Imperial brown ale brewed with coffee and cocoa is brewery’s first addition to its year-round line-up in two years
SAN MARCOS, Calif. — Award-winning craft brewery Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey today announced a new addition to its portfolio produced under the company’s Port Brewing label. Board Meeting Brown Ale, an imperial brown ale brewed with coffee and cocoa nibs, will join Port favorites Wipeout IPA, Shark Attack Imperial Red, Old Viscosity and Mongo Double IPA, as a year-round offering from the brewery in February 2013. It is the first new beer to be added to the Port Brewing regular line-up since Mongo’s release in early 2010.
Board Meeting Imperial Brown Ale (click for full sized image)
“Between our Lost Abbey and Port Brewing labels we produce a really broad variety of beers; over three dozen in all,” said Port Brewing director of brewery operations, Tomme Arthur. “Interestingly, we’ve never produced a brown ale, so Board Meeting seemed a natural fit in our portfolio.”
Port Brewing beers are typically boldly-flavored American and hop-forward West Coast style ales or lagers, and Board Meeting Brown Ale is no exception. An amplified brown ale, the beer is brewed with liberal additions of coffee from local San Diego roasters, Ryan Brothers, and cocoa nibs sourced from famed San Francisco chocolate maker TCHO. Alcohol by volume is 8.5%.
“Board Meeting offers the malty richness and assertive hop presence that you expect in an American brown ale, but enhanced with pronounced roasted coffee and bitter chocolate aromas and flavors,” Arthur said. “I think people will enjoy this beer by itself and at the table paired with meat dishes like pork, roasts and barbeque. I imagine it’d be pretty good washing down a sausage omelet at breakfast too.”
As with the other members of the Port Brewing year-round portfolio, Board Meeting brown ale will be available in 22 ounce bottles and on draft throughout the brewery’s distribution network. Consumers should expect to see it on tap in draft houses and on retailer’s shelves by mid February 2013.
About Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey
Founded in 2006, Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey produces an extensive line-up of continental and American-inspired ales and lagers. Under the direction of legendary brewmaster and co-founder Tomme Arthur, the brewery has garnered dozens of awards in its six year history including the 2007 Great American Beer Festival Small Brewery of the Year, and 2008 World Beer Cup Champion Small Brewery. The company’s beers, many of which are aged in oak barrels for 12 months or longer, are universally recognized for their complexity, unique flavors, and bold, boundary-pushing styles. For more information, contact Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey at 155 Mata Way, Suite 104, San Marcos, CA 92069, telephone (800) 918-6816, and on the web at www.lostabbey.com.
This Saturday, November 10, 2012 we’re releasing the eleventh beer in our Ultimate Box Set series. This one is a Re-mix Track that’s a experimental nod to Charlie Daniels’ Southern rock classic, The Devil Went Down to Georgia.
Track 11 is an experimental re-mix track — Angel’s Share aged in fresh bourbon barrels with an addition of fresh sliced peaches and a splash of Brettanomyces Clausenni to kick it up a notch.
You’ll find the beer details (blend, ABV, liner notes, album art, etc.) on the website here. Details on the other Box Set beers can be found on the Box Set home page.
The tasting room doors will open at 10:30 am for this special event. As with all Box Set releases, the beers must be consumed on site, same day. Unopened bottles may not be carried out. Each bottle is 375ml and is $15 each.
Late summer is nothing but hoppy days here at the brewery. Here’s a quick heads up on the various IPA-related activities we’ve got going on leading into the Labor Day weekend:
Hop 15 Returns
Hop 15 Returns this week
Yes, it’s true Hop 15 is returning to market! The Port Brewing Hop Bomber fleet returned to the skies this week loaded with fresh bottles and kegs of Hop 15 destined for every corner of our distribution network.
Depending on your proximity to our central hop-to-air base here in San Marcos Hop 15 supplies should begin turning up on shelves and taps in your area any time in the next couple of weeks. Get it while you can though. The re-supply fleet isn’t scheduled to return until March of 2013!
Fallbrook Estate Fresh Hop Pale Ale
Fallbrook Estate Pale Ale – In the Tasting Room August 31
If you checked in a couple of weeks ago, you probably noticed that we just harvested the hops for our local fresh-hopped IPA, Fallbrook Estates (you might have even harvested with us). This year was different than previous years in that we had a large enough yield to use the local goods in the entire brew process rather than just in dry-hopping. We used 80lbs of local Nugget and Chinook in the boil and an additional 120lbs in the hopback, so it should be an awesome brew. In total we produced 30 barrels, so this one will be on draft only in the brewery. There won’t be any bottles, but word is you will be able to get your growler filled with the homegrown.
Look for Fallbrook to hit the taps in the Tasting Room Labor Day weekend.
Predicting a High Tide
A wave of Fresh Hops
Word from the hop supplier is that the harvest should be coming in very soon, which means we’re gearing up to brew our amazing fresh hop IPA, High Tide, here really soon. Assuming that the hop guys are correct, we expect to see a semi-trailer full of fresh-picked hops sometime early September, which means we’ll be brewing High Tide around the clock for four days to ensure the hops are at their freshest when they go into the brew. If you’ve never experienced the hop-infused organized chaos that is a High Tide brew cycle, this will be your chance to witness it. Drop by the Tasting Room, that weekend and check it out.
Oh, and if you can’t make it to the Tasting Room, no worries. The beer will hit our full distribution network in the latter half of September, so you’ll still be able to experience the fresh-hopped goodness that is High Tide.
Cuvee de Tomme 2011
The long wait is over! Cuvee de Tomme 2011 is scheduled for release in the brewery on Saturday December 17, 2011.
While larger than the 2010 release, the total run for this year’s CdT is still extremely limited, so bottles will be a brewery-only release while draft will be available in limited quantity here in Southern California.
Kevin Hopkins, Hospitality Manager
If you’ve had the opportunity to visit The Lost Abbey Tasting Room in the past couple of months, you’ve probably noticed a new (old) face behind the bar. Kevin Hopkins
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Kevin Hopkins, manager of our new Hospitality department.
As the HM, Kevin’s responsible for overseeing pretty much all of our customer-facing operations including customer service, the tasting room, tours, parties, and special events — both in the brewery and around San Diego (whew).
Those of you who have been members of The Faithful for some time will probably recognize Kevin from his frequent volunteer work at our special events (competence doesn’t go unpunished around here, so we brought him on board and put him in charge), but he’s actually been a craft beer connoisseur long before Lost Abbey — a couple of decades, in fact — first in the U.K. and Europe and later right here in San Diego.
When he’s not serving beer and propounding the superiority of upper Yakima over lower Yakima hops or the many virtues of a good stout, you’ll find Kevin looking up — literally.
Kevin’s a long-time flying buff who doesn’t just love the sound of a plane thundering overhead, he loved it so much, he spent years managing airshows full of them. No too coincidentally, he’s also an accomplished pilot who takes to the air as often as he can. (Good thing too. We need someone to captain The Lost Abbey Airship Gabriel.)
You can catch Kevin in the tasting room most weekdays and the occasional weekend. For all his latest tasting room and local updates, you can also follow him on twitter at @LostAbbeyKevin. On other days, just look overhead. If you see a plane pulling barrel rolls, that’s probably him.
First Ever: Commercial Conclave
Send us a concept for a commercial; win and you get it filmed! Got an Idea for an Ad?
You know the scenario. You’re sitting there with your friends, enjoying a perfect glass of craft beer, and suddenly you’ve got a great idea for a commercial. (If this has never happened to you, you are drinking the wrong kind of beer.)
Well now here’s you’re chance to capitalize on your creativity!
The whole month of December we’ll be accepting submissions for Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey 60 second commercial concepts. From all the submissions we’ll select one concept (via a very serious Conclave process) to be filmed as an actual advertisement for our brewery. The winner will receive an all expenses-paid two-day trip to San Diego, V.I.P. status at Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey and go on set to film the commercial with our acclaimed in-house director, Ryan Tillotson!
Full details, rules, limits, legalese and fine print will be available on The Lost Abbey website starting December 1, 2011.
Hard to believe it’s already August, but here it is. Around the Abbey we’ve been so busy that we almost didn’t notice summer is just about at an end. Since spring we’ve been brewing so much that we’ve passed our total production for 2010 and are in the midst of yet another expansion to meet demand.
As part of that expansion we recently moved fermenters 7 and 8 (aka: “Heaven” and “Hell” since that’s what had to be moved to get them into the brewhouse) into our production area next door in anticipation of the arrival of a couple more big fermenters in the next few weeks. Tomme’s also made mention of acquiring a couple of new grain silos which will prevent us from running our current one dry each week (it’s hard to make beer when you have no malt).
Moving "Heaven" for more beer
All this new equipment will allow us to keep ramping up production and eliminate some of the off and on shortages we’ve been experiencing. And while there’s no expansion of our distribution territories planned just yet, who knows — 2012 could present some new opportunities for us.
Things have been busy over in the tasting room as well. Even though we’re a tiny operation compared to many of our San Diego craft brewing compatriots, we’re on track to see almost 60,000 (yes, 60,000!) visitors this year. To handle all the new folks we’ve already added an additional 20 taps –for a total of 44 handles — and we’ve got some exciting new remodels in the works for the fall. Look for an announcement with details some time after Labor Day.
All told, it’s pretty good stuff and we owe it all to you, the Faithful. Thank you. You keep drinking and we’ll keep brewing.
New Faces: Meet Ryan Tillotson
Ryan Tillotson, the man behind the lensRecently you may have noticed one the addition of some new multimedia components — photo galleries, video shorts and live broadcasts — the Lost Abbey website and our social media pages. (And if you haven’t noticed, why not?) All this is the work of our new Multimedia Supervisor, Ryan Tillotson, who recently joined us after graduating from film school up in the Los Angeles area.
A gifted guy behind the camera, Ryan is tasked both with documenting life here at the Abbey, and providing you with an informative (and hopefully interesting) look inside the operations of a small American craft brewery.
Beyond providing daily snapshots from around the brewhouse, Ryan has also produced the first two of our “making of” videos (Hot Rocks, La Cruda and Ten Commandments), and our time-lapse silo video. He’s also the man who directed our live broadcasts from the Anniversary Party and Christmas in July. Over the next couple of months you can look forward to plenty more from him.
Ryan’s in the brewhouse most weekdays and a few weekends as well. You’ll also catch him at events around town and some big national ones such as the GABF. If you happen to bump into him anywhere, make sure to say hello. Who knows, he could make you Internet famous…
Stone Brewing’s 15th Anniversary party is just a week away, and as usual we’ll be serving breakfast at the brewery for everyone who wants to carbo-load before heading up to the first session a “stone’s” throw away at Cal State San Marcos.
Beer for Breakfast, August 20, 2011
Our dynamic-duo of chefs, Jason Danderand and Steve Owen will be manning the Magic kitchen and griddling, grilling, frying, smoking and steaming their way through a monster buffet of rib-sticking breakfast foods. As always, the food and fun are free, the beers are regular price.
Each summer we host an intern who spends several weeks with the brew crew learning how to make beer the Port/Lost Abbey way. (We’re not really sure if this hurts or helps in the real world, but whatever.) Our first intern five years ago was named Larry, and even since then we’ve always referred to the summer intern as “The New Larry”.
This year’s Larry (number 5) is Travis Herman who hails from the East Bay area up in Northern California. Travis recently left a career in bio-research and for the past five weeks has been working long hours learning the craft of brewing from the ground up. (Biggest lesson: “brewing is a lot of hard work.”)
Travis’ internship ends today and he, along with his dog, Hudson, who came down here with him, is driving back to Northern California this weekend to rejoin his wife, who is six months pregnant. A quiet, friendly guy with a wry sense of humor and a quick brain, we’re all going to miss him around here and wish him the best of luck in starting his career as a brewer.
If you’re ever in the Bay Area and happen to run into Travis, feel free to call him “Larry”. He’s only one of five to have earned the title, so you know he’ll appreciate it.
End of Summer Sale
Shirts all 25% off through Labor Day
With summer winding down we need to clear some room to make way for new stuff expected this autumn. As a result we’ve put all of our Port and Lost Abbey tanks, T’s and shirts on sale in our online shop. Now through Labor Day (September 5, 2011) you’ll find all these oh-so-cool wearables marked 25% off. Stock is limited to what’s on hand (read “no backorders”). so if you want the best selection you should shop sooner rather than later.
We are skipping the usual message from the DOBO this month as Tomme, world traveler that he is, is out and about being Tomme Arthur. Having just returned from Europe (Scotland, Belgium and Denmark, specifically), this week he’s up in Chico, CA at Sierra Nevada doing a collaboration brew with a few of the other members of the “Brett Pack” (Adam from Avery Brewing, Sam from Dogfish Head, and Rob from Allagash).
Next week he’ll be back home for our 5th Anniversary celebration (more on that below), and then he’ll be heading out to do a coast-to-coast beer week tour. If you’d like to say hi to Tomme, you’ll be able to find him at the following:
May 19 to 26 – Seattle Beer Week
June 3 to 4 – Savor, Washington DC
June 5 to 8 – Philly Beer Week
We don’t have a full list of his appearance schedule just yet, so stay tuned via our Twitter and Facebook feeds. Or better yet, subscribe to our calendar and you’ll get all the updates delivered right to your computer / phone / tablet / etc.
New Faces: Meet Gwen Conley
Gwen Conley
One of the more exciting things to happen here at The Abbey is the arrival of our new Quality Assurance Director, Gwen Conley. For those not familiar with her name, Gwen comes to us from the famous Flying Dog Brewery in Maryland where she headed their QA department for years.
Gwen actually got into the beer business back in the 90’s through what she calls “dumb luck” — more or less wandering into it when she went to work as a microbiologist for Coors in Golden, Colorado. After leaving Coors she went to work for the Ball Corporation (the container people) where she went through their sensory training program and became an expert on how colors, aromas, and flavors work together to create full-fledged sensory experiences. That ended up getting her part time work doing food and drink pairings and eventually earned her the moniker “Sensory Goddess.”
She eventually parlayed her unique background into her gig at Flying Dog where she not only managed their QA efforts, but also conducted educational programs in beer and food pairings. As for her reasons for jumping to the left coast and joining us here at Port / Lost Abbey, Gwen said “It was the opportunity to do the sort of experimentation that goes on here. Working with so many barrels and different beers was hard to pass up.” (She also admitted that living in San Diego isn’t so bad either.)
As QA director Gwen has jumped in and taken over oversight of our brewing and production processes, finally putting all that really cool equipment in our shiny new lab to work. She’s also held a number of sensory sessions for the staff, and we’re trying to convince her to do a few classes for the general public as well (keep your fingers crossed).
Asked what she’d be doing if she wasn’t helping make great beer, Gwen revealed an interesting aspiration. “I think I’d run a snorkel bar somewhere in the Caribbean or Central America,” shed said. Guests would snorkel half the day, then at 3pm the snorkeling stops and the drinking starts.”
A snorkel bar? Sounds like a pretty good plan to us.
Our fifth birthday party is Saturday, May 14, 2011 — just a little more than a week and a half away — and we’re inviting all our friends, fans and members of the faithful to drop by and say hello!
As with last year, so everyone has plenty of room and can enjoy the food, music and (of course) beer, we’re dividing the party into two sessions — an early one from 11am to 3pm and a later one from 4pm to 8pm.
Items on tap for our daylong festivities include specialty kegs from the barrel archives, bottled beer releases, special barrelhouse tours, amazing street food from our in-house chefs, and live music from our two special guests — Kiera and the Lesbians and The Professors.
The $15 ticket includes a commemorative glass, 8 beer tasting tickets, food and live music. Tickets are very limited, however, so if you’d like to attend, you should buy them sooner rather than later.
Speaking of our Anniversary Party, we also have two beer releases from the Port Brewing side of the house coinciding with the party. On May 14 we will issue the following beers:
Anniversary Ale – Our annual hoppy strong pale ale. Older Viscosity – Old Viscosity aged in Bourbon oak barrels for a year.
No need to worry if you can’t attend the anniversary party. Both of these beers will reach our full distribution network. Look for them on shelves and your favorite pubs and eateries in mid-to-late May.
Upcoming Events
Mark your calendars (or subscribe to ours) — the following events are coming up!
May 16 to 22 – American Craft Beer Week The annual nationwide ode to American craft brews. We’ll be kicking it off a couple of days early with our anniversary party, but you can expect some fun in the tasting room May 20 – 22 as well.
June 16 to 18 – National Homebrewer’s Conference The NHC is here in San Diego this year and we’ll be rolling out the red carpet all week long for our homebrewer friends. Tomme & Co. have already brewed a special beer for the conference, and we’ll be extending tasting room hours to accommodate all the folks who will be in town earlier in the week. Details will be posted on our calendar and website as we get closer to the dates.
July 16 – Christmas in July Our annual celebration and fundraiser for Toys for Tots will be a little earlier than last year (so people can go to ComicCon and our party). As with previous years we’ll be releasing Santa’s Little Helper aged in Bourbon oak barrels, Santa will be on hand for photos, and there will be live music and food. Oh, and it’s all FREE (except for the beer) if you just bring a new, unwrapped toy worth $15 or more! Last year we raised close to $10,000 in cash and toys for the Marine Corp’s Toys for Tots foundation and this year we’d like to do even better, so make plans to attend.
Amarillo is Back!
Amarillo holding court in the tasting room
For those of you who follow our Twitter and/or Facebook feeds, you’re probably aware that one of our brewcats, Amarillo, disappeared a couple of weeks back, much to our dismay (the tasting room just isn’t the same without him holding court on the bar or the barrel tables).
We are please to report that last Saturday night he suddenly re-appeared. Skinny, disheveled and exhausted, he ate two cans of cat food and a whole bowl of dry food in a matter of minutes, and spent the entire next day “talking” to anyone and everyone who came into the tasting room (usually his sister, Cascade is the talkative one).
We’re not entirely certain what happened (nobody here speaks cat), but we’re pretty sure he had a quite an adventure. All we can say is everyone — Amarillo included — is happy that he’s back.
Thanks to all those who put out the call that he was missing (he even made it on a local TV news broadcast), sent kind words, and brought him treats and gifts since his return. You guys are the best!
By the time you read this, Mike and I will be somewhere in Europe. We are embarking on a long beer infused journey. I am very excited about the places and people we are off to see.
We’ll start the tour proper when we land in Aberdeen, Scotland. We’ll meet up with Jeff Bagby (Pizza Port), James and Martin from Brewdog, spending two nights dodging the Loch Ness Monster and warming our bellies with the finest Speyside and Highland Malts available. Should this leave us cold, we’ll Sink a few Bismarks attempting to warm our bellies.
We have a visit scheduled with their cask supplier. It is my hope to find types of barrels and wood expressions currently lacking in our barrel program enabling us a wider range of flavor possibilities. We’ve also scheduled a pint night in Aberdeen at the Brewdog pub. We shipped over some Mongo, Wipeout and others. I think the peeps will be quite pissed when we’re done with them.
Friday we hope a plane from Scotland over to Brussels. Mike and I will set out to taste a ton of Lambic and sour beers hoping to remind our taste buds that not all beer should be hoppy. Saturday will find us stalking the halls of Cantillon. I am excited to see what the new expansion looks like. We’ll throw back some beers with Jean at Moeder Lambic if all goes well.
Sunday is hope the train day. St. Niklaas here we come for Zythos (the 24 hour Belgian Beer Festival). This will be a great chance to see what’s new since I was there last. Monday could very well be the high point of the week (beer wise). Henrik(who handles our beer in Europe) has set up a plan enabling us to go blend a batch of Lambic with Armand from Drie Fonteinen that will sold in the European market. This will afford Mike and myself a real look into the blending process that we have never seen. It promises to be exceptional.
Tuesday morning has us jaunting off to Denmark (my first trip to Hamlet’s home). We’re going to be hosted by NOMA which in 2010 was named Best Restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine. Now, I’ve done a ton of AMAZING dinners but none of them come close to the prestige of this restaurant. I feel blessed we get to do this and honored to be represent American Craft Beer in such a special way. Look for pictures of this on my twitter side of things.
Thursday we fly back to the states. Mike will return home. I on the other hand will be detouring through Boston to spend some time with the Alstrom brothers attending the Extreme Beer Fest on March 12. It’s going to be a crazy trip. One that promises to be filled with some serious beer and fuzzy mornings.
It’s the longest trip away from home and the brewery in a long time. So I hope things are okay in my absence. I suppose that’s why I hired all these new people in the last 2 years?
Carnevale Masquerade 2001 Recap
This year’s Carnevale Masquerade celebrating the annual release of Carnevale Ale was bigger and better than ever. Despite rain, hail and near-freezing weather almost 300 folks showed up in their finest masquerade accoutrement to celebrate with live music, great food and (naturally) fantastic Lost Abbey & Port beers.
And speaking of the food, in the spirit of the real Venetian tradition that inspired our Carnevale, Chefs Vince and Jason took it up a notch this year by smoking two whole pigs stuffed with whole chickens stuffed with sausage, potatoes and onion. Accompanied by the crab salad, slaws, vegetables and fresh bread pudding, we can say without hesitation that all the evening’s guests were in “hog heaven”.
If you’re interested, we’ve posted a photo album from the evening’s fun. You’ll find it on our website here:
And if you’re looking for our GABF award-winning Carnevale ale, draft kegs are heading into our distribution network right now, and bottles should be available within the next few weeks.
Beer Release: Framboise de Amorosa
March 19, 2011
Framboise de Amorosa, our lusty, barrel-aged raspberry sour makes her second appearance in the Lost Abbey tasting room on Saturday, March 19.
For those who aren’t familiar with Amorosa, she begins as Lost and Found poured into red wine barrels and tarted up three times over a period of 12 months. The result is a fruity, round, luscious beer that is sweet and a touch sour perfectly softened by smooth oak characteristics — a real delight from first sip to last.
As with last year, the 2011 Framboise de Amorosa is a very limited release so bottles will only be available for purchase in the Lost Abbey tasting room. (Draft versions of the beer will reach limited distribution.) Bottles are 375ml size and $15 each with a six bottle maximum per person.
We do expect Amorosa to sell out quickly, so if you would bottles, you should probably arrive at the tasting room earlier rather than later. All the details on the release are on the website here:
Mark your calendars! Our 5th Anniversary celebration has been set for May 14, 2011!
Once again we’ll be breaking the party into two four-hour sessions (11am-3pm and 4pm-8pm) and providing food, music and, of course, great Port / Lost Abbey beers. We will also celebrate the day with two beer releases — Our spring seasonal IPA, Port Brewing Anniversary Ale, and a new (still secret) Lost Abbey Anniversary release.
The 5th anniversary being the traditional “wood” anniversary you can also expect DOBO Tomme Arthur to delve into his barrel archives and pull out some truly amazing stuff to tap.
Tickets will be $15 per session. Guests will receive a commemorative tasting glass, food and 8 beer tasting tickets. Additional tasting tickets will be $1 each. Look for tickets to go on sale on the Lost Abbey website in early April.
Speaking of calendars — if you use Outlook, iCal, or Google calendar, or you’ve got an Android, iPhone, iPad or Blackberry, you can add the Lost Abbey events calendar to your own and get updates on all our releases, appearances and events automatically. The process only takes a minute and you’ll be connected to everything that’s up at Port / Lost Abbey!
Santa was especially nice to those of us at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey this year.
This past fall we took over the building suite next to us that formerly housed Aramark linen company. For us this was a monumental acquisition as it’s the first space we’ve acquired that’s actually contiguous to the brewhouse. (We have a barrel and distribution warehouse, but it’s across the parking lot from the brewery.) The expansion takes us to 25,000 square feet of total brewery space which gives us more room for new offices, a lab, and a brand bottling line & packaging area complete with shiny new bright tanks. (More beer!) Look for an open house celebration in January where we’ll open our doors to our Faithful and show off the new digs.
As this year comes to a close, I look back on 2010 as a year of great progress. We launched two new markets, added some great new new staff, and acquired a very nice piece of the missing puzzle for our growth plans in the coming years. Now I’m turning my attention to 2011 and thoughts of how we’re going to celebrate our 5th year of business. It promises to be a great year with new beers, more barrels and new staff as well.
Although I am sad to see this year of new great beers (Framboise de Amorosa, Angel’s Share Grand Cru and Deliverance) come to a close, I’m excited about a whole slew of new things that have been fermenting around here and will see the light of day in 2011.
It’s a great feeling indeed.
Best wishes this holiday season and beyond Your DOBO
New expansion photo gallery
(It’s not much to look at now, but just you wait.)
[nggallery id=25]
Georgia on My Mind
Welcome to Georgia
Somebody cue the Ray Charles music because we’ve got Georgia on our minds. More specifically, we’ve got our beer in Georgia on our minds.
That’s right boys and girls, as of January 1, 2011 the Peach State will officially become the 8th state in which our beers are distributed! Thanks to our distribution partners at Savannah Distributing, Georgians from Chattahoochee to Okefenokee (and everywhere in between) will soon be among the lucky souls who can call themselves members of the Lost Abbey congregation.
Over the next few weeks there will be a number of events around GA to celebrate the arrival of Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey. If you’re in Georgia (or close enough to get there), make sure to check Facebook and your favorite craft beer sites for events close to you.
Oh, and if you do find our beers in a store, restaurant, or pub, please make sure to tell us about it so we can add the location to our map. You’ll find a handy form and the map here: http://www.lostabbey.com/find-our-beers/
Barrels for Sale
Yep, as of right now (Dec 31, 2010) we have 20 used Brandy barrels for sale. If you’re interested in buying one, they’re $25 cash, and you have to pick it up. If you’d like to get one, go here:
Best Wishes and Holiday Greetings from The Lost Abbey.
As many of you have recently contacted us about the Sinner’s and Saint’s club renewals, we felt it was time to make the announcement about our club status for 2011.
It is with sadness that we report, there will be no Patron Sinner’s and Saint’s clubs in 2011.
When we launched these programs in 2006, we were one of the first breweries in this country to do direct-to-consumer mail order shipments for beer.
It was an ambitious program that required us to develop a membership and order fulfillment system from scratch and commit a third of our workforce to the customer service side of the club. Many of you got to know the club managers, Ruby and David, quite well from your communications and pickups.
But this isn’t why we’re ending the clubs. (We’re 12 full timers and 4 part timers now — a veritable army compared to the old days.) The biggest reason for shuttering the clubs is the numerous changes at the state(s) level for shipments direct to consumers.
It’s been a tough few years for states economically and that’s caused direct-to-consumer-shipment regulations to turn into a constantly shifting landscape which had us adding and/or removing states from the do/don’t shipment mix as we worked to comply with all the various laws and rulings. Other regulatory burdens and reporting issues also compounded our troubles in keeping current with the demands each state places upon alcohol producers. As a result, we concluded that continuing to operate the Sinners and Saints clubs is at best a risky venture, and the smartest course of action is to suspend the clubs until a more favorable environment presents itself.
We apologize for the delay as we realize that many of you use the Sinner’s and Saints programs as Christmas Gifts (lucky those people who got a membership in their stocking). Sorry to be the bearer of such bad news. On the upside, David and Ruby still call Lost Abbey home and we’re actively pursuing angles that will allow the clubs to rise from the ashes in a new form in the near future. Keep an eye out for an announcement some time in early 2011.
We thank you for your support and look forward to delivering even more epic beers to you in the future.
The second annual San Diego Beer Week kicks off a 10 day tour de force today with just about every brewery, brewpub, gastropub, bar and bottle shop pulling out all the stops to showcase America’s new craft beer capitol. In all there’ll be more than 200 beer-related events all around the county between today and Sunday the 14th. Naturally, we’ll be out and about next week, talking, eating and, of course, pouring lots of great Lost Abbey and Port Brewing beers.
Here’s a round-up of what’s up and what’s new at Lost Abbey:
Extended Tasting Room Hours
In honor of San Diego Beer Week, we’ll be extending our tasting room hours to be open seven days a week through November 14, giving everyone ample opportunity to drop by and say hello! The SDBW Tasting Room hours are:
Sun: 12pm – 5pm
Mon – Wed: 1pm – 6pm
Thur: 1pm – 4:30pm
Fri: 1pm – 9pm
Sat: 12pm – 6pm
(Note: Saturday, November 13 we will close promptly at 6pm to prepare for our annual barrel party)
We’re doing a number of events around town all week long, so you can still experience our beers without making the trek up to the brewery. If you get a chance, pop into one and say hi to the DOBO (aka “Tomme”) and other members of the Lost Abbey Clergy.
Lost Abbey SDBW Events
Nov 6 – San Diego Brewer’s Guild Festival
Nov 8 – Phil’s BBQ
Nov 9 – Churchill’s Pub and Grille
Nov 9 – Encinitas Ale House
Nov 10 – Counterpoint
Nov 10 – Neighborhood
Nov 11 – Stone World Bistro
Nov 11 – JSix Restaurant
Nov 13 – 4th Annual Barrel Tasting Party (sold out)
Those who’ve been into the Tasting Room during the week in the past couple of months might have noticed a new face around the brewery. Actually, he’s an old, familiar face to this building.
Ken Kline, Superhero
Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Ken Kline our new (returning) Plant Manager.
No, Ken didn’t used to work here and now he’s back, he’s returning to the brewhouse. Back before Port Brewing / Lost Abbey, our brewhouse was Stone Brewing’s, and Ken was their plant manager. In 2006 when Stone moved to it’s new facility Ken went with it and we’ve pretty much been faking it ever since (read: swearing/praying and lots of duct tape). Gratefully we were recently able to persuade Ken to return to his old brewhouse and re-assume command over all the stuff around here that makes the beer, packs it up and gets it on the loading dock.
Over the next few months Ken will be overhauling our brewhouse (read: swearing/praying and removing duct tape) and overseeing our expansion which includes a shiny new boiler, new tanks, and moving and reconfiguring the bottling line in the new building. For us, all of this means no more flooded floors and bottling line gymnastics. For you it means more Port & Lost Abbey beers!
If you ever happen to drop by the tasting room and see Ken (usually fixing stuff), make sure to say hi. (Don’t, hug him and cry, repeating “thank you, thank you, thank you” though. Turns out after the forth or fifth time it makes him uncomfortable.)
New Beer Releases
Here’s what’s new and upcoming in new beer releases:
