Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Give Me Liberty



Having survived the dueling festivities of the Fremont Solstice Parade/Fremont Fair and the Washington Brewers Fest a couple weeks ago, we are now prepping for extended 4th of July Urban Beer Garden hours. We'll be open on Sunday from noon to 9:00 p.m. to serve party-goers en route to the Gasworks Park fireworks show.*

And in a special display of patriotism, we'll be serving "Liberty Lager," a small-batch collaboration between our head brewer Matt Lincoln and Elliot Ryan from the Latona Pub, first mentioned in this video (scroll to bottom). If the temperature gets above 65 that day, it will be the perfect, thirst-quenching treat -- light, yet complex. I should know because I just sampled it from the bright tank in the walk-in. The sample valve on that tank being rather touchy, I also gave the floor a gushing taste. That'll teach me from sneaking drinks in the walk-in! But I digress. We'll also be serving a cask-conditioned IPA (discussed by Matt Lincecum here in addition to our regular line-up.

You might have noticed we're trying to amplify our "online presence" via tweets (@fremontbrewing), our new Facebook page (become a fan and post on our wall!), and our video-enhanced homepage. Thanks for your patience while this 44-year old with Luddite tendencies attempts to master the world of social media.

I'm sad to inform you that one of our brewers, Aaron Golston, will be leaving us next week to begin a graduate program at UC Davis so he can be a rich and famous brewer on his own some day. Aaron came to us by way of Charlie from Pike Place Brewing and he's been of invaluable service from the get-go: building the brewery, designing recipes, hauling kegs all over town, teaching us about beer chemistry, and scaring my sons into submission when they get wild. He's super-smart, conscientious, and funny but you probably don't know that because we try to keep him away from customers (his attitude is an acquired taste). He will be missed, particularly bybar managers who've grown used to the pleasure of his sunny disposition. Pictured above, painting kegs -- he just loves repetitive, mind-numbing tasks!

Yesterday I went to Whole Foods (@wholefoodsrsq) to get stuff for a dinner party and I saw myself on their FBC growler display -- it was weird. But better than seeing myself on a poster in the post office. So here's a little reminder that you can buy our beer in all five Seattle, Redmond, and Bellevue stores. And to answer questions about how long they keep, we shoot them full of C02 before filling them so that the beer stays fresher longer -- it can last weeks in the fridge before opening and for up to 3 or 4 days after opening, so I'm told. Speaking of Whole Foods, we'll be doing a tasting at the Interbay store (@interbaywfm) this Saturday, July 3rd from 4:00 to 6:00.

Finally, I'm excited to announce the launch of the Seattle Good Business Network, a network of local, independently-owned businesses that are committed to sustainability as an operating principle, either in their operations or products. I've been on the advisory team and I look forward to taking advantage of the business-to-business benefits as well as the business-to-consumer promotion opportunities. It's not just another business network and my description won't do it justice so just go here to find out more. It takes a village.

*Our regular Sunday hours are from noon to 5:00 p.m.

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