We Heard It Would Be Like This
Piney River Brewing Company was busy with a bunch of new folks at the BARn this past weekend. We enjoyed meeting all of them and sharing our beer with them. As we have blogged here, you know that we are constantly trying to keep the beer in stock, but when you fill a bunch of growlers in a weekend, sell a few pints and share some samples, a 10-gallon system won't cut it. We started out on Saturday with all five beers on tap. The first beer to go was Old Tom Porter. Brian was attempting to fill a growler…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 29, 2011
Memorial Weekend
It's been a somber week in Missouri--checking on family members and friends and saying a prayer for of our fellow Ozarkers that are dealing with losses. We would like to give a tip of our hat to the men and women from Texas County that have personally assisted with disaster efforts. Thank you! In the Ozarks many people spend Memorial Weekend on the river, and currently, the level of rain has rendered the rivers fast and murky. I don't think we'll do a float trip this weekend, but we will have the brewery open on Saturday from 1 to 4…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 25, 2011
An Official Brewery Meeting
Pull on your good jeans. Find a shirt with a collar. Grab a beer. It's time for a serious, official brewery meeting. We had one of our first official brewery meetings yesterday. Since we are the owners of our LLC we don’t have a lot of “official” meetings. For our official meeting, we took four growlers of Piney River brew up to Grellner Sales and Service, a distributing company in Rolla, for a meeting with Rodney Edwards. The folks at Grellner were recommended to us by the owners of the Public House in Rolla, and our local package store, The…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 20, 2011
The Significance of May 18th
May 18th is historically a good day in the life of Joleen and Brian Durham. On May 18th in 1996 we college sweethearts married. We have spent all of our anniversaries together, and many times we have spent them doing some sort of fun outdoor activity. (Which is WAAAY more fun than an actual wedding—what were we thinking back then?!) May 18, 2011, our 15th year in the great adventure of marriage, was spent on the Big Piney River. This is not a first, but it was the first time we had craft beer in a can in the boat. …
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 18, 2011
Have You Seen the Sign?
Since early March when we first cracked open the brewery door just a tad, we’ve heard from people how we need signage. Of course we need signage! It’s “on the list”…the same list that has things like bigger brew house, canning system, tap room and bathrooms on it. Our lack of signage was driving John McCarty of McCarty Signs in Houston quite crazy, too. After all, he’s in the business of signage. When we bought our property in 1998, there was a sign at the driveway that said “Little House on the Piney”. The sign was actually painted by my…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 17, 2011
Support Your Local Brewery
There is a phrase that the Brewer’s Association has popularized among craft breweries—“Support Your Local Craft Brewery”. If you’ve ever had the freshest of craft beers that can only come from a local brewery, you will definitely want to support your local craft brewery. In today’s marketplace, there is a great push toward shopping at your local mom and pop stores, using locally sourced products and eating locally grown foods. You might as well have locally brewed beer in your fridge. At Piney River Brewing Company we really appreciate all of the friends old and new that have supported their…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 10, 2011
The Mule
We were at the TCMH Healthcare Foundation’s annual Chili Cook Off last November when I spied a piece of art work I could not live without. Lanie Frick, a Texas County artist that is known for paintings of farm animals and the Ozarks, donated an oil painting of a mule. When I saw that painting, I knew I had to have it for the BARn. Brian got into a heated bidding war with one of the County Commissioners, but I got my mule. (And we raised a little money for charity, too—bonus!) At the time, I knew that mule would…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 5, 2011
Merch!
Ever since our very cool Piney River logo was developed (Brooke Hamilton of Grindstone Studio—Thanks Brooke!), I’ve thought about putting it on a T-shirt. The logo is pretty color heavy, and I did not want T-shirts that had more weight in paint than cotton. At the Craft Brewer’s Conference we met Graphic 22 or as they are known in brewery circles, The Hopman. They specialize in a full-color print that blends with the shirt for a soft feel and look. Iain Hursey, my sales guy, hooked me up with the first of what I imagine will be many more T-shirts.…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 4, 2011
Brewers Having Fun
There are times in life when you do crazy things that are definitely not regrettable. For example, last week we headed to St. Louis in the middle of the work week, five-year old in tow, for a concert by The Decemberists at The Pageant. A lot of beer has been brewed and fermented and kegged in recent months while The Decemberists sang their stories in the BARn. When we saw they were going to be in St. Louis for a concert, we knew we wanted to attend. To add a little icing to the cake Sara Watkins (formerly of Nickel…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMay 2, 2011