Probably one of the most “famous” reserve societies by a brewery in the United States is The Bruery’s Reserve Society. The Bruery just made an even bigger splash with plans to add an even more special, super, mega, ultra reserve Continue Reading →
If you’ve ever been to Cigar City Brewing (Tampa, FL) you’ll notice something immediately. The need for space. When there is an event, space gets limited VERY quickly. Good news on that front. The brewery is currently expanding the customer Continue Reading →
Patrick Rue, Founder of The Bruery (Placentia, CA) responds to the beer community after the announcement of a “Hoarders Society” surfaced. The society is an even more exclusive version of the Reserve Society, at a price tag of nearly $700 Continue Reading →
Genius. The White House has it’s own brewery now, and President Obama’s campaign bus is stocked with 1600 PA Avenue brew. The White House Honey Ale has been the talk of everyone from Jim Koch to home brewers nationwide. Well, Continue Reading →
So President Obama’s campaign van is stocked with White House home brew. The current administration has been making various honey based ales over the past year or so. Apparently, the White House churns out a good Continue Reading →
It’s no secret that the Obama administration has gotten into home brewing. President Obama served the White House Honey Ale to Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant Dakota Meyer last year. As the President vies for a second term, his campaign Continue Reading →
Wild Heaven Craft Beers (Avondale Estates, GA) has recently addedLazy Magnolia (Kiln, MS) as a contract brewery. This move will allow a little more open-ended brewing creativity, while they plan the build out of their new brewery space. They will continue Continue Reading →
Probably one of the most “famous” reserve societies by a brewery in the United States is The Bruery’s Reserve Society. The Bruery just made an even bigger splash with plans to add an even more special, super, mega, ultra reserve society called “The Hoarder’s Society“. If you get invited to that, be prepared to drop nearly $700 dollars.
Cigar City Brewing is in the process of expanding their brewery and their tap room. In the process they just dropped another hint at something fairly important. The potential addition of their own Reserve Society. Nothing officially announced here, but Cigar City asks you to unscramble this:
To complicated for you? We get Reserve Society. Might make sense though, given the amount of rare releases by Cigar City. Hunaphu, Barrel Aged Hunahpu, Various barrel aged renditions, and experiments. It raises the question – Do you like the idea of Reserve/Brewery Membership societies?
If you’ve ever been to Cigar City Brewing (Tampa, FL) you’ll notice something immediately. The need for space. When there is an event, space gets limited VERY quickly. Good news on that front. The brewery is currently expanding the customer areas. The tasting room is doubling (maybe even tripling) the current size. Quick overview of the changes:
– Additional bar at the end of expanded tasting room, 20-24 NEW taps
Bruery’s Rue on Hoarders: “We Want to Cater To Most Loyal”
Patrick Rue, Founder of The Bruery (Placentia, CA) responds to the beer community after the announcement of a “Hoarders Society” surfaced. The society is an even more exclusive version of the Reserve Society, at a price tag of nearly $700 dollars. Judging by a lot of the comments on BeerAdvocate.com, not everyone was thrilled. Here’s the thoughts from the man himself. Feel free to sound off too.
Hi All—
Interesting read, good to read all of the opinions on the Hoarders Society. I appreciate all of the feedback.
I’ve been wanting to create several levels of “Society” memberships for awhile now as we have a wide range of customers with varying expectations— those who have extensive beer collections and trade frequently, others who want a a wide variety in smaller quantities of what we have to offer, and customers that fall somewhere in the middle. I’d love to be able to deliver a great experience to a wide range of beer enthusiasts, and I don’t think the best way to do that is exclusively through the Reserve Society. There are certainly all three types of customers in Reserve Society now, and I know we can do better to serve the particular desires of a wide range of customers.
We could not figure out a good way to do this with the available “off the shelf” eCommerce solutions out there, and up to this point having a customized solution that takes a web development company several months to develop and continual maintenance and improvements is outside of our reach financially as a small, growing company. Up to now, we’ve been investing in our capacity, improving our production processes, implementing and improving our retail efforts, and in our staff at the brewery, Tasting Room & Provisions (now totaling close to 60 employees). Improving business systems and processes has been “higher hanging fruit”, but at this point it is very important in the process of becoming the brewery we want to be. We finally have the resources to invest in this, so have so we’ve enlisted a local OC eCommerce development company to put together a solution that makes this possible. I’m very excited about this. We are tailoring the site and the backend processes to make a much more pleasant experience for our members and allow us to do a better job at serving our members. Even Black Tuesday next year (and perhaps this year, if we can get it going in time) will run much smoother with greater server reliability and hopefully we’ll avoid all of the issues in past years. This is a sizable investment, but I know it’s what we need to do.
The Hoarders Society is a way to recognize and cater to our most loyal Reserve Society members, and allows us to brew and sell beers that we wouldn’t otherwise be feasible to make by taking manageable risks with some very expensive ingredients / processes. The 5 exclusive releases included with the membership are very expensive to brew (especially two of them in particular), and at this point we’d have to take big gambles to create enough for the entire Reserve Society. The price we’d have to offer these beers would be well beyond our current top pricing, and frankly I’m not comfortable releasing beers that exceed our current price range. By securing an up front commitment and an established price for these beers, this is the best way to be able to make these beers make sense financially for us and hopefully make sense for many of those invited to join the Hoarders Society. Once we reach our target goal for Hoarders Society, we will not be growing it or adding a membership above and beyond it. Reserve Society is very near to the memberships we’d like as well— we intend to grow it at a much slower pace than we have in the past.
Lawyer Requests White House Beer Recipe Through Freedom Of Information Act
Genius. The White House has it’s own brewery now, and President Obama’s campaign bus is stocked with 1600 PA Avenue brew. The White House Honey Ale has been the talk of everyone from Jim Koch to home brewers nationwide. Well, a lawyer in California has requested the recipe via the Freedom of Information Act. Brilliant.
Submitted to BSJ is copy of the request to the White House, asking for information pertaining to “White House Honey Ale“. Would be interested to see how the administration responds.
SENT BY FACSIMILE ONLY White House Office of Administration FOIA Officer 725 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20503 Fax: (202) 456-7921
Re: FOIA Request
Dear White House Office of Administration FOIA Officer :
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act.
I request that a copy of the documents concerning the following subject matter be provided to me: The recipe of any beer brewed at the White House from January 21, 2009 to present, including, but not limited to beer labeled as “White House Honey Ale.”
I also request that a copy of the documents concerning the following subject matter be provided to me: Any invoices, receipts of other documents reflecting the purchase of any brewing equipment or ingredients purchased for use in the White House from January 21, 2009 to present.
I further request that a copy of the documents concerning the following subject matter be provided to me: Any time sheets or other documents reflecting the name of any personnel responsible for brewing in the White House from January 21, 2009 to present.
As you are likely aware, so long as the government agency has created or obtained the requested materials, the document is an “agency record” within the meaning of the Freedom of Information Act. (United States DOJ v. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. 136, 144 (1989).) Such records include all books, papers, or other documentary materials made or received by an agency of the United States Government. (See 44 U.S.C. § 3301; Forsham v. Harris, 445 U.S. 169, 183 (1980).) As such, any recipes, invoices, or other documents reflecting brewing at the White House are properly the subject of the Freedom of Information Act.
In order to help to determine my status for purposes of determining the applicability of any fees, you should know that I am a home brewer that is seeking to understand the methods, tools and ingredients used by the first beer to be brewed in the White House to improve my home brewing attempts to clone the White House Honey Ale for personal use, in compliance with Title 27 of the Code of Federal Register, section 25.205(a). This request is not made for commercial use.
I am willing to pay fees for this request up to a maximum of $100.00. If you estimate that the fees will exceed this limit, please inform me first.
I also request a waiver of all fees for this request. Disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government and is not primarily in my commercial interest. Specifically, this information improves the understanding of home brewers on the methods used to produce America’s presidential beer. This brewing at the White House coincides with a dramatic increase in home brewing throughout the nation. Accordingly, the White House will be able to educate Americans on the methods used in the production of home brewing.
I also include a telephone number at which I can be contacted, if necessary, to discuss any aspect of my request.
So President Obama’s campaign van is stocked with White House home brew. The current administration has been making various honey based ales over the past year or so. Apparently, the White House churns out a good bit of home brew, as it has a small brewing facility.
Obama aides mentioned the existence of a small White House brewery during an election run in Iowa. The 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue brewery brews small batches for White House parties and special events.
Obama Campaign Bus Stocked with White House Homebrew
It’s no secret that the Obama administration has gotten into home brewing. President Obama served the White House Honey Ale to Medal of Honor recipient Sergeant Dakota Meyer last year. As the President vies for a second term, his campaign bus is stocked with more White House brew.
His bus is reportedly stocked with a few new offerings, including White House Honey Ale, White House Honey Blonde and Honey Porter. Why honey? The First Lady has a bee hive on White House grounds. Good luck trading for one of these beers…[HuffPo]
Wild Heaven Craft Beers (Avondale Estates, GA) has recently addedLazy Magnolia (Kiln, MS) as a contract brewery. This move will allow a little more open-ended brewing creativity, while they plan the build out of their new brewery space. They will continue to brew at both facilities. There is already beer in the tanks at Lazy Mag.
No word on new beers in the works, but as Nick Purdy of Wild Heaven has always told me “they are always on the horizon.”
note: Correction to earlier story. Wild Heaven hasn’t “switched” to Lazy Mag. They are brewing at both.
