The Beer

When we started this process, we thought we would save our old barn, make a little beer in it, and see what the interest was in beer hand crafted on the Piney.  We had barely cleaned the old hay and manure out of the barn before word started getting out about Piney River Brewing Company, and we kept hearing, "This is what this area needed!" After we got our licenses last year, we poured all of our energy into getting the BARn in shape to brew.  The brewing began in January, and the major construction work stopped.  Yet in between…

Well, here's a Piney River Brewing Company growler. These are half-gallon glass containers that hold beer. According to the Alstrom Brothers at Beer Advocate:  In the late 1800s and early 1900s, fresh beer was carried from the local pub to one's home by means of a small-galvanized pail. Rumor has it that when the beer sloshed around the pail, it created a rumbling sound as the CO2 escaped through the lid, thus the term "growler" was coined. Before World War II, city kids used to bring covered buckets of draft beer from a local bar or brewery to workers at…

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today.  We're open.  Yep, you heard it right, we've cracked the door to the BARn just a bit.  We have Bronzeback Pale Ale and Ozark Firefly Wheat on tap.  We've got growlers to fill, so you don't have to be thirsty. Back when we started this Piney River Brewing Company thing we thought that we would use our little Sabco system to test the waters.  We were going to brew some beer, create a really cool tap room with a spectacular view, and maybe, just maybe, drum up a few Piney River Brewing Company fans…

There's Bronzeback Pale Ale in the cooler carbonating and conditioning.  There's Ozark Firefly Wheat fermenting.  And we're brewing again this weekend. We're tweaking and tasting the beer. We're feeding lots of spent grains to the girlfriends. We're continuing to work on the the BARn, making it ready for all the microbrew lovers that want to try a Piney River pint. And it dawned on me over the weekend as Brian and I were brewing, this is the first job I've ever had where I had a beer in hand while working.  If that doesn't make you want to work in…

It was on February 11, 2009  over a bottle of Brewery Ommegang's "Three Philosophers" that we decided to make our own beer.  Almost two years later, on a day when we were tucked away at home awaiting "Snowpocalypse", the first official Piney River Brewing Company beer was brewed. For the record, the brewer (Brian) did most of the work while the assistant brewer (Joleen) did her day job, stopping only to take a few photos, much to the brewer's chagrin.  The assistant brewer did provide much assistance with the clean up last night. Up for the first brew was our…