What a week so far..

No wait - its ONLY Tuesday!

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

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

And thank you very much!

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

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

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

Great Northern Brewfest

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

Thanks Ernie!

Memorial Day weekend!

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

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

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

Why?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Black River Falls - Great Tastes Festival!

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

Brewery News - March edition!

Hey all

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

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

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

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

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

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

ok - had a brain schism

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

Music will be provided by Garrett Gilbertson and his band.

The date is set!

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

Getting closer to spring!

Greetings folks!

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

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

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

Have a good week everyone!

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

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

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

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

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

Yep its January!

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

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

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

* = official beer terminology

New Year - More beer to move

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

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

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

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

The last week of the year!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

See you all next week!

Thankgiving Week!

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

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

Christkindl Fest 2009

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

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

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

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

1 cat - see above.

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


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

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

How it started - this week - 6 years ago

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow - 10 years.

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

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

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

Thanks Todd for picking up that phone 6 years ago.

Happy 10th Anniversary everyone!

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

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

Trying a few new looks...

Hey All

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

GO PACK - shoulda skunked em though!