Growth in down times

There's a lot of talk, as we prepare for the new year, about how rough things are in the economy.

Rough? We didn't know any better. The country has been in recession for a year, and Uncommon Brewers only started sales in June, so it's been all uphill as far as we've been concerned.

On that note, keep an eye on this space (blog?), for news about a retail deal. One of our beers, the Siamese Twin Ale, may be a lot easier to find starting in 2009.

And as the new year starts, we've sent one of our brewers, Matt, to Sacramento. We're barely out of the starting gate and our team is already being poached. He is, of course, brewing on a beautiful system several decades more advanced than ours, and we hope that he remembers what it was like to live in fear of our chiller.

The outlook for the coming year is good. We're going to be brewing like mad, and bringing some really fun beers to market. Bacon, anyone?

-Uncommon Brewers

Uncategorizedalec
Too busy to blog?

Every week or two we get someone who says, "What's up with your website? It hasn't been updated in months!"

Guilty as charged.

We've been busy, winning awards and undergoing a minor expansion.

What awards? Well back in October we took first place in the National Organic Brewing Challenge, sponsored by Seven Bridges Cooperative with our Siamese Twin Ale.

Not about to rest on our laurels, or druthers, or much of anything else, we're just about to push a new beer out the door. The Baltic Porter is styled after a traditional British export porter, but brewed in the uncommon manner with an addition of star anise and black licorice. It will be available on draft just as soon as our keg rings arrive.

We've expanded our fermentation capacity with four brand new 15bbl conicals from Stromberg Tanks.

And we also now know how to rebuild a plate chiller. After two weeks of work the new chiller was up and running flawlessly in time for last week's batch of the Golden State Ale.

Distribution remains pretty damn limited, although we're working on that. We have a sales representative joining the team and expect to be expanding beyond our footholds in Santa Cruz and San Francisco as the new year dawns.

As always, if you want to see Uncommon Brewers in your neighborhood, or in your business, drop us a tip through this website.

Cheers,Uncommon Brewers

Uncategorizedalec
Long hours, good beer

Another 11-hour day wore us down, but the beer flows on.

We packaged up another two batches into cans and kegs beginning in the early hours of Thursday morning. The two batches were blended, as typical for the Siamese Twin Ale and true to the Belgian styles. This was our most aggressive blend to date, featuring one batch that was left to age and develop since October of 2007, and one produced earlier this month.

Below: Reed checks lid seams while Matt and Joel inspect.

Seams

beerlogalec