Abbey Scribe | November 22, 2011

The Official Newsletter of Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey
Volume 3, Issue 6

In this issue:

Thanksgiving Weekend Hours | Cuvee de Tomme 2011 Release | New Faces: Kevin Hopkins | First Ever: Commercial Conclave | New & Upcoming Beer Releases

Thanksgiving Weekend Hours

The Thanksgiving Holiday is upon us and as always our tasting room will be open special hours for your enjoyment over the long weekend.

• Nov 23 (Wed) – 12pm to 7pm
  So you’ll have bottles and growlers to take over the river and through the woods to grandma’s house.
• Nov 24 (Thu) – Closed
  So our family can spend time with their family.
• Nov 25 (Fri) - 12pm to 9pm
  Opening early so you can bring/escape (you choose) the family and enjoy a few samples in the tasting room
• Nov 26 (Sat) – 12pm to 7pm
  Regular hours
• Nov 27 (Sun) – 12pm to 6pm
  Regular hours

» Click here for more tasting room updates

Cuvee de Tomme 2011

The long wait is over! Cuvee de Tomme 2011 is scheduled for release in the brewery on Saturday December 17, 2011.

While larger than the 2010 release, the total run for this year’s CdT is still extremely limited, so bottles will be a brewery-only release while draft will be available in limited quantity here in Southern California.

» Click for full release details

New Faces:

Kevin Hopkins, Hospitality Manager
If you’ve had the opportunity to visit The Lost Abbey Tasting Room in the past couple of months, you’ve probably noticed a new (old) face behind the bar.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Kevin Hopkins, manager of our new Hospitality department.

As the HM, Kevin’s responsible for overseeing pretty much all of our customer-facing operations including customer service, the tasting room, tours, parties, and special events — both in the brewery and around San Diego (whew).

Those of you who have been members of The Faithful for some time will probably recognize Kevin from his frequent volunteer work at our special events (competence doesn’t go unpunished around here, so we brought him on board and put him in charge), but he’s actually been a craft beer connoisseur long before Lost Abbey — a couple of decades, in fact — first in the U.K. and Europe and later right here in San Diego.

When he’s not serving beer and propounding the superiority of upper Yakima over lower Yakima hops or the many virtues of a good stout, you’ll find Kevin looking up — literally.

Kevin’s a long-time flying buff who doesn’t just love the sound of a plane thundering overhead, he loved it so much, he spent years managing airshows full of them. No too coincidentally, he’s also an accomplished pilot who takes to the air as often as he can. (Good thing too. We need someone to captain The Lost Abbey Airship Gabriel.)

You can catch Kevin in the tasting room most weekdays and the occasional weekend. For all his latest tasting room and local updates, you can also follow him on twitter at @LostAbbeyKevin. On other days, just look overhead. If you see a plane pulling barrel rolls, that’s probably him.

First Ever: Commercial Conclave

Send us a concept for a commercial; win and you get it filmed!

You know the scenario. You’re sitting there with your friends, enjoying a perfect glass of craft beer, and suddenly you’ve got a great idea for a commercial. (If this has never happened to you, you are drinking the wrong kind of beer.)

Well now here’s you’re chance to capitalize on your creativity!

The whole month of December we’ll be accepting submissions for Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey 60 second commercial concepts. From all the submissions we’ll select one concept (via a very serious Conclave process) to be filmed as an actual advertisement for our brewery. The winner will receive an all expenses-paid two-day trip to San Diego, V.I.P. status at Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey and go on set to film the commercial with our acclaimed in-house director, Ryan Tillotson!

Full details, rules, limits, legalese and fine print will be available on The Lost Abbey website starting December 1, 2011.

» Click here for details

New & Upcoming Releases

• Now Available – Santa’s Little Helper, Gift of the Magi
• Dec 17 – Cuvee de Tomme
• Jan 14 – Midnight Expression, The Serpent’s Stout
• Jan 21 – Deliverance

Add our upcoming releases and events to your own calendar! » Click here for details

 

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Tags: cuvee de tomme, Libri Divini, newsletter, november

Abbey Scribe | August 12, 2011

The Official Newsletter of Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey
Volume 3, Issue 4

In this issue:

Around the Brewery | New Faces | Pre-Stone Anniversary Breakfast | Farewell to Larry #5 | End of Summer Sale | New & Upcoming Releases

Around the Brewery

Hard to believe it’s already August, but here it is. Around the Abbey we’ve been so busy that we almost didn’t notice summer is just about at an end. Since spring we’ve been brewing so much that we’ve passed our total production for 2010 and are in the midst of yet another expansion to meet demand.

As part of that expansion we recently moved fermenters 7 and 8 (aka: “Heaven” and “Hell” since that’s what had to be moved to get them into the brewhouse) into our production area next door in anticipation of the arrival of a couple more big fermenters in the next few weeks. Tomme’s also made mention of acquiring a couple of new grain silos which will prevent us from running our current one dry each week (it’s hard to make beer when you have no malt).

All this new equipment will allow us to keep ramping up production and eliminate some of the off and on shortages we’ve been experiencing. And while there’s no expansion of our distribution territories planned just yet, who knows — 2012 could present some new opportunities for us.

Things have been busy over in the tasting room as well. Even though we’re a tiny operation compared to many of our San Diego craft brewing compatriots, we’re on track to see almost 60,000 (yes, 60,000!) visitors this year. To handle all the new folks we’ve already added an additional 20 taps –for a total of 44 handles — and we’ve got some exciting new remodels in the works for the fall. Look for an announcement with details some time after Labor Day.
All told, it’s pretty good stuff and we owe it all to you, the Faithful. Thank you. You keep drinking and we’ll keep brewing.

New Faces: Meet Ryan Tillotson

Recently you may have noticed one the addition of some new multimedia components — photo galleries, video shorts and live broadcasts — the Lost Abbey website and our social media pages. (And if you haven’t noticed, why not?) All this is the work of our new Multimedia Supervisor, Ryan Tillotson, who recently joined us after graduating from film school up in the Los Angeles area.

A gifted guy behind the camera, Ryan is tasked both with documenting life here at the Abbey, and providing you with an informative (and hopefully interesting) look inside the operations of a small American craft brewery.

Beyond providing daily snapshots from around the brewhouse, Ryan has also produced the first two of our “making of” videos (Hot Rocks, La Cruda and Ten Commandments), and our time-lapse silo video. He’s also the man who directed our live broadcasts from the Anniversary Party and Christmas in July. Over the next couple of months you can look forward to plenty more from him.

Ryan’s in the brewhouse most weekdays and a few weekends as well. You’ll also catch him at events around town and some big national ones such as the GABF. If you happen to bump into him anywhere, make sure to say hello. Who knows, he could make you Internet famous…

You can talk to Ryan on Twitter too. Follow him at http://twitter.com/LostAbbeyRyan

Pre-Stone 15th Anniversary breakfast

Stone Brewing’s 15th Anniversary party is just a week away, and as usual we’ll be serving breakfast at the brewery for everyone who wants to carbo-load before heading up to the first session a “stone’s” throw away at Cal State San Marcos.

Our dynamic-duo of chefs, Jason Danderand and Steve Owen will be manning the Magic kitchen and griddling, grilling, frying, smoking and steaming their way through a monster buffet of rib-sticking breakfast foods. As always, the food and fun are free, the beers are regular price.

Doors open at 8:30am on Saturday, August 20, 2011. More information is available here.

A Fond Farewell to Larry #5

Each summer we host an intern who spends several weeks with the brew crew learning how to make beer the Port/Lost Abbey way. (We’re not really sure if this hurts or helps in the real world, but whatever.) Our first intern five years ago was named Larry, and even since then we’ve always referred to the summer intern as “The New Larry”.

This year’s Larry (number 5) is Travis Herman who hails from the East Bay area up in Northern California. Travis recently left a career in bio-research and for the past five weeks has been working long hours learning the craft of brewing from the ground up. (Biggest lesson: “brewing is a lot of hard work.”)

Travis’ internship ends today and he, along with his dog, Hudson, who came down here with him, is driving back to Northern California this weekend to rejoin his wife, who is six months pregnant. A quiet, friendly guy with a wry sense of humor and a quick brain, we’re all going to miss him around here and wish him the best of luck in starting his career as a brewer.

If you’re ever in the Bay Area and happen to run into Travis, feel free to call him “Larry”. He’s only one of five to have earned the title, so you know he’ll appreciate it.

End of Summer Sale

With summer winding down we need to clear some room to make way for new stuff expected this autumn. As a result we’ve put all of our Port and Lost Abbey tanks, T’s and shirts on sale in our online shop. Now through Labor Day (September 5, 2011) you’ll find all these oh-so-cool wearables marked 25% off. Stock is limited to what’s on hand (read “no backorders”). so if you want the best selection you should shop sooner rather than later.

» Click here to see everything on sale.

New Beer Releases

Here’s a quick list of recent and upcoming beer releases:

• July 16: Santa’s Little Helper (Bourbon Barrel-Aged) – 22 ounce bottles and draft. Limited quantities in distribution
• Aug. 5: Summer Pale Ale (SPA) – Draft only. Distribution limited to Southern California.
• Aug. 15: Panzer Pils – 22 ounce bottles and draft. Seasonal; Full distribution.
• Aug. 19: Hop 15 – 22 ounce bottles and draft. Seasonal; Full distribution.

For a full release schedule, check our event calendar.

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Tags: august 2011, Hop 15, Libri Divini, Lost Abbey, panzer pils, stone anniversary, video

Abbey Scribe | May 3, 2011

The Official Newsletter of Port Brewing & The Lost Abbey
Volume 3, Issue 2

In This Issue:

Where’s Tomme? | New Faces: Meet Gwen Conley | 5th Anniversary Party | New Beer Releases | Upcoming Events | The Cat is Back!

Let’s Play Where’s Tomme!

Greeting members of the faithful!

We are skipping the usual message from the DOBO this month as Tomme, world traveler that he is, is out and about being Tomme Arthur. Having just returned from Europe (Scotland, Belgium and Denmark, specifically), this week he’s up in Chico, CA at Sierra Nevada doing a collaboration brew with a few of the other members of the “Brett Pack” (Adam from Avery Brewing, Sam from Dogfish Head, and Rob from Allagash).

Next week he’ll be back home for our 5th Anniversary celebration (more on that below), and then he’ll be heading out to do a coast-to-coast beer week tour. If you’d like to say hi to Tomme, you’ll be able to find him at the following:

• May 19 to 26 – Seattle Beer Week
• June 3 to 4 – Savor, Washington DC
• June 5 to 8 – Philly Beer Week

We don’t have a full list of his appearance schedule just yet, so stay tuned via our Twitter and Facebook feeds. Or better yet, subscribe to our calendar and you’ll get all the updates delivered right to your computer / phone / tablet / etc.

New Faces: Meet Gwen Conley

One of the more exciting things to happen here at The Abbey is the arrival of our new Quality Assurance Director, Gwen Conley. For those not familiar with her name, Gwen comes to us from the famous Flying Dog Brewery in Maryland where she headed their QA department for years.

Gwen actually got into the beer business back in the 90′s through what she calls “dumb luck” — more or less wandering into it when she went to work as a microbiologist for Coors in Golden, Colorado. After leaving Coors she went to work for the Ball Corporation (the container people) where she went through their sensory training program and became an expert on how colors, aromas, and flavors work together to create full-fledged sensory experiences. That ended up getting her part time work doing food and drink pairings and eventually earned her the moniker “Sensory Goddess.”

She eventually parlayed her unique background into her gig at Flying Dog where she not only managed their QA efforts, but also conducted educational programs in beer and food pairings. As for her reasons for jumping to the left coast and joining us here at Port / Lost Abbey, Gwen said “It was the opportunity to do the sort of experimentation that goes on here. Working with so many barrels and different beers was hard to pass up.” (She also admitted that living in San Diego isn’t so bad either.)

As QA director Gwen has jumped in and taken over oversight of our brewing and production processes, finally putting all that really cool equipment in our shiny new lab to work. She’s also held a number of sensory sessions for the staff, and we’re trying to convince her to do a few classes for the general public as well (keep your fingers crossed).

Asked what she’d be doing if she wasn’t helping make great beer, Gwen revealed an interesting aspiration. “I think I’d run a snorkel bar somewhere in the Caribbean or Central America,” shed said. Guests would snorkel half the day, then at 3pm the snorkeling stops and the drinking starts.”

A snorkel bar? Sounds like a pretty good plan to us.

Want to hear more from Gwen? Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/SensoryGoddess

5th Anniversary Party

Our fifth birthday party is Saturday, May 14, 2011 — just a little more than a week and a half away — and we’re inviting all our friends, fans and members of the faithful to drop by and say hello!

As with last year, so everyone has plenty of room and can enjoy the food, music and (of course) beer, we’re dividing the party into two sessions — an early one from 11am to 3pm and a later one from 4pm to 8pm.

Items on tap for our daylong festivities include specialty kegs from the barrel archives, bottled beer releases, special barrelhouse tours, amazing street food from our in-house chefs, and live music from our two special guests — Kiera and the Lesbians and The Professors.

The $15 ticket includes a commemorative glass, 8 beer tasting tickets, food and live music. Tickets are very limited, however, so if you’d like to attend, you should buy them sooner rather than later.

For full details and to buy tickets, click here.

New Beer Releases

Speaking of our Anniversary Party, we also have two beer releases from the Port Brewing side of the house coinciding with the party. On May 14 we will issue the following beers:

Anniversary Ale – Our annual hoppy strong pale ale.
Older Viscosity – Old Viscosity aged in Bourbon oak barrels for a year.

No need to worry if you can’t attend the anniversary party. Both of these beers will reach our full distribution network. Look for them on shelves and your favorite pubs and eateries in mid-to-late May.

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendars (or subscribe to ours) — the following events are coming up!

May 16 to 22 – American Craft Beer Week
The annual nationwide ode to American craft brews. We’ll be kicking it off a couple of days early with our anniversary party, but you can expect some fun in the tasting room May 20 – 22 as well.

June 16 to 18 – National Homebrewer’s Conference
The NHC is here in San Diego this year and we’ll be rolling out the red carpet all week long for our homebrewer friends. Tomme & Co. have already brewed a special beer for the conference, and we’ll be extending tasting room hours to accommodate all the folks who will be in town earlier in the week. Details will be posted on our calendar and website as we get closer to the dates.

July 16 – Christmas in July
Our annual celebration and fundraiser for Toys for Tots will be a little earlier than last year (so people can go to ComicCon and our party). As with previous years we’ll be releasing Santa’s Little Helper aged in Bourbon oak barrels, Santa will be on hand for photos, and there will be live music and food. Oh, and it’s all FREE (except for the beer) if you just bring a new, unwrapped toy worth $15 or more! Last year we raised close to $10,000 in cash and toys for the Marine Corp’s Toys for Tots foundation and this year we’d like to do even better, so make plans to attend.

Amarillo is Back!

For those of you who follow our Twitter and/or Facebook feeds, you’re probably aware that one of our brewcats, Amarillo, disappeared a couple of weeks back, much to our dismay (the tasting room just isn’t the same without him holding court on the bar or the barrel tables).

We are please to report that last Saturday night he suddenly re-appeared. Skinny, disheveled and exhausted, he ate two cans of cat food and a whole bowl of dry food in a matter of minutes, and spent the entire next day “talking” to anyone and everyone who came into the tasting room (usually his sister, Cascade is the talkative one).

We’re not entirely certain what happened (nobody here speaks cat), but we’re pretty sure he had a quite an adventure. All we can say is everyone — Amarillo included — is happy that he’s back.

Thanks to all those who put out the call that he was missing (he even made it on a local TV news broadcast), sent kind words, and brought him treats and gifts since his return. You guys are the best!

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Tags: amarillo, anniversary, gwen, Libri Divini, may, newsletter