Brews Brothers

Hey Brewsters!
Don’t mean to go all Chicken Little on you but there are actually only five weeks left until Christmas. So the sky isn’t exactly falling but that doesn’t leave a lot of decision time if you’re hoping to get a tasty brew down for the holidays and avoid lining up with the thirsty masses to give your hard-earned to the local Coles/Woolworths bottle shop for some preservative-packed swill. The cold room is filling up fast but we can still squeeze in a few more, especially for our loyal regulars like yourself! Just don’t leave your run too late!

BREWERS CLUB

If you don’t have enough space for the whole 50 litres (or enough mates to share it around) there should be a few Brewers Club leftovers around for you to pick over. If you’re not familiar with how this not-so-exclusive club works, it goes like this: The esteemed members meet quite irregularly to brew a huge range of brews, of which they only take a carton or two from each and the rest is available for others to bottle up from $30 a carton. It’s a little bit more if you need bottles, and the ginger beer and ciders (when available) are $40 a carton (with your bottles). It’s a great way to try something new without having to take the whole six cartons or do any of the hard work.

NEW HOPS

Speaking of new brews, we’ve got some exciting stuff bubbling away in the 18degree room at the moment. We’ve just got our hands on some Galaxy hops (Google it kids, they’re all the rage) and Amanda put down a couple of experimental kettles which we’re hooping to have perfected in time to launch a whole new range in the new year. In the meantime, ask us about it next time you’re in the brewery and we might even have a few test samples to get your feedback on. There’s a few other varieties we’ve got our eyes on too so if these go ok we might have even more experimental ones on the go next year. Don’t panic though! You can still make all the old favourites, it just means it’s gonna be a whole lot harder to choose.

GOOD FOOD AND WINE SHOW

Good to see a few familiar faces among the tipsy hordes that swamped us at the Good Food and Wine Show in the convention centre last week. The response to our chilli ginger beer as well as the standard ginger was huge, and we also got through a lot of ciders, both pear and apple. But the star of the show was our special elderflower and lime cider, which we usually have in our samples fridge.

APPLE CIDER SHORTAGE

The huge popularity of our apple cider and the elderflower and lime variation has served up a bit of a Catch-22 for us unfortunately. The new cider malt that we’ve been getting in from the UK is proving a bit harder to get than we’d like and our local supplier has run completely dry (great timing for Christmas eh). If it is any consolation we’ve got plenty of the pear cider, which we usually sell a lot more of anyway, and we’ll make sure there’s heaps there to see out the summer.

COMMERCIAL BREWS

We’re lucky with the pear actually because Jimmy at The Hideaway in The Valley is going through quite a bit of it on tap. If you haven’t checked out the place yet you really should poke your head in next time you’re round there, and talk up the cider Brewsters! If you’re in the Valley we also sell our stuff over at The Bowery in Ann St. There’s a couple more places around the traps like Room 60 at Kelvin Grove and Irish Murphy’s in town but we’re hoping to get into a few local independent bottle shops and more bars soon. If you know somewhere that might be interested, have a word ti the manager and let us know so we can drop them round a few samples. You’ll be enjoying our tasty brews at your local bar or restaurant before you can say: “You’re charging how much for these?”

CHRISTMAS HOURS AND VOUCHERS

The beer Gods have been kind/unkind to us this year with the major holidays falling on Mondays and Tuesdays when we’re shut anyway. We’ll obviously be closed on Boxing Day (Wednesday 26th December) as well, but it’s pretty much business as usual other than that. And don’t forget, you can show someone just how much you love them by giving them a Brews Brothers Gift Voucher this Christmas. And then they can show you how much they love you by letting you drink it with them. Hope to see you down here some time before the big day for a festive brew or two. If we happen to miss you then try to stay safe, happy and healthy over the holiday season and we’ll catch you in 2013.

Cheers,

Mike

IT’S DRINKIN’ SEASON

Brewsters, Spring has sprung and we’ve officially kicked off Drinking Season 2012/13. There are a few minor changes to report this season but, all in all, the rules remain pretty much the same. Firstly, ciders are no longer just something to pick up for the little lady, or visiting Irishmen and artistic types. Apple cider has already broken through into mainstream Australian drinking culture, opening up a crack for its more exotic cousins like pear, raspberry and elderflower with lime. We’ve got them all available here at the brewery, in the samples fridge or for you to make up yourself. Beerwise, we’ve been trying out some new Aussie hops with plans to launch a few new brews for summer. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for the latest developments.

THURSDAY IS POKER NIGHT

Beer and poker, it’s almost meant to be. From this Thursday (October 4) we’ll be holding our own weekly poker night with a 50 litre party keg up for grabs for the ultimate winner. There’ll be a carton on offer for the weekly winners and a chance to go on to greater fame in some other competition or something. Register by 6pm for a 6.30pm start every week. (your points accumulate each week I think) And bring a few mates to stack the odds in your favour, or get the $3 sample beers when they lose.

CUSTOMISED BREWS

If there’s something else you’ve tried somewhere that you like and can’t find it among our 220-odd recipes, don’t be afraid to ask us about it. There’s a good a chance we could get pretty close by simply tweaking an existing one, or we might have to do a little bit of research and have a bit of a dig. Very few of our experiments end up below average in taste, even if they don’t quite hit the intended mark. And if you happen to have something you want to bring in to add to your own brew then we’re also only too happy to accommodate.

OKTOBERFEST

If you liked BREWSFEST, or you were unlucky enough to have missed it, then you’ve only got three or four weeks to wait until our next big show down at the Brewery. Oktoberfest (Saturday October 27) could end up making BREWSFEST look tame. There’s going to be at least 25 beers on offer, as well as our full range of ciders and ginger beers. The food will be tasty, nutritious, delivered right on time and served with precision industrial efficiency, just as the Germans would have it. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for all the latest details.

MONSTER GARAGE SALE

There are only a few more spots left if you’re keen to get rid of some of your trash/treasure in our Monster Carpark Garage Sale from 7am on Sunday, November 4. Hurry up and book your free spot in the shade for the morning, which is shaping up as a bit of an event in itself. We’ll have a barbecue breakfast going, hot coffees and cold drinks and we’ll be flogging off some of our accumulated extras. There’s anything from leftover bucks party “paraphernalia”, fermenters, beers glasses and coasters, kegs, taps, plumbing gear and assorted bits, beer merchandise, bottle openers, T-shirts, CDs, DVDs, books and a few other very random things. And who knows what our friends will bring along.

BREWERS CLUB

The ladies and gentlemen that are a part of this one big happy family have been very thirsty of late, but there are a few half-kegs slipping through that might come up for grabs if you’re feeling like a carton or two of something different. It’s $30 a carton with your bottles or $40 with ours and you can do it pretty much whenever we’re open. The club has been going for a few years now and they’re powering through the menu so you never know what could be o the tap at any time. Drop in or give us a call if you want to check what’s in the keg.

SEE YOU SOON

I’m just about all gibbered out for now so hope to see you down here for Oktoberfest or the big carpark sale and, now that the weather is warming up, hopefully we’ll see you soon for a brew.

Cheers, Mike