Who’s Ready to Raise A Ruckus?
“This is the best one yet,” Brian said last week. Brian was talking about our annual Raise A Ruckus Imperial Stout. This beer is only made once a year, and we’ve only made it three times in the life of our brewery, inspired by a beer we brewed with Michael Wells, a home brewer from Kansas City. That’s why it’s craft beer—because we’re hopefully getting better at our craft every time we work at it. 2019 Raise A Ruckus Imperial Stout went into cans and kegs today. The celebration of this once-a-year, limited release beer begins this weekend at the…
Piney River Brewing CompanyJanuary 9, 2019
Aux Arcs Saison—Beautiful Beer for a Beautiful Place
It’s not uncommon when Brian and I are driving around Missouri that we will top a hill or round a bend and marvel at the “classic Ozarks” vista—rolling hills and trees as far as the eye can see. Sometimes the sun is setting in the hills, sometimes it’s rising. Sometimes fog is obscuring the depths of the hollows. There are bluffs. There are rivers. There are waterfalls. It’s always breathtaking. The first Europeans to venture in our hills centuries ago were French surveyors, and they aptly called this area Aux Arcs, French for “to the top arc”. Pronounced “Ozark”, the centuries…
Piney River Brewing CompanySeptember 14, 2017
Honey, I Shrunk the Piney River Cans
Today was a cloudy, rainy day on the Piney River Farm; not too different from the cloudy, rainy night in 2011 when Piney River first canned craft beer in the Ozarks. Today’s first--12 ounce Piney River cans. Those of us that have been canning beer on the Farm are still trying to adjust to these smaller cans in our hands, but we’re doing what many of our consumers and our distributors have asked us to do by putting our beer in a smaller can. Waaay back in 2011 when Piney River was the first microbrewery in the state to can beer…
Piney River Brewing CompanyOctober 12, 2016
The Behind the Scenes Peek at Our First World Beer Cup Win
I need to preface this blog post by saying that I feel like anything I write here is going to seem much less dramatic than Piney River's first big win at the Great American Beer Festival. Even in those moments after we won Gold at GABF last October, I remember thinking, "There will never be another moment like this one." There's only one first time. Shortly after the 2013 Great American Beer Festival, we were contacted to participate in the largest beer competition in the world--the World Beer Cup. Also put on by the Brewer's Association, the World Beer Cup…
Piney River Brewing CompanyApril 15, 2014
Piney River Brewing Wins Gold at the World Beer Cup®
Piney River Brewing Company in Bucyrus, MO claimed a gold award in the 2014 World Beer Cup, a global beer competition that evaluates beers from around the world and recognizes the most outstanding brewers and their beers. Gold, silver and bronze awards in the competition’s 94 beer style categories were presented April 11, 2014 during the World Beer Cup award ceremony at the Hyatt Regency in Denver, Colorado. Piney River Brewing was awarded a gold award in the American-style wheat beer style category for its Float Trip Ale, a wheat-based blonde ale featuring pale wheat and malted barley with balanced,…
Piney River Brewing CompanyApril 13, 2014
Expanding the Piney River Beer Reach
It's taken a while, but finally we can say that we're trying to quench the thirst for craft beer in Southeast Missouri! Last Friday Bluff City Beer in Cape Girardeau sent a big old' truck to Piney River to pick up a plethora of Piney Pints. And the people of Southeast Missouri rejoice! Let me take you back...a long way back. Brian and I have good friends in SEMO. They have wanted our beer since day #1. Then, Rodney Edwards at Grellner Sales (our first distributor) suggested we talk to his friends, the Bess family, in Cape when we were…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMarch 19, 2014
Celebrating Craft Beer in the Ozarks–Piney River Style
It was in March of 2011 that Brian and I cracked open the doors to the BARn for the very first time. Somewhat to our surprise, folks showed up! We filled growlers, we poured pints, we sampled the beer that we were brewing after work, sometimes after midnight, on our Sabco Brew Magic 10-gallon system. The "system" for serving beer that first year at the BARn included a table across the middle of brew house floor and picnic tables and camp chairs located out in front of the BARn. A year later, we had a bar built in the upstairs…
Piney River Brewing CompanyMarch 2, 2014
How We Canned Our Version of Fall in the Ozarks
Around our house there's one thing that's synonymous with autumn--sweet potatoes. We eat them regularly, baked until the sweet juices inside bubble up and spill out. A sweet potato doesn't really need anything on it to eat it, but I like mine with a couple of pats of butter. Brian adds a little brown sugar. Andy adds brown sugar and cinnamon. I don't have a lot of time to bake, but I do enjoy making homemade pies. There was a time when I would make all kinds of pies, try new recipes, whip up a fresh peach and raspberry pie…
Piney River Brewing CompanyNovember 18, 2013
The All True Story of Piney River’s First Trip to the GABF
There’s a really good chance you know how this story ends. But beyond the official photo and press release, you really need to know the whole story. Brian and I decided that we were going to attend the GABF (Great American Beer Festival) this year. We wanted the opportunity to enter our beer in a national competition—mostly to see what kind of feedback we would receive. We have two brewers that are new to brewing and to the industry—Lucas joined our team in January and Amber joined our team in April. We wanted them to get their first taste of…
Piney River Brewing CompanyOctober 15, 2013
More Craft Beer in Cans = More Good Times
You probably don’t know this: waiting for your new craft beer cans is like waiting for a baby to be born. You know the outcome, but it’s painful getting there. When Piney River Brewing put McKinney Eddy Amber Ale and Missouri Mule India Pale Ale into Piney Pints, we knew that our customers would say, “That’s great. What about X beer? When’s X beer going into a can?” As we’ve told many of you, we have to purchase a half a semi-truck load of one type of can. That’s no small investment. Plus, we’re still very much in the “figuring…
Piney River Brewing CompanyJuly 4, 2012