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Libri Divini – August 2010

In This Issue

From the Director’s Scribe’s Chair
What we did on our summer vacation

Editor’s Note: This spot is normally reserved for a few words from our director of brewery operations (DOBO), but Tomme’s off doing important DOBO things, so our Abbey Scribe, Sage, is filling in for him this month.

Sage the Abbey ScribeI am staring at a calendar above my desk that tells me the Great American Beer Festival is exactly three weeks from today. GABF? Already? Where did the summer go?

Oh, that’s right, we’ve been busy. So busy, in fact, that not only did we not get a vacation, we missed the July issue of this newsletter altogether. Let’s see… Cuvee punted to football season, Santa showed in July, our buddy Russ brought strawberries, the Witch came back witty as ever, and we found the Road to Helles to be paved with great beer. Plus, the brewhouse boys became the brewhouse boys and girl, the tasting room got a little more elbow room and we had everyone down for breakfast before Stone Brewing’s anniversary party.

Add that to a release angels and demons in the Abbey tomorrow, a tidal wave of fresh hops in a week or two, Denver mid-month, a return just in time for a beer and boobs and finally, a fine (and long-anticipated) Cuvee de Tomme to finish September.

Yikes. And I thought we were busy.

I’ll tell you what. You catch up on what’s new at Lost Abbey below. Me, I need to go and find a bigger calendar.

Christmas in July Wrap-up

Christmas in July 2010
Back on July 24th we held our annual Christmas in July party and fund raiser. If you’re not familiar with our (non)holiday shindig, each year we celebrate the release of barreled Santa’s Little Helper (aged in bourbon barrels for a year) with a Christmas party and fundraiser to benefit Toys for Tots. There’s food, music, photos with Santa and — of course — great beer, so it always ends up being quite the celebration.

This year we raised nearly $10,000 in toy and cash donations for Toys for Tots. Thanks to the generosity of our guests that day, a lot of kids will have have a better Christmas than they might otherwise.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend, we have a huge photo gallery of the day’s festivities. If you did come to the party, we’ve also posted all the Santa photos, so you can pick yours up (just in time for Christmas card season!)

New Faces at Lost Abbey

Devon Randall

At her age it might be premature to call Devon Randall “the Most Interesting Woman in the World”, but she’s certainly on the right track to earn the title.

A Berkeley grad who’s conquered real estate, climbed mountains, run with Alaskan sled dogs, and sailed a catamaran from South Africa to Trinidad in just a few short years, even Vladimir Putin would have a hard time not being impressed with her achievements.

Devon discovered craft beer while still living in Berkeley and quickly took to homebrewing. Two years later she found herself living in Santa Monica, California, and traveling south in her spare time to San Diego to learn what she could about the beer Mecca. It wasn’t long after, in her typical fashion, Devon decided to make a “dramatic” change, dump her current occupation, and jump into craft brewing with both feet even though she didn’t have a job waiting.

At first she made the 90 mile from LA to San Diego trip daily volunteering at breweries and learning what she could. This eventually led to some part time work at The Lost Abbey where her talent and abilities were quickly realized. She made the move from Santa Monica to San Diego in June and became an official member of our brewhouse team in August.

These days you’ll find Devon doing everything from brewing to bottling, soaking up as much knowledge as she can with an eye towards being a “famous girl brewer” with her own brewpub down the road. Given all she’s already accomplished, we have no doubt she’ll succeed.

If you happen to see Devon in the brewery or at a Lost Abbey event, make sure to say hi and buy her a beer. (Saisons are her favorite.)

Upcoming Events

September 17-19
Great American Beer Festival | Denver, CO
This is the big one. The one where, as the DOBO says, “we bring the noise”. Look for us in the Lost Abbey and Port Brewing booths in the Pacific section of the festival itself as well as our peeps making appearances around town during the week. (follow us @lostabbey on Twitter to find out where we’ll be.)

September 24
Beer for Boobs | Lost Abbey Brewery San Marcos, CA
Help us & our friends at White Labs support support the Susan G. Komen philanthropic trust and The 3 Day event to help find a cure for breast cancer. $10 gets you you a commemorative Beer for Boobs pint glass and two pints of any Lost Abbey or Port Brewing beer on tap.

New Beer Releases

August 28, 12pm — 6pm
Deliverance
Our first release of the embodiment of good versus evil in a barrel-aged blend. Part bourbon barreled The Serpent’s Stout, and part brandy barreled The Angel’s Share, this is our most anticipated release of the summer. (May reach limited distribution)

September 25, 12pm — 6pm
Cuvee de Tomme
A release pushed back repeatedly by cool weather and barrels unwilling to create the beer any faster, the 2010 vintage of Cuvee finally emerges after nearly a year and a half in the barrel. (May reach limited distribution)

October 4
High Tide
Our autumn fresh-hopped IPA, the release of this one actually depends on the timing of the hop harvest. The past two years the harvest & brew dates were in the first week of September. Based on that we anticipate the release by the first week in October. (Will reach full distribution)

~ * ~

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Libri Divini – June 2010

In This Issue

From the Director’s Chair
And the Winner is…

Tomme Arthur, Director of Brewery Operations
This past Wednesday, I attended the San Marcos Economic Development Committee meeting at City Hall here in San Marcos. During this luncheon, there was an award ceremony and, wouldn’t you know it, we won an EDE.

Since many of you readers out there may not know what an EDE is, I thought I would share with you that it stands for Economic Development Excellence award. All told, there were 8 EDE’s given out and Port Brewing earned the award for Product Excellence in Manufacturing. These awards are given to San Marcos based companies who display excellence in their business practices and promote the city at the same time.

Standing on stage (in front of all sorts of San Marcos City Council Members and Planners), it was an honor to receive this business based award.

You see, since we opened our doors some 4 years ago, Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey has won numerous awards at local, regional and even international beer competitions. All of these awards focus on specific beers competing against other beers. And we love to see our beers do very well. Yet being a very young company means we don’t typically get nominated nor win awards for our civic contributions. Still, the great people on the EDC committee thought we were worth recognizing.

I guess having a World Class brewery in San Marcos does makes great sense and I for one am glad we earned this recognition. Hats off to all of our employees who made this possible.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go find some glass cleaner. Someone got their fingerprints on our new shiny trophy…

4th Anniversary Celebration Wrap-up

Our 4th anniversary celebration last month was our largest yet and was doubly exciting, as it almost didn’t happen.

This year we divided the party into two sessions and converted our barrelhouse loading area into an outdoor dining area. Combined with our new, larger tasting room we were able to comfortably accommodate all our guests.

Beyond the great music and the great beer (naturally), the other highlights of the day were the tours of the new barrelhouse led by Tomme himself. (1,000 oak barrels full of beer stacked, racked and awaiting the angels’ blessing is something to behold.)

The barrelhouse only has room for 20 or so people at a time, so the plan was for Tomme to guide a tour every 30 minutes or so. But once folks got inside, people naturally began asking questions, taking photos, etc., and each tour ended up being closer to an hour long. As a result, we only did half the number of tours planned, but we’re pretty sure those lucky enough to go enjoyed the time twice as much.

We’ve posted a photo album from the Anniversary party on the website.

» Click here to see the album

Upcoming events
Christmas in July Celebration & Fundraiser

Christmas in July

This July 24th, celebrate the release of the 2010 Bourbon-barrel-aged Santa’s Little Helper and help us collect toys for the Marine Corps’ Toys for Tots Foundation. There will be food, music, photos with Santa, and, of course, great Lost Abbey / Port Brewing beers on hand.

There’s no admission, all we ask is that you bring a new, unwrapped toy worth $15 or more for Toys for Tots. Last year we collected nearly $10,000 in toys and cash donations for the Foundation, and this year we’re hoping to beat that and help a lot of kids who otherwise might not get a Christmas.

» Click here for more details

New Beer Releases

Here’s the new and upcoming beer releases for June/July 2010

  • June 12:
    Older Viscosity — Bourbon Barrel-aged Old Viscosity
  • June 19:
    Road to Helles — German Pale Lager
  • June 26:
    Witch’s Wit — Belgian Wit
  • July 24:
    Cuvee de Tomme 2010 (Estimated release date)

&raquo Click here for the full beer release calendar

Where Did You Find Our Beer?

Where did you find our beer?

With our increased capacity and expanding distribution, our beers are showing up in places more than ever. You can help your fellow Lost Abbey / Port Brewing beer lovers by adding the location where you found our beers to the map on our website.

Restaurant, pub, retailer — it doesn’t matter. We want to know!

» Click to tell us where you found our beer

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Libri Divini – May 2010

In This Issue

From the Director’s Chair

Tomme Arthur, Director of Brewery Operations
It’s May here in San Diego which means the rains are leaving us and our new equipment is being installed.

Out my office window in the packaging area, our new hood and wire unit has arrived and is now functional. Gone are the days of 16 bottles per minute (by hand). Say hello to 40 bottles per minute as our new hood unit spins away. It’s freakishly fast! The guys aren’t going to know what to do with themselves. I’m very excited about it.

I also just ordered a new refrigeration system for the roof so that our tanks and cold liquor systems will be more efficient. And with this efficiency comes more brewing (Hooray beer)!

All of these changes mean that we’re going to be able to better produce, package and ultimately distribute our beers. For that, I am glad that Spring is ending and Summer is on the horizon. Which reminds me, it’s time to get a batch of SPA going…

4th Anniversary Party

By the time this email reaches you it will probably be a mere 24 hours and counting before our big 4th anniversary party. Last year’s party was kind of a breakthrough year for us (we were expecting 200 people and got over 700), so this year we’re much better prepared.

In order to accommodate everyone, we’ve divided the party into two sessions — an early one that runs from 11am to 3pm and a later one that runs from 4pm to 8pm. We’ve also limited attendance to 300 people to ensure that everyone is comfortable and has access to all the great beer and food.

Beyond that, we’re also spreading our wings a little and showing off our barrelhouse this year, something most patrons in our tasting room never get to see. (The 150-odd barrels in the barrel room are nothing compared to the nearly 1,000 in the barrelhouse.) What’s more, Tomme himself will be leading the tours explaining the philosophy, ideas and methods behind the barrel-aged wonders that have made The Lost Abbey famous.

As always, there will also lots of great Port/Lost Abbey beer, delicious food and great live music, meaning that everyone is guaranteed to have a great time.

If you’re attending (or planning to attend), here’s what you can expect:

Barreled Beers

  • The Angel’s Share (bourbon)
  • Framboise de Amorosa
  • Red Poppy
  • Serpent’s Stout (bourbon)

On Tap / Bottles

  • Avant Garde, Carnevale, Devotion, Gift of the Magi, Inferno, Judgment Day, Lost & Found, Ten Commandments
  • Dawn Patrol, Mongo Double IPA, Panzer Pils, Old Viscosity, Santa’s Little Helper, Shark Attack, Wipeout IPA

Anniversary Verticals

  • 2nd Anniversary, 3rd Anniversary and 4th Anniversary

Barrel & Bottle Tasting

  • Angel’s Share barrel & bottle tastings
    (ever wanted to try beer straight from the barrel and compare it with the bottle version? This is your chance.)

Plus:

  • Fresh and fantastic pizza courtesy of Chef Vince’s Magic Pizza trailer (literally a restaurant on wheels)
  • Live music in the Barrel Room courtesy of The Professors
  • Guided tours of The Lost Abbey Barrelhouse led by Tomme Arthur
  • Cool commemorative Lost Abbey 4th Anniversary Beer Wear

As mentioned above, we are strictly limiting attendance to 300 people per session and both sessions are nearly sold out, so if you want to attend, get your tickets now! Tickets are just $15 and include food, a commemorative glass and 8 tasting tickets (additional tickets are available for $1 each). Designated driver tickets are also available for $5 (includes food, sodas and water).

Tickets are available on the Lost Abbey website.

» Click here to buy your tickets now

Faces of Port/Lost Abbey

Matt Wells, Brand Manager

Matt Wells, Brand Manager

If you’ve attended any of our beer pairings, dinners or appearances lately you’ve probably noticed a guy in a Lost Abbey hat hanging out with Tomme. No it’s not some weird beer stalker; rather it’s our new Brand Manager, Matt Wells.

Matt joined us full time here at our San Marcos World Headquarters at the beginning of the year to head up our expanding national distribution operations and the various new demands that go with it (like attending beer events and promoting our brands across the country).

Born and raised near Phoenix, AZ, Matt’s not entirely new to Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey. Back in 2008 he was actually our second “Larry” (the name we give to all our brewing interns) and, until moving out here a few months ago after graduating from Arizona State University, represented our beers throughout Arizona.

These days when he’s not in the office making sure that our kegs and bottles reach a thirsty public, you’ll find him out and about at events across the country helping spread the good word of Lost Abbey and making sure that our beloved Director of Brewery Operation gets to his next event in one piece.

On the rare occasions Matt’s not out pimping the brand, you’ll find him trundling around town and turning heads in the 1,600 cubic centimeters of caged fury we all know as his classic 1977 Honda CVCC. (Sorry ladies, he’s single but in a committed relationship.)

So the next time you happen to be at one of our many Port Brewing/Lost Abbey events nationwide and you see a guy lurking behind Tomme, if he’s wearing a red or black Lost Abbey cap, please don’t call the police.

Matt Wells and his rockin' 1977 Honda CVCC

Rather step up and say “hi Matt, I read about you in the Lost Abbey newsletter. Love the car.” He’ll like that. And who knows, maybe he’ll give you some cool Lost Abbey schwag. (Probably not, but it certainly can’t hurt.)

Matt can be reached via email at matt@lostabbey.com.

Tomme Tweets!

Great news! Our Director of Brewery Operations passed his Internet exam (Q1: Who invented the Interwebs? A: Al Gore; Q2:What are the Interwebs made of? A: Tubes), so he now has his own Twitter account!

While you should all keep following us @lostabbey, you can now also follow Tomme at @TheTomme and get all the latest musings from Him (aka: one of the most marginally competent brewers of all time)!

New Releases

Here’s what’s new and upcoming from Port Brewing / The LostAbbey

  • Framboise de Amorosa
    Raspberry Framboise
    Released: Apr. 17, 2010 (brewery only)
  • Anniversary
    Strong Pale Ale
    Releases: May 15, 2010
  • SPA (Summer Pale Ale)
    Hoppy Pale Ale
    Releases: June 5, 2010 (Draft only)
  • Witch’s Wit
    Belgian Wit
    Releases: June 12, 2010
  • Older Viscosity
    Barrel Aged American Dark Strong Ale
    Releases: June 19, 2010 (est.)

» More upcoming releases

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Libri Divini – February 2010

In This Issue

Around the Brewhouse

Greetings from Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey. Our beloved Director of Brewery Operations is taking this issue off from his column as he’s on the East Coast this week doing several special appearances (or, as we call it: “Being Tomme Arthur”).

Not to worry, however, as we’ve still got a lot of news for you. Read on.

Expansion Updates

First off, our tasting room expansion is nearly complete. As you’ve probably read in previous newsletters, via the website, Facebook, etc., back in late November we began a major expansion of our tasting room and warehouse / barrel room / cold storage.

We’re please to report that the expansion — save a few minor details — is complete. With the construction of the new warehouse and barrel room across the lot from the brewhouse and tasting room, we’ve not only been able to bump our barrel library to 800-plus barrels, but also nearly double the size of our tasting bar to 42 feet, add 14 more taps for fresh beers, and create a vintage bottle list for visitors who would like to sample some our rarer delights. Combine that with our swanky lighting, new bottle cabinetry and hip bistro-style barrel tables, and you’ve got a tasting room experience quite unlike anything else.

You can learn more about our tasting room on our website here: http://www.lostabbey.com/tasting-room/

A New (Old) Face

Terri Osterfeld, Tasting Room & Special Events Manager
Along with our with our new tasting room, we’re also pleased to announce our new tasting room and special events manager, Terri Osterfeld.

Those of you familiar with Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey know that Terri (aka: “Beer Molly”) has been a staple behind the bar on weekends since late 2006.

But with our fancy new digs and the ever-expanding crowds, we started needing her here a lot more than just weekends. So as of January 1 Terri became a full-time employee in charge of the tasting room, merchandise, special events, and online sales. Now she’s here Wednesdays through Sundays, serving beers, filling orders, coordinating tours and basically keeping the public side of our operation running smoothly.

If you ever have a chance to drop by the brewery or purchase anything from our online store, Terri’s the girl who handles it for you, so make sure to say hi. She can be reached at terri@lostabbey.com or through our website at: http://www.portbrewing.com/visit-us/contact-the-tasting-room/

Extended Tasting Room Hours

Oh, and speaking of Terri, now that she’s on board fulltime, we have newly extended tasting room days and hours. They are as follows:

  • Wednesday: 1pm to 5pm – Growler Fills & Bottles Sales only
  • Thursday: 12pm to 5pm – Growler Fills & Bottles Sales only
  • Friday: 2pm to 8pm – Full Tasting Room (Tasters, Pints, Growlers & Bottles)
  • Saturday: 12pm to 5pm – Full Tasting Room (Tasters, Pints, Growlers & Bottles)
  • Sunday: 12pm to 4pm – Full Tasting Room (Tasters, Pints, Growlers & Bottles)
  • Monday: Closed
  • Tuesday: Closed

You can all the info on our tasting room (beers on tap, vintage bottles, special events, etc.) by visitng our website at: http://www.lostabbey.com/tasting-room/

Barrels for Sale

Lost Abbey Barrels

As you’re probably aware, we have quite an extensive collection of barrels in which we age beers. What you might not know, however, is that many of those barrels — especially our spirit barrels (bourbon, brandy, sherry) — we only use once.

Oh, they still impart lots of flavor and character, but the style of beer combined with the volume we’re producing really dictates that we used fresh distilled spirit barrels.

As a result, we have a regular supply of whole (empty) barrels that we’re willing to part with for very little. Not only do these barrels have great flavor, but there color and character are something to behold too. So if you’re a homebrewer, a gardener (yes, they make great planters), a craftsman, or any one of hundreds of other people who has use for gently-used spirit barrels, these are just $25 each (whole 33gal barrel) when you pick up it up.

If you’re interested, visit our website here: http://www.portbrewing.com/buy-our-beers/buy-a-barrel/

Upcoming Events

Carnevale di Lost Abbey

Carnevale di LostAbbey Masquerade Party
Saturday, February 27th is our 3rd Carnevale di Lost Abbey Masquerade party. An annual bash held in honor of the release of our 2009 GABF Gold Medal-winning Carnevale Ale, we’ll be serving up food by our house chef Vince, live music by the Professors, and a huge tap and bottle list of great Port Brewing and Lost Abbey beers.

The masquerade is from 7pm to 11pm and food and music are free for everyone who shows up in costume and mask. It’s $10 for those without a costume (we will, however, provide you with a mask). Beers are all regular price.

More information, visit the Lost Abbey website at: http://www.lostabbey.com/3rd-annual-carnevale-di-lost-abbey-masquerade-party/

New Website

Hey, did you notice that our Port Brewing website has an all new look? Check it out at: http://www.portbrewing.com

New Releases

» More upcoming releases

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Libri Divini – December, 2009

Divine Words | Volume 1, Issue 4

Special New Year’s Weekend Tasting Room Hours

Greetings Faithful ones. Just a brief newsletter to let you know our special extended tasting room hours for the New Year’s holiday weekend.

Dec 31 (Thu) – 12pm to 4pm
We’ll be open for growler fills, bottle sales and tastings in advance of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Make sure to drop in and pick up a bottle of Inferno so you’ve got something good to pop at midnight and drink to the new year (and new decade).

Jan 1 (Fri) – 2pm to 8pm (extended hours)
New Year’s Day we’ll be opening a couple of hours early so you can enjoy a few tasters and/or pints while watching the big bowl games. The Rose Bowl (and BCS Championship game) kicks off with Oregon and Ohio State at 2pm; the Cotton Bowl features Cincinnati and Florida at 5:30pm.

Jan 2 (Sat)– 12pm to 5pm
Saturday we’re back to normal hours. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny, so it’ll be a beautiful day to drop in and hoist a pint to those who are fortunate enough to get snow and freezing weather rather than being forced to endure our San Diego winters.

Jan 3 (Sun) – 12pm to 4pm
Sunday we’ll be watching the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Miami Dolphins first. Both teams still have a (long) shot at a wild card playoff slot, so it should be a good game. Later we’ll be tuning in to watch our Chargers take on the Washington Redskins. The Chargers have already nabbed their playoff spot and get to take wild card week off, so it’s the last time we’ll see them for a couple weeks.

Hope you can drop by. Happy holidays from all of us at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey, and best wishes for the coming new year!

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Libri Divini – November, 2009

Divine Words | Volume 1, Issue 3

In this issue of Libri Divini

Musings From The Director’s Chair

Our Director
Our Director
I have an easy job. There I said it, easy. I show up for work at a brewery each day and make decisions about beer. It seems like an easy task and most days, this place runs itself. Sometimes, I am asked to make bigger picture assertions and this past week, we undertook a major redesign of our existing tasting bar.

You see, during the week and especially on the weekends we’ve started to see a major increase in the number of visitors to our warehouse.

Over the past 6 months, our original tasting bar just became so inadequate. The cold box also began bursting at the seams as we kept stuffing more kegs in it. So, we made an executive decision to tear it all down and start over.

Demolition began on Monday and by Friday evening, we were back up and running. We’ve added more taps, more bar top space and committed more open space for enjoying your favorite Lost Abbey beer. As an added bonus, we’ve now got shelving in our cold box and we’ll be launching a Vintage Beer List on December 12th. This list will include bottles we’ve been sold out of and potentially experimental beers we’ve never made available. Look for details on www.lostabbey.com.

Our beers are always in a state of evolution so it’s not surprising that our tasting bar has evolved as well. Mind you, we’ve kept the comfortable bar stools. And the attentive, colorful language swearing wait staff is still here. Those aren’t things you redesign. There’s 17 beers on tap right now with room for more! Come on down and see us. You’ll like what we’ve been up to.

I promise.

The Faces of The Lost Abbey

Ryan Fields, Lead Brewer
Ryan Fields, Lead Brewer

Ryan Fields, Lead Brewer
This month we’d like to introduce you to our lead brewer Ryan Fields. At the tender age of 24, he’s the youngest brewer on staff, but as a near two-year veteran of the team, he’s also the oldest employee (we don’t count Tomme).

Ryan started with Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey back in January of 2008 as a general brewhouse grunt, washing kegs, cleaning tanks, running the bottler, and all the dirty work no one else wanted to do. Before long he proved himself to be a hard worker and quick learner, and he was promoted to brew staff, initally as a brewer’s assistant, then and assistant brewer, and finally to his current lead brewer position.

These days you’ll find Ryan running the night brew shift, where when, he’s not moving beer from one place to another, he hides among the fermenters and pretends to be “the brewery troll” (don’t ask).

The night shift may not last long for Ryan, however. He made his first appearance as a Lost Abbey brewer at a special event at the Great American Beer Festival this year. Turns out his boyish good looks and humble personality made him a big hit, especially among the ladies in attendance. He ended up signing a lot of bottles and more than a few girl’s body parts.

Many people ask how Ryan got his first job at the brewery and we like to tell the story of his job interview.

One night he walked into the tasting bar and asked Molly the bartender “hey, are you hiring?”

Molly nodded to the man sitting next Ryan who happened to be none other than Tomme himself. Tomme turned to Ryan and said “what are your qualifications?”

“Well, I used to be an Eagle Scout,” Ryan answered.

He started work a few days later.

Brewery News: Tasting Room Updates

If you missed Tomme’s blog post on the website the other day, then you haven’t heard that we’ve recently done a major renovation on the brewery tasting room.

Our 25 foot long tasting bar, 16 taps and giant cold box have been replaced by a 42 foot bar(that’s 13 meters to those of you outside of the states), 29 taps and new restaurant style walk-in with double glass doors for bottles.

Not only is new new space larger and swankier, but it also affords us the ability to keep more bottles chilled for purchase and/or over-the counter consumption.

click for larger image
click for larger image

Right now we’re still putting the finishing touches on the space — adding the new merchandise displays and bottle cabinets, plumbing the glass washers and re-mounting the big screen TV — but we’re still open for business, and patrons are here enjoying it on a regular basis.

We plan on finishing everything up within the next couple of weeks in time for the big grand opening on December 12th when we’ll be revealing our new vintage bottle selection. (Bottle of `06 Angel’s Share anyone? How about a nice cold bottle of Yellow Bus?)

Make sure to check the website for updates and a final list of the vintage bottles that’ll be avaialble that day. If you get a chance, make sure to drop by and check the place out. (You’ll find our tasting room hours and updates on the website right here.)

2010 Patron Saints and Patron Sinners Club Registration

Yes, this is the long-awaited announcement! Registration for the 2010 Lost Abbey Saints, and Lost Abbey Sinners will open on Tuesday, December 1 at 6am Pacific Time.

As with last year’s clubs, the Patron Saints will be limited to 200 members, each of whom will receive 14 beers, including the much coveted Saint’s “black label” release. The Patron Sinners limited to 350 members, each of whom will receive a dozen of our barrel-aged rarities including the annual Sinner’s Blend. Annual membership dues will also remain the same at $160 for Saints and $235 for Sinners.

In addition to the beers, members of each club will also be entitled to VIP status for all limited availability beer releases, receive a six-piece set imported Lost Abbey glassware, and get 10% off all non-specialty beers and merchandise purchases. Members of both clubs will also be invited to the annual Sinners and Saints Dinner and Tasting held every October at the brewery.

For more information on Patron Sinners and Patron Saints clubs memberships, please visit our website at: http://www.lostabbey.com/patron-saints-sinners/.

NOTE: Both of these clubs sell out very quickly. If you’re interested in becoming either a Patron Saint or Patron Sinner, make sure to register as early as possible!

New Online Shop

We’re pleased to announce the opening of our new online shop!

Now you’ll be able to purchase Port Brewing and Lost Abbey merchandise — T-shirts, workshirts, glassware, tap handles and more — all from the convenience of your computer. Additionally, if you’re a resident of the state of California, you’ll also be able to make bottled beer purchases online and have them delivered right to your door.

You can check out the new online shop by visiting: http://www.lostabbey.com/store

Beer Releases For November/December 2009

Here’s the current new releases for the holiday season. Both of these beers have been bottled and kegged and shipped into distribution, so if you’re in a region in which our beers are available (click here for a map), you should see these start to hit your favorite tap rooms and store shelves any time now.

  • Santa’s Little Helper, Russian Imperial Stout
  • Gift of the Magi, Holiday Golden Ale
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Libri Divini – October 2009

Divine Words | Volume 1, Issue 2

In This Issue

Musings From The Director’s Chair

Our Director
Our Director
It’s October which besides marking the month of my birth means we’re in the homestretch for this calendar year and we are officially in the busiest beer making season for us at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey.

You see, each October we release our two best selling Port Brewing Beers (High Tide Fresh Hop IPA and our Santa’s Little Helper Imperial Stout). Without fail, these are two of the most anticipated releases we make each year.

We made more than 300 bbls of High Tide this year and it’s nearly all gone! We’ve also just brewed another 100bbls to go along with the first 125 bbls of Santa’s Little Helper and it appears that more will be needed as well. These are good problems to have they tell me.

On a personal note, I am happy to be back at the brewery. Late September and Early October had me traveling to Denver, London and Boston. It left Sydney shaking her head wondering “are you my daddy?” Not good I tell you.

We’re also gearing up here around the brewery for the very first SD Beer Week in November. We have so many events planned and in the next issue we’ll detail where we’ll be. If you want a sneak peak, please check our calendar of events on the website. I’m most excited about our first ever Lost Abbey Art Show. Very cool evening for sure.

That’s it. I’m off to pick up Syd Vicious at school. It’s the fastest and easiest way to prove I’m her daddy.

New Faces at The Lost Abbey

David Johnson, Distribution Mgr.
David Johnson, Distribution Mgr.
In last month’s Libri Divini we mentioned that we have a new keg contract that’s allowing us to ship to more draft accounts. This, combined with our record bottle sales and our fancy new warehouse / barrelroom, quickly made it obvious that we were going to need someone to handle our shipping and distribution full time.

So this month, we’d like to introduce you to the newest member of the Port Brewing / Lost Abbey team, David Johnson.

For those who have been to the brewery, David’s not an entirely new face. He and his wife Ruby are the folks behind Effective Computing and have managed our Sinner’s and Saint’s club since its inception.

David’s also our IT guy and makes our computers network so that we can do all that Internet stuff we do. (Whatever that is.)

Since David was already doing all the bottle shipments, knew how to use spreadsheets and could drive a forklift, he was exactly what we needed in a Distribution Manager.

So next time you drop by the brewery and you see a guy who looks like a giant version of Tomme Arthur, say “hi” to David and thank him for making sure all that delicious Port / Lost Abbey beer gets to your favorite watering hole safe and sound.

Brewery Updates: New Tasting Room Hours

We’re pleased to announce that our tasting room is now open on Sunday as well as Friday and Saturday. Starting immediately our new tasting room hours are as follows:

  • Fridays: 4pm to 8pm
  • Saturdays: 12pm to 5pm
  • Sundays: 12pm to 4pm

So if you can’t make it on a Friday or Saturday, feel free to drop by on Sunday and have a flight of tasters or a pint or two. We’ll be happy to see you.

Boos and Brews Night

Terri the Witch at Boos and Brews
Terri the Witch at Boos and Brews

Next Friday, October 30th is Boos and Brews night at The Lost Abbey!

If you’re not familiar with this little celebration, it’s your chance to hang out at the brewery, quaff a couple of pints and carve a Jack o’ Lantern.

It’s a family-friendly night of fun — we provide the pumpkins, you provide the creativity. A lot of folks also like to add a little festivity by dressing up as well (you can count on Terri behind the bar being decked out in full costume).

So if you’re not doing anything on All Hallow’s Eve eve, drop on by and celebrate with Boos and Brews. (Show up early to get the best pick of pumpkins!)

Beer Releases For Fall 2009

Here’s what is scheduled for release over the next few weeks (please note that all dates are estimates). If you’re in an area in which we distribute (click here for a map), you should see these start to hit your favorite tap rooms and store shelves in 7 to 14 days after release.

  • Oct. 19 — Santa’s Little Helper, Russian Imperial Stout
  • Nov. 9 — Gift of the Magi, Holiday Golden Ale

Upcoming Events

Beer & Food Pairings
We have several upcoming events that will feature appearances by Tomme and food and beer pairings at some extraoridinary restaurants here in San Diego. If you’ve never attended one of these events, you’re missing something very special. Here are a few of the upcoming dinners (click the links for more details on venues and reservations).

San Diego Beer Week
November 6 through 15, 2009 is San Diego Beer Week, a celebration of craft beer in San Diego. Along with all the other craft brewers in San Diego, we’ll be participating in a number of events, beginning with our (now sold out) Barrel Tasting Night and carrying on all week long with appearances and events all throughout the county.

If you’ve ever wanted a great excuse to come to San Diego (or you’re lucky enough to live here), this is it! Here’s where we’ll be all week long:

Click here for our full calendar of events.

A full list of San Diego Beer Week events and activities can be found if you click here.

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Libri Divini – September, 2009

Divine Words | Volume 1, Issue 1

In This Issue


Musings From The Director’s Chair

Greetings from Your Director of Brewery Operations.

I’m sure many of you wonder what I actually do around here. Me too. It’s kind of strange being a Director. I mean I don’t yell “Cut.” I don’t “frame scenes” in the air with my hands and I most certainly don’t hide behind the lens in a Directors Chair. Nope, what I do matters around here. I show up each and every day (except Sundays, that’s family day) and I support the brand.

What this means exactly know one knows.

Like today, I am being asked to support the Lost Abbey brand of information communication by writing this piece. Tomorrow, I will show my support as Mike and Ryan stuff body bag after body bag of Fresh Hops in the dry hopping tank. On Thursday, I’ll make some beer (it still won’t be enough brewing for me) and on Friday, I’ll settle into the bar and rehash the week with each of you.

Being a Director is still very weird to me. It’s like having Business Attention Deficit Disorder. I always have things to do but seemingly never get any of them done. But at the end of each and every day, there is always beer. So I guess, I should get used to life as a Director as long as there’s all this beer around, it can’t be that bad.

Can it?

New Faces at The Lost Abbey

One of the reasons we can now restrict Tomme’s activities to his actual job of “directing” operations (as well as company figurehead and sex symbol) here at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey, is we’ve got a couple of new folks handling our brewing operation. They actually joined us back at the beginning of the year, but we’ve all been so busy that we haven’t had time to introduce them properly. So we’re making ammends now. Allow us to introduce our new faces:

Mike Rodriguez, Head Brewer

Mike hails from Kansas City, MO where, prior to joining us, he was a brewer and cellarman for the famed Boulevard Brewing for the past six years. Before that he was head brewer at The Power Plant restaurant and brewery in Parkville, MO.

Mike’s wealth of skills and experience from his time at Boulevard is the driving factor behind our ability to scale production upward to meet the growing demand for our beers nationwide.

When he’s not running the brewhouse, Mike loves to play rugby and, in true Kansas City native style, BBQ just about anything that fits on a grill.

He also has an encyclopedic knowledge of the lines from just about every romantic comedy and action-adventure movie made in America since 1975. If you ever have a chance to drop by the brewery or see him at an appearance, buy him a beer and ask him to act out all the characters in Die Hard.

Gordon Gerski, Brewer & Bottling Line Wrangler

Like Mike, Gordon, or “Gordie” as everyone calls him, comes to us from Boulevard Brewing and The Power Plant before that.

One of Gordie’s jobs while at Boulevard was to run and maintain their bottling line, a skill that’s come in handy here at the Abbey since our shiny new bottling line is of the same make (albiet much smaller than Boulevard’s). As anyone who’s ever run a bottling line can tell you, keeping one of those Rube Goldbergian contraptions running smoothly is no simple feat, so his knowledge of which dials to turn and knobs to fiddle with (or which panel to kick) are invaluable to us.

Outside of the brewery Gordie’s an avid cyclist who enjoys climbing and decending our local mountains on a bike with ridiculously thin tires. He’s also got a very large husky named Molly who can bark her ABCs.

Brewery Updates

Beyond just new faces, we’ve also been growing our brewery like gangbusters. Earlier this year we acquired two new fermenters, Heaven and Hell, named for what had to be moved to get them into the brewhouse (See the photo album here). The aforementioned bottling line is now up and running (most of the time) which has increased our bottling capacity from a couple hundred cases a week to well over 1,000.

We also acquired several hundred more oak barrels, pushing our total to over 500, and signed a keg contract that’ll allow us to significantly increase our draft accounts across the country (read: more fresh beer for you).

As you might guess, all of the new stuff has significantly increased our storage requirements, so we also added 10,000 square feet of warehouse space to handle our rapidly growing distribution.

And in the coming months you’ll be seeing even more changes. This fall we’ll also be adding cold storage to our warehouse allowing us to move shipment-ready kegs out of the brewery, tear down the exiting coldbox, and build a brand new tasting bar complete with a fancy refrigeration unit to keep some of the rare stuff chilled and ready for tasting. So when you visit the brewery, you’ll not only be able to sample our regular fare, but you’ll also be able to experience some of our epic beers from the reserve (2006 Cuvee de Tomme anyone?).

Finally, just this past week, we added a new feature to our tasting hours — food in the form of Marty and his amazing hot dog cart. Marty’s the real deal, and his authentic New York hot dogs, brats, cheesesteak sandwiches and other streetside eats are simply amazing (inexpensive too). So the next time you’re down to the brewery for a tasting, or a new beer release, make sure to grab a dog or two — you’ll be glad you did!

Third Annual Barrel Tasting Night


Here’s an event you won’t want to miss — Each year a limited number of guests are invited to join the Port Brewing family as we delve into the barrel archives to sample a few of the specialties waiting within. Barrel Tasting Night is limited to 125 lucky people who will be the first to taste craft releases aged as long as two years by brewmaster Tomme Arthur and crew.
This year is our third annual Barrel Tasting Night which will be held on Saturday, November 7 to coincide with the kickoff of San Diego Beer Week.

The event is from 7pm to 10pm and includes a number of incredibly rare beers coupled with hors d’ oeuvres and fine foods prepared by The Lost Abbey chef in residence, Vince Marsaglia.

Tickets to the event are $80 each, $150 for a couple, and are guaranteed to sell out quickly. If you’re going to be in town that week, this is definitely a “can’t miss” event.

You’ll find all the information on our website here. Tickets are available online here.

Beer Releases For Fall 2009

Here’s what on tap for release over the next few months (please note that all dates are estimates). If you’re in an area in which we distribute (click here for a map), you should see these start to hit your favorite tap rooms and store shelves in 7 to 14 days after release.

  • Sept. 1 — Panzer Pils, Imperial Pilsner
  • Sept. 18 — High Tide, Fresh Hopped IPA
  • Oct. 19 — Santa’s Little Helper, Russian Imperial Stout
  • Nov. 2 — Gift of the Magi, Holiday Golden Ale

Upcoming Events

Here’s a list of upcoming events for the next few weeks. You can always find a full list of events, appearances and releases on our website.

Click here for our full calendar of events.