Sand Creek Beer News

Pondering

2010-08-31T09:56:00.002-05:00

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..

2010-06-08T11:50:00.005-05:00

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!

2010-05-28T06:09:00.003-05:00

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?

2010-04-19T15:19:00.002-05:00

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:

The unrestricted right to hold a wholesale license for the distribution of malt beverages.
The right to sell beer,
The right to approve or change wholesalers,
The right to hold 2 class b licenses with restaurants.
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!

2010-04-14T08:41:00.002-05:00

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!

2010-03-09T08:45:00.005-06:00

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

2010-03-05T22:01:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-02-17T10:01:00.001-06:00

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!

2010-02-16T07:20:00.001-06:00

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!

2010-02-01T09:04:00.003-06:00

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!

2010-01-21T07:58:00.004-06:00

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

2010-01-07T07:25:00.002-06:00

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.

The last week of the year!

2009-12-28T08:14:00.004-06:00

Hard to believe! 2009 is almost ready for the history books! We had quite the year this year even with this goofy economy - still waiting on my presidential stimulus plan by the by... Anyway, we did indeed make it through another year! Many thanks to all of you for being fans of this lil' 0l brewery! We would not be here if it wasnt for you!

Coming up during this abbreviated week is a bit of bottling on Monday (Badger Porter and Black River Red). Filtering of beer on Tuesday - Just guessing but im a thinkin we are sending down Oscar and another. Lastly, Wednesday - Todd and Nate will be filling up a tank or two!

Thats it for the official beer business week! However, Thursday - we will be closed for business untill 7pm at which time we will open up for our New Years Eve Bash! WOO! Kevin is whippin up some smoked goodness and of course, Garret and his band will be entertaining all of us as we ring in the New Year!

Thats all for now!

Only 7 more days to Christmas!

2009-12-18T08:05:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well we made it through another week. Todd and Nate have been brewing lots o beer this week - I do believe three full batches! Empty tanks in a brewery is baaad karma! We were visited by our friend Tom yesterday who modified our bright tanks for us as well as prep our nifty case packer for installation! I am guessing that project will happen in January when we get a spare moment or two. Oh yeah, our two new tanks will be arriving in BRF sometime in January as well. Hope we have enough "Spare moments". Now we just need to decide if we want a few more...

Other things today - Dont forget to bring in a non-perishable food item for our local food shelves. If you do you too can be the proud owner of your first free pint in the tap room. From 7pm to 9pm - Randy and his cadre of local musicians will be in the brew house spreading some Christmas cheer!

Next week we will be closed from the 24th - 27th

Open the 28th - 30th

Open on the 31st at 6pm for our New Years Eve party!

Have a great weekend!

Friday!

2009-12-11T07:10:00.002-06:00

TGIF! It has been quite the week - 12 inches of snow, 12o barrels of beer brewed - bout the same bottled, first real cold snap (-12!) and its Friday! We have our usual fun going on this Friday - pints and good friends from 3:30 till 10p (ish) The Bar will tended to by our newest full time employee Chris! Thats right folks - Mr. Peterson has accepted a full time production assistants position here in the house. We are excited to bring him aboard so we can show him the ropes on fillin', filterin' , and in time brewin'!

Welcome aboard Chris! I hope you know what you got yourself into! :)

Ok - lets see what else do we have..a quick reminder about our New Years Eve Party. We have worked out a deal with the local Days Inn for discounted rooms and are making arrangements that you can make it safely to your room (or house in BRF) through the Jackson County Tavern League - Safe Driver Program! If you wish to take advantage of this cool thing - just let Jim or Todd (who will let Jim know...) and I will get you the details when they are fully developed. Garret Gilbertson will be providing the music for that evening!

December 18th - our friend Randy Bjerke and the local community band will be playing in the brewhouse from 7pm - 9pm to kick off our holiday weekend - well the weekend before the holiday weekend and week - oh you know what I mean! So plan on coming down next Friday too!

If you are looking for brew crew gear from Sand Creek for some Christmas ideas - we have a wide selections of T-shirts, sweathirts, hats, eyepatches, mugs, and of course beer to help in your shopping endeavors!

Dont forget to bring in your non-perishable food item! If you do, you will get your first pint on us!

So...If you think about it - You can come to the brewery - drop off a food item for the food shelf, get your Christmas shopping done, have a few pints and have some Holiday Cheer and call it good! Yes, we here at Sand Creek Brewing try to make life easier! :)

See you all later tonight!

More New Years Ever News!

2009-12-07T13:20:00.003-06:00

Great news on our New Years Party! In conjunction with the Days Inn of Black River Falls, we are happy to say that there is a block of rooms reserved at a discount rate! (You all still need to pay for the room but it will be easier on your pocket book!) Please email me if you wish to participate in this deal!

Second cool thing! If you over imbibe on New Years Eve - The brewery will make sure you get back to your home safely. We will have a supply of Safe Ride Vouchers (from your own Jackson County Tavern League) to make sure you get home safely - There are some limitations like - were not driving you back to Milwaukee but back to the Days Inn or BRF it will be on us! Email Jim at sales@sandcreekbrewing.com for more details!

December!

2009-12-02T07:30:00.002-06:00

Sometimes you just have to wonder if the space-time continuum has been altered to make time fly by so darn fast! (Sorry admitted Trekker admission here!) It just seemed like yesterday that we were starting the new year!

Anywho - December is here and there is much going on. This Friday we have our usual fun and games with the doors opening up at 3pm with tours at 3:30pm. Pints and laughs for the entire evening! Come join us an bring in a non-perishable food item for our local food shelves. Yes, if you do we will by the first pint for you! (One per customer!)

Today - Todd is brewing up a batch of our Wild Ride IPA - In fact he just hopped it up and the aroma around the brewery is fantastic. Love that beer! Tomorrow Todd and Nate are brewing up our next Special Reserve.......drum roll please...(thank you) which shall be a kicked up Dopplebock! WOO! Now you may be asking your self "Self, is this going to be like the Oleator that was released in times gone past?" To which I would respond - nay! It shall be mucho bigger and unique! Do I dare say an Imperial?

Time shall tell.

Other news - Expansion at the brewery! We have procured some much needed tank space to handle our growth! By the end of 1st quarter 2010 we should have 2 to 5 additional fermentation vessels, a case packer and a nifty bottle coding gizmo in place and operational! Needless to say we are quite excited about all of that!

Mark your calendars! We shall be having our 2nd Annual New Years Eve party on the 31st of this month! Should be a hoot! Garret Gilbertson and his band will be in the house providing us with our music. More details to follow but plan accordingly!

Thats all for now !

Turkey Day is upon us!

2009-11-25T15:38:00.001-06:00

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

See you all next week!

Thankgiving Week!

2009-11-24T07:05:00.005-06:00

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

2009-11-16T22:35:00.011-06:00

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...

2009-11-16T06:20:00.001-06:00

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...

2009-11-10T07:20:00.006-06:00

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!

2009-11-03T07:35:00.003-06:00

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!

Halloween!

2009-10-28T07:20:00.002-06:00

Hey Gang!

Well sorry for the crazed delay in random thoughts from the brewery. First and formost, this Saturday we are having a Halloween/Costume party! The doors of the brewery will be open at 7pm and at 8pm the Alex Wilson Band will take the stage till 11pm.

Admission is FREE! We will just charge for pints!

We will also have a costume contest complete with prizes. First prize will be a dream date with Leif! (just kidding!) We will be giving away a few items from the gift shop for the most creative costume, most elaborate, funniest and scariest. If anyone has any suggestions for other categories - post a comment! (It would be really good to have a comment or three..srsly!)

Ok, over the last several weeks we here at the brewery have been crazy busy with of course - the beer business! One of the things that Todd posted on was about the excise tax increase threat. A couple of Tuesday's ago - I went to Madison and experienced the full effect of a public hearing on the subject. I saw folks that want it and of course those that don't. One of the more impassioned testifying came from my friend Paul Graham who is the owner and President of Central Waters Brewing Company in Amherst. It struck a cord with me and I know the panel as well as he described how a tax increase would be detrimental to his business. This excise tax is a 400% increase - thats right - 400%!!

This is a tax which is levied on a small business (ours!) irregardless of profitability - same with the Federal excise tax! The REALLY sad part of the hearings is that small brewers are getting lumped into the same category as all the big ones. Getting blamed for alcohol addiction in TEENS (When was the last time you saw a teenager grabbing a 6pack of wild ride?)

The proponents of the tax will state that the increase is ONLY .03 cents per bottle. What they failed to realize that is the three cents will increase to .09 cents per bottle by the time it hits the consumer! (Wisconsin is a three-tier system state meaning that we the breweries sell the beer to wholesalers who in turn sell it to the retail outlet. Each Tier will mark up the cost of the product accordingly to their profit margin) So that .03 cents per bottle will become $2.16 per case or .54 cents per 6pack. Lemme tell you folks there was a time (before recession) that most thought that the price of CRAFT beer was recession proof and could just keep going up - it just isnt that way. Everyone watches what they spend. If our six pack price would go up an additional .54 cents - we are looking at a decrease in volume, which in turn would mean the loss of jobs, which in turn, since we work on a thin profit margin, may even cost us our business. That is not so good. Find me this weekend on Friday or Saturday night and I will be happy to talk taxes (well for awhile anyway) with you. Oh yeah - impact to our little brewery? An additional $30,000 in taxes.

SO - please contact your state legislators! Tell them you dont support the increase in taxes.

PLEASE

Taxes and partys

2009-10-13T23:51:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone.
Here it is the middle of the night again and I am still here brewing,
we are pushing 120 bbls. in a row.
That would be about 30+ hours of brewing.
Nate's pulling part of the time but I still have to enjoy my mid-day naps so that I can come back in and work in the dark.

Well, Jim was down in Madison yesterday trying to keep the beer tax from rising.
Sounds like there is very little support from the powers that be but the
Madd Mothers and the "health care" providers were dragging in children and survivors to look for some sympathy.
I hate to say it but..most of the "health care" providers are suckling on the government teet so what they did yesterday was just a money grab,
OUR MONEY.
If they were to pass the tax the .03 per. bottle would be about $3.00 per. case and that would be if everyone involved just passed on the tax at their normal margins.
The problem arises when everyone rounds up the tax to cover other expenses.
It will show up down the line when you pick up your 6-pack.
If the prices increase people will buy "down" to a cheaper beer and that would leave us with a smaller production.
Smaller production would mean that we would not need as many workers, wow!! that .03 sounds pretty good to the guys working here. NOT

Now on to something very different:
http://www.alexwilsonband.com/
The band for our Halloween party is the Alex Wilson band out of Milwaukee.
Alex and his band were the 2007 WAMI (Wisconsin music industry awards) blues group of the year.
In 2008 they were nominated for 3 more awards where Alex won guitarist of the year.
This event is a way to say thanks to all of our help at Oktoberfest and to kick back and let loose!
We are planning a heck of a blowout so don't be late.
later,
Todd

Only 363 Days till Oktoberfest 2010

2009-10-05T07:17:00.002-05:00

Wow!

That is all I can say! Our 3rd Annual Oktoberfest Celebration was a great success! It was a bit cold and rainy but as my daughter said - "Its a beautiful day - its just sprinkling!" Gotta love the kids! Anyway, a good time was had by one and all. Great Music, Great food and Outstanding Music!! The Black River Falls High School Band started everything off by 11:00am. By Noon Wally Pikal and Harvey got the crowd going with some fine polka music and a few witty jokes.

Gary Brueggen and the Ridgeland Dutchmen played from 3pm - 6pm - He truly is Wisconsin's Concertina Kid! He had a ton of people tappin their toes and having fun!

At 6pm- Sand Creek's Celtic house band - Atlantic Wave took the stage and the raised the tent roof right off the posts! Barry, Ed, John and Katie were in top form. Folks were a dancing and I am sure there are a few incriminating pictures out there! If you are looking for a CD of Atlantic Wave's latest "The Angels Share" - swing on by the brewery and pick your copy up! We have a limited supply. ($15)

Well I am sure we will have a few more comments about the fest - but before I sign out and help the gang finish getting the brewery back in "brewery mode"- I need to put a big

THANK YOU!

to all the volunteers, workers, bands, vendors and especially to all of you who attended and had fun! Thank you all!

Oktoberfest is soon upon us!

2009-10-01T19:32:00.002-05:00

Greetings everyone!

Well - we are getting the old building whipped into place! We have re-organized, shuffled, moved, hid, cleverly decorated all kinds of things to make room for everything that will be going on irreguardless of the weather! Thats right - the show goes on!

Tomorrow night we are having a little event for a former employee who is on leave from serving our country in Iraq! Come on down and hang out and say "hey" to Ken!

Other than that we hope to see you all on Saturday (if not sooner!).

Just in case you are wondering ... Mark will be pouring our beer down at the quivey's grove beer event this weekend!

Ok - I have to share this

2009-09-30T21:16:00.005-05:00

Good Clean fun...

Its good to laugh.

Oktoberfest is only three days away - wear something warm!

Oktoberfest! - 5 days and counting!

2009-09-28T07:59:00.002-05:00

Greetings everyone!

Well our 3rd Annual Oktoberfest is fast approaching! Currently we have over 24 craft vendors signed up to exhibit their wares! That is a bunch more than last year and I know we will be getting more this week. The Car show is moving along as well and we will have several antique Harleys on display courtesy of Al Muth Harley Davidson from right here in Black River Falls!

Another new attraction this year will also be a rock climbing wall! This particular activity will be at the intersection of 3rd and Pierce. Of course we will have the usual fun of the Fevolden Farm Alpacas, 4 bands, food and drink. Todd and our fine Mayor will be doing the honors of kegging the golden keg at 1pm on Saturday.

Friday night we will be having the traditional cooking of the kraut as well as having a bit of a cook out!

This Wednesday - Todd and myself will be down at the Oktoberfest grounds in LaCrosse from 5pm - 8pm for the Craft Brewers Oktoberfest event! Come on down and see us . We will be pouring Black River Red, Wild Ride IPA and Cranberry Special Ale.

See you all out there!

URGENT UPDATE - Kay's Memorial

2009-09-25T13:08:00.004-05:00

The celebration of Kay Brauner's Life is scheduled for Sunday - October 25th NOT this coming Sunday - September 27th

"A celebration of Kay's life will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday OCTOBER 25th at Skyline Golf Course Clubhouse, Black River Falls. Memorials may be given to End of Life Choices, P.O. Box 101810, Denver, CO 80250-1810, The Nature Conservancy, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203, and/or the Black River Falls Public Library. Torgerson's Funeral Service, Black River Falls, is assisting the family."

The paper and the radio station made an error and are now sending out retractions.

Please pass it on.

Kay

2009-09-24T15:09:00.007-05:00

My first recollection of Kay Brauner goes back to about 5 years ago when she came to the brewery looking for some middlings. Middlings? What the heck was middlings!?

mid⋅dlings
–noun
middlings, any of various products or commodities of intermediate quality, grade, size, etc., as the coarser particles of ground wheat mingled with bran.

Ah spent grain. Got it. Learned something new that day! Bread you say? Sounds good to a bunch of guys who groove on good beer and food. Well a day or so later she showed back up with her Middlings/Beer Bread and it was a good. Here was something she took of average quality and turned it into something better.

We started to chat a bit more and she asked if we could use some help. It might have been the dark circles under Todd's or my eyes that inclined her to volunteer or maybe she really DID want to learn about making and packaging beer. At any rate, Kay showed up the next bottling day and learned how to load glass onto the line. As time progressed we learned a few things about Kay - she could work circles around just about anybody! We learned she also worked at the greenhouse. She also help Jeff and Sheri and later Jay down at Molly's with catering - oh yeah she also help trim apple trees at Cains Orchard and wait, she help others - LOTS of others! When she couldn't help out she found others - she also got her hubby Michael involved. Iron Mike we call him - want to find out why? Come work a few days with Mike when we are bottling, better eat your wheaties - he will leave you behind!

Over the last several years I got to know Kay - she would always listen patiently and give some pretty sound advice, sometimes without saying a word but by just nodding her head and smiling. Funny thing - she could always get me to where I had to go in my thought process. Always. She became a good friend to all of us. Always encouraging, Always helpful. Her and Mike helped us out a bunch with any activity, tasting or beerfest that they could get to.

When we first opened up our tap room we had a small bunch of folks show up. Kay and Mike would bring a few of their friends, and in turn those folks would bring a few more of theirs and so on. Pretty soon we had a pretty vibrant Friday night goin on! Life is good that way.

I would venture a bet that she had that effect on all she did. Kay touched the lives of all the people she would run into. I think she had a knack for taking middlings and making something better out of it.

I know she did with us "middlings" here at the brewery.

Kay, thanks for being part of our lives - I consider myself blessed for being able to know you for these short 5 years.

Yeah, I know - dont fuss over you.

"A celebration of Kay's life will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday October 25th at Skyline Golf Course Clubhouse, Black River Falls. Memorials may be given to End of Life Choices, P.O. Box 101810, Denver, CO 80250-1810, The Nature Conservancy, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203, and/or the Black River Falls Public Library. Torgerson's Funeral Service, Black River Falls, is assisting the family."

2009-09-22T09:39:00.002-05:00

It is with a heavy heart today that I pass on the news, our friend Kay Brauner has passed away suddenly.
We are awaiting the arraignments and will keep all posted.
Please keep Kay and her family in your prayers.

Ah yes Friday!

2009-09-18T08:02:00.003-05:00

Greetings folks!

Well we have made it through to another Friday and like most weeks around here it was a big one. Todd and Nate were brewing machines kicking out a total of 160 bbls of beer brewed and filtering down to package about the same! Whew! We sure have come along way in 5 years!

Next week we will be releasing our Fall seasonal the "Cranberry Special Ale" - be sure to look for it on the shelves in your local purveyor of fine Sand Creek products. We have been working hard at designing and redesigning several of our 6 packs. The good news is one is done but many left to go!

Last weekend was the 10th Annual Clearwater brewfest sponsored by us! It was a great event with nearly 700 participants and lots of great beer from area micro-breweries. Tom, Char, Pic, Tooti, myself and my good friend Kevin poured beer. As you might guess the Hard Lemonade was quite the hit but our bigger beers of Oscar, Wild Ride, English Style Special and the Scotch Ale were all well received! Special thanks to the organizers of the event and to Chris and the gang from Park Ridge distributing for making it a smashing success! Mark your calendar for the 11th annual Clearwater Brewfest - which will be on September 11th 2010.

This week we are pouring beer down at the Great Lakes Brewfest - friends of the program (read: Mark's Sister and friends) will be pouring our products for this great event.

Planning for our 3rd Annual Oktoberfest is coming along nicely. We have over 20 craft vendors signed up SO FAR! The car show should be a dandy with the added antique motorcycles being put on display. We will have a rock climbing wall set up too! Of course add music, food and beer and we should have a record event! Be sure to show up and witness Todd tell the tale of Oktoberfest and the golden keg at 1pm.

If there are any friends of the brewery that wish to volunteer to work the festival - Drop me an email at sales@sandcreekbrewing.com so I can get you on the list.

We of course will be open Friday night for our usual fun and games. Only a couple of Saturdays left for tours (the last day of tours on Saturday is on the 3rd of October during the fest)

Cheers!

2009-09-08T09:57:00.003-05:00

Oh yes -- Our 3rd Annual Oktoberfest is upon us!

(Click on the image to enlarge)

2009-09-03T08:18:00.005-05:00

Here are some fresh pictures from the fest circuit.

Labor Day !!

2009-09-03T07:31:00.002-05:00

Hey Everyone! Big Mike too!!
Yes we are still alive and doing very well.
First things first...We will BE CLOSED SATURDAY,SEPTEMBER 5 for the Labor day weekend.
We will be open on Friday night in case you might need some extra fluids to aid in re-hydration.

We are making the Cranberry Special ale today so we can be ready for the fall rush.
Yeaterday was a brew day for Aran of Furthermore Brewing, we brewed up his first batches of Fallen Apple ale. That beer is about half fresh pressed apple cider!

The rest of the gang is downstairs bottling this morning, or at least trying to.
The filler has been playing games with us recently, sounds like it's time to tear it apart and pull out the gremlins.
Oh, you didn't know? That's how we power the bottling line,
we cant use old Norwegians any more due to government intervention. It's all about CHANGE.

Oktoberfest is just around the corner so make sure your calender is ready.
We just recieved the 2009 Oktoberfest mugs this week too, they are a two tone brown with a special 2009 logo.
Make sure you pick one up for your collection. The mugs are 22 oz. and intitle you to 6 oz. more beer per. fill during the fest.
All this for $25, no better deal anywhere.

See you all soon!!

Brewing Frenzy

2009-07-20T23:22:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone!!
Well, it's 11:00 at night and I am starting by second half of todays work.
The mash tun is making it's sweet elixir as I wait.
We are making 40 barrels each of Woodys, 1 Planet Ale and Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout.
Back when Sand Creek "was on the farm" that much beer would be about half a years production!
I am starting a 30+hr run of brewing, don't worry, I've got Nate for 10 hrs. Tuesday so I can go home and catch a nap.
If all things work out I will be done by the time the sun comes up on Wednesday, Jim said I could have that day off!!
Actually we have all taken Wednesday off, I have too many lagers in the system now and they have slowed us down a bit.
People always ask me why I work around the clock, I tell them "once the kettles are hot and dirty we might as well keep them running."
It is easier to clean once than spend 2 hrs. a day cleaning.
We have to be efficient to get more beer thru the system, we walked into the cooler last week and Jim wanted to use it as a refrigerated handball court!

Thanks to all of you for stopping by on Saturday for our Karner Blue tours and also for blowing Miller Lite out of the water for sales downtown.
Lite sold 3 half barrels but so did 1 Planet ale and Groovy Brew!
We appreaciate all of your support !!!

Friday at 3 p.m. we will be giving tours again this week along with Saturday, 12 to 4p.m.

Jim will be busy in Clayton for the sportsman's club beer fest. www.claytonwilions.org/

Dan and Donna will be in Marshfield for the Hub City days beer fest.
1 to 5p.m. and $25 at the gate.
www.mainstreetmarshfield.com

We will also be supporting the Kickapoo county fair.
http://www.organicvalley.coop/kickapoo
Mark is putting on a chocolate and beer tasting in the Kickapoo Kitchen from 4 til 6:30 with a cost of $10.
What could be wrong with that? Chocolate....Beer.....Yum!

Well, back to work. See you all soon.
Todd

Another fine weekend!

2009-07-15T10:06:00.002-05:00

3,744 individual rib portions
400 participants
70 different and unique beers
15 breweries
6 Different rib cookers!
1 - FIRST PRIZE AWARD TO THE TEGAROSA CATTLE COMPANY for Peoples Choice award!

A HUGE Congratulations to Kevin and Pic for scoring the Peoples Choice award at the Chetek Rib and Brew fest held last weekend! It was a perfect day for ribs and beer (well what days are not?), perfect temperature, great sunshine, great friends, cool breeze - all in all an "Optimal Beer Drinking type day!

An extra special thanks to the organizers of the Chetek Fest for putting on such a wonderful event.

To all of you followers of good beer and ribs - I cant recommend this event enough! Don't miss it next year!

Ok - on to what is happening THIS weekend. This weekend is the Karner Blue Butterfly festival. This event is being held right here in Black River Falls. There are craft booths, a parade, live music, chicken dinner and of course brewery tours and good beer! The events start on Saturday Morning and run all day.

Brewery tours will start at 10am and run till 4pm (ish)

See you then

Holiday Weekend Update - VERSION 2

2009-07-01T16:59:00.002-05:00

Greetings!

Just a quick post to let everyone know that we will be open for our usual madness on Friday night (Doors open at 3pm - tours at 3:30pm)

We will be CLOSED on Saturday the 4th in observance of the 4th of July!

We will also be CLOSED on Monday the 6th.

Ok - I know we havnt posted much this month....

2009-06-24T08:47:00.003-05:00

Greeting fellow beer fans!

Yes we know we have not posted much over the last month. Truthfully, your favorite little brewery is in full motion at this time! This week alone Todd and Nate will have brewed 140 bbls of our fine products. Just this week. They have been kinda doing that each and every week. Whew!

This weeks brew have been the Wild Ride IPA, Lemonade and several of our contract brews. The Hard Lemonade is moving out of the brewery faster than expected which is a good thing! Sales on all of our products in fact are up from last year. So special Kudos go out to our fantastic fans of the brewery and our great distribution network!

Coming up in the Month of July we have our newest package coming out! Thats right folks our new Heritage 12 pack will be released by the end of July! Each 12 pack will have 3 or 4 varieties of our products! It will always be changing so keep an eye on the sticker on the top of the package!

In July we also will be in the midst of major brewfesting! July 4th weekend we will have our beer out at the Fest in the Park in Black River Falls. Band, Food and Fireworks. The Vic Ferrari Band starts playing at 8:30pm with fireworks at 10pm. The event is being held at the Lunda Community Park and admission is $12 for adults, Kids 5 - 12 $6.

The Chetek Rib and Beer fest will be held in Chetek Wisconsin on July 11th at Phillips Park! Our own Pitmaster Kevin with the assistance of Pic and Cora will be one of the teams in the rib competition! We can hardly wait!

The Oshkosh Brews and Blues fest is being held on the 11th too! Good tunes and brews from your favorite brewery.

July 18th is the Karner Blue Butterfly festival with brewery tours from 10am - 4pm. There are activities all day and into the evening throughout Black River Falls. Event information can be found by clicking here!

July 25th is the Brewfest up in Clayton Wisconsin - Richardson Park from Noon - 6pm. Plenty of bbq's pork, beer and horseshoes and this year come on and see Ann's Cannon!

As always there is more information on our website!

Thats it for now!

A Monday Post - Welcome aboard Ryan!

2009-06-01T12:16:00.002-05:00

Greetings Everyone.

I do hope everyone had a good weekend - the weather (well here in Wisconsin) was about as perfect as you could have it.

This week we have a lot going on - Todd is brewing up a batch of Lager beer for one of our clients today and Dan is working with the newest member of our crew Ryan. Ryan is our official first brewery intern and will be attending the Siebel Institute in Chicago this fall. Later on this week we will be bottling up a couple of Furthermore products, some Wild Ride and kegging up more rootbeer and Black River Red.

This weekend, Nate, Pic, Cora and myself will be pouring beer in New Richmond on Saturday the 6th from 4pm - 7pm. It is their second annual Blues and Brews type fest. Come on and visit us.

Have a good week everyone

What a weekend!

2009-05-19T07:07:00.005-05:00

Well we all survived this weekends festivities! Saturday we attended the 2nd annual Great Tastes of Black River Falls fest. This year it was held outdoors complete with a 40 mph wind! Good food, good drink and great friends all around.

Sunday your favorite brew crew poured beer at the Wisconsin Microbrewer's fest in Chilton - holy smokes! 10 1/2 bbls of product were poured! Twas another successful event and it is always good to see the folks on the east coast of Wisconsin!

Monday - (which came waaay to fast after a two fest weekend - JUst to letcha know....) bottling started in the dark and early hours so we could get out our famous Sand Creek Hard Lemonade! That's right - The Lemon is on its way out to the markets as you read this! We shipped to East coast of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Madison, LaCrosse and all points between.

The rest of this week will consist of filtering, brewing, bottling and then collapsing for the holiday weekend!

We will be open this Friday for our usual fun (Im thinking Carl's Fish fry!)

We will be CLOSED this Saturday and Memorial Day.

A HUGE THANK YOU to Milwaukee Mike for fixing up our company ride on Saturday! May your goblet o Groovy Brew never be empty!

Last but not least - make sure you read a few of these reviews..Hail to the power of the wolf!

Beeeeer Fests

2009-05-15T07:57:00.004-05:00

Lets see - its Friday - Its the 3rd weekend in May.

That means its a big Beer Fest Weekend!

Couple of great events coming up this weekend for you!

First - Tomorrow, May 16th is the Black River Falls Great Tastes Festival! The event runs from 4pm - 8pm at the Lunda Park. Advance Tickets are $25 and $30 at the door. Many of your favorite brewers will be in attendance and the funds from the event will help the local athletic booster club! Come on down and see the gang - we are bringing our beer wagon and will be pouring - One Planet, IPA, Oscar,Lemonade, Special Reserve , Frostop and maybe something else. Beware the Fat Belgian - muhuhahahahaha!

Sunday! Todd, Nate, Dangerous Dan and myself will be pouring beer at the 17th(?) Annual Wisconsin Microbrew Fest in Chilton. Great event lots of fun and beer. Yes its right after the BRF event but we are here for you and will tough out the grueling schedule! :)

We will be CLOSED the next two Saturdays due to the beer fests and the holiday weekend.

We WILL be OPEN this Friday for our usual fun and games.

'nuff said!

TGIF

2009-05-08T07:09:00.005-05:00

Tis Friday - the glorious of days in which we all can recover from a week. I do have a few idle thoughts though so a little stumpifying first before we outline the activities of the upcoming week!

Last night my family and I decided that we wanted to go to the local pizza joint for a bit of pie. What we found is a business that is by all looks and appearances closed and heading out of business. We went in the back door and there was none of the familiar things on the wall, empty beer cooler (YIKES!), and pizza supplies bagged up. All the telltale signs that it was closed and for good. Its sad and I am hoping he is just packing up stuff for a remodel or something.

The decision was made to move on and my son and I ran up to the local store to buy a couple of frozen pies from another local vendor - Jan's Pizza in Alma center. Killer product by the way, highly recommended if your in the mood for a premium frozen pizza. (even better when you get there on pizza night and its fresh! - Jan's Place in Alma Center - Tell 'em Jim and Todd sent you from the brewery!)

On the way home to cook our dinner my 8yr old son complained that his favorite pizza joint was closed - we both agreed that indeed "it was a bummer" I asked him why do you think that happened? He replied, "too much stuff comes from China"

What? Wow! When I was 8 years old I was watching reruns of Star Trek and the Rat Patrol!

Anyway - this became a very pleasant and important discussion on the impact of buying local and how it is important to all of us. With detail placed on the money which stays local provides jobs, food, clothing, mortgages etc for people he knows. I am quite proud of my boy!

Growing up in Berlin Wisconsin I always wondered why my father would buy local rather than head over to the malls in Oshkosh - he didn't mind paying a bit more. And at the time the downtown commerce of Berlin was generally speaking quite sound. We had the five and dime stores, gun shops, flower shops, drug stores, clothing , movie theater, shoe stores and FOUR Grocery stores. When we had our sidewalk crazy days the downtown was PACKED with people! Now when I drive through Berlin - desolate no commerce. Ouch. We have ALL seen this happen in small town USA.

With the alleged demise of another local business, we have seen now 4 places in the Jackson County area close up - all of them food and drink related. Mollys, Nico's, Pizza Joint (to remain nameless till confirmed), Rustic Mill and who knows who else. Where am i going with this? You can guess, our economy is a mess, we cannot depend on the government for a small business bailout but we can help each other out! BUY LOCAL. Think long and hard about that next trip out of town to buy from a big chain. I do understand that one sometimes has to out of town just keep in mind that the perceived money you may save probably just got burned up in fuel! The money that you spend will stay local, create jobs, pay taxes, and buy pizza!

Ok - whats going on this weekend? Usual fun at the brewery tonight and tomorrow! Next weekend is our local brewfest from 4pm - 8pm at the Lunda Community Park. Tickets are available at the Buzz N Brew Shop, here at the brewery and at the CCU Co-op. $25!

Thanks for listening and have a great weekend!

Saturday!

2009-05-02T13:05:00.002-05:00

Well greetings fellow beer folk!

Its May 2nd and since it is the first Saturday in May it means WE ARE OPEN!! Yes, tour time at your favorite brewery! Our summer hours are from Noon til 4pm. Last tour at 3:30pm. I would also like to take a moment and welcome our two newest additions to the Sand Creek Brew Crew.. Chris and Brenda! Both of them will be handling the Saturday biz of tending bar and giving great tours!.

Let see what else is new.. Ah yes - there is a movement to increase the taxes we all pay on our beer. Representative RIsser and Berceau are spearheading the movement to increase the excise taxes on beer -

This bill would raise Wisconsin's beer tax (the third lowest in the country) for the first time in 40 years by 2.4¢ per 12 oz. bottle or can. Approximately $40 million in new revenue would be allocated to segregated accounts to fund alcohol abuse prevention and treatment programs and alcohol law enforcement throughout Wisconsin.

The actual information on the "propsed bill" is to go from $2 per barrel to $10 per barrel. Folks that is a 500% increase in tax. For your favorite little brewery that would be an additional $40,000 in taxes we would be required to pay irregardless if we turn a profit or not. It is a HUGE number.

You need to ask yourself - do you want another tax? To the sayers that say "oh thats not too bad" think again - you are being taxed (read punished) for drinking beer. If you want to curb drunk driving (which we ALL do by the way) put some teeth into the drunk driving laws. make the 2nd and on offenses FELONYS! Instead of the slap on the hand.

Excise taxes on beer would have a serious impact on jobs and economic development in Wisconsin, an area where brewing is an important industry. In the state, there are more than 32,000 beer-related jobs in brewing, distributing and supply and this number does not count the many thousands of people employed in our taverns, grocery stores and convenience stores selling beer. Nearly 34,000 more jobs exist in Wisconsin due to the impact of beer and beer sales. The excise tax increase under discussion would also negatively affect the total annual economic impact of the beer industry -- nearly $7.7 billion in Wisconsin. (information taken from Jensen/Madland opinion - captial times 4/17/09)

Help us beat this down- contact your local representatvies and tell them we dont need additional taxes - ESPECIALLY the way the current economy is running. Tell them we dont need to punish responsible drinkers nor an industry which is bucking the downtrend and is actually adding jobs and funds to the economy of Wisconsin.

Whew!

NEW POST! WOOHOO!

2009-04-23T05:47:00.003-05:00

Greetings everyone!

Well its been awhile since our last post (almost a month!) Alot has happened here at the brewery. We have successfully painted the entire main floor from top to bottom and freshened up the tap room. The work was done by the crew and of course our friend Pic. Cora kept us all in line!

With that being said - we have been going gangbusters to get caught up from being shut down for the remodeling project. Todd and Nate have been brewing their collective brains out with no end in sight! (thats good!) We are also now the Midwest dealer of Frostop Rootbeer - which means we are the sole sellers and producers of all the draft Frostop Product. Yay us!

Many events coming up - Tonite - Mark will be at the World's Largest Office Party which is being held in LaCrosse. This Saturday - Todd, myself, Tom, Char and Kevin will be pouring beer at the Between the Bluffs Brewfest in LaCrosse from 1pm to 6pm. Always a good time and ticketes are available at the gate. The event will be held at the Oktoberfest grounds.

Coming up REAL soon is the 2nd Annual Great Tastes Festival being held in Black River Falls! This year we are having a venue change it (since the fair grounds are under construction!) will be held at the Lunda Community Center from 4pm - 8pm on May 16th. Tickets are $25 in advance, $30 at the door. Tickets are available at the Brewery, the Buzz n Brew Shop and the CO-OP Credit Union. Come Check this out - proceeds from this event are for the Black River Falls Athletic Booster Club. Last year was a great time - over 50 beers and 20 wines will be featured along with some EXCELLENT meats and cheeses!.

Thats all for now- duty calls me to the bottling line. Oh, yeah - one more thing. We are also looking for a production assistant here at the brewery. The job entails liftin' and totin' kegs, making and filing rootbeer, stuffin 6 packs, working on the bottling line, and other duties as assigned. This is a Part-time seasonal type position - please no calls, just stop in and fill out an application.

Friday - Post 2 of 2

2009-03-27T07:09:00.002-06:00

Ok now more of the fun stuff.

Well tis Friday once more! Last week we had our 2nd annual Screw Winter Party! It was quite the event. Food was catered in by our friends at the Tegarosa Cattle Company and our favorite city official (thanks Bill!). The disemination and presentation of the vittles was orchestrated by Pic. Our musicial entertainment (Great musical entertainment btw) was provided by Garett Gilbertson, Steve Meyer and Jim Wall. They played some great stuff. If you need some local talent from the Black River Falls area - drop me a note and I will put you in contact with the trio.

So whats up this Friday?

Our usual antics however our good friends from Beechwood Distributing of Milwaukee will be coming up for a tour, food and pints.

Thats it for now. Remember the brewery will be closed April 7th - 12th for floor work!

Post 1 of 2 for a Friday!

2009-03-27T06:59:00.001-06:00

Hi Gang

The Sand Creek Brewing Company will be CLOSED April 7th - 12th.

Yes fans we are closing the doors for a few days! Why you may ask? Well, we are in the process of some much needed renovation work within the our fine little shop. This project will be sealing the floor with an epoxy finish. I guess after a 151 years of foot traffic the floor could use a little help.

SO

The Sand Creek Brewing Company will be CLOSED April 7th - 12th.

Screw Winter Party pics.

2009-03-25T09:51:00.004-06:00

Catching up

2009-03-18T00:15:00.002-06:00

Yes I am alive!
Every one's favorite brewmaster is busy at work filling the pipeline with beer.
Nate and I have been brewing non stop since Monday night at midnight.
Here as I write this it is 1:20 am. on Wednesday and I have just mashed in the last batch, only about 5 more hours to go until that one is in the tank. By the way, that would be 140 bbls. of brewing or about 2000 cases of beer.

The reason for the brew schedule?
First it was the painting we did 2 weeks ago and then we had a miscalculation on our grain in the silo, ARRRG, brain fart!
Finally I came in Sunday night at Midnight to start the brewing and found that my boiler was not working right.
After a few hours of working on it I went to the couch to catch a nap, it was 2 am. and my water was not going to get hot!
Later in the morning with the help of our heating guy Dean, we found the problem in a bad brain box.
Without the brain box the boiler would not fire up, heck we couldn't even cheat and make it work!
Later on Monday afternoon I had some help come from our in-house HVAC god Rob.
Rob had just the right part to get us back on the road to making beer, it is just a temporary fix until the replacement come in but It works.

There, now you are caught up to the joyous things that a brewmaster has to put up on a daily basis.
With that I am back to work and hope to see you all on Friday night for the Screw Winter Party.

Black River Longneck Brewing Club

2009-03-16T06:22:00.002-06:00

Hey Gang!

Just wanted to point out to you all that there is a new link in our "Favorites" section. The link is one for our friends at the Buzz N Brew shop right here in Black River Falls. Joe and Maria run a top notch brew shop and is one of the few in the area. Check them out for any wine/beer/sausage making needs.

The web page also provides you with a link to the Black River Longneck Brewing Clubs page on the Buzz N Brew site. There are lots of cool activities coming up including a home brew contest! Click the link and find out all the details.

'nuff fer now. Another post later today about our upcoming party at the brewery!

TGIF!

2009-02-27T07:16:00.002-06:00

Good times a coming! On March 20th we will be having our 2nd annual SCREW winter Party! Invariably I am expecting about 12 inches of snow that day! Doors will open at 3pm for tours and such. Food and vittles around 6pm and we will have local acoustic entertainment from 7 to 10ish. I will post more details as they become apparent.

Well looks like we made it through another week! And quite a week it was. The usual stuff at the brewery, beer a brewing, beer a filtering, beer a bottling and beer a leaving!

Last weekend we had a pretty amazing set of beer fests! On Saturday, Mark poured beer at the Milwaukee Public Museum's Food and Froth event. Todd poured beer at the Manitowoc event and on Sunday I poured beer at the Milwaukee Ale House's - Mid Winter brewfest! At the Ale house we had a new FOP (Friend of the program) pour beer. Our good friend Ryan did one heck of a job getting folks to try our beers and he has signed on for the duration.

This weekend - Todd will be over on the East Cost of Wisconsin (sorta) and pouring beer at the F.A.C.E.S. event (check the website for details!) Other than that it will be a quiet one with the excepetion for the major project here at the brewery - we are starting to paint the interior. And when I say "We" I am NOT refering to a past memory of a carnival ride but refer to that Pic will be spearheading the outfit with a little help from Nate, Todd and Myself.

Usual fun and games at the brewery this evening! Doors open at 3pm - Tours at 3:30.

READ THIS AND PASS IT ON!

2009-02-12T08:40:00.003-06:00

This is freakin GOOD NEWS!! Help small brewers - CONTACT YOUR US SENATOR /CONGRESSIONAL FOLKS!!

BA Small Brewery Members,
On Tuesday, February 3^rd, HR 836, the Brewers Excise and Economic Relief Act of 2009, was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-North Dakota) and Congressman Tom Latham (R-Iowa). This legislation seeks to reduce the tax burden for all brewers and specifically reduces the small brewer rate by 50% to $3.50 a barrel.

This is truly amazing news - If you read my older post HERE, you can see the profound effect that excises taxes have on a small brewery. Although I would love to be exempt from the tax a 50% reduction will still result in more jobs, a better brewery and an increased chance of success not only for your favorite brewery but ALL brewers!

I ask you all - friends of Sand Creek to contact your Congressman and Representatives to add their vote and voice in support of this legislation. Representative Ron Kind has already signed up! (first person besides the original authors! THANKS RON!) You can click this LINK, enter your zip code and you will find out the contact information for your representative - call them, contact them email them and urge them to support this decisive and critical legislation

I am a happy guy

2075 and STILL counting!

2009-02-09T08:15:00.006-06:00

Well we made it through another weekend. I want to give a shout out to all of the folks that made Friday night a truly great night. First off a big thank you to everyone who attended the festivities. As usual we had a TON of food. The Tegarosa Cattle Company did the honors with smoked pork tenderloin, venison and turkey. It was fabulous! Many thanks to everyone that brought a dish to pass around. Everything was delicious and there wasn't much left at the end of the evening!

Special thanks to the crew that helped put this event on - Todd, Nate, Dan, Donna, Kevin, Lizzy, Nancy, Trish, Sherry, Leif, Charlotte, Tom , Ena, Mike, Rhonda, Bill, Pic and Cora too! (Cora was in charge of quality control of all meat products). If I miss anyone my sincerest apologies! THANK YOU ALL!

Atlantic Wave put on a stellar show even with Barry having about 1/3 vocal capacity. We estimated we had about 300 folks in here on and off through the night. We had many old friends (Dan - it was good to see you!) show up along with many new ones! All in all a rousing success.

This weekend we have a few tastings I believe but no major fests. Usual fun on Friday at 3pm.

Next Month - we will be shut down for a weekend for some spring cleaning and painting. As soon as we get the date figured out I will post it here. Becauase we will be depriving you all of a Friday night of fun and games, our next BIG night will be March 20th which is the Spring Equinox (leaving no doubt we will get at LEAST 3459734525 inches of snow!) Food and Entertainment will assuredly be available. Details posted as they develop!

Have a good week everyone!

(The 2075 notation is the counter we installed when the blog was started! It keeps moving up - slowly but surely - feel free to leave comments and such!)

Oscar is in the house!

2009-02-04T10:17:00.002-06:00

There is nothing better than walking into the brewhouse at the crack of dawn and smelling the wonderful scents of another batch of Oscar wafting through a building. Yes its brewing day. Todd and Nate have whipped up another batch of our award winning stout. Now if I can get a steady supply of it infused with nitrogen...

Not a lot to report today. Just the usual end of year madness, minor and major project completion and of course selling beer. Todd, Dan, Nate and our friend Rob have been doing a great job getting our custom made depalletizer put together. Our first run will be tomorrow morning. If you hear breaking glass - just blame Leif!

Dont forget our festivities this coming Friday and look for a one special event at the brewery each and every month in addition to our usual Friday fun. No big beer fests this week but the weekend of the 21st we will be well represented at the Manitowoc Brewfest (attended by Der Brewmeister), The Food and Froth at the Milwaukee Public Museum (Mark) and on Sunday the 22nd the Midwinter Brewfest at the Milwaukee Ale Houe (Beer being poured by Pic, Barry and me)

Thats all for now!

This makes my brain hurt!

2009-02-03T08:07:00.003-06:00

Hi Everyone - Good Tuesday to you all.

I was perusing the web and getting my latest news fix. This article managed to raise my blood pressure a bit. The news is what the GOP is pointing out as wasteful spending on the Economic stimulus plan - Senate version. Here are FEW things that makes you say to your self "Self? how is this going to turn around the economy? and "What was that about earmarks again?" Remember folks this is an economic stimulus plan - it shouldn't be a social social programs plan.
(You can get the full read on www.cnn.com or just click the above link)

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities.

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient.

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD's.

• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities."

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film.

Granted some of the programs will create jobs but lets do it smart OK? PLEASE??

Ok other rant - whats with all of the hotshot politicos who are getting appointed to the cabinet who DONT PAY THEIR FREAKIN INCOME TAXES? Good lord any common folk that would have the sheer audacity to do that would have the IRS just climbing all over them and taking away everything!

Sheesh!

Ok enough of the rants. Another reminder that this Friday we are proud to present Atlantic Wave who will be playing the music of Ireland, Scotland and Cape Breton. Doors open at 3pm, tours at 3:30, Food and goodies around 5pm (ish) and music at 8pm. NO COVER!!

Be well all!

OOOH Baby - Spring is close cuz its BOCK season!

2009-01-30T08:36:00.004-06:00

Just a quick note. Nate (our fine Assistant Brewer) filtered down this years version of our Oderbolz Bock Beer. This morning - Woody (our fine Assistant Master of Disaster) brought me a glass of said recently filtered but now carbonated Oderbolz Bock.

Good lord is it an exceptional beer! Big, Malty Sweetness with a big ol' kick!

SO - it will be bottled soon - try it and you will see why our Oderbolz Bock won a Gold Medal in The World Beer Cup in 2002. A major tip of the hat to my partner in crime Todd the Master Brewer for once again putting out a killer beer.

Words escape me - THE bock is here! WOO HOO!

On that note - Nate will be in Clintonville pouring beer on Saturday (check out our website for details) and we will be open for our usual fun and games on Friday. Come pay homage to Cora our brewery dog.

Come see us next Friday for our 2/6/09 - Sand Creek Economy Recovery Plan night - Atlantic Wave (NO COVER) - Doors open at 3pm - Food and Goodies at 5pm and Music at 8pm!

I may have another bock....

Sláinte!

VEGAS BABY !!

2009-01-28T04:37:00.006-06:00

Hey everyone.
Todd here, back from Vegas.
Yes it was warmer, about 60 in the day and 40's at night.
Had a great time with my mom spending upwards of 12 hrs. a day in the casinos.
Yes you can say that when I gamble I like to get my dollars worth.
I have seen most of the sights and since I stay at her home I am not trapped on the Strip like most visitors.
We put most of our time in the outskirts at "local" casinos. These have a more personal touch and the limits are usually lower.
I did have a few beers while I was there but was not impressed so I was forced to drink large amounts of Knob Creek and Makers Mark. I took one for the team!
I drank the always fine Sierra Nevada Pale Ale but was disappointed with the other beers.
The first was Widmer Hefeweise, this beer was cloudy but it tasted like it was brewed with a simple ale yeast and then cloud or a hazy yeast was added later. Really bland without any of the weiss flavors I expected, Woody's blows it out of the glass!
The next beer witch was not as a good as I wanted was a local micro. www.tenayacreekbrewery.com
Tenaya Creek was the company, It was a cool thing that they were in a major casino but the beer was just laking a bit.
I had the Nut Brown witch was not very well carbonated and had a bit of extra sweetness.
I'm thinking that they are pushing the beers thru too fast.
They had no infections or real off flavors but it was not one of my favs.

Just another reminder to all...
Big party on Febuary 6 with Atlantic Wave here @ the brewery.
See you there.

Fun Night at the Brewery!!

2009-01-16T08:59:00.005-06:00

Hey all,

Just wanted to get a quick shot out there to let you know that on February 6th we will be having one of our famous events! The doors will open at our usual time of 3pm for tours and such. I imagine we will have some smoked goodies a cookin'.

What makes this an EXTRA fun Friday night is at 8pm our friends from Atlantic Wave will be taking the stage in front of the brew kettle 'till 11pm! We will allow them various beer breaks!

SO - Mark your calendar - plan on being here on February 6th!

(we are up to our usual antics tonite!)

Back to normal

2009-01-13T07:50:00.007-06:00

Brr!

Ok back to normal if you like sub-zero temperatures and snow. -14 degrees this AM! Freakin Balmy!

Lets see whats going on this week.. Todd is brewing up some beer for our client in Spring Green and the boys are kegging up a ginormous amount of beer as well. Lucky me? Getting ready to file for taxes. Hey I got an idea for an economic stimulus plan! Make all breweries that produce under 15,000 bbls exempt from excise taxes and give a break to the Regional brewers till they get to 60,000! Lets do the math shall we? This past year we produced 5100 bbls which equates to $40,800 in revenue for GWB and our own Governor Doyle. If we were exempt of that tax your favorite little brewery could add a position or two for new employees, upgrade our bottling line so we are more profitable and efficient or . The result would be more revenue would roll back to the Government in the form of income and property taxes.

I like it!

$40,800 might not seem like a lot so lets look at the bigger picture shall we? (we are pretty convinced its a big thing)

In 2007 there are 1,463 craft breweries in the good ol' USA - of which 1,420 are independantly owned and operated by guys and gals like Todd and Myself. Of those 1,463 breweries - 392 are considered Microbreweries (15,000 bbls or less annual production) and 975 brewpubs.

For this little exercise we will concentrate on the Microbreweries and the Brewpubs. The 2007 produced volume for the small guys was 1,687,111 barrels of beer which generated

$11,809,777 of FEDERAL revenue. Cant get you all the State info - sorry!

How many jobs, How much equipment, how much of a better standard of life would those dollars produce and in turn what kind of revenue would it ultimately generate for going against that TRILLION dollar deficit. Not just revenue from the breweries but from the grain suppliers, glass suppliers, crown suppliers, printers, advertising folks, grocery stores, clothing stores, vehicle sales, Downtown USA etc etc. I think you get the picture.

If we don't start seriously taking care of the little guys running the small business's of the USA there wont be many of us left.

Being a father of two I work hard at instilling into my kiddos what a promise is. When they are small its easy to explain a promise as "ya gotta do what you say your going to do" Many BIG promises were made during this last election period so its time to pony up and do the right thing.

To OUR newly elected and incumbent Wisconsin officials:

Governor Doyle, Senator Vinehout and Rep Radcliffe - Ya gonna do what you said your going to do?

To newly elected and incumbent US officials:

Mr. President Elect Obama, Representative Kind, Senators Feingold and Kohl - Ya gonna do what you said your going to do?

edit 2/12/09 (Rep Kind had lent his voice and support for the Brewer's Excise and Economic Relief Act of 2009 - THANK YOU!)

Friday Night the 9th

2009-01-08T09:59:00.003-06:00

Hi folks,

Just a reminder - the brewery will be closed to the public until 8pm Friday night. We are hosting the Tri-County Bar Association Winter Meeting till then.

Thanks and see you tomorrow!

Jim and Todd

A New Year Upon us!

2009-01-05T07:26:00.005-06:00

Greetings everyone!

Well we made it through the holidays and I hope all of you did too! With the end of 2008 and the start of 2009 it always makes me ponder life's little mysteries! First off I just want to echo Todd's post and thank all of you folks for making 2008 yet another successful year! We wound up having a record setting December and we grew another 28.1% over 2007 (for the year)

Wow! Thats pretty neat!

On Dec 31st we also had our very first New Years Eve Party! It was well attended and the food was great! Kevin smoked up a ginormous Turkey and two haunches of venison. Pic whipped up some seriously hot-kick ass wings along with some sweeter ones along with some sushi. Tom brought his 3 alarm chili and Sherrie had some wonderful stuffed mushrooms! Oh yeah thats just the stuff off the top of my head. Lord knows we had plenty of other goodies as well. If you left the party hungry you were just not trying hard enough! Thanks to everyone who brought in some good stuff. Look around the first weekend in February for our next event - complete with music. Oh yeah - It was GOOD to see you again Taylor!

Our winter warmer beer that was released (Draft only!) was a barrel aged Oderbolz Bock. It went down well. Speaking of our award winning bock beer.. we decided to brew it up this year and it will be released in February in 6 packs and draft! I can hardly wait!

Lets see what else... This week is another abrievieated week for us. This Friday we will be closed to the public! (Sorry Friday Crew!) We are hosting the Tri-county Bar Association Winter Meeting! We may open up later in the evening to the public. Keep an eye on this blog for further details!

Other than that...Enjoy the balmy Wisconsin Weather!

(i will have a few more idle thoughts on the year later this week!)

Jim

Another Great Year

2008-12-18T12:18:00.008-06:00

Yea !!!
Thanks everyone for another great year.
We have produced over 5000 bbls. for the year, beating last years 4007 bbls.
I would like to thank everyone that drank our beers along with all of the people that enjoyed the contract beers that we produce.
Things have been busy around here as of late, we have had the Lions and the local quilters Christmas parties in the last week.

We are now getting ready for the greatest New Years Eve party in history!!
Make your plans now for New Years Eve!
Bring something to snack on and a thirst and we will take care of the rest.
This party is open to the PUBLIC.
Friends, relatives, friends of relatives, people you have never met before....You get the picture.
Any questions feel free to call Jim or Todd @ 715-284-7553.
Hope to see you there!
We will be open Friday night Dec. 26 for the normal FUN.
Open after 3:00 p.m.
As Always,
Todd

Been kinda busy....

2008-11-13T17:42:00.003-06:00

Greetings all

Just a few things going on here at the brewery. We are getting close to releasing our newest Special Reserve 4 pack. This time around it is a twisted up Scotch Ale - heavy on the twist, easy on the Scotch - way crazy on the twist. It is called:

Wisconsin Scottish Ale. We named it in honor of our clansmen and fellow drinkers of the Wisconsin Scottish Society based out of Milwaukee!

I will post up a picture of the label shortly.

Other than that - Todd and Nate have been brewing their prospective noogies off in preparation of a HUGE order of beer which shall be sold through a beer club! (Approximately 4400 cases) The beers that will be featured are the English Style Special Ale and Woody's Wheat!

Mark shall be pouring our fine Sand Creek Products at the "99 Bottles of Beer" premier being held at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison Wisconsin. The event starts at 7pm . Ticket cost is $7.50 ($5.50 student)

Come check out the movie and find out about Wisconsin's Brewing Heritage and catch Todd's witty conversation (ha!)

Oh if you were following the saga of the trademark/label - all is well and the issues have been resolved promptly. Thanks boys.

Just get out there and.....

2008-11-04T09:16:00.004-06:00

VOTE!

Follow your brain -make your own choice.

This has been public service message from your favorite brewery.

Things to do at 4 in the morning

2008-10-17T05:34:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone,
Yes, I haven't fallen in to a kettle...yet.
Things have been busy still here at the brewery.
We surpassed last years production a couple of weeks ago, so now the rest is just increase!
Remember the economy is BAD, and people are not spending money.
People will always spend money on things that are good. I had heard yesterday that 7000 toy factories in China closed this year. This was after last years lead paint mess up and the fact that Americans are not buying junk toys at the same rate as they had in previous years.
It all comes down to quality, that is what I strive for everyday.
My boys here at the brewery think I am a big prick sometimes, but It is my livelihood in every bottle and I won't let someone else screw it up.
I'm not saying that I am the greatest boss but I have worker for worse in machine shops over the years!

Last night was the home brewers meeting here at the brewery and it went off without a hitch.
Plenty of new faces and a lively discussion on everything brewing.
They even brewed up a batch for the November 20 pot luck Christmas party.
Looks pretty good to me. A 6% red ale with Cascade and German Select hops.
The recipe is an adaptation of the Sierra Nevada Celebration ale.

I decided to stay over at the brewery last night as the home brewers finished up at 10:00.
Driving home and being back in 3 hours sounded like a waste of time to me.
I wonder..will I get overtime for this? I bet if Obama has his way I will have to "share my wealth" with the others.
If any of "the others" would like to work my schedule they are more than welcome to have a piece of my "wealth."
Jim and Todd at the brewery would like to share their debt load any time with "Joe the plumber."
We work hard for what we have and one of these days we might even be able to get a raise from what we started at 5 years ago. Most small business owners like us roll as much as they can back into the business to get it to grow in the first years, sometime I would like to be able to stop doing that.
Oh yea, Both of my girls have now met Sen. McCain in person. Kir rode with him on the 6 seat train under the US Capital a few years ago and Brit had her picture taken with him in La Crosse.

Today's production is Furthermore Proper followed next week my our first few batches for the "Beer of the Month Clubs". Looks like November will be a very busy month bottling and brewing those beers up.
English Special and Woody's Wheat are on the order, so place your Christmas orders now!

Now for something completely different....
Sherry is back from Germany today so her "cleaning boy Lief" has been hard at work throwing away the beer bottles and pizza boxes he acquired while she was gone!
Ask him to show you where the Musky attacked him last week!
I was also out at Sanburg Valley meats this week to pick up a deer that Rollie processed for us.
Looks like we will have chili this winter for Friday nights.
The plans are also in the works for a brewery Christmas party in December too.

Enough with all of this fun, time to go back to work.
The beer doesn't just make itself !!

Respectively submitted,
Todd

A bit of a rant

2008-10-14T09:46:00.004-05:00

I hesitate to post his but since I am generally a pretty easy going guy. As Todd and I run the brewery we tend to be helpful to our fellow brewers. In business, as you may guess, the competition can be pretty fierce. We have always looked at our Craft Brewing business to be somewhat different - a fraternal organization so to speak. When other brewers have had questions we answer them genuinely and with candor. Sometimes it isn't the answer that is being sought but it is at least the truth as we see it or have experienced it. We strive to help out our fellow brewers be it through co-op buying, producing beer, or just simple sharing of information. The COOL thing about this is generally speaking all brewers do the same thing. We share the camaraderie of being part of a small group of guys and gals that have a deep passion for making great beer in our locally owned and operated brewery. I have liked to think we have a strong ethical honor bound thread that follows all of us in our business dealings. We also like to do this because..

Its fun.

Now - you are asking yourself - What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?

You may have noticed that I have posted a picture of one of our products on right side of our blog - Pioneer Pale Ale. As most of you are aware The Sand Creek Brewing Company purchased the Pioneer Brewing Company back in 2004. This included the Pioneer Brand and all of its products. Back in June of this year it came to our attention that a small start up brewery was going to name one of their products "Pioneer Pale Ale". I sent them a rather nice note congratulating them on their start up brewery and politely asked them to remove the references to the Pioneer Pale Ale off of their website since it was a beer that is owned by the Sand Creek Brewing Company.

They responded with an apology, that they would remove the name from the web site and rework the name of their beer. Cool -just what I think a bunch of brewers would do. After all, we are a close-knit fraternal organization - right?

Wrong.

Fast forward to the first week in October. It comes to our attention that the previously still unnamed brewery STILL is using the Pioneer Pale Ale name and has added the TM mark to the name itself. I sent them another note and this time I get back the response:

I was not aware of any ownership of the trademark Pioneer Pale Ale. Would you please forward me any evidence asserting ownership of the name?

I don't get it. This is the same brewery that came to us about contract brewing their beer to get them off the ground. This is the same brewery that learned our entire history when they visited us last winter. This is the same brewery who said they would rectify the matter. Wow just..wow.

As a member of a very select and unique group of business owners, I wouldn't think one brewery would do that to another.

Maybe we are a bit to altruistic in our dealings. I sure hope not since it is what makes this micro-brewing business we all love so great. I got into this business after 14 years of working in corporate USA. I saw the good and I saw the bad. I saw in the craft brewing industry something better. We as a small industry grow together and need each other. As more small brewers come into the business more and more people find that craft brewed beers are better, more interesting and the back stories on the places where they are made are pretty darn interesting. I would hate to see a small start up brewery's back story darkened when each and EVERY craft brewery is important to us all.

/rant

I feel better now -

Jim

Cliff Clavin knows his stuff -

2008-10-14T09:24:00.008-05:00

I was reading on the web today that alcohol consumption may reduce brain size. I am thinking Cliff from the Cheers TV show was dead on about the buffalo theory.

'Well you see, Norm, it's like this . . . . A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.

The article article on the brain shrinkage can be found here

CNN Health News.

You be the judge - I think the Cliff is wise!

Ok more news - Todd is brewing up another batch of our One Planet Ale. Dangerous Dan and Donna will be in Neenah for the brewfest this Friday night. The Tap room will be open for it's usual fun and frivolity on Friday night as well.

I want to shoot a special thanks to Pheasant Ridge and the Rajin' Cajuns who were up for a shoot over the weekend! What a great weekend and much fun was had by one and all. Also, our friend Kevin won the rib cookoff contest on Saturday night!

Talk with you all later

Oktoberfest aftermath

2008-10-07T07:23:00.007-05:00

Well another one is in the books! What a great Oktoberfest celebration! This year's attendance was over 1500 strong. It was a gorgeous fall day with bright sunshine and temps about 70 (ish). We were fortunate to have over 20 of the COOLEST looking cars at our first attempt at a shine and show Carshow.

The music was great. Wally Pikal and Harvey started out the entertainment and got the mood set right. At 12:30 - we through in an Celtic twist with having our friends from Atlantic Wave come on up and play till 3:30. Great drinking songs and they even did my favorite the Mull River Shuffle. Last but certainly not least was Gary Brueggen and the Ridgland Dutchmen! Gary was inducted into the Concertina Hall of Fame on the day of our fest and then drove like mad to make our event! They ended our our evening with a full on polka dance going on.

The food and refreshments were flowing well. I do need to take a moment and throw out a huge special thank you to Kevin and Liz from the Tegarosa Cattle Company for making all that smoked goodness for us. Kevin and Liz have been huge supporters of Sand Creek/Pioneer since day one and without their support, efforts, and dedication our little brewery would be diminished greatly. Thanks a ton Kevin and Liz! Additionally this "little" food venue wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of the Pic brothers throwing themselves into the organizing and executing a catering event of no small magnitude. In fact this event wouldn't have been possible at all without the help from a small army of volunteers that help put this festival together. It is a privilege and an honor to have so many friends associated with this brewery, event and community. THANKS!

Moving right along..

Todd is brewing up some beer for our friends and the Fox Deluxe brewing company of Chicago and another batch of our Wild Ride IPA.

Keep in mind that the Saturday tours are now done until next spring. This weekend Dangerous Dan and Donna will be up in Ashland for the big fest up nort.

Be well and have a great week!

PS Only 361 days till Oktoberfest 09 (See the counter!)

Its that time of the year!

2008-10-01T10:19:00.002-05:00

Greetings Everyone!

We have had quite the summer with our sales just a booming! So first off I just need to send you all a BIG THANK YOU for your support! Without great beer fans like you we wouldnt be were we are today! Thanks Again!

OK - SO whatcha doing this Saturday?

Hmmm?

Well I have the event for you!

This Saturday the 4th is the 2nd Annual Oktoberfest Celebration being held at your favorite brewery. The event runs from 10am -7pm(ish)

This years events include: a car show, 20 craft vendors, kids games, scavenger hunt, pumpkin and dessert contest, brewery tours, alpacas, specials in the local businesses, and of course great food from the Tegarosa Cattle Company, Beer and Music!

This years entertainment will be provided by:

The Legendary Wally Pikal -10am - Noon.
Atlantic Wave - 12:30-3:30 (Music of Ireland, Scotland and Cape Breton)
Gary Brueggen and The Ridgeland Dutchmen - 4pm - 7pm (Wisconsin's OWN Concertina Kid) (Its also Gary's Birthday!)

If that's not enough.. We are also selling a commemorative 22oz ceramic tankard! It is emblazoned with a nifty Oktoberfest Medallion. We are selling them for $25 bucks with a free fill of beer! All proceeds from the sale of the mugs are going for western Wisconsin flood relief. The really cool thing is that your 3 bucks you were going to spend on that 16 oz beer cup? Yup, you can fill up your BIG mug for the same price!

Well that is all for now. Hope to see you all on Saturday!

Sand Creek Brewing Company
320 Pierce Street
Black River Falls, WI 54615

Weekend in Review!

2008-09-15T07:18:00.005-05:00

Greetings everyone,

Well it was quite the weekend for your favorite brew crew. Barry and I worked the Great Lakes Brewfest in Racine this past Saturday. Twas a rainy and damn humid but the 4000+ people managed to get over it. Great event all around - Special thanks to Kurt Foreman for organizing a first class beer fest. The gang down there took great care of the brewers! We will definitely be back for next year.

Barry and I rounded out our Saturday by heading back north and paying a visit to our favorite Irish pub - Paddy's! Woody and Paddy were excellent hosts and their vast variety of EXCELLENT Scotch and Whiskey were sampled - at length. If you find yourself in the neighborhood of Paddy's - Stop in, drink a Woody's Wheat and tell em the Sand Creek gang sent ya!

Mark and the gang handled the Grumpy Troll Brewfest this weekend as well. Preliminary reports from the field have revealed that the event was a rousing success as well!

Todd is brewing once again today - More cranberry and blueberry I believe.

Few events coming up this weekend (20th). First off the 6th annual Big Lake Brewfest in Superior is being held at the Wessman Arena from 4pm - 8pm. We will also be represented at the Iowa City Brewfest. This event is being held at the Coralville Old Chicago from 11am - 5pm.

Dont forget! Our 2nd Annual Oktoberfest Celebration is coming up soon! Rain or Shine we will be having a great time!

Thats all for now!

Oh yeah GO PACK!

Jim

Brew Day

2008-09-09T22:47:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone!
Well it's 10:30 pm and I am just starting my days work.
By the 6:00 pm news I will have brewed another cases of beer.
Gosh I just love brewing.
Cranberry season has started so I am brewing the first of many batches of our Cranberry Special ale. For the new readers this is a clean smooth cranberry beer made with a large amount of cranberry juice. By large I mean 55 gal. drums of the stuff.
We're not going to make a fruit beer and just get by adding a gallon of "essence" to give the beer the taste.
We use the real juice in our beers not like our friends North of here. Their ads on the radio say that their "shanty beer" has "all natural flavoring".
Here is an idea...Try using the real fruit juice!!
Friday night was the Sand Creek world premere of 99 bottles, Wisconsin brewery documentary in the tap room.
We all got a kick at seeing both Jim and myself in the movie. Remarks were flying at a breakneck pace!
All in all I think we did a great job. Most of the viewers thought that we were the most professional looking and sounding. I don't think it takes much against some of these guys :).
It was good to see some of our old friends on the screen too.
Jim is working on getting a few more copies to sell here in the tap room.
So keep your eyes open.
Well, all for now.
I've got beer mashing and I have to go stir it or I will be making pancake batter!
See you all soon.
Todd

99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall!

2008-09-03T20:33:00.008-05:00

Well I know we make alot of beers but not quite 99 bottles.. What I am referring to is a cool documentary on the beer history of some of the breweries in the state! Last February, Todd and I were interviewed by David Oplinger and Glen Popple about our brewery. Instead of a tour approach to the brewing business it was more along the lines of "how the heck did you get in this" and "What kind of people do you meet" and other such tales. It was a good day Todd the lucky dog got to do his portion of the interview in our comfortably warm tap room. I lucked out and sat on the forklift in a COLD warehouse!(Colder than a witches wazoo btw!) At any rate, the documentary "99 Bottles of Beer" is now out for your viewing pleasure. Cant say that we have seen it yet but I bet we will this weekend!

For more information on the Documentary, just check out their website at:

99 Bottles of Beer!.

Ok - now for other news. This weekend is the Clearwater Brewfest being held at the Eau Claire Expo Center from 3 - 6pm. We are the beer sponsors of the event and it is a great opportunity to go out and sample some of the best darn beer made in the state. There will be breweries from all over the state attending. Be there or be square.

Todd has been busy brewing another award winning beer again. Today he brewered up some fine Woody's Wheat - Award winning you ask? Of course it is,our favorite Woody's Wheat beer is now the GRAND CHAMPION WHEAT BEER according to the United State Beer tasting Championship! More information on the event can be found here:

United States Beer Tasting Championships

Congrats Todd!

So there! Gives more credence to the term "Gimme a Woody!"

Anywho - back to brewing. Todd also brewed up our next batch of Sand Creek Special Reserve. This time around it is..well, hard to describe. A Scotch ale. Well thats not accurate. A winter warmer with a twist. That might be closer. Truthfully there is no classification to this beer. It has a traits of many beers and it will be big in the warming department and bigger in the malt and flavor department! More details as soon a we can make them up! Stay tuned!

We will have our usual fun on Friday but will be CLOSED on Saturday due to the fest up in Eau Claire! Woody and his darling bride will be at the Lions Brewfest in Wisconsin Rapids.

Later folks! Check out the web site for more details! Leave a comment! (anybody reading these?)

Summer is movin fast

2008-08-14T08:48:00.002-05:00

Hey all you beer drinkers!

Figured I should try to get everyone up to date with what we have going on. First of all I want to take a moment and welcome Nate Peck to our crazy band of beer guys. Nate has moved up here from Madison and will be getting the scoop on how to be Todd's new Assistant Brewer! Welcome Aboard Nate - Welcome to the Asylum!

We have had some pretty amazing events over the last several weekends. Events have been held in Chetek, Minoqua, Clayton, Marshfield and of course THE Great Taste of The Midwest which is held in Madison. I want take a moment and thank all of the great folks that help us out at these events. Without your dedication we couldn't pull it off.

The month of September will be a busy one for us as well. We have many events including the 9th Annual Clearwater Brewfest which will be held on September 6th at the Eau Claire Expo Center from 3pm to 7pm. This event is sponsored by the Eau Claire Jaycees, The Coffee Grounds, Clearchannel and...The Sand Creek Brewing Company! WOO HOO! (2nd year in a row!) Come check out the fun on that day.

This weekend we will have our usual tours and general fun on Friday starting at 3pm and we will be open for our tours this Saturday from 12noon till 4pm.

I have added a few google/gadgets to our blog so you can keep track of our favorite Wisconsin teams.

Also check out our keen logo for our 2nd Annual Oktoberfest! Plan on attending this great event on Saturday October 4th from 10am - till 7pm (ish). Three bands (2 polka and 1 Celtic), smoked goodness from our friend Kevin from the Tegarosa Cattle Company, arts and craft vendors, carshow, kids games and a ton more things!.

As always you can find out the entire scoop on our website.

Have a great one!

Busy, Busy,Busy

2008-08-04T04:42:00.004-05:00

Hey everybody!
Been working my butt off getting beer out to the worlds greatest beer drinkers.
I just spent 9 days in Georgia enjoying the sweltering heat and humidity, couldn't imagine brewing in that heat all day!
We stopped in to see a bunch of brewpubs and the gang at Terrapin brewing.
Stopped in on a Friday afternoon and the place was about done for the week but in the world of beer we always have time to tip a few back with fellow brewers.
John rolled out a couple of their 22oz. bombers full of rauchbier. That was nicely smoked and very drinkable.
We also had some of their imperial pilsner and I think it was an imperial IPA, both great beers.
Everything we tried was good, Nancy was glad we stopped, so was Kirsten.
We also stopped in at the 5points bottle shop store in Athens, Man they had the selection.
We were in single malt heaven and the beers were well taken care too.
I think there might be another trip in the plans for beer drinking down south!
But for now I must get back to keeping production up so that we don't run out of beer.
The Great Taste is next weekend and I'm not sure if we will be open, It's best to check the phone message before you drive out to see us.
Later,
Todd

Summertime!

2008-07-09T11:07:00.003-05:00

Greetings!

Well we are definitely into the summer mode of fun. The humidity is up and festivals are now in full swing. This weekend we have a lot going on. Locally, it is Black River Falls annual Karner Blue Butterfly Festival. Many events going on including:

Brewery Tours - Saturday 9am - 4pm
5k - 10k Fun Run
Parade
Crafts
Lumberjacks with axes even!
Chicken dinner
Music

Also this weekend you can find our fine products at the Oshkosh Blues and Brews Festival. Woody Burns and his darling bride along with my brother and his wife will be pouring for us.

Stop in and say "hi!"

Friday is here!!

2008-06-27T07:30:00.002-05:00

Well we have made it through another week. Today - well at least starting in the late hours of Thursday, Todd started brewing up another batch of our famous Sand Creek Hard Lemonade! Odd, we seem to have a hard time keeping it in stock thanks to all of you!

There is also a batch of Furthermore's Proper being run through the beer machine today as well with help from El Fuego.

Tom and I went out and poured beer at The Black River Rumble last night at Camp NCN. This event attracts about 1000 bikers for camping, riding and general mischief. The beer flowed well and it seemed everyone was having a good time. We had many of the folks there happy to see us again and met many new folks trying Sand Creek Hard Lemonade, Groovy Brew and Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout for the first time!

We will be open at 3pm for our usual Stammtisch and tours. We will also be open on this saturday for tours from Noon till 4pm.

PLEASE NOTE! The brewery will be closed next Friday and Saturday in observance of the 4th and some well needed time with friends and family. You can however, stop out and enjoy the fireworks and music from Vic Ferrari at the annual Fest in the Park. All activities are held at the Lunda Park.

Have a safe weekend everyone!

New Change at the Brewery!

2008-06-21T12:00:00.002-05:00

Greetings everyone!

Just wanted to drop a quick note - but effective this past Monday (the 16th), the Sand Creek Brewing Company has done the dramatic change of switching over to pry off bottles. No more twist offs! I will keep a list of proprietary beers that have been bottles in the margins of the blog. We did this since our glass bottle changed again and we decided to go with the pry off bottle. This will help keep our beer fresher as well as help out our home brewing buddys!

Enjoy and start using that opener!

Beer in the Works.

2008-06-19T08:23:00.004-05:00

Greetings everyone - as usual we have a lot going on here at the brewery.

Today - Todd is brewing up another batch of Golden Ale - hard to keep kegs in stock when it is selling so well. He is also brewing the Shipwreck Blond for our friends up in Door County.

Last week Wednesday the brewery had a fella by the name of Daniel McConnell (and his droooling dog Rocky!) swing by the brewery. Daniel is a Vet crossing the good 'ol USA - checking out the country and meeting interesting folks. Rocky's job is to drool wherever he goes! Both are doing their jobs quite well and the tale of his travels can be found HERE! We hosted a smaller version of our steak feed with our friends from the brewery and a good time was had by one and all.

The planning for our 2nd Annual Oktoberfest celebration is going well - looks like we will be adding a Show and Shine Car show for the event as well as expanding the number of craft/street vendors. The date has not changed and it is still scheduled for the first Saturday of October (the 4th) and will run from 10am - 7pm(ish) Rain or shine! Music will be provided by the Legendary Wally Pikal followed by Gary Brueggen and the Ridgeland Dutchmen and capped off by our friends Atlantic Wave. I think with this range of music we should appeal to just about everyone. Food and Drink of course will be available in copious amounts. We will also be selling a Limited Edition 22 oz beer stein for the event. A portion of the proceeds from the mug sales will be used to provide flood relief for Wisconsin.

Well thats all for now - dont forget we are open this Saturday from 12noon - 4pm for tours. If your around - feel free to stop by!

A word from above

2008-06-10T06:39:00.003-05:00

Hey everyone!
No I haven't fallen in to the tank(yet), I have just been very busy.
Beer sales have been great this summer and we are working as hard as we can to keep up.
Not a bad problem.
Today is a brew day and the boys are making Lemonade.
Donna came in so that we can have boxes for bottling tomorrow.
There is always something to do around here.
I missed out on the smoked brisket last Friday, I had to move my daughter into a new apartment in Whitewater.
I did make it back in time for the last round, so all was not lost.

The Rustic Mill re-opened last week so we have again a new customer selling our beers.
The gang down at Nico's on Water st. are also new to the resturant business here in town.
We had some of their fine Mexican food about a week ago, good stuff!!
Rossario's opened up while back as a bar with pizza but they are working on a kitchen so they can roll out their Italian foods.
Re-Pete's and the Orange Moose are also suporting us with our beers on tap.
A big thanks to all and we wish you the best in your businesses.
If you are in town looking for a place to eat please stop in and support the places that support us.
On a sad note Molly's shut down a couple of weeks ago so the biggest local account is now gone.
There are rummors that it might open again soon.
Keep your eyes open for news!

We will be in Eagle River this weekend at the Great Northern beer fest.
www.greatnorthernbeerfestival.com/

Tours continue on Saturdays from Noon 'til 4 pm so if you're in town stop by.

Long overdue

2008-05-28T07:09:00.008-05:00

Greetings everyone,

Been awhile since I have had the opportunity to post anything - had a bit of a technological challenge when my PC got infected with a nasty virus. Shut down my ability to post to the blog, use google or ANY search engine for that matter. Not sure how the infection got into the system - just disappointed that McAffee choked and did not intercept the intrusion. They lost a customer over that one. I am pretty happy with PCTOOLS and the Kaspersky site for cleaning and detecting all of the bugs.

Anyway - onto beer business.

Today - Todd and Brian are brewing up another batch of our Hard Lemonade. It should be ready in about 2 weeks or so. We have been pretty darn busy here at the brewery - we are averaging about 120 bbls of beer production per week. Tomorrow we are planning on bottling up another 800 cases or so.

This weekend Mark will be down in Middleton at the "Burgers and Brews" fest. And next weekend Pic and I will be up in New Richmond for their "Brews and Blues" fest. For all the details you can check out our events calender on our web site.

Great news on the Oktoberfest planning for 2008! Our 2nd Annual Oktoberfest celebration will be held on the first Saturday of October - Oct. 4th. Music will be provided by Wally Pikal, Gary Brueggen and the Ridgeland Dutchman, and for an Irish twist - Atlantic Wave !

Atlantic Wave will also be playing at the Jackson County Fair in the Sand Creek Brewery / Sunset Tavern Acoustic tent on August 2nd. There will be additional music provided as soon as we figure out who it is.

Thats all for now! Wish for warm weather - it was damn near freezing again this AM.

Tour Day

2008-05-03T11:50:00.002-05:00

Well, it is finally tour day (Saturday) here at the brewery!
Yes we are now open on Saturdays May thru September from noon until 4pm.

Last week was a week full of catching up on maintenance issues that have been building up plus 5 batches of beer too.

Friday night was Tom's birthday party, everyone had a great time.
I heard rumors that Tom reached a milestone, or was it a kidney stone?
Great to see everyone celebrating Tom's big day.
Thanks for the munchies!!

Next week is a week full of bottling and of course brewing.
See you all when you're in town.

Beer news

2008-04-22T03:48:00.004-05:00

Hi again,
Well, it's the middle of the night and I'm brewing.
Today it's Fatty Bomblatty and English Special on the brew list.
We had a great time at the City brewery beer & cheese event last weekend, Woody and Donna said they had fun in Wausau too.
Then there is Jim and Pic, it was old home weekend for them up in Menomonee Saturday afternoon.

We all saw some freinds and all in all it was good to be out.

I found Jim's picture of our money we sent over to Germany a while back and thought you might want to see it. Remember, it's only for a 1 year supply of hops.

Alright, maybe not all of it but it is a whole bunch!

Friday night was another hoot, Sherry brought in her homemade pizza, Carl had some bear sausages and Tom & Char loaded up the bar with cheese and crackers.

That is just the ones that I ate, I'm sure I saw more but can't keep track of all the good food.

Thanks to everyone!

Speaking of food, The beer fest is coming up soon.

Sounds like there will be plenty of beer, wine, cheeses and meats to go around!

The athletic boosters are doing a great job getting things lined up.

Now all we need is good weather on May 17.

Tickets are available on line at www.sandcreekbrewing.com , here at the brewery, Buzz and Brew downtown and the Coop Credit Union.

Hope to see you all there!

Well got to go, the beer is waiting.

Todd

Winter aint' gone yet!

2008-04-11T05:14:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone,
Things are getting busy around here but we are just waiting for spring.
We would like to welcome our newest employee, Brian Crabtree, who started this week.
Being the slavedriver that I am, I worked his fingers bloody in only 4 days.
He bottled, kegged and helped me brew 2 days this week and still says he will be back Monday!

Things are getting closer for the Black River Brew Fest, tickets and posters are at the printers.
Sand Creek will be the on-line sales site along with the Buzz and Brew shop and Co-op Credit Union here in town.
So far it looks like about 12 breweries, 10 wineries and 6 local butcher shops and cheese vendors will be here for the event.
This is more than beer, the sports boosters have linned up meat and cheese vendors so you don't have to just drink you can try some great local food.

2008-04-02T07:10:00.005-06:00

Hey everybody!
Things are rolling along here at the brewery, I'm brewing and Woody's kegging Frostop rootbeer.
I will be brewing St. Croix Maple today. Thats two brews this week ! Griesedieck Pils http://www.gb-beer.com/
was brewed yesterday.
Saturday tours will start MAY 3.
Tours take about 40 to 60 min. and include samples of our products.
Friday tours are after 3pm.
The bar stays open for a few hours more!
See you there.
I will be in Superior this weekend with my darling bride and the "FOB"s Kevin & Lizzie.
As always your favorite brewmaster,
Todd

Friday nights party, JSonline.com

2008-03-23T10:52:00.008-06:00

Hi everyone Todd here,
Big news 'round the brewery this weekend. We were featured in the Travel Section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Click HERE for Journal Sentinal Article.
We knew it was coming up but did not think it would be so soon.
Great article and pictures, thanks for the great work Gary.
Gary also stopped in to see Hideaway Jacks in Chaseburg, a really cool bar with a tasty beer selection!
The SC**W WINTER party was held on Friday night with smoky success. Kevin did his normal job of perfection with everything on the smoker. Beef brisket, pork tenderloin, beef tenderloin, salmon, pork chops, chicken and whatever slowed down to be smoked was on the menu for the night.
We of course had more food than needed, but that just means leftovers!
A big thanks goes out to Bill for dropping us some cash for the pork and beef along with everyone else who brought in goodies for the evening.
We had quite a few new faces in at the bar and made a bunch of new friends.
That is what beer is good for.
Big week planned, 2 days of brewing to start with and bottling first thing on Wednesday followed with filtering and more brewing.
Dan will be hard at work kegging and making Frostop root beer too.
2 weeks to go before the Gitchee Gumee in Superior, www.ggbrewfest.com
See you there!

(Brewery Tours are held on Friday's at 3pm and starting May 3rd - Saturday's from 12n - 4pm)

St Patty"s

2008-03-18T01:41:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone!

Looks like we made it thru another St Patty's day. I myself had a bit of the Irish whisky last night to celebrate. A bit of Oscar's didn't hurt either!

Things are looking better on the hop front for us but I am not going to say it's perfect yet, let's just get thru this year.

Over the weekend Woody and Donna went up to Tomahawk to do some sampling and as per usual Donna sold clothes like they were water in a desert. That girl has a nack for selling panties!

This Friday is our *uc* Winter party here at the brewery. Everyone is invited for the $1 pints and food. Kevin is bringing in the smoker and he will be cooking up pork tenderloin and beef brisket. If you haven't been around to taste his work you are missing it. Why Kevin spent his life getting stressed out in prison I'll never know. His calling was smoking, heck he could have been just as stressed out running a restaurant! The fighting and threats would have been the same!

If your coming just bring in a little something to pass.

This weekend is Easter so make sure you are stocked up on your favorites because the Easter bunny is just like Santa, he likes to find a little something waiting for him when he's delivering the Easter eggs!

Well, it's the middle of the night and I'm brewing so I best get back to work.

Hope to see you all on Friday.

4 Years in Black River Falls!

2008-03-10T12:11:00.002-06:00

On March 10th of 2004 the Sand Creek Brewing was officially moved to Black River Falls! So I guess this is our Anniversary! Whats going on you may ask? Well true to form , Todd was in at the wee hours of the morning to make sure that we have our famous Sand Creek Hard Lemonade available!

Other than that business has been good and you can tell spring is in the air. Look for us up in Tomahawk this Saturday! The event will be staffed by the infamous Woody Burns and his darling bride Donna. Don't worry folks - Donna will have plenty of thongs to sell!

Be sure to stop in on Fridays for our great tours and tap-room time. Door opens at 3pm.

Also! starting May 3rd - the brewery will be open for tours and fun from 12 noon till 4pm.

See you all soon!

Thanks Brett!

2008-03-05T08:26:00.000-06:00

Well all you diehard Packer fans - we knew this day was coming. It was interesting how I found out about #4 retiring. Yesterday I was on the way over to the Wisconsin Brewers Guild quarterly meeting in Stevens Point (at the Point Brewery - thanks Joe!) and whilst driving, being the news junkie that I am caught at the VERY last sentence of the broadcast "Coach McCarthy announces Brett's retirement". The radio station immediately goes back to playing music.

No comment, No nothing?

WTF!?

I then start channel surfing and get nothing, nada zip zero zilch. Ok guess I will find out later. Which I did finally after my meeting 5 hours later on the way home. What i thought was interesting is that even the PBS stations were devoting an hour of their air time in tribute!

Well that being said, I know he will be sorely missed in the grand scheme of football. I know my kids will miss him too. Truly the greatist quarterback/ironman in the NFL.

Brett - if you ever find your way in BRF - the beer is on me!

Had to post a picture of when he played his best game EVAH! - Oakland - MNF! 399 yards thrown! 4 touchdowns what a tribute to Big Irv. Nuff said!

March fun

2008-03-04T05:03:00.000-06:00

Well it's another lovely day in BRF. We have a bit of brewing to do along with some repairs to our bottle filler. Our buddy Tom is coming down from MSP to give us a hand. Tom really knows his stuff about our filler. So it looks like I will be up to my pits in grease again today. I won't be alone, Kevin wants to come in and help. I think its the "pain is only pleasure in disguise" thing he likes!

On another note we are still waiting on our first hop order, I would rather spend the money on other things this time of the year but the hop guys want money first. I heard the mob was tough, they never met the hop guys!

Dan and Donna did the Hops and Props last weekend in Oshkosh with great success. Donna sold out of panties!

Its getting warmer!

2008-02-27T18:48:00.002-06:00

Lemme tell you how I really feel about winter:

Ok on to the good stuff - Todd has been brewing like mad! First batch of Woody's Wheat ale was brewed along with a delicious batch of Oscar's Oatmeal Stout. Gotta love Oscar! Do you know Oscar? Events coming up this weekend are the Hops and Props at the EAA in Oshkosh - this event will be tended to by Woody Burns and his darling bride along with my big brudder Scott and his wife Jan. Stop by - say hello and try some of the beers they brought along. Our man Mark will be also in the Fox Valley and will be doing double duty by pouring beer at the Kohler Suds and Tubs as well as the Fond Du Lac Ag show. Please stop by and help support your local brewery wherever you are!

PS: Dopplebock has shipped to the fox valley, Milwaukee - Madison area and around the home turf. Pick up a 4 pack of the Oleator and let us know what you think. Tis a sure sign of spring!

Nuff for now! oh hey! If you have any comments please leave them! I know folks are reading my thoughts but comments are always welcome!

Winter time in wisconsin - ok who is tired of this now?

2008-02-18T08:33:00.000-06:00

Well it is another snowy Monday - got nailed again over the weekend and by the time we get done counting today it will probably be another 4-5" of the white stuff. When is spring showing up?

It has been a series of brewing days for Todd. Over the last three days (not counting the weekend) a total of 260 bbls of beer will have been brewed by end of the day on Tuesday the 18th. Thats a lot of beer folks approximately 3600 cases worth. Good to have full tanks of beer this time of year. It is a good portent for the spring.

Had a great weekend which was kicked off by our Friday "Stammtisch" . Stammtisch by the way is a German term for regular's table or loosely translated regular get together! We do open the doors at 3pm for tours on Friday - maybe you should come on up and join us by becoming a regular at our Stammtisch! Saturday - Todd took off to handle the Manitowoc Beer Festival. Great event and our product was well received. More events coming up soon - just check out the calendar on the main Sand Creek website. Some of the talk around the beer fest between brewers was about hops.

If you are not aware - the price of hops has gone up a boggling 547% in the past 6 months. This has been mainly due to the poor European and Australian crops, a high demand in craft brewing market (thats us!) and the switch from the hop farmers from low Alpha aroma hops to super high alpha bittering hops. Many breweries are unable to procure them and the price for any of them is quite high. The increase translates from $4-$5 a pound to an average now of around $16 a pound with some as high as $45!!
Luckily for us here - I was able to procure our supply from two sources - one of which is direct from Germany. To also help our fellow Wisconsin breweries, I contacted several of fellow brewers and they also have the opportunity to purchase hops on the same order. More than ever its important to support your local brewery! This crazy market will be this way for at least another year or so before pricing settles down.

Events coming up this weekend on the 23rd are The Bid 'n Brew in Fond Du lac and the Chamber Beer Fest in New London. Oh yeah - it is also the weekend for the local Scout troops Pinewood derby!

One last thing - the Oleator Dopplebock will be shipping out this week! Look for it in our Special Reserve 4 packs!

Thats it for now!

Sláinte!

Dopplebock Is coming out soon

2008-02-06T15:01:00.000-06:00

Well its been a long winter. The good news is that we are definitely on the back side of this particular season. The better news is we will be releasing the second in a series of "Special Reserve" beers. This time around it is the Oleator Dopplebock (yeah i know it can also be spelled Doppelbock too!). Todd did an amazing job with this beer - big bold taste with great body. It runs about 9% ABV. We will probably start shipping it out by the end of next week. I think it will be a great follow-up in the Special Reserve Series to the Imperial Porter.

Speaking of the Special Reserve - there are rumors in the Tap Room on last Friday night that the next release may be a Scotch Ale.

Let see whats currently on tap:

Griesedieck Golden Pilsener
Sand Creek Golden Ale
Groovy Brew
Woody's Wheat
Cranberry Special Ale
Wild Ride Special Ale
Oscar's Chocolate Oatmeal Stout
Hard Lemonade
Frostop
....oh yeah and a special cask conditioned Imperial Stout on tap #1

Dan, Todd, and Kevin have been working hard at getting our home-made depalletizer designed-built and run. Should be pretty cool and help bottling day when we are all up and running. I may post some pictures when its all said and done.

Continue to work the Hop market to get supplied - they are expensive and scarce! Luckily we have procured enough to get us through.

Mark will be down at the Food and Froth at the Milwaukee Public Museum on Saturday. He will also be at the Milwaukee Ale House on Sunday (and I imagine home recovering on Monday ha!). Our friend Ted from Madison is representing us at the MHTG event on Sunday as well. Might try to slide on down to visit with our friends in Madison.

All for now

Sláinte!

Brew day

2008-01-28T07:41:00.001-06:00

Brewing Oscar's this morning and waiting for the rain. Yes rain and 40 in January 28 in Wisconsin.
I bet tomorrow will be a great day for driving.
We will be at the Jackson County tavern league party tonight. I won a gun last year, how about 2 in a row!
Our buddy Chuck from MSP will be stopping in today with his home brew versions on Bad Monkey. He won 2nd place in a contest in Minn. Maybe we can kick the Monkey up a bit and release it as a special release.
I'm planning on working on the depalitizer this week, got to get it done before the spring rush.
Looks like we have another Beer Club order to fill this spring, keep an eye on the blog for more info.
Speaking of beer clubs, we met with the BRF sports boosters and Skip from Buzz and Brew
http://www.buzzandbrewshop.com/ last night to work out some of the particulars for the beer and food event here in town May 17. Sounds like they are getting things worked out.
Well. back to brewing.

A day of morning

2008-01-22T09:53:00.001-06:00

Well everyone the day of morning has passed.
Yes the Packers had no defence on Sunday and lost to the Giants.
Oh boy, Look's like a great Superbowl with the Pat's*(*cheaters*) and the Giants.
I guess I will have an open weekend.
I hear shopping and movies are empty that day.
News here at the brewery.. Brewing more Wild Ride and Oscar's this week.
Fest update, Jim, Mark or Dan will be at the Clintonville, Port Washington and the Neenah fests Friday and Saturday. Fest list: http://www.sandcreekbrewing.com/events.php
Black River Falls Boosters will be having a fest Saturday May 17 at the Fairgrounds. More news to come.
We made it thru the first sub zero weekend of the year with no frozen beer (70+hours below 0).
Sounds like another cold day or two to come this week.
OLEATOR Dopplebock is ready to be packaged, look for it in the next few weeks!
See you at a fest or the brewery soon!

Burrrr.....

2008-01-18T08:29:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone.

I'm in brewing for the third time this week, Half Acre, Furthermore Proper and Port Washington Mile Rock. Things are picking up in the brewing world here.

The home brewing club was in last night and we had Kevin in hosting.
A big thanks go out to Kevin! Working on a nighttime bottling run or maybe a brew later this year, just our way to show the home brewers how this place runs.

The Packers are playing this weekend so it looks like a time to enjoy a few beers, I'm thinking about a couple of Griesedieck Pils.

The temps. at the game are to be about 0 for Sunday with the Packers favored by 7.
I'm thinking the Pack 21 Giants 10.
Sure would make watching the Superbowl this year more fun.

Jim's been working on our World Beer Cup entries, hope we can blow them out of the water again!

Winter Brewing

2008-01-17T08:28:00.000-06:00

It might be quiet out in the beer world today but Todd has another 40 bbls of fine beer being brewed for our friends at Furthermore. Beer in the tank = good karma! Snowing well outside. Gonna be COLD out later. Perfect weather for football! Go Pack! Should be a balmy 4 degrees above zero for game time on Sunday! Welcome to Lambeau Field!

Mark our partner and Sales Manager is in house today and getting ready for an event at Pettibone Resort in La Crosse. He will doing a sampling or tasting at the Cannery Wine and Spirits in Sun Prairie on Friday (4 - 7pm)

The start of something!

2008-01-15T13:09:00.000-06:00

Greetings everyone!

We here at the Sand Creek Brewing Company decided we would start a blog which would let you all know what is going on at the brewery. Might be what we did, what we brewed or whatever. Might just be comments on what is going on in our world or in the Craft Brewing Industry as a whole.

Here is a little background. The Sand Creek Brewing Company is a small Micro-brewery located in Black River Falls Wisconsin. It is run by Jim and Todd with lots of help from our family, friends, employees,partners and of course our great customers!.

We are located in a 151 year old building which was built on the site of the first large scale Western Wisconsin Brewery back in 1856. Since we bought the joint in 2004 we have been growing like mad (anywhere from 35 - 56%) each and every year! Instead of rehashing the history you can just go check us out at:

www.sandcreekbrewing.com

Thats it for now!