Turkey Day is upon us!

Just wanted to wish you and all of our collective family members a Happy Thanksgiving!

See you all next week!

Thankgiving Week!

Well a short week is in store for the brewery! Todd is a brewing machine and is brewing up about 100 barrels of beer over the next two days. Then its back to the deer stand through the weekend.

Friday night was a hoot with all the hunters here! As predicted by 8:30pm everyone was pretty much gone and heading out to deer camp. Thanks to everyone who brought in food for the Christkindl Fest. All event information can be found at this link

Christkindl Fest 2009

Garret Gilberston and his band will start playing in the big tent at 6pm

Opening weekend was a bust for the intrepid hunters from your favorite brewery. I personally saw:

1 buck and two doe - as I was driving to my stand.

7 Turkeys - well it isn't turkey season ya know

1 cat - see above.

Oh well - no worries though the company and the Packers WIN - more than made up for the lack of hunting action.


I hope all of you have a great holiday weekend! Eat lots, Laugh lots and GO PACK!

Just a reminder - the brewery will be closed Thursday and Friday and will reopen on Monday the 30th.

How it started - this week - 6 years ago

lets see - It was a cold November Morning on that fateful day 6 years ago in the small hamlet of Downing when I found out that the Pioneer Brewing was for sale. Todd called to let us know that Jim and Dave were selling and were looking for a buyer. We would meet on Thursday.

That Thursday - Todd, myself, Cory, Jim and Dave met and discussed the "plan" - essentially at that point, over few pints of beer it was decided to sell the brewery to us - merging Sand Creek and Pioneer together. Pending spousal approval of course! Cory and I talked about it all the way back to Downing - it all looked good. Scary? indeed - gonna do it? hell yes!

Made an interesting topic around the dinner table that evening. My son is nearly two! Cory and I were getting no-where on building near Downing, Need to either go for it or walk away. Yes I know I was just offered a permanent position teaching computer stuff. I can only imagine what the conversations were around Todd's dinner table!

"if you don't do it - you will be miserable and regret not taking the chance" Trish said.

Gotta love that woman! (I suspect that was the answer from all of our spouses)

4 months later...after bankers, after lawyers, after accountants, after long distance calls, after it all. We closed the deal on March 12 and away we went.

5 YEARS later we have grown from 125 barrels of beer a year to nearly 6,000 (Dont worry Nate - I am buying) I know its going to keep growing too!

Thanks to you all for helping Sand Creek grow for the 5 years on the farm. Thanks to ALL of you for helping us grow the last 5 Years in Black River Falls! It is an honor and a privilege to letting us hang out with you all for 10 years. Sharing in your success, family events, gatherings, festivals, weddings, discussions, football games, community events, times with friends in good times and bad - over a pint (or two) of our beer. That is so huge!

Wow - 10 years.

I'm really glad Trish, Nancy, and Deb and our families said yes - thanks. Without your love and support we wouldn't have made it this far. Thanks for the sacrifices and for having the patience of the Saints.

Thanks to all our friends for your well wishes and support. Thanks Kevin for making our tap room a special place for us all! Thanks to all of our volunteers for making beer festivals and our events a smashing success!

Last but certainly not least , Thanks to all our employees - we never say thank you enough for all of your hard work that you put into this crazy brewery. We really DO appreciate everything you have done.

Thanks Todd for picking up that phone 6 years ago.

Happy 10th Anniversary everyone!

(oh by the way - I am going to keep changing the colors of the blog until someone notices!)

PS - ONE More thing - THIS FRIDAY - Bring non perishable food item for our Christkindl food drive and get your first pint on us!

Trying a few new looks...

Hey All

Trying a few new looks for our blog - post a comment or two or email me with any thoughts, suggestions and that kind of stuff.

GO PACK - shoulda skunked em though!

Must have been the weather...

Oh hell cant even use that to describe what happened to our Packers this last weekend! It was in freakin. FLORIDA! Ok not to beat a dead horse called the OFFENSIVE LINE - but lets get it fixed k?

Ok now for some idle brewery thoughts - first off we here at the brewery have been getting our facebook page and all that jazz set up. Facebook made it easy to get our event pictures posted and the first album up is from our Halloween Party. SO if you are into it all - find our Sand Creek Brewery News - Facebook page and become a fan. Post thoughts, incriminating pictures and join in the discussions. I guess my question to you all is ... should this blog be maintained in conjunction with Facebook?

Today, Todd and Nate are brewing up a bit of contract brew and a batch of Oscar. Tomorrow we are bottling like crazy and then its an easy slide down to the weekend! Looks like Brother Bill will be pouring beer at the Green Bay Fest being held this Friday. Check our web page for further details.

Well thats it for now! Have a good Tuesday.

Oh what a night!

Well we all made it through our first Halloween Party! I do want to take a moment and thank..
Char, Ena, Tom, Nate, Rhonda, Mike, Nancy, Todd, Tom, Bill, Joe, Lyall, Dale and Chris for helping out and getting this event off the ground. Special thanks to the Black River Historical Society, The Boys and Girls Club and Randy at Rosarios for helping with all of the eerie props.

Displays were all around the building which told of the tragic demise of the Oderbolz family. We had Charley in the Mash tun, Frank in a boat, and George and Edward prominently displayed. In our tap room we had reproductions of pictures from the Wisconsin Death Trip! Indeed - an eeeeeerie site all around.

The event kicked off right on time at 7pm and the Alex Wilson Band took the stage at 8pm. Let me tell you folks - it is without any exaggeration but I am sure we had the best damn band in town! Prizes were given out for 1st - 3rd with honorable mentions. I will try to post the pictures as soon as we get them in my hands!

Again a HUGE THANK YOU to all of you for showing up in costume and having a killer time! (Pretty sure we will be having it again)

Let see what else - Oh yeah this is for the Packer Organization - I love you guys but for petes sake get #12 some freakin protection!! SHEESH! Nate said he would sign on as a free agent to teach your boys some of his moves.

Events this week are: St Francis Brewfest which will be held in Milwaukee - This event will be staffed by Nate and Ena. The other event is the Janesville Fall Brewfest - which will be staffed by Todd and Nancy - no wait, Tom, Jim and Dale - NO NO - changing again - Actually Mark will be down there pouring beer from 6-10pm on Saturday! :)

With that I shall get on with my day - Todd is brewing up a TON O' Beer today and tomorrow we are going to bottle our little noogies off. Something like 1300 cases or so.

Be well and dont forget that the doors open this Friday at 3pm for our usual fun and games with tours at 3:30pm.

Chat with you all later!