but which is nonetheless very difficult for us to deliver, we are officially announcing that Bone Up will be closing at the end of this year; our anticipated last day of taproom service will be Sunday, December 31. You'll note that we're not saying "we've made the decision to close," because that would suggest that this is a choice of ours rather than something we're being forced into (for those of you who aren't "in the loop" on this, the tl;dr is that we can no longer sustain operations in our space. There's more info here if you want to read something long and kind of depressing before you read this long and kind of depressing post). At the heart of this is, of course, the ongoing dispute we've been having with our landlords since early this year. There's more to it, of course, but there's only so much detail we can/should go into here and now (we assume you have some questions, so skip to the FAQ if you want answers sooner rather than later).
It's completely heartbreaking to make this announcement. Bone Up means a lot to a lot of people, and there's nobody who understands that better than us because this place means everything to us. We (Liz and Jared) have had Bone Up as the primary focal point of our lives for most of a decade (and I do mean most - we signed our original lease in 2014), and during that time we've taken an industrial space and turned it into a weird little brewery featuring beer that mostly just confused people and from there we (well, you) developed a full-on community that was partly/entirely centered around said brewery which was still making beer that mostly confuses people, and that's really goddamn special. Like, you see the word "community" thrown around a lot by people who work in marketing (or at least we do, it's beyond overused in the craft beer sphere) but y'all are some of the most genuine (and, often but not always, genuinely weird) and welcoming people that we could ever hope to meet. We are so honored to have been given the opportunity to put our passions out into the world and to have them make a positive impact on so many people. And that's really the point we want to drive home here - we're incredibly lucky to have met so many people who have responded so strongly to what we're doing here at Bone Up, from beer collabs to made-up holidays to coloring contests to weird niche trivia to dog-related events to live shows. It's not that we're doing anything wildly unusual, but we know what we like and not everything we’re into is gonna be for everyone; y'all have given us the opportunity to do the kinds of things that we want to see in the world and that's increasingly rare these days (hell, given the direction Boston seems to be moving in, it's more and more rare to see a place around here with any personality at all). In short: we get to do a bunch of cool shit because y'all are a bunch of cool people, and instead of sitting around and feeling sorry for ourselves we're gonna cram as much cool shit as we can into these last precious weeks. Sure, it'll be a bit bittersweet, but we'd rather go out with a bang (and besides, "making the best of a shitty situation" is kind of our whole deal, so this is fitting, in a way). Anyway, like we said, we're sure you have questions, so here are some answers: You're really closing? Yeah, I'm afraid so. We're gonna party it up through the end of the year, but come 2024 our doors will be closed (at least metaphorically. We'll still need to move all our stuff out). Are you going to be moving to a new location? Currently no. We're not ruling that out as a possibility, but finding (and building out) a new location would take time (and money. Mostly money) that we don't really have right now. Plus that's not something we'd want to rush into - trying to blindly shove the contents of this building into a different one would feel slapdash at best - and it's difficult to form a cogent plan for our future while simultaneously dealing with the active unfolding of the worst crisis that we as a business (and as people) have ever faced. So the future of Bone Up - if there can be a future - would look less like "moving to a new location" and more like "starting something new in a different spot" (though, again, this is purely hypothetical at the moment). So what's going to happen to you guys? I dunno, we'll probably get jobs? Seriously? Yeah. You hiring? We've got some seriously great people on staff who are gonna find themselves funemployed pretty soon, and we'd really like to do what we can to help them land on their feet. What can I do to help? Same as always: come enjoy the taproom! We'd rather approach The End of Days hanging out with the people who made Bone Up a great place to be (which means you! Probably) and we've tried to pack the schedule as full as we can with things that you (and/or we) will enjoy. As our friends at Metal Monkey Brewing (which is sadly now defunct) put it, we'd rather laugh with you than cry with you. Plus we've actually still got a handful of beers coming out in the nearish future, including a couple Old Favorites on draft and also So Many barrel blends (followed by So Many wild blends. Please for the love of hops grab some bottles), so our beer menu should remain reasonably well stocked for a little while yet (though it is worth mentioning that we'll start running out of things - case in point, we're down to our last few cases of Extra Naked and Shut Up Kelly cans). I don't live anywhere near your taproom but I still want to help, is there anything I can do? Other than staging a letter-writing campaign? We've had a few people ask if we've set up a crowdfunding campaign (and/or insist that we should do so) and we feel weird about just... asking for money? But also we don't want to turn away people who want to help (and it's not like our legal fees are exactly minor), so we'll probably set something up soon.* Anything else I should know about the rest of the time you'll be open? Oh man. Lots, actually. Here's some bullet points:
Anyway, this mega sucks. But we've been trying to focus more on all the cool stuff that's happened because of Bone Up - the beers for dogs and the beers for weddings (hell, you could make the case that we've been indirectly - very indirectly, in most cases - responsible for several marriages happening. Up to three, depending on how much credit you're willing to give us) and beers for bands and the kickball league and adventures with staff and all the good times we get to have at the anniversary and Horatio Day also all our other weird made-up holidays that y'all just... roll with because you're cool like that and above all that's the thing we keep coming back to - we've made friends with a lot of great people that we otherwise wouldn't have met if not for Bone Up, and we know a lot of you out there will say the same. We've got something magical here and it's gonna be a huge loss when it's gone, but I'll be damned if we're not gonna enjoy the shit out of it while we're still kickin', so come hang! Some important dates to note:
* We don't want people to think we're trying to crowdfund for a new location (if that’s something that does happen, we’ll be very upfront about it) and extensive experience with The Public tells us that even if we do say explicitly that that's not what we're doing, people will come to their own conclusions and we don't want to lead people on, knowingly or otherwise. Hell, we half expect a few people to get all "a month ago you asked us to support you, and now you're closing? What was all that support for, then?" and that reaction isn’t unreasonable, save for the fact that we probably wouldn't have even made it this long if not for the incredible amount of support we've been shown over the course of the last month or so. |
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