Displaying CBW Live! posts.

"The End of Biters - International" - Prefuse 73 (listen )

It’s getting hot in here

Well, technically it’s getting wet in here (come on, mother nature: some of us want to bike to work), but I hope you’ll grant me some artistic license.

You remember Rutherford B. Haze, don’t you? Our summer beer, a “wheaty Belgian pale” (it’s a new style because we say it is), has been around for two weeks now and people quite seem to like it.

So we decided to put that to the test.

Enter: the Global Warming Open, a bracket-style competition from the Brewing News pitting summer beers head to head until only one remains. If it sounds similar to the NIPAC, well, that’s probably because it is.

Round one we’re up against an old nemesis*: it’s Rutherford B. Haze vs Fat Heads’ Fuzzy Wuzzy, a wheat beer with apricot and peach. Who will prevail? We’ll find out this weekend!

* Fat Heads replies, saying, “Dude. You’re not my nemesis.”

The brief return of an old friend

With Rutherford’s ascension came the demise of our winter seasonal, the dark saison The Soft Bulletin.

Or so you thought.

Well, it’s still mostly dead, but “there’s a big difference between” and all that. There is one keg of it left, and it’s being tapped at retail tonight. 3-7 Thursday, 3-8 Friday, 8-1 Saturday at the Bidwell farmer’s market if it lasts that long. There are about nine growlers’ worth in that sixtel, so if you’ve been feeling a soft hole in your heart you should probably skedaddle on down.

Meet the press beer guys

This Saturday I’ll be at the Sheridan Dr Consumer’s location for a tasting between 1 and 4. If by chance you’re reading this and a) haven’t tried our beer but b) don’t want to have to pay for it, come see me. Or maybe you have tried it and want more. Or you want to see if I’ve managed to trim my crazy-man-or-lumberjack-I-can’t-tell beard by then (sources point to no). Your motives are irrelevant! Just come say hi.

And then, finally, if you’re feeling a bit peckish, or imagine you might be in two weeks: don’t forget our Crazy Jake’s beer pairing dinner on 6/27. $40 gets you four courses, five beers and a souvenir glass to boot!

"I just wanted to make you something beautiful" - Industries of the Blind (listen )

How’s Rutherford treating you?

Response to our summer seasonal, Rutherford B. Haze, has been very positive thus far! This was perhaps aided by it being an excellent warm weather beer: last week was downright toasty, unlike the dreary downpour I’m staring at right now.

If you’ve skipped a few updates: ol’ Rutherford is a wheaty Belgian-style pale ale clocking in at 5.4% abv and 100% dbv (deliciousness by volume).

That was bad, even for me. Sorry.

Yes, I’m reusing the picture from last week. Sue me.

We’ll have some at all three retail excursions this week, so come on down!

The Bidwell report

This week at the farmer’s market we’ll have:

• Frank
• The Whale
• Rutherford B. Haze; and
• Possibly The IPA

The IPA is in high demand, so depending on how thirsty everyone is today and tomorrow it may or may not make an appearance.

One night only

We’re always open at the brewery Thursdays 3-7 and Fridays 3-8. One catch: July 4th is a Thursday. You don’t want to come buy beer that day any more than we want to leave our families to sell it, so there will not be any retail on 7/4.

However: we bet you do want to buy beer for the fourth, and so we will be open for retail Wednesday 7/3 from 3-7 instead.

Let’s go crazy

Do not forget: Thursday, June 27 (which is nowhere near as far in the future as it ought to be) we’re having a four course beer pairing dinner at Crazy Jakes! If you’re interested (and you should be), pick up your tickets at the restaurant or from us. They’re $40 each and cash only: pretend you’re going to Lloyd’s and stop at the ATM on your way.

Tasteful Consumers

Our summer of Consumers tastings continues! Next Saturday, 6/15, we’ll be at the Sheridan Dr Consumers from 1-4. A fortnight later, 6/29, swing by the Niagara Falls Blvd location. Both days we’ll have samples and our smiling faces, so we hope to see you there!

"Monkey Gone to Heaven" - The Pixies (listen )

Rutherford B. Haze would like to say hello

It’s here, it’s here!

Our summer seasonal, Rutherford B. Haze, has entered the building. And the jockey box. And the beer lines. Some of it has gone into growlers, and I lost track of it after that.

You could be holding one of these sample glasses, just like me!

It’s a 5.4% abv wheaty Belgian style pale ale, packed with wheat, Trappist yeast and Slovenian hops. It’ll be a wonderful beer to sip on the patio, porch or lawn this summer, and you can get some right now. I’m writing this while staffing retail today!

Can’t come in to see us this weekend? It will also be on tap soon at Elm Street Bakery, Cole’s, the Blue Monk and Premier Gourmet. After that… the world. Or at least more bars.

Bidwell: Not the usual suspects

Remember, remember, the fifth of- er, drat, it’ll be the first.

Anyway, we’re slinging beer down at the Bidwell Farmer’s Market this and every Saturday in lieu of the brewery, with a slightly rotating selection as we can only bring four beers to connect to our jockey box. This week:

• Frank
• The Whale
• The IPA
• Rutherford B. Haze

De Maas fanatics, sorry! (* I hear they call themselves De Masses**) (** I have never heard anyone say that)

Cheesy Love

Tomorrow! We’ll be selling beer at the BuffaloveFest at the Buffalo Zoo. Plenty of local vendors and music, including yours truly.

Tuesday! Nickel City Cheese is having a cheese and beer pairing class. It costs $15 and lasts from 6:30 until 8. Tickets are limited, so if you’re interested you should call Nickel City Cheese at 882-3068.

June! Thursday, June 27 there will be a beer pairing dinner at Crazy Jakes featuring four courses and all five of our beers. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased at Crazy Jakes or the brewery. That’s right: come get your tickets while you pick up some Rutherford!

You like us, you really like us!

Today we won “best use of social media by a business” in TrendingBuffalo’s 2013 Trendees! We’re glad you all like reading bad puns and looking at pictures of Rutherford B. Hayes’ beard as much as we like posting them. Sincerely, thank you to everyone who voted for us. (Hey, KegWorks: neener neener)

And finally…

I’ll leave you with this Youtube video of a rap about Rutherford B. Hayes that Ethan found… somehow. I bet Google knows some weird things about him.

Inauguration Day

Next week you’ll get to meet Rutherford B. Haze, the latest in our storied lineage of beers. The period after B. is important, by the way. It provides gravitas.

In case you missed its announcement: it’s a wheaty Belgian pale ale standing at 5.4% abv. I’m not usually a huge fan of wheat, but this one will pair perfectly with the weather we’ve been having here. It’s got the creamy characteristic that comes with wheat while providing depth from the yeast and hops.

He’s got a beard for brewing

Did you think it would be a one trick pony? Rutherford is distinguished.

The house lights go up

Rutherford is our summer seasonal. You do realize what this means, right? Our winter seasonal, The Soft Bulletin, is going to be sent to the farm for a while. It’s been very popular, even into the warm months, but it’s time to write KIT HAGS in its yearbook, and, um wait.

I’m mixing metaphors like a bull being lead to water.

Anyway. We’ll be filling growlers of it until Friday or until it runs out, so if you’d like some of our dark saison with orange peel you should come as soon as you can. We suspect it won’t last the weekend, and in fact only made it this far because we didn’t bring it to Bidwell last week.

Bidwell, Bidwell, Bidwell, yeah!

I’ll shut up about this in a week or two, I promise, but: in case you’ve been on vacation, bedridden or busy continuously watching Arrested Development repeats in preparation for Sunday, we’re not at the brewery for retail on Saturday anymore! We’ve gone back to our roots and are set up at the Bidwell farmer’s market. (heh, roots, farmer’s market…)

We’ll be there until the end of October, so update your records accordingly. We can only bring four beers a week, so one has to sit out. We apologize for the inconvenience. (This week, obviously, we’ll be short The Soft Bulletin)

Saturday’s a busy day

You can come find us at Bidwell, as always.

Or you could head to the Elmwood Consumer’s between 1 and 4, where Ethan will be serving up hot justice, or at the very least samples of our beer.

Then again there’s the Buffalo brewery tour, featuring stops at:

• Ulrich’s
• Phoenix brewery building
• Community Beer Works (that’s us!)
• Flying Bison
• Iriquois building
• Simon Pure building

The price is $40, which includes lunch, tastings and a bus. I do believe there are still tickets available, so if you’re interested you should call Peter at  (716) 440-7985.

If we don’t see you this weekend, you almost have to be trying to avoid us..

"Limelight" - Rush (listen )

You know, now that we’ve gotten a taste of the limelight we just can’t stop.

Bidwell!

Last Saturday was our return to Bidwell. I was excited for it but had admittedly low expectations: it was the first week of the season, when much of the produce isn’t available and people aren’t in the habit of coming down. A few people who stopped by said as much: “I didn’t know it had started, but was walking by.” Then it was the first day of poor weather all week: 70s all along until I have to stand outside for five hours. Thanks, nature.

I was pleasantly surprised, then, when we had such a great turnout! Our expectations were blown away and I spent all five hours having great interactions with the people who buy our beer. Being able to have a direct line from production to customer is why I look forward to the market every week.

Ethan’s sad because it’s early. He cheered up.

Well, that and Chow Chocolat’s “spicy Thai peanut butter” ice cream. You guys. You guys.

American Craft Beer Week!

Thank you to everyone who came out to the CBW/Flying Bison event at Sterling Place this week. I regret that I couldn’t have been there, because great beer at a bar I love sounds like the perfect evening.

Not done with ACBW yet? Neither are we! This Saturday from 1-4 at the Transit Consumer’s Ethan will be doing a tasting, so come on down and get some of The Whale and The IPA! For those of you who come to Bidwell in the morning, no we have not perfected our cloning technique yet (and on a completely unrelated note never open the door to Fermentation Room 2). I’ll be taking over for him at noon so he has time to drive over and pour some samples.

“But Dan,” you say. “I don’t live near Transit and/or I can’t make it out that day!” You’re in luck! This may take place during ACBW but it’s not tied to the week: we’ll be having others at varying locations throughout the summer. Next weekend (5/25) we’ll be at the Elmwood locations, for instance, and Sheridan on 6/15. There are more, so stay tuned to the blog and check out the sidebar for more details.

More events!

I know I said that we’d be at the Elmwood Consumer’s next Saturday, but you might be busy already. From last week:

How about a Buffalo brewery tour? It starts with lunch at Ulrich’s while you listen to a lecture by Jim Daley on Buffalo during Prohibition, followed by a walk to the Phoenix brewery. Then the group will board a bus and take a trip to CBW and Flying Bison for tours and tastings. Inspired by our present, the bus then visits our past in the form of a stop at the Iriquois brewery and a tour of Simon Pure. Tickets are $40, which includes lunch, and can be ordered from Peter at  (716) 440-7985.

Farther in the future, we’re having a beer pairing dinner at Crazy Jake’s on Thursday, June 27. $40 gets you a four course meal and all five of our beers, plus a souvenir pint glass. You can make reservations at (716) 693-9309 or get tickets from Crazy Jakes and the brewery.

Even farther out: remember when we made Preacher Man, a beer specifically for the Godspeed You! Black Emperor show? That was fun. We’re doing it again, this time for the Swans show at The Tralf on July 26. We’ll also be a ticket outlet for the show, though we don’t have them yet. We’ll keep you posted!

Exclamation points!

I bought an espresso machine a few weeks ago! It makes me very excitable!