Pondering

Hey folks -

Seriously considering shutting down this blog in favor our our Facebook Pages which can be found at:

CLICK HERE

Please send comments and other such - that will weigh heavily on our decision!

Have a great day!

What a week so far..

No wait - its ONLY Tuesday!

Greetings everyone from your favorite, busier than hell brewery! There is a ton of stuff going on here at the building on the hill. Starting last night and will proceed into this evening - Todd and Nate are brewing up 120 bbls of fine drinkables both for our own use and for our contract customers. This will be followed up by a serious day of bottling our famous Sand Creek Hard Lemonade and our year around fav - Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.

Ooh baby - that gets us through Wednesday. Thursday - more filtering followed by yet another day of brewing of Lemonade and One Planet Ale! Sheesh you guys are THIRSTY!

And thank you very much!

Coming up this weekend there are two stellar events taking place:

First of all we have the 2nd Annual Tegarosa / Sand Creek Barn party being held out at the ranch! The event runs from 2p - 9p with vittles being ready around 5p, Bring a dish to pass. There is a musical change in this years entertainment - right now its going to be me(jim), Tom K and Billy Z singing Kareoke unless we find a suitable replacement! (for the love of all that is holy - we shall find some...) No matter what we hear for tunes - I do know that the food and beer will be great with good friends!

Additionally - there is the Great Northern Brewfest which will be hosted by our returning Woody Burns and his darling bride Donna. The event runs from 2p - 6pm. This event is this Saturday, June 12th at the Hi-Pines Campground in Eagle River. More information can be found at:

Great Northern Brewfest

Well thats all for now! Make sure you check out our links and definitely check out Ernie's House of Whoop Ass! (EHOWA). Great Site - features adult commentary, pictures and stuff. Not for the kiddos ok?

Thanks Ernie!

Memorial Day weekend!

YAY! big ol holiday weekend is upon us! Great times for friends, family, food and of course beverages to wash it all down with! The Brewery will be open at 3pm with tours at 3:30 today! We will be closed this Saturday in observance of the Memorial Day weekend. Stop in for a pint and come on in for your beverage needs. I am so happy its Friday!

Quite the week we have had too. Todd and Nate brewed 140 bbls of beer, filtered down the same and a bit more. I have been hearing talk as well about our next Special reserve too. I am thinking its going to be big and hoppy. Perfect for MID-summer. Many festivals coming up. Next weekend we will be pouring beer in New Richmond and Milwaukee. This weekend Mark is pouring up at the Kholer event!

Be safe everyone - spend some time with your friends and family and dont forget to raise a pint in honor to those who have sacrificed all.

Why?

Why must the beer wholesalers association mess with the small brewer? Once again they are looking to restrict or eliminate the brewer's right to:

1. The unrestricted right to hold a wholesale license for the distribution of malt beverages.
2. The right to sell beer,
3. The right to approve or change wholesalers,
4. The right to hold 2 class b licenses with restaurants.
5. The right to have a distributor to hold a financial interest in a brewery(private or public).

As a small brewer we enjoy a cooperative and warm relationship with all of our Wholesaling partners. Without them - we would not be able to get our product to you! What we are seriously frustrated about is the radical modifications to the three tier system being made by a handful of distributors who have not included us in meaningful discussions with the small brewers of Wisconsin.Why are we be excluded? Any change of this MAGNITUDE will certainly affect our ability to succeed in Wisconsin.

For the record - The interaction between the Wisconsin Beer Distributors Association and The Wisconsin Brewers Guild has been done these following times:

• Summer of 2009 - Multiple meetings were held with affiliated industry members discussing the formation of a Brewer’s coalition WBDA was invited and did not attend a single meeting.
• Fall of 2009 - Multiple overtures were made to WBDA and members requesting a joint Board meeting.
• January 2010 - An informal meeting between one Guild member and one WBDA member nothing was in writing. The Craft Brewer’s were assured joint discussions would occur and there was no urgency. The Craft brewer’s reiterated their interest in a joint meeting.
• February 2010 - The WBDA proposal was forwarded to the Craft Brewer’s Guild.
• March 2010 - Craft Brewer’s responded to WBDA their opposition to the proposal and requested a joint meeting.
• March 29 - First joint legislative negotiating meeting between WBDA and Guild.
• April 5 - Second joint legislative meeting.
• April 12 - Third joint legislative meeting.
• April 14- Guild was notified that the WBDA could not come to agreement and would not negotiate further on the proposal in drafting.
• April 19 - Craft Brewer’s waiting to see draft of proposal.

We (the Wisconsin Brewers Guild- Small Brewers) are being portrayed as uncooperative and that this legislation is good for small brewers. Portrayed by the WBDA.

Dear WBDA - Please stop trying to help us. We don't need this kind of help.

To all of our fans out there! PLEASE CONTACT your State Representatives. Please use points above when doing so. THANKS!

Black River Falls - Great Tastes Festival!

Hey all - There is a great event coming up in May! The Black River Falls Great Tastes Festival will be held at the Lunda Memorial Area - on May 1st from 4pm - 8pm. Tickets are available at the brewery, Buzz N Brew Shop or the Co-op Credit Union for $20 in advance - $25 at the door. This event will have all the major food groups covered. Beer, Meat, Cheese and wine. See you there!

Brewery News - March edition!

Hey all

Sorry to neglect the blog - I personally blame Facebook which has had a ton of posts on it concerning new releases and such. On that note - if you are already on FB you can find our official Sand Creek Brewery News group page - lots of pictures and commentary as well.

Well this has been one crazy 1st quarter of the new year! So far we are having our BEST quarter ever! We have produced over 1200 bbls of beer so far. I have a hunch we may hit 1400 in the next couple of weeks! This makes us happy!

Coming up TOMORROW (3/19/2010) is our 3rd annual Screw Winter Party. As you can guess there is snow in the forecast for Friday! So to help cushion the blow so to speak we shall be releasing our latest Special Reserve (drum roll please....thank you) Ulrich's Authentic Dopplebock! Its big, its crazy - for gods sake dont drink a ton of it and expect to be coherent! Giddy yes - but NO driving. It will be available in draft this Friday and in bottles in the coming weeks.

Other Huge news! Our Sand Creek Mug Club officially kicks off tomorrow. First come first served - we have 45 mugs available for purchase. This is a fine 22 oz ceramic mug with our nifty building on the front of it. Mugs will cost $25 bucks with a fill. Thereafter, the refills will be only $3. Mugs can be left here waiting patiently for your return trip. You also have the option of taking it home but you will be responsible for the safety and structural integrity of your drinking vessel. This program runs for one year - so the next series will be available at NEXT years Screw Winter Party! Mug club members will also have other exclusive benefits which may range from private tastings, information of upcoming events, or whatever else we can think of! (Sand Creek reserves the right to change, alter and otherwise manipulate this Mug Club program - offers not valid outside of the continental USA and Jackson County) Hows that for the fine print!

That is all for now! See you all here tomorrow!

I just noticed that the blog is not reporting the correct day (well at least on MY pc) This was posted on Thursday the 18th of March!

ok - had a brain schism

My good friends Tom and Bill pointed out that I forgot to post the date of our Screw Winter party! Hard to believe. Its coming up on March 19th! Doors will open at 3pm and music shall commence at 7 or 8.

Music will be provided by Garrett Gilbertson and his band.

The date is set!

Yes indeed it is time for our Third (fourth?) Screw Winter Party! Surely it will snow like 2340957234508 feet of snow that day! Snow or not we will be opening our doors for our ususal fun at 3pm with tours at 3:30pm. We will foodies and goodies available starting at 5pm with entertainment running from 7-10pm This years... line up looks like it will be some bluegrass music going on. More details to follow! We will have a special release of some bourbon barrel goodness. (MAYBE even the Oleator which has been lurking in the cellar...) Bring friends - bring family - Come and spend the night with us as we wish for Spring to come quicker!

Getting closer to spring!

Greetings folks!

Well we have a big week coming up here. Did a bit of bottling yesterday followed by more filtering and brewing! Right now it looks like it will be three days of brewing beer coming up. I know for a fact that our fine English Style Special Ale is on the schedule for sure!

This weekend we have several events. Friends will be pouring beer at Manitowoc, Milwaukee (Food and Froth) and at the Milwaukee Ale House for the Midwinter Brewfest. There is PLENTY of opportunity for fun!

Friday - we will be having our usual antics - Doors open at 3:00 - 3:30 tours will commence.

Have a good week everyone!

Oooh That was a fast month! - February is here!

Hey all! I just realized we only had ONE measly post for January. Personally I blame the snow and ice for slowing down progress. Cant say that about the beer production though - first month of the year and we are rocking hard and fast. Lots of good things happened this past month. We got in out TWO new fermenters and we should have beer in them within the next couple of weeks!

It was a crazy month for events too! We hosted several private parties for friends and such, Two weeks ago we had the local Volleyball Tournament celebration and this past weekend we were honored by being able to host a 50th wedding anniversary party! Super - mucho - excellente time was had by one and all. This was complete with an Celtic band from LaCrosse - The Amadans! The main course of BOTH events was catered in by our friends and partners in crime - Kevin and Lizzie from the Tegarosa Cattle Company. Truthfully - I am STILL full. The ribs, brisket and pork loin were the bomb. Even the humble chicken thighs were stellar beyond belief. Thanks to Joyce and Ray (and the rest of the clan) for adopting us into your family! Lori - we are still picking up all those golden bells!

We even had Cora's brother, Brutus, come visit us! Twas a doggie weekend at the brewery!

This week is much like the last week - Filtering beer, brewing beer, and bottling beer! Good thing we slow down during the winter. Theoretically the new tanks should be plumbed by the end of the week. This weekend we will be pouring beer up in Chippewa Falls. We will be open on Friday at 3pm for our usual fun and games. Have a fun and safe week.

Yep its January!

Hope all is well with you my friends! We are on the upswing to spring. Our two new tanks are now sitting nicely in our fermentation room. We had a lot of great help getting them in. Special thanks to Bobby K, Gaier Construction, Dan, Nate, Chris and Steve the driver! I think we are all hoping to have beer in them in the next couple of weeks.

More things on the move - Todd and Roberto have been starting to tinker with our case packer. What this gizmo* does is load the cases for us so we dont burn out our shoulders out trying to load boxes. With a bit of luck we should have this up and running in the next couple of weeks too.

Coming up this week we have our usual Friday fun. Brewfests are being held at Saukville and at Neenah. Mark will be working the Saukville event and Dangerous Dan and Donna will be hanging out in Neenah.

* = official beer terminology

New Year - More beer to move

Greetings all - we are into the New Year! Things don't slow down much here - Todd has been brewing beer like mad all week . Looks like it will be 160 barrels by the end of biz tomorrow.

This weekend we will be represented by H&H at the Minocqua Brewfest which will be held from 1-4pm at The Waters of Minocqua. Stop in have a bit of beer and enjoy your Saturday.

We will be having our usual Friday night fun - Doors open at 3:00pm with tours at 3:30. Stop in for a pint to unwind from the week!

Next week Friday we will be hosting the Black River Area Chamber of Commerce's Business after 5 from 5pm - 7pm. Tours will still be held at 3:30 pm.