Howdy all! It's been a whirlwind week of beer and pork and cake and beer and lawn games and surf rock and beer and good times, but things have finally calmed down enough that we can get back to doin' what we do best. But first! We'd like to make a point of thanking everybody who made our birthday bash such a success, from our food partners* to our game guys** to the band*** to our incredible (and thankfully quite patient and understanding) staff. And of course we can't forget you all (especially since some of you brought beers! And cakes! And paintings!) - we wouldn't be able to do what we do without all of you (and it would have been a pretty depressing party if y'all hadn't come out to celebrate with us). Thank you for coming out and drinking our beer, and thank you for being a part of this ridiculous little brewery of ours.
We had to Photoshop in our cellarman Ben because he managed to get the day off and enjoy the party!
These are just the beginning of pictures rolling in from Saturday! We've come a long way from last year...
And speaking of being a part of our brewery, we're hiring on the production side again! So if you're looking for some full-time work in the glamorous world of brewing (which, as we've said before, is basically janitorial work that somehow results in beer), head on over to our jobs page! (and then apply, of course)
Woo! Et cetera
And in other good news, we've listened to the clarion call**** for Holiday Hours and we'll be open on Labor Day! We'll be here all day, just itchin' to suit your pre-, post-, and snuck-away-from- barbecue needs!
We got you
On a somewhat more serious (read: boring) note, we figured now would be a good time to give you cats 'n' kittens the skinny on what's goin' down with us in the grander scheme of things. More to the point: as of late, we've been getting a lot of questions/comments/whathaveyou about expansion,***** so we figured we'd lay it all on the table for y'all. It's hardly a fun or entertaining story, and it probably definitely won't end on the answer you want to hear, but we like to be as transparent as we can around here! For starters, the whole thing really ends up boiling down to two different questions - the one we're excited about, and the one that people are usually actually asking.
The latter of the two - "when will your taproom be bigger" - is one that we don't have an answer for, and we frankly aren't terribly inclined to speculate on (we learned our lesson on that one a few times already). But for reference: it took us almost two years to open our current taproom after signing a lease, and at the moment we don't even have an available space that we can sign a lease on (in the past eight months, we've made little progress other than expressing a desire to have more space). You can feel free to extrapolate from there if you like, but the short answer is "not soon".
But! The way-less-sexy question of "when will you be able to make more beer" is one that's finally more-or-less got an answer! As you'll recall from months ago, we bought some new equipment that would allow us to expand capacity, and in order to get it running we needed to navigate a maze of contractors and inspections and all sorts of fun stuff. And in the midst of all that... we hit a snag. A big one. We ain't like to point fingers (and we certainly can't name names), but there was somebody we were relying who ended up being entirely untrustworthy****** and that set us back by a dang ol' ways. It was hugely frustrating for a long time, but we managed to chart a new course and we're back on track! We're in the middle of the first test run on our shiny new toys, and if things go according to plan (which would be a first for us), we'll be ready to hit the ground runnin' pretty much immediately!
The latter of the two - "when will your taproom be bigger" - is one that we don't have an answer for, and we frankly aren't terribly inclined to speculate on (we learned our lesson on that one a few times already). But for reference: it took us almost two years to open our current taproom after signing a lease, and at the moment we don't even have an available space that we can sign a lease on (in the past eight months, we've made little progress other than expressing a desire to have more space). You can feel free to extrapolate from there if you like, but the short answer is "not soon".
But! The way-less-sexy question of "when will you be able to make more beer" is one that's finally more-or-less got an answer! As you'll recall from months ago, we bought some new equipment that would allow us to expand capacity, and in order to get it running we needed to navigate a maze of contractors and inspections and all sorts of fun stuff. And in the midst of all that... we hit a snag. A big one. We ain't like to point fingers (and we certainly can't name names), but there was somebody we were relying who ended up being entirely untrustworthy****** and that set us back by a dang ol' ways. It was hugely frustrating for a long time, but we managed to chart a new course and we're back on track! We're in the middle of the first test run on our shiny new toys, and if things go according to plan (which would be a first for us), we'll be ready to hit the ground runnin' pretty much immediately!
A key ingredient to our fermentation process is hugging and whispering sweet nothings to the side of the tanks
And - more importantly - that has some pretty cool implications for you! Basically, we'll be able to do more of what we've been doin', and we might be able to cram a few new fun things in there for good measure. That means more new beers (and a thankful reprieve from the nearly-empty draft list that's plagued us for most of the summer) and the return of some old beers that y'all have been asking for (though y'all are mostly asking for the one beer we said would be impossible to brew again) and more hours for the taproom (which seems to be a point of confusion and/or contention, at least judging from the number of people who wander in during off hours) and maybe even a bit more stuff outside the confines of our cozy lil' taproom!
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Look out for these bad boys within the next week or two!
And in keeping with our promise to bring in more fun things as soon as possible, we're rollin' out Big Stupid Cans! Tomorrow! It's something we've been wanting to do since forever, and we've had most of the stuff in-house for a while, but we weren't making enough beer to be able to support such a thing. And now we (hopefully) are!
Beach beers! Just in time for summer to be ending!
Anyway, if you're like most of the people we've talked to about this, you probably have a few questions. We'll do it up in Q&A format for ya:
Big Stupid Cans?
Yeah! They're rad! 25.4 oz of fresh beery goodness! Come buy some!
Are these crowlers?
Sort of. Mostly. We went with a slightly smaller size than most Crowlers (25.4 oz instead of 32oz), but they're filled and sealed by hand, one at a time not unlike the humble Crowler (which means they have a similar shelf life to a growler - about a week). Also we can't use the word "Crowler" for legal reasons because it's a registered trademark of the Ball Corporation and they've got some pretty strict rules about how you can and can't use the term. Plus we feel like "Crowler" is an awkward word to say.
Will you be distributing Big Stupid Cans to stores?
Nope! Sorry! We had to sign something saying we wouldn't do that before they'd let us buy the equipment (I told you their rules were strict). And also the shelf life of these cans makes them impractical at best for retail.
Are these the same size as the Foster's cans?
They sure are! And it turns out that the people who sell Crowler machinery don't really like it if you ask them that.
Will you be filling these to order?
We thought about it, but there was no way to make it work. The current plan is to fill a shitload at the beginning of the weekend (and possibly a backup shitload partway through the weekend) and then use that as our can allotment for the week. It might take us a little while to find the balance between not having too many left over (which would be a potential waste of beer) and not running out too quickly (which tends to piss people off), but we'll do our damnedest!
Are you going to stop doing growlers?
Absolutely not! Growlers are sweet!
Big Stupid Cans?
Yeah! They're rad! 25.4 oz of fresh beery goodness! Come buy some!
Are these crowlers?
Sort of. Mostly. We went with a slightly smaller size than most Crowlers (25.4 oz instead of 32oz), but they're filled and sealed by hand, one at a time not unlike the humble Crowler (which means they have a similar shelf life to a growler - about a week). Also we can't use the word "Crowler" for legal reasons because it's a registered trademark of the Ball Corporation and they've got some pretty strict rules about how you can and can't use the term. Plus we feel like "Crowler" is an awkward word to say.
Will you be distributing Big Stupid Cans to stores?
Nope! Sorry! We had to sign something saying we wouldn't do that before they'd let us buy the equipment (I told you their rules were strict). And also the shelf life of these cans makes them impractical at best for retail.
Are these the same size as the Foster's cans?
They sure are! And it turns out that the people who sell Crowler machinery don't really like it if you ask them that.
Will you be filling these to order?
We thought about it, but there was no way to make it work. The current plan is to fill a shitload at the beginning of the weekend (and possibly a backup shitload partway through the weekend) and then use that as our can allotment for the week. It might take us a little while to find the balance between not having too many left over (which would be a potential waste of beer) and not running out too quickly (which tends to piss people off), but we'll do our damnedest!
Are you going to stop doing growlers?
Absolutely not! Growlers are sweet!
CANS!!!
And even with all this big news, we've still got the fun times rollin' this weekend! On Thursday we're gettin' our cask train rollin' with Fermento-Tainment all up in them pins (dry hopped with Empire), and we've got pimento jalapeño poppers to go along with it! After this week, we're goin' back to our regularly scheduled pizza programming, so come get while the gettin's good!
We saved the best for last, though the arancini will be tough to top
And on Friday, we've got the first of three empanada-focused installments from our new friends at Buenas! We can't wait to see what they come up with, but we're damn sure it's gon' be good!
Get in my belly
We've also got a growler pop up over at Pemberton Farms on Friday evening! If you won't be finding yourself in Everett, be sure to come say hello in Cambridge from 5-7pm!
There are free high fives
And if you're the type that likes to look a little farther into the future, don't forget that in just one short week (on September 7th) we're bringin' in the next installment of our monthly, loosely-music-themed trivia event: Audio Triviality! This month's theme is The Nineties and we're kinda afraid of what that will mean, but on the plus side we went and picked up some sweet (read: remarkably stupid) prizes for the winning team!
Come on out and win something dumb!
And looking ahead a little farther, circa mid-month (on September 16th) we'll be bringin' it strong at the Mass Fermentational in Worcester! It's a fest put on by the Mass Brewers Guild, which has us pretty stoked because they've got it together when it comes to throwing a fun festival. And as an added bonus, they let us invite some out-of-state beer friends which means we'll be pouring right next to New York's own Big aLICe Brewing! This is about as close to Beer Prom as we're liable to get, so come on by and join the good times!
Tickets right here: Mass Fermentational
And bringin' things a little (very) closer to home and even more recent, we picked the winners of this month's coloring contest! It was a contentious decision, complete with dust kicking and naps (just like in baseball!), but in the end we decided that this month's winner is Christine! Come get some free stuff with our logo on it, Christine!
And we've got some runners up! You also get some free stuff, only this free stuff is a little smaller.
And! Unrelated to coloring but still pretty rad - Eater Boston wrote a real nice article reflecting on our first year! You should read it! - Beer & Mortar: Turning One With Bone Up Brewing
* Sillari's even let us eat the pig heads! Which resulted a Lord Of The Flies situation in our break room that we're pretty glad you didn't see.
** Who also apparently dabble in antique cash registers. Of course they do.
*** We still kinda can't believe that we got The Weisstronauts to play at our party. Their music brings us so much joy.
**** From, like, four people.
***** Most people, particularly those of you who will bother to read this, have been hell of supportive and we do very much appreciate that. But every now and then we run into people who seem to think that "having to wait around a little while before drinking in the afternoon" is history's greatest injustice. So if we seem a bit defensive about the whole "you need to expand" thing at times, that's why.
****** We needed this particular person to fix something in the building (i.e. outside of our unit and thus outside of our jurisdiction). He estimated that it was two days' worth of work and promised that it would be done by the end of 2016. He didn't start until late March (of 2017, mind you) and then didn't finish for a month, at which point he started blaming further delays on National Grid whilst refusing to provide any proof of their involvement in or awareness of the situation. It's still not done, but we've gotten around the need for it.
** Who also apparently dabble in antique cash registers. Of course they do.
*** We still kinda can't believe that we got The Weisstronauts to play at our party. Their music brings us so much joy.
**** From, like, four people.
***** Most people, particularly those of you who will bother to read this, have been hell of supportive and we do very much appreciate that. But every now and then we run into people who seem to think that "having to wait around a little while before drinking in the afternoon" is history's greatest injustice. So if we seem a bit defensive about the whole "you need to expand" thing at times, that's why.
****** We needed this particular person to fix something in the building (i.e. outside of our unit and thus outside of our jurisdiction). He estimated that it was two days' worth of work and promised that it would be done by the end of 2016. He didn't start until late March (of 2017, mind you) and then didn't finish for a month, at which point he started blaming further delays on National Grid whilst refusing to provide any proof of their involvement in or awareness of the situation. It's still not done, but we've gotten around the need for it.
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