The Bruery – Five “Portola Rossa” Beers Coming This Week

This is a shortened week over here in the Tasting Room. We will be closed Thursday to allow our staff time to be with their families for Thanksgiving and then again Monday and Tuesday for private Reserve Society events. The good news is we will be packing the days we are open with great beer and people!

The big news around the brewery this week is the release of the first batch of beer out of our new 3 barrel pilot system. These beers – 5 of ’em to be exact – are 6.7% ABV red ales blended individually with coffee chosen by Jeff Dugan of Portola Coffee and our brewing staff. The idea is that the beers are meant to showcase how one ingredient can either drastically or subtly change the flavor of a single ‘base’ beer. To encourage you to enjoy this new project to its fullest extent we will only be offering those beers as an individual flight of 5.

We’d also like to thank everyone that participated in our canned food drive this past month. With your help we collected about 350 cans and were able to make a very sizable donation to the Families Forward food kitchen in Irvine. We had so much fun opening up our cellar for that event that we decided to continue it — with a twist. With the holiday season right around the corner we have decided to mix it up and have a toy drive for the next month. Bring in any new toy item — either unopened or unused — and get access to draft pours of 2011 Oude Tart, Cuir, our 2011 anniversary ale, and Fruet, this year’s 100% barrel aged anniversary ale. We’re not making any promises but as those beers run out we will be forced to dig deeper and deeper into our cellar for more unusual and limited offerings. The more toys that come in, the more likely you will see some truly crazy things on our draft list come December.
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