The cotton anniversary
In exactly one month Community Beer Works will have been selling beer for two years.
Two years! Two years of Frank, two years of blogging about something that isn’t that damn cooler ((Although this July will mark four years of weekly CBW blogging from me. Hot damn.)), two years of our dream being realized, a tangible entity.
We’re not going to let this milestone go by uncelebrated. Oh no! We’re throwing a party at Cole’s and Mister Goodbar on April 5th: like last year there’s nothing official you need to do besides show up, have some beer and enjoy yourself.
But which beers will we have? Already announced:
- The Snow (2014), our imperial stout, first available there
- Mr. Superfantastisch, our berlinerweisse, back again for the special occasion
What else? Well, how about Mr. Blofeld, an ESB brewed in collaboration with the local homebrew clubs?
Ethan and Rudy enjoying the brief bout of good weather
It’s worth noting that we have so much beer that it’s possible that the two bars won’t be able to handle it all! As we get closer to the date I’ll have a list of which beer is going where, and if there are any left then we’ll be making them available at the brewery. Stay tuned.
Hydraulic Hearth
Surprise! It does pain me so to not be able to blog about something, but the News broke the story, so: behold!
This summer Hydraulic Hearth will open in Larkinville, and with it a satellite CBW brewery. Now then, what does that actually mean?
It will be a 7 bbl system (for comparison: our existing one is 1.5 bbl), serving Hydraulic Hearth exclusively. We are not moving to or expanding into the restaurant in lieu of our current brewery. It will be in addition to what we currently have.
We will be the ones brewing the beer. We’re not franchising out our name or anything like that. Some of the beer will be our existing recipes: Frank, The Whale, maybe The IPA if we can find a chest full of simcoe and galaxy hops at the end of a treasure map given to us by a grizzled prospector or salty ex-pirate. The “experimental” beers mentioned in the News article will be experimental in that we won’t have made them before, not because they’ll include cumin and shiitake mushrooms. Dogfish Head is great! We are not Dogfish Head.
It’s an exciting project and one that we’re thrilled to be a part of. I’ll be keeping you informed as updates come in, but the majority of the work will be on the restaurant side, which may open before the brewery depending on licensing and equipment factors. When there’s news it’ll be on this blog!
Books books books!
I’ve been reading a lot recently. A lot. Sort of to the detriment of going to the gym and having conversations with my wife. But books, and the reading thereof, are great! We’ve got two suggestions for you to feast your eyes upon:
Book the first: Ambitious Brew
It’s the book that all the cool kids are reading for our second book club!
You can pick it up however you’d like: in Erie county there are copies at the Central and Hamburg libraries, with Lewiston having the only copy in the NIOGA system ((Yo, Lewiston, you still use the Dewey decimal system?)). You can also order from Amazon, even though they’re basically Walmart, but might we suggest Talking Leaves? You have until the end of the month to send me an email indicating you want in on our group purchase. Then I pass on the number we need to Talking Leaves and you all get a discount! Last time they ordered a few extra copies in case there were latecomers but that likely won’t happen now, as the book has gone “print on demand,” so if you’re interested you should get on this now.
Book the second: New York Breweries
Look, a fancy stand and everything!
A few years ago my mom gave me a copy of New York Breweries for my birthday. It was great! However, since then much has happened. Craft beer in the state has exploded, and there are many new breweries that needed to be added: including us!
A second, revised and expanded, edition has just been published, and we’ve got copies you can buy at retail. We’re even included, on pages 10-11 ((Although, if I may offer one minor correction: they kind of forgot to list me among the owners. If you buy a copy I’ll write “AND DAN” next to Ethan, Rudy and Greg’s names for no extra cost!)). Pick up a copy and learn about all our state has to offer.
Hey, Dan: Wanted to say: Yes, the book in paper is now POD and I’ve got to tell you that POD books suck in a serious way: Crappy paper, the images are grainy, sometimes the print is off-center, etc.
There’s nothing anyone can or will do about it, because these days, that’s how publishing works. The publisher of the book (Harcourt) doesn’t make the PODs. Instead, the distributor (Ingram) prints the copies on demand. It’s a crappy system, but….
So if your readers are willing to go digital, the e-book is another possibility. But I wanted to give you a heads-up in advance about the quality of the PODs. I’ve bought a lot of them (mostly academic books for research) and I’ve seen copies of AB that are POD. And they’re sorry excuses for paper books.
Anyway. Thanks so much for choosing the book. Hope you and your group enjoy it.