Opening
We are pleased to announce that on Saturday 3 June, 2017 we will be opening our beautiful 1890's Marrickville warehouse for sampling of our beers as well as takeaway bottle and merchandise sales. From this day onwards, our cellar door will be open each Saturday from 2pm- 7pm. We are really looking forward to meeting so many of you by sharing our space and passion for these beers. For more information about our cellar door eg, hours, location, public transport information and FAQs please see the 'Additional Information' heading on our Cellar Door/Events page.
To celebrate our opening, not only will we be releasing new blends of both Gold and Amber but also selling a very limited quantity of Gold Blend #1 and Amber Bend #1 for takeaway purchases. We held back a few cases of each last month and are so excited to have them available at our cellar door to mark our opening.
Our Tour & Tasting sessions will commence the following Saturday, 10 June. To book your place and for more information, please visit our Events page.
New Blends Release
Our opening weekend coincides with our next release of our Gold and Amber blends. On 3 June, we will be releasing Gold Blend #3 and Amber Blend #2. Specific information on the blends will become available closer to the release.
As we have around 600 bottles of each of these blends we expect to serve and sell a majority of these in-house. In an attempt to maintain our stock and ensure we always have our beer available for purchase from our cellar door, these blends will have extremely limited distribution. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause; however, we feel it is primarily important to have our products available to those who come to visit us.
Online Sales
In a small attempt to make amends for this, for this release we have increased the amount of bottles available for purchase online. On the morning of 3 June online sales will go live of Gold Blend #3 and Amber Blend #2. We have allocated 150 bottles of each blend (up from 60 Gold/ 100 Amber at first release). Any purchases made over the weekend will be shipped Monday 5 June first thing for delivery during the week. As normal, all sales will be shipped via AusPost.
Please raise any questions you have regarding our opening or online sales via social media and we will do our best to answer them thoroughly and promptly.
Gold Blend #2
Those with a keen eye might have noticed that we have seemingly skipped the second blend of Gold. Don't worry, it wasn't released somewhere obscure and you missed it... rather we have made the tough decision not to release this blend because it didn't quite meet our expectations.
At the blending table, the 3 individual elements of the blend came together well as still, room-temperature beer. However, after blending, packaging and refermentation in the bottle, the blend has developed a slight off-aroma of sulphur that's not really acceptable. After the overwhelming response you have given us with our first release of beers, we would not have been proud to put our label on these bottles and pass them at the same level of quality that you our customer expect.
I will watch these 950 bottles over the next few weeks to see if during further maturation the aroma clears or is consumed in longer, more complex fermentations. However, I am not confident things will get better with time in this case. Instead, if the blend is still not up to scratch we will open the bottles one by one and re-rack them to barrel and allow the blend to age further in barrels until they meet a desired flavour. These barrels then will only go back into the cellar to use in future blends, not to be released together.
Gold Blend #2 not taking shape has put us in a tough financial position of not being able to generate a significant amount of cash by releasing the beer. At this early stage in our business that cash would have made a huge difference. Foreseeing these types of situations was a major reason we adopted the model we have in this brewery (by not purchasing a brewhouse and therefore being tied down to equipment loan repayments). So, we are happy to eat this short-term cost in order to maintain the long-term value of the goodwill you have already put into the brand. That is far more important to us. I am also personally happy because I can honestly say I have every confidence in the beer that we do release.
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We wholeheartedly apologise for the time between our first and second releases. We are working towards a future where we will have enough stock to never have a break in our beer being available. Thank you again for your patience with us at this early stage in our business. Your support thus far has been the driving force behind maintaining the integrity of our product. Y'all rock.
I hope to see you on June 3rd!
best,
topher
