Abbey Scribe | December 30, 2009

Divine Words | Volume 1, Issue 4

Special New Year’s Weekend Tasting Room Hours

Greetings Faithful ones. Just a brief newsletter to let you know our special extended tasting room hours for the New Year’s holiday weekend.

Dec 31 (Thu) – 12pm to 4pm
We’ll be open for growler fills, bottle sales and tastings in advance of New Year’s Eve celebrations. Make sure to drop in and pick up a bottle of Inferno so you’ve got something good to pop at midnight and drink to the new year (and new decade).

Jan 1 (Fri) – 2pm to 8pm (extended hours)
New Year’s Day we’ll be opening a couple of hours early so you can enjoy a few tasters and/or pints while watching the big bowl games. The Rose Bowl (and BCS Championship game) kicks off with Oregon and Ohio State at 2pm; the Cotton Bowl features Cincinnati and Florida at 5:30pm.

Jan 2 (Sat)– 12pm to 5pm
Saturday we’re back to normal hours. It’s supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny, so it’ll be a beautiful day to drop in and hoist a pint to those who are fortunate enough to get snow and freezing weather rather than being forced to endure our San Diego winters.

Jan 3 (Sun) – 12pm to 4pm
Sunday we’ll be watching the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Miami Dolphins first. Both teams still have a (long) shot at a wild card playoff slot, so it should be a good game. Later we’ll be tuning in to watch our Chargers take on the Washington Redskins. The Chargers have already nabbed their playoff spot and get to take wild card week off, so it’s the last time we’ll see them for a couple weeks.

Hope you can drop by. Happy holidays from all of us at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey, and best wishes for the coming new year!

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Tags: 2010, holiday, Libri Divini, new year's, Tasting room

Tomme | December 21, 2009

It’s Monday of Christmas week. It’s finally here! I’m sitting at my desk staring at the box with Sydney’s new Princess Scooter in it. I need to put it together. It’s pretty much the only thing she asked Santa for this year. As I stare at the box, I am reminded that there are a bunch of kids out there who have asked Santa for presents this year and may not get anything. It’s enough to make a grown man cry.

Somedays, I am reminded of how blessed we are at Port Brewing and The Lost Abbey. Last night, we held our Chirstmas Party for our employees and their families. It was a chance to reflect on where we have been and to give them hope for the places and direction we wish for in 2010. All told it was a great evening. Vince cooked. We drank and there was even festive music in the background. It was a great way to start this Christmas week.

This Christmas week is very exciting for me. First, I am happy as a pig in you know what since it looks like the new cold box I asked Santa to bring me for Christmas will finally be completed. At over 1200 square feet, it will triple the size of our old unit and make things so much easier on the distribution side. I’m thankful(and so is David) that our warehouse will also stop looking like a bomb exploded in there. For the past two months, we have been storing all manner of kegs, barrels, bottles and cold box parts waiting for the new unit to be completed. Now that it’s done, we can all breath a sigh of relief.

As part of the cold box expansion, we’re also going to finish our new Hot Box for Bottle Conditioning. This will give us much better consistency. In terms of our process, this is one area we have been negligent as the weather in San Diego is pretty stable year round. However, we are entering that time of the year when the warehouse stays a bit cooler than ideal and as such, we need this warm room.

I’m also thankful that our new custom 375 ml bottles have arrived from China. This new bottle mold(that we’re sharing with Russian River and North Coast Brewing Company) is a proprietary shape and will give us better flexibility to ship our small batch beers all over this great country. Look for 2009 Angel’s Share Brandy Barrel to hit the shelves as our first release. Last week, we packaged 800 cases of the beer and it’s conditioning as we speak. These bottles were run on our New Bottling Line and the process went incredibly well. We also have run cork finished Judgment Day and Gift of the Magi bottles on the line with no issues. It’s nice to know that the only piece missing is a wire hood unit that can keep up. Santa can I get one of these for Christmas too?

Lastly, many of you were with us for Christmas in July. I know because we have all these amazing pictures of our patrons sitting with St. Nick. They’re some of my favorite pictures around the brewery. They also remind me that we’re about to make a difference in some young lives this weekend. As many of you recall we donated a ton of presents to the Toys for Tots Foundation back in August. This Christmas (because of your generosity) smiles all over San Diego will break out. And that my friends is the spirit of Christmas. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have some princesses who require my attention.

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Abbey Scribe | December 18, 2009

We’re pleased to announce extended tasting room hours for the holidays! For the weeks of Christmas and New Years, our hours will be as follow:

Special Holiday Tasting Room Hours:

Christmas Week Dec 23 (Wed) – 12pm to 4pm Dec 24 (Thu) – 12pm to 4pm Dec 25 (Fri) – Closed Dec 26 (Sat) – 12pm to 5pm Dec 27 (Sun) – 12pm to 4pm

New Year’s Week: Dec 31 (Thu) – 12pm to 4pm Jan 1 (Fri) – 2pm to 8pm (extended hours) Jan 2 (Sat)- 12pm to 5pm Jan 3 (Sun) – 12pm to 4pm

You can read all the details about our newly re-modeled tasting room right here, get directions, etc. right here.

We also have this week’s Vintage Bottle list here.

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Tags: holiday hours, Lost Abbey, Port Brewing, Tasting room