PRBC Blog

Two brewers (husband and wife), one big old barn, one river located just down the hill below the barn and an idea for something that may be a little work that leads to a lot more fun.
Piney River Brewing Wins Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival® The Beer

Piney River Brewing Wins Gold Medal at the Great American Beer Festival®

Piney River Brewing Company claimed a gold medal at the 2013 Great American Beer Festival (GABF) competition. Presented by the Brewers Association, GABF is the largest national beer competition that recognizes the most outstanding beers produced in the United States. The top three winners in the competition’s 84 beer-style categories were announced October 12 at the Great American Beer Festival awards ceremony held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado.  “Everyone at Piney River is overwhelmed and honored to bring home a gold medal from our small brewery here in the Ozarks,” Brian Durham, head brewer and co-founder at…
Piney River Brewing Company
October 14, 2013
Some Thoughts About Stepping Out There Start up

Some Thoughts About Stepping Out There

If you've been to the BARn, you've seen a little saying we have tacked up on the wall behind the bar--"A Doer. Not a Dreamer." with the words attributed to Tom Asacker. Brian and I have been reading Tom's blog www.acleareye.com since before we dug a new well to build a brewery in rural Missouri in July of 2010. He frequently has great things to say to those in leadership positions, to entrepreneurs and to anyone who's interested in doing something that may seem a little crazy to everyone around them. Every week Brian and I are approached by people…
Piney River Brewing Company
August 7, 2013

Music, Moonshine & Craft Beer in the Ozarks

Seth Kugel, the New York Times "Frugal Traveler", is traveling from Louisiana to North Dakota this summer, and of course he had to stop for a short time in the Ozarks. Part of his trip included a Dawt Mill float trip on the North Fork of the White River. Our Float Trip Ale makes an appearance at the end of this video. We got a little write up here: http://travel.nytimes.com/2013/08/01/travel/music-and-moonshine-in-the-mellow-ozarks.html?ref=frugaltraveler&_r=0

Looks like Seth had a perfect day in our neck of the woods!
Craft Beer for Your Next Float Trip The Beer

Craft Beer for Your Next Float Trip

It was just about 3 years ago that one of our friends asked, “Are you insane?” when she heard we were starting a brewery in a barn on our farm. We said, “No, we’re not insane, we’re having the time of our lives!” And it’s true, this industry is a fun one. There’s great camaraderie among the folks that make beer and sell beer. It’s very rewarding to pour your heart and soul into a vision of crafting high quality beer that celebrates the Ozarks and to people snapping up your products as soon as they hit the shelves. (Thank…
Piney River Brewing Company
July 25, 2013
A Craft Beer Thank You to You! Beer EventsThe BARn

A Craft Beer Thank You to You!

For our second Ale-iversary a friend gave us a card (and a really cool growler) that said the frequently used Benjamin Franklin quote, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” Happy is really the best word to describe the 2nd Ale-iversary at Piney River Brewing Company. We’ve been working fast and furious for the past few months to pull this off…got the cherry wood floor down, added electricity to the South side of the BARn (for live music), got trim put up, added the other speakers we purchased for last year’s Ale-iversary, brewed up…
Piney River Brewing Company
March 16, 2013
Craft Beer for the Ozarks in 2013 Beer Events

Craft Beer for the Ozarks in 2013

2013 has gone off with a bang. Our first beer tasting of 2013 took place at Homegrown Food in Springfield, a fun, locally owned grocery store that specializes in homegrown and local. Brad, Mary and the staff at Homegrown have a cool vibe going on, and we’re proud to be a “local” part of their endeavor. And we love shopping at Homegrown, too. We thought January, February and March were “slow” months for craft beer events, but had two beer festivals in February! Our booth at the festival. The first was the Midwest Regional Beer, Wine, Cheese & Chocolate Festival…
Piney River Brewing Company
March 3, 2013
Crafting a Better IPA The Beer

Crafting a Better IPA

We love India Pale Ale. A fermentation vessel full of Missouri Mule India Pale Ale When we envisioned a craft brewery in the Ozarks, we knew that India Pale Ale, commonly referred to as IPA, would have to be part of our beer line up. In those first few months operating as a nanobrewery, we knew that IPA would have to be one of those beers that was packaged for distribution at the beginning. India Pale Ale gets its name from the time in history when the British colonized India. The Brits would travel to India by ship, around the…
Piney River Brewing Company
December 29, 2012
Oktoberfest in the Ozarks Beer Events

Oktoberfest in the Ozarks

This fall we had our first real experience as a brewery during Oktoberfest. It seems like many, many, MANY moons ago, but this time last year we had just brewed our first batch on the big system. We still weren’t keeping the taproom open every Saturday because we couldn’t make enough beer. Fast-forward 11 months. With Piney River beer in many locations throughout the Ozarks, we had many requests for events, many related to Oktoberfest. As I kept adding events to the brewery calendar, Brian and I looked on September and October with some trepidation. We wanted to make sure…
Piney River Brewing Company
November 5, 2012
Tap Room Tweaks The BARn

Tap Room Tweaks

Many of you were at the BARn last weekend. A lot of you were not here, but it was nearly standing room only. And there were so many empty kegs at the end of the day that we wondered what we would serve in the upcoming week. Even now, I am thinking of this person and that person that came in...and many of you stayed awhile, too. On a fluke, and since it was Labor Day weekend, Brian and I got some brats and grilled them to give away to those that came in, too. ; We had two new…
Piney River Brewing Company
September 6, 2012
Craft Beer for Capitol Hill The Beer

Craft Beer for Capitol Hill

We've been doing the usual around here...making beer, canning beer, cleaning kegs, doing tastings, festivals and tap takeovers, and talking to politicians. Okay, so we don't talk to politicians every day.  In fact, we really try to stay away from most things political, but things have changed lately.  As members of the Brewer's Association, we've been diligent about contacting our legislators regarding our brewery and brewing legislation. At the Craft Brewer's Conference in San Diego this year we had the opportunity to talk with Representative Pete DeFazio of Oregon a passionate voice for craft beer on Capitol Hill.  Pete loved…
Piney River Brewing Company
August 23, 2012
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