A Great Summer in Lake Bluff

So much to talk about… I guess that what happens when you only post a blog entry every few months.  Well, better infrequent than never.  Here goes…

July 4^th Weekend:

We can’t thank all of you enough for making the 4^th of July weekend such a success for us and supporting our community.  The Block Party on Friday night was a great time with live music and food from local vendors, along with plenty of you coming in for growlers and pints of beer.  We were honored to help out the Lake Bluff Volunteer Firemen’s fundraiser on Sunday night with a couple kegs that they served at their annual Fireman’s Ball.  And the morning of the 4^th, we filled plenty of growlers and sold a few kegs for private post-parade parties.  Our 4^th of July commemorative hand-blown growlers turned out great and we again quickly sold-out of them like our “Opening Series” growlers.  We’ve already started tossing around ideas for a Halloween series of hand-blown growlers to add to our collection.

New Beers:

In the beginning of July we introduced two new beers for the summer: our Americana Wheat 101 and Dog Days Hefeweizen. Both are great easy-drinking summer beers, although the German Hefe yeast gives Dog Days it’s typical Hefeweizen flavor with notes of banana and cloves, whereas the American Wheat has a cleaner flavor profile with some light citrus hop aroma.  Our second batch of American Wheat 101 (coming on tap in the next week or so) will be slightly less hoppy than the first batch to make it even more easy-drinking, perfect for our outrageously hot summer this year. 

Brewing:

In the middle of May, we were very excited to welcome Mike Dorneker to our team as our full-time brewer.  Mike comes to us as a graduate of Siebel Institute of Technology after spending time interning at Metropolitan brewery in Chicago.  Mike is doing some great things for the company by stepping up the quality of our processes, improving our productivity, implementing a yeast-management program, and generally getting it all done to make sure we have plenty of beer to serve to you.  We’re also looking forward to Mike’s first recipe of his own that we’ll have on tap as our Brewer’s Handle in the coming weeks.

Groups and Parties:

For those of you who have been to the Tap Room, you know we’re not exactly setup for table reservations.  But that hasn’t stopped a number of groups from having small parties at the Tap Room.  We’ve had teams from local companies come in after work for some “team-building” and also hosted a birthday party.  If you let us know in advance, we can work with you to understand what you’re interested in doing and ensure that we have enough food ready for your group.

Tours:

Starting on July 17^th, we started hosting tours at the Tap Room.  We’re not the biggest operation, but there is still plenty to learn about what our company is all about, our brewing process, the ingredients we use, and our brewing equipment – brew kettle, mash tun, brite tank, and cellar with our 4 fermentors.  The tours are every 2 weeks on Sunday’s with sign-ups on the web athttp://lbbrew.com/tours.html.  The cost of the tour includes a sampler tray with four 4-oz samples of our beers after the tour.  We encourage you to check it out and learn more about what makes craft brewing unique and what we’re doing behind the scenes to make the beer we all enjoy.

Bluffinia

One of the many things people in the Lake Bluff area look forward to in the summer is Bluffinia on Sunday night’s (6:00-7:30).  The live concerts on the Village Green kicked off on July 27th and will continue until August 21st.  Our outdoor seating provides a great place to listen to the music while enjoying pint of our beer and having a bite to eat.  If you’d rather setup a chair or blanket on the Green, come on by to fill up your growler to take with you.  Either way, summer will be gone before you know it, so get yourself up to the green on Sunday night and enjoy a unique part of the Lake Bluff summer experience.

Beer Fest

With the craziness of opening the Tap Room and the 4^th of July weekend under our belts, we’re all set to serve beer in our first beer festival this year – the 2011 North Shore Wine, Beer, Cigar & Food Festival (http://www.northshorewinebeerfest.com).  The festival will be located in the Brainard Building and Field in Libertyville from 3:00-8:30 on August 27^th.  Please stop by to say hello and enjoy trying out some of the great local craft brews of the area.

Chicago Tribune Article

As many of you have probably seen already, we were so excited to be featured in an article by the Chicago Tribune on the new breweries in the Chicagoland area.  Thank you to Josh Noel for coming up to Lake Bluff to try out our beers and spend some time with us and write a great article that helps to further get our name out there and spread the news of the growing craft beer trend in Chicago.  http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/ct-dining-0721-new-chicago-beer-20110721,0,375905.story?page=1

As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support of our brewery.  We are honored to be part of your lives and reside in our great community.  The future is bright, and we are looking forward to introducing new beers and getting our beer out to more of you in the area.

Cheers,

Rodd and Dave

One month in

What a ride!  Excitement, anxiety, exhilaration, stress, joy, insanity, (insert emotion here), etc, etc, etc…  When we opened on March 23^rd, we really had no idea what to expect.  Fortunately, the brewery has been received by our community better than we ever could have imagined.  So many people came out for the opening and following days, we were nearly cleaned out of beer within the first week.  Although stressful, I guess these are the problems businesses want to have.  Within three or four days of being open, we were already looking for additional fermentors to increase our capacity.  If you know anything about the craft brewing equipment market right now, getting used equipment is nearly impossible, and new equipment is typically at about a 16-20 lead time.  With some great luck, we found a couple new 7 BBL fermentors out in Portland that were available and ready for immediate shipment.  The addition of those two fermentors will add 150% more capacity than we had, and we’re glad to have it.  In the following couple weeks after opening, we brought the Belgian Monkey and Inspiration Pale Ale on tap and they quickly went fast.   We were glad to receive the two new tanks on April 13^th at 11:00 am, and with the help of Mel Vahi and his team we were able to take apart the front window unit, open up the trap door into the basement, setup a rig to drop the tanks downstairs, get the tanks off the truck and through the trap door, and put it all back together by 4:00 pm so we could open that day at 5:00 pm.  The next week of brewing was pretty nuts as we cranked out a double batch of Soft Tail, double batch of Pale Ale, double batch of Hard Tail, and a single batch of Black Squirrel Bourbon Stout to fill up all the tanks.  We’re happy to get the Soft Tail back on tap and excited to get the Hard Tail back this upcoming Wednesday.  On Tuesday we’re brewing the Saison again and will harvest the yeast for the Belgian Monkey the following Tuesday.  Within a couple weeks we should have five of our beers back on tap again.  To get through these times of beer shortage, we’ve brought a couple guest beers on tap – Bell’s Amber and Oberon, and Half-Acre’s Over Ale.  Great beers, but we’ll be happy to get more of our own beers on tap real soon.

In other news, we’ve been approved to provide outdoor seating.  Not that we need it right now with snow in the middle of April in Chicago, but nice to know we’ll have our own little beer garden once the weather starts to warm up.  The furniture should arrive in a week or two and it will be a great feeling to sit back in front of the Village Green and watch the sunset over the train station with good beer in hand.

We’ve also just submitted an application to the Lake Bluff Zoning Board of Appeals to extend our hours.  Now that we have a bit more capacity and have some of the kinks worked out, we’d like to open up a bit earlier for the lunch crowd, as well as stay open a bit later (11:00 pm) during the weekdays.  We’ll see what the ZBA has to say, but until now we’ve been a pretty low-key business in terms of disruption and we look forward to being a good addition to the neighborhood.  The ZBA meeting isn’t until the third week of May and then we need to get final approval from the Village Board in June so stay tuned as we probably won’t be able to change our hours until mid June.

Well, we can’t say enough how much we appreciate all of your support of our little brewery.  So far, so good, and we’ll keep making the beer as fast as we can.  We’re looking forward to getting some new beers from the menu on tap as well, but need to get caught up first.  And we’ll try to be better about getting more info on the blog and website, but for now priorities are clear – brew, brew, brew…

Cheers,

Dave and Rodd

Finally Here!!!

Tomorrow is the big day - we're finally opening our doors!!!  We're very excited to see all who can attend and it looks to be a pretty packed house from the sound of it.  On tap will be the Bohemian Blonde Ale, 'Tis the Saison, Soft Tail IPA, Skull and Bones Double Pale Ale, Hard Tail Imperial IPA, Black Squirrel Bourbon Stout and Weeee!! Heavy Scotch Ale.  We're going to offer a sampler paddle for those who want to try out a few varieties before taking the plunge.  And our food menu has a great combination of small bites, sandwiches, and a couple desserts - most of which are from vendors within 5 miles of our brewery.  For the non-beer drinkers, well... we've come up with some options for you: 3 reds, 3 whites, and a sparkling wine, along with a couple soda's and bottled water.

Wish us luck, and we hope to see you at Tap Room soon.

Cheers!!

p.s.  For those interested in reading about the opening from a couple news sources, here are a couple articles on the opening:

http://lakeforest.patch.com/articles/inspired-home-brewers-turn-their-passion-into-lake-bluff-brewing-co

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/lakeforest/news/3112040,lake-forest-brewery-031711-s1.article

Coming Together

Ok, Ok.... It's been a long time since the last posting, but that should indicate just how busy we are getting the Tap Room ready for our opening and brewing a bunch of beer.  Last we wrote the Hard Tail brew-day didn't go so well, but the Bohemian Blonde Ale was in good shape.  As is turns out, we had to throw out the Hard Tail, which was a bit of a sad day, but the lessons learned were important and we are not about to serve beer that doesn't meet our high quality standards.  Since then, we've been able brew our Pale Ale, Easy Rider English Ale, Bourbon Stout, and just this past Tuesday, another round of the Hard Tail, which I'm happy to say is fermenting along nicely.  We've kegged the Soft Tail from early on, the Bohemian Blonde, the Pale Ale, and we'll be ready to keg the Easy Rider later this weekend.  This upcoming Tuesday, we're pulling out the Belgian yeast strain and planning to brew a Belgian Saison, and then following that up in two weeks with a Belgian Dark Strong Ale.  Lots of good beer in the works and we're itching to get open to start serving it.

The build-out is coming along as well, but is holding us up from opening up at the moment.  January and February were really active for the construction: HVAC, electrical, and plumbing all finished up, the hardwood floors were put in, tile installed, and the walls were painted.  We assembled our hand made bar over the past couple weeks, and the trim carpentry is being completed this weekend.  Tim Moore, our great friend, is cranking out the banquettes for us, and those should be ready in the week or so.  And Anna Thor (Goldsberry) is working on the cushions for the banquettes, as well.  And a local artist, Kerry Sherman, is taking some custom photographs for us to hang on our walls, along with displaying some of her own original work.  It's been a great team effort getting the place into the shape that it is, so we have much to be grateful for.  The kitchen is coming along nicely, although the requirements for the health department are driving us a bit nutty.  The appliances are pretty much in place and we've got a few local vendors supplying us with some great food that will pair well with beer and just plain taste great.

We just met with our local custom growler guys this afternoon who are making some incredible hand-blown limited edition Lake Bluff Brewing Company growlers.  We're really excited about these!!! They are more like pieces of art than a vessel to hold beer, but I don't think it will stop someone from filling it up with beer.  Our logo will be etched into it and the first 30 will be numbered as our first batch and will commemorate our opening.  All custom, all hand-made, all about the craft.  More details and pictures to follow.

It seems like a long ways off, but March 23rd is going to be the big day we open the doors (if not sooner if we can manage), and it will be here before we know it.  We'll try to be better about getting more posts and pictures over the next month as we near the opening.  Until then, thanks again for the support.  Cheers!

Pedal to the Metal

It's been a while since our last blog, but that should tell you something about how busy we've been.  It's a labor of love, but labor none the less.  Although we tried to take a bit of a break from our real jobs over the holidays, we were busy painting and getting ready for moving the first batch of Pale Ale into the bright tank for carbonation.

Looking at the build-out progress, aside from finishing up some painting this weekend, we'll be ready for the oak flooring to be installed in a couple weeks and the tiling should be finished this upcoming week.  The lighting will hopefully be installed this week and most of the finish electrical work should be finished.  We've got loads of staining and finishing of the woodwork in the coming weeks and also need to build our banquette seating for which we're getting help from our good friend, Tim Moore.  The mechanicals are pretty much done now with a fan on the steam vent being the last big installation, as that should really help the evaporation on the boil and reduce boil-overs.

Now for fun stuff - the updates on the beer!  On January 4th, we moved the Pale Ale (or Imperial Pale Ale as it turned out) from the fermentor to the bright tank.  It took a little longer than we thought, but the results were better than expected.  The biggest problem was forgetting to put a valve back on the bright tank after cleaning it.  After spending an hour cleaning up a gallon or so of foamy beer on the floor of the walk-in-cooler, we won't make that mistake again.  The carbonation only took about 2 hours and we could sample it right out of the bright tank....yum.  Considering we didn't have our temperature controllers setup yet for the fermentor on this batch and it came in at 8% ABV instead of 6%, the beer tastes great and will knock you on your butt if you're not careful.  Meanwhile the Soft Tail was fermenting nicely in our 6 barrel (bbl) fermentor.  Over the weekend of Jan 8th, our assistant brewer, Patrick Whisler, was a huge help in kegging the Pale Ale into whatever Corny kegs we could find so that we could move the Soft Tail into the bright tank.

On Sunday Jan 9th, we brewed our first batch of Bohemian Blonde.  The numbers came out great with excellent efficiency and things really seemed to go smooth that day.  The day finished off well with the Packer's taking out the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs.  A good day for Dave.

On Tuesday morning, we still had about 6 Corny kegs to fill of the Pale Ale in order to empty the bright tank.  We also were going to brew our next batch, Hard Tail, on Tuesday.  The only problem was that the Hard Tail (to be brewed) needed to go into the fermentor that was still being occupied by the Soft Tail.  Therefore, the Pale Ale from the bright tank needed to have it's kegging finished, emptied, cleaned and filled with the Soft Tail.  To make matters more interesting, not only did the Soft Tail then need to get transferred to the bright tank, and then the now-empty fermenter needed to get cleaned, but the fermentor needed to be dropped through a trap door in the floor down to it's permanent location in the basement.  Patrick was there to help all day, but it was a crazy day to say the least and way too much to get accomplished all in one day.  At the end of the day, though, we brewed the Hard Tail (although not without some lessons learned), got the Soft Tail in the bright tank, moved the fermentor downstairs, and filled the fermentor with the Hard Tail.  It was a long day, and props to Patrick for his amazing effort!  I'm happy to say the Hard Tail is now percolating away in the fermentor nicely and the Soft Tail in the bright tank tastes fantastic.

So, with the Bohemian Blonde in the 3 bbl fermentor and the Hard Tail in the 6 bbl fermentor for the next week and half, we have some time to work on the build-out activities and a build a keg washer / filler for our 36 half-barrel kegs that should be arriving this week.  Pretty exciting!  As always, we appreciate your support and can't wait to get the doors open.   Below are some pictures of the 3 bbl fermentor getting lowered down into the basement.