February 4, 2012

Beef and Beer

That was the name of a restaurant my grandpa used to take me to when I was a kid..It was over the border in OH, I think Astabula. Anyway, tonight, I dined on beef that was raised on the spent grains from our brewery while pairing the beef with the beer that made the spent grains, Belfast Black Smoked Porter...just wanted to make you all jealous ;)  Life is good.

Growler hours are officially in full swing. Sptop by the brewery from noon to 3pm on any Saturday and you will be personally greeted by myself, my wife or my partner in beer, Jason Lynch... We have some badass beers at the growlers hours thatb are very exclusive:
Zythos hopped Imp. Red Ale
Liopard Lager
Simcoe dry hopped Imp. Red Ale
Viking Beer
Belfast Black Aged on Cherries
our newest test batch, La Bealtaine..a white hoppy ale...

you heard it here first...come to the brewery and tell us what you think.

J. Lavery

January 18, 2012

New Malts

After brewing for 23 months on a big, pro scale, we have a lot of our techniques and processes down. We are, however, ADHD brewers and constantly tweak our ingredients, incorporating new hops and yeast strains into our brews. One thing we've never played with much is our malt suppliers. We've stuck with roughly the same 5 malting companies for the past 2 years (Great Western, Thomas Fawcett, Briess, Franco-Belge, Best Maltz). Honestly, this was a thing of convienence as our malt supplier in New york carried those brands and after using them so much, we came to love them. 

Finally though, we are getting to play with some new ones.. next week, we have Rahr, Castle, Crisp and Weyermann malts coming into the brewhouse to join in the crazy Lav Brew Party!!!

We shall see what transpires....Let your palettes be your guide, although you will probably have no way to know which was brewed with what.....unless you do???? I dont know, either way...buy some beer!

Slainte
Jay Lav


January 16, 2012

Happy MLK Day!

Quiet day at the brewery...Kegged our 1847 Rye Stout today...This batch will be exclusively in Erie but fear not....we are brewing it again next week! Had an amazing weekend with the kick-off of our weekly Growler Hours (saturdays, noon to 3pm). Had so many people here at the brewery it was overwhelming. Kicked the last known keg of Stingy Jack Pumpkin Ale, as well as a keg of Imperial Red Ale. On tap for this weekend is Imp. Red Ale, Belfast Black Smoked Porter, Devil Bird-Imp. Porter in bourban barrels and a Simcoe dry-hopped Imp. Red Ale...
Test brewed a hoppy American wheat beer last week with Zythos hops...You'll have to come to the growler hours to taste it though ;)

 Heading to The Deli in State College for a beer/food pairing next  Wednesday, Jan 25....Hope to see some of you there!!!!!!

Slainte

Jay Lav


January 3, 2012

All Brett, All the Time

Not really, though it is on our minds though. For those uninitiated, Brettanomyces is a species of yeast that was discovered in 1904 in Carlsberg and was found to be a contaminants in Irish and English ales, ie Guinness..These ales would take on a fruity, tart character as they aged, which was highly sought after.
Flash forward 50 years when big, clean lager breweries dominated the world and all but made the world forget about this crazy and wild yeast.The Belgians never forgot though.

American craft brwewers have revived the interest in brett. Of which, we are one. We brew our Liopard oir Farmhouse Saison and bottle it with brett Claussenii, one of the mildest strains. This yeast produces flavors like stone fruit, pineapple, sour apples, etc. Since we add it late into the fermentation process it takes a while for the brett to produce significant characteristics...it is also why the Liopard has such a wild carbonation character.

We have taken to pull 5 gallons of wort from a fermentor and ferment it with brett. We did our first only brett fermentation with our IRA wort and are anxiously awaiting the results of that.

We have also done a test batch of 2012 Devil Bird...spoiler alert......a golden barleywine hopped with New Zealand hops and aged in barrels with brett as the secondary yeast....We have a keg at the brewery and it is delicious..and 13.5% ABV!

So we will keep our other beers clean...for now.... but you can rest assured you can sample almost all of them 'Brett Spiked' at our weekly growler hours which begin January 14, 2012.

Happy new year and Slainte

Jason Lavery


December 23, 2011

Slow, Steady and Orgasmic

I meant to say 'organic', oh well. Freudian slip or whatever. The title of this post is meant to explain our sales and growth in the Pittsburgh market. We started sending bottles there in July 2011, very few bottles. At the time we were still an alt. prop and didnt have much excess beer but we wanted to get a heads start on 'our home away from home', which is what we refer to pittsburgh as.
Well, after about 6 months of steadily increasing sales, in addition to our own 10 bbl brewhouse pumping out 310 gallons/week, we are ready to finally hit the Burgh full bore in January 2012. We have an entire fleet of kegs dedicated to draft sales in pittsburgh and they wil be heading down asap. Its a priority of ours to represent well in the markets we are in and this is the step in the right directions.
So, yinz down in the burgh, get ready for some draft!!!!!

Slainte

Jason Lavery
jlavery@laverybrewing.com




December 15, 2011

Nothing worth doing is ever easy, right?

We are having a blast.... still. Feb 2012 will mark 2 years as a licensed craft brewery for us. As most know, we started at the Brewerie at Union Station as an alternating proprietorship, serving our beers in only Erie. We moved into our own brewery in March 2011 and were finally licensed in September 2011. We are on track to brew 200 barrels in 2011, 70% of which was brewed since September in our 10 barrel brewhouse.  This gives us hope for 2012. Our two 10bbl fermentors max out at about 500 bbls/year, plenty of beer to keep this three man/woman team very busy. We are a small shop, no employees as of yet. A glance into our week goes like this: bottle about 75-100 cases on Thursday, send the rest to a kegging tank. Brew on Friday and fill the tank that was emptied the day before. Keg beer on monday, clean kegs on tuesday (for next week) and wednesdays are a sort of prep/paperwork/maintenance/sales/inventory/ordering/repairs day.

The long road to becoming a small craft brewery has been treacherous: we had no idea how much cash and collateral would be required to build this brewery... So far though, we are right where we wanted and expected to be: selling high quality, and creative beers in the wonderful state of PA. The finances are tight still. The work is demanding. The hours are long and about to get longer once we inaugurate our weekly growler hours on Jan 14. Still, there has not been a second of any day when I would give any of it up, well maybe I'd give up cleaing kegs but thats a different story...There are tons of breweries in planning and we welcome them with open arms as fellow soldiers in a war to make beer local again. We thank those who came before us who made our journey easier, Chris at Brewerie, Tim at Erie Brewing, Matt at Voodoo and Brian and Minnie at Spragues. We also look forward to the new guys, I guess we'll be considered the teenagers, then? Either way, 2012 will be a very interesting year for craft beer in Erie and the rest of Pennsylvania.

Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year.
May your buzzes be long and your hangovers short!
Slainte and Nollaig shona duit
LAV Brew Crew



Dec 11, 2011

Growler Hours and Tours
Its.....almost....here.......Coming in January 2012 we will begin our regular growler hours.  We anticipate having hours every Saturday afternoon for the public to come to the brewery, chat with us brewers and fill up your growlers.
Stay tuned to facebook and the blog for more information!!!!




November 14, 2011

Creative Juices

We dont have much time around here to brew many pilot batches, what pilot batches we do brew tend to be brewed on the weekends at our homes. We have started an interesting tradition at the brewery though. We pull off a 5 gallon carboy of beer as it is being pumped to the fermentor and do something crazy with it.
#1- Devil Bird (Imperial Porter)- we usually pitch our blended English house strain but in the carboy we pitched a whole host of Belgian yeasts and 2 strains of Brett.
#2- Belfast Black- we added whole cherries the carboy- Swisher Sweet beer!
#3- IRA- we dry hopped with Simcoe hops and oak chips soaked in Makers Mark
#4- this Friday, taking some Belfast Black from the end of the mash, adding 2 pounds of orange blossum honey and juniper berries to make, Gotlandsdricka, an old Viking drink :)
These will be on tap at our tasting 'room'.
Cheers!!!!
Jason Lavery






Ye olde Farmhouse Brewery

October 20, 2011

We've been busy busy bees brewing up a storm at our brewery. We did a pale ale first to test out the system (mash extraction, lauter times, boil dynamics, transfer times, fermentation specs, etc). We wanted to make a clean beer that didnt have much to hide behind ( lots of dark malts, big hops or spicy yeast). The beer came out well and will be given away as a parting gift for all visitors to our tours (times will be announced soon).

Back to the title: our olde farmhouse. Sometimes it feels like we are more in the Lavery/Lynch Farmhouse Brewery than we are in a a modern, steam fired stainless steel brewery. We are proud of our simple yet elegant approach to brewing. Mash temps are read by a thermometer in our hands, mash is stirred by 2 guys with some muscles, hops are added by the buckets load, yeast is pitched via a corny keg, beers are bottle conditioned, unfiltered, un pastuerized and un tampered with. Even as a homebrewer, I embraced the path of simpicity. I bought and sold numerous pieces of equipment that probably would have made my brewday easier but gadgets removed me from my beer. I need to be connected to it at all times. I can honestly say brewing at our new brewery is some of the most fun I've had in my life. Sure lots of things have gone wrong- we may have to dump a batch tomorrow. Boo hoo but we move on and learn from our mistakes. As I was standing inside of our 12 feet tall fermentors, sweating as 170F caustic wash swished around my brewers boots and sweat was dripping off of me, I was envious for a split second of those brewers who have amazing cleaning carts that remove every inch of residue from their fermentors by simply turning on a pump,. It was only a second though: I need to scrub my tanks, I need to be involved with the beer. I am not a pumper, I'm a brewer and I feel so at home when I'm laboring for our ales. By the way, my dripping sweat does not make it into the finished beer. 
So, our brewery is small and our beers are sometimes inconsistent but we strive to make them consistently good (quote stolen from Peter Broukhart). Thanks to all for your support and enthusiasm for our beers and our brewery. You have no idea how much we appreciate it.
Slainte and Cheers!
J Lavery

Transistion Complete

September 29, 2011
Well this morning was our last day of packaging at the Brewerie. We are officially independent and doing our own thing. Right now, we have a gentle bucket bubbling away as our first batch happily ferments. We are waiting for the grain truck to arrive so we can brew once last Stingy Jack. Our frist brew went amazing well. We hit our gravity and the brew day was much less intense than at the Brewerie. A few tweaks will be made for our second batch tomorrow but all in all, I am incredibly satisfied with our little 10bbl brewhouse and fermentors. Be patient with us as calibrating new equipment requires some trial and error. So if the next couple of batches dont taste the exact same as they always have, embrace the wonderfulness of small batch brewing.
PS
I bought some bourbon barrels today ;)
Slainte
J. Lavery





Imperial Red Ale...ch ch ch ch ch changes

September 14, 2011

Our Imperial Red Ale has been a part of our stable since day one. We didnt think it would become our flagship but I'm really glad it did. At 8.2% ABV, with around 68 IBU's, this is a beer to be reckoned with. Erie must be one hell of a town when the two local breweries both feature bigger beers as their flagships (Erie Brewing's Railbender is a Scotch Style ale clocking in at 6.8%- and its delicious :) Our I.R.A. is not even recognizable as a traditional Irish red (toasty,malty, caramelly, barely any hops...). It is it's own thing- resembling a west coast amber some days and a red ipa on others. The recipe has never really remained consistent and hops have had to change due to a lack of availability to us (the small guys). The beer was built around the Amarillo hop (all the boil was Amarillo and IRA was dry hopped with Amarillo and Centennial). All that changed in March 2011 when we were told we wouldnt be getting Amarillo again until January 2013!!! We played around with different blends looking to replicate that citrus/grapefruit that only Amarillo can provide. Finally realizing that it couldnt be replaced- we decided to embrace change and have a blast with some new hops. We also changed up the malt bill to a add some dark fruit characteristics and more toasty/bready malt profile. The winning hop blend we've found- thus far is Cascade, Centennial, Nugget and Northern Brewer.
So go out and pick yourself up a bottle and try to compare it in your heads to IRA of batches past. Post your feedback on our facebook wall.
Cheers!!! and Slainte
Jay Lav


Anti-Climax

September 10, 2011

Well we had some really high expectations that we may pull off our first brew next week. As is usual, or so I'm told, we had some kinks come up on Friday. A bit of background: we moved in our brewery March 1, 2011. our equipment came in April through May and we've been slowly making progress. These things take time, especially we are already consumed brewing, packaging and selling our beer....and there are only 3 of us. So speed up to September 9, 2011. B-Day, or boiler firing day. We've done our Federal and State paperwork. Local permits have been obtained and approval, kettles and tanks have been cleaned, equipment has been tested....expect for the 560,000BTU steam boiler we bought to boil the wort. We had our boiler maker and a burner professional there to simply fire up the boiler, test for the right gas to air mixture and we were told we'll be making steam by Friday afternoon. NOT! There was a faulty control on the boiler that was not sensing the flame and when that unit doesnt sense flame, it automatically and safely turns off the gas flow so we dont die.We ran through numerous tests all morning but finally were told the unit must be faulty and a new one would be shipped asap. 'Which means when exactly?'- I cautiously asked. No one could say for sure, it was already 4pm on a Friday and too late to find out if they had another unit in stock or if it had to be ordered. So, here we are, all but moved out of Brewerie, with as of today no place to brew our anticipated ales. Luckily, we sent all the pumpkin ale we made to pittsburgh and Erie already and if worse comes to worse we could sit on our laurels for a bout 2 weeks. This thought disturbs me. So, lets all hope and pray that this unit gets overnighted monday am, the boiler and gas man can meet us Tuesday, and we can boil by the end of next week.

Batch #1 at new brewery

September 5, 2011

Any thoughts? We had thought of brewing a huge 15% ABV golden barleywine and aging it for a year in white wine barrels and releasing it for our 1st anniversary but then reality struck....
First brew will probably see many things go wrong so its senseless to put tons of expensive grains and hops and yeast into our equipment only to have something in the process go wrong along the way. So....we are planning to brew a simple pale ale-like recipe that will only be available in our tasting room. Some thoughts are to use pale malt, a little bit of crystal 40 and crystal 60 and some vienna malt and hop it with Glacier hops...About 6% ABV and 40 IBU's. Any thoughts? Weigh in with your opinions on our facebook wall.
Slainte and Cheers!




Collaboration

August 30, 2011

The Brewerie at Union Station have been great friends to us at Lavery Brewery. Same applies to Erie Brewing who have 'lent' us their American ale yeast on occasion. In anticipation of Brewerie's 5th anniversary-Lavery Brewery, Erie Brewing and Brewerie are collaborating on a 100 IBU IPA. Some info: a solid base of British Maris Otter, Honey malt and oat malt. The hops are were is starts getting exciting :) A couple new hop varieties, Calypso from America, Pacific Jade from New Zealand and Zeus. A special yeast blend of equal parts Canadian, Austraulian and British ale. The beer will be brewed by Tim Schnars, Jason  Lavery and Jason Lynch from Lavery Brewery and Gary from Brewerie. Look for this beer exclusively at brewerie in September!
Slainte
J. Lavery

 

Pumpkin Ale Season

August 1, 2011

I can't believe its pumpkin ale time already...I was a little hesitant about brewing our Stingy Jack Pumpkin Ale in the July heat but after smelling those spices in the brewhouse yesterday, I'm ready for it!!!! Bring on the fall. For those of you who are unaware, Stingy Jack (as in someone who is cheap)is named for the Irish legend of the Jack o Lantern. This is our third year brewing this evil ale. It seems to get better every year and we think this year will be no exception. Some beer nerd facts - we mashed in 66 gallons and had a strike temp of 166F. We used 66grams of Calcium Chloride in the mash as well....You get where I'm going with this?? Expect to see Stingy Jack on a shelf near you (if you live in Erie or Pittsburgh) in mid September...Cheers and Slainte!!!

Jason Lavery
jlavery@laverybrewing.com

www.laverybrewing.com

Full Swing

July 11, 2011

Well we are maxing out while getting our beer to Pittsburgh and maintaining our Erie accounts while still brewing out of Brewerie at Union Station. This will be over soon though as we are on the brink of firing up the kettle for the first time. The first of many inspection by local, state and Federal officials are starting this Wednesday. All the equipment is in place and all we are waiting for is a bigger gas line to be placed to the building so we can get steam from our brand new Columbia boiler. Despite being so young, we've taken on a mentor type relationship to a few burgeoning brewers in the region who are thinking of starting a brewery. We are happy to share with them some of the pitfalls we've experienced as well as advice for following our path of things done correctly. Brewing is incredibly fraternal and rewarding field and truly the more the merrier. Our new beer, Imperial French Ale, or as the Fed's forced us to call it, Imperial French STYLE Ale is getting bottled this week. I'm really excited for this beer. All new beer ideas seem to come to me in a dream and I love reliving how they are born. This beer is no different. I wanted to make a beer that had something to do with Napoleon. Not sure why but I did. I first was going to make a Imperial French Porter using our house French saison yeast blend. A recipe was developed but at some point it was decided that a lighter color beer would be in order. Also, in honor of the Emperor, we decided this beer deserved our big 1 liter flip top bottles. So a recipe was worked up, 2 test batches were brewed and we were off to the races. This big boy clocks in at around 11.5% ABV, just about the highest alcohol beer you can coax out of the Brewerie's brewhouse. Not to fear though, our brewhouse will easily handle 20% ales ;) So the beer will be out in a few weeks and I hope you all buy a big bottle and re-use it as a growler or for some homebrew. Cheers and Slainte!!!

Jason Lavery
jlavery@laverybrewing.com

www.laverybrewing.com

Sooo close......

June 6, 2011

So much has happened in the past month. The tanks are erected, the brewhouse is assembled, the cold room is put together. Lights are getting installed this week and then plumbing will be happening shortly thereafter. As all projects do, ours is over budget. The slew of new breweries in planning has drained the market of any used equipment, which our cost where based on. So the downside is we ahve to be very much a penny pinching brewery but the good news is we have lots of brand new equipment that will have warranties and manuals, etc. So the final layout our our brewery is a huge 12bbl mash tun, a 10bbl hot liquor tank and a 10 bbl brew kettle. We have (2) 10bbl fermentors and (1) 7bbbl bottling/kegging tank. We have a 6 head wine bottle filler so that we can continue our bottling conditioning tradition. As soon as we are licensed and up and running, we have a whole lineup of special events that will be held at the brewery. Here's a small teaser list:

• Belfast Black and BBQ tasting
• Brewers Brunch Sunday's
• Growler Hours on Friday and Saturday
• A collaboration with Hungry Howies
• Weekly tours and samplings
• Special release, growler fill only beers, so far, we have a rye pale ale, a Berliner weiss and an Imperial French Ale that will be available at the brewery.
• more to come......

We've signed a contract with an awesome Philadelphia wholesaler, Bella Vista Beer. We are meeting with Pittsburgh and State College wholesaler sin the coming weeks. Pretty soon, Lavery Brewery beer will be available across this great state of PA!!!!

Jason Lavery
jlavery@laverybrewing.com

www.laverybrewing.com

Friends, Allies and Homeboyz and girlz

May 5, 2011

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!I love Mexican food so I'm having some enchilada's tonight!I wanted to write a quick blog post thanking all the people who have made our little brewery a sucess (and a bigger sucess in the future). Chris from Brewerie gets the loudest and most enthusiastic applause from the Lavery Brew Crew for his risk in letting us, a potential competetor, use his brewery. He is one of the coolest guys in all of greater Erie.
Penn Beer Co, specifically, Scott, Pat, Chris, Doug, Jim, Mike, Bob and Aaron, for signing us up and selling our beer. When we were looking for someone to sell our crazy ales, there were two local wholesalers interested. We are truly grateful we went with Penn as they have sold the bejesus out of IRA and all our seasonals. They even come on a moments notice to help us move equipment, pick up kegs and let us use their forklift.

Some of our other favorite beer sellers in Erieland:

• Sean at Molly's,

• Nick, Todd and Bill at 6 Pack West,

• Russ, Mick and Hansen at u Pick 6,

• Katrina at Fox n Hound,

• Dennis at Oscars,

• Pat at Alto Cucina

• The late great COZ from Calararis (RIP)

• Jeff at Wegmans

• The entire Giant Eagle crew

• Joe at Joe Roots

• Travis at Bel Aire

• pete at Beer and Pop

• Rinderle's at Beer 4 Less

• JJ at 3 B's

• Marcy at Vermont

• Marty at Crooked i

• I'm sorry if I've forgotton anyone. You are the wind beneath my wings and the hot air in my sails and some other great metaphors...

big news, we've sign a contract to begin selling our ales in Philadelphia! We will be represented by Bella Vista Beer, a great group of guys who are as passionate about selling craft beer as we are about brewing it.! We hope to start sending beer to Philly this July.

Up next, pittsburgh! Can we keep our beers in PA only? What do you think about that? is it feasable? Will Pennsylvanian's drink enough Lavery ale to keep our brewery doors open? Isn't it time we had an in-state brewery? Would this make more people travel to PA? Lots of questions.... We have always said we were not going to distribute far but what about Cleveland and Buffalo? Pics of the new brewery to come..... Slainte

Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com

www.laverybrewing.com

Some prospective beers

March 30, 2011

We are still constructing and reviving our new home away from home. Coming up with some cool things we can do once we are up and running. Some ideas being discussed: tours, having homebrew classes, beer festivals, growler hours..Lots more to come. You'll see...I promise. We are doing small 5 gallon test batches now looking for our next big idea. JLavery is reworking the PA Pale ale to be more hoppy and light, JLynch is working on a rye beer hopped exclusively with Amarillo (if we can ever get that hop again..). Nikki is working on a Berliner weisse for the summer months. We switched bottle formats. we used a sexier 22oz bottle for Liopard oir as well as the latest batch of IRA, which is getting bottled tonight....We may be switching back, we may keep using them...we'll see. We had a blast in San Francisco for the Craft Brewers Conference. So much information and great beer...We ares till processing....Some cool facts though: 1700 breweries operating in the US. 600 in planning!!!!!This means the model of selling your beer across the country (and even state lines) may be coming to an end. Why should a PA brewer sell beer in maine when there are amazing brewers in maine and why should a Maine brewer sell beer in PA when there are a ton of great PA brewers. Bad for the environment, bad for the small brewers too. We are dedicated to keeping our beer local. other good news, we finally got into Wegmans!!! buy a bottle or three. We are starting to work hard again on sales in the city so next time you visit a bar, ask if they have any local beer or more specifically Lavery's...If they hear it enough, they'll order it!!!! Thanks to everyone for everything. We appreciate all the help, support and kind words!!! Slainte

Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com

www.laverybrewing.com

Busy Busy

March 10, 2011

How much can change in 1 month. We now have a brewhouse, fermentors and a brite beer tank for bottling. We've moved in to 128 W. 12th St Unit 101 and have torn down some walls, have a painter coming next week and concrete will be poured for a new floor in the coming weeks. Busy busy busy. I (Jason Lavery) have finally resigned from my day job and now am only employed by my brewery.
So what sort of info do inquisitive blog readers want to know?? Lets see....

• we bought a 10hL Belgian made Meura brewhouse. It was in Germany and arrived in the USA last week. The mash tun and hot liquor tank are huge, enabling us to make 15% ABV beers!!!!

• Our fermentors are 10bbls (310 gallons) are coming from California.

• We are heading to our first Craft Brewer Conference in 2 weeks. This years Conference is in San Fransisco!

• We are arriving a day early to attend the Sour Beer Symposium being held at Russian River Brewing Co. We are taking our Liopard oir Farmhouse Ale for our fellow sour brewers to sample..

       Speaking of Liopard oir, the first  cases are hitting the streets this week with another batch  coming out in 3 weeks...We say on the bottle and I'll repeat it here; these are excellent fresh and even more excellent when aged a few months.
        We are working on updating all of our labels to adjust to how our brewery has evolved. A year of operating has given us lots of ideas as to what we are are, what we are not, what we want to be and what we will never want to be.
        We're hoping the brewery will be pumping out ales by June. We plan to have 'Growler Hours' on Fridays (possibly Sat and Sunday as well). We will be offering tours and anyone paying for a tour or filling a growler will be rewarded with some sort of BBQ ;)
      Next up for us, brewing some IRA to replenish the stocks and heading west for a week. We are test brewing batches for some new beers too. We are reworking and renaming the PA Pale Ale. Test batch number 1 is getting brewed tonight and features Pilgrim, Phoenix, Whitbread Golding Variety, Nugget and Challenger hops from England as well as some British brewing sugar, treacle....We also have plans for a Amarillo hopped rye ale and many more. A lot of these beers will switch from very limited seasonal release to a wide release date (Liopard oir will ideally be available from March to August, Pale ale from May to September, etc etc).
     So go buy some Liopard oir, keep drinking down the IRA and we'll see you all at our own place real soon...
    Slainte

Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com

www.laverybrewing.com

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Equipment

February 10, 2011

Well, just got word that we're approved for our big loan. We meet tomorrow in front of a loan committee at 10am to present our case for the second loan. We should know the status of that by the afternoon. So, all said and done, we should have our money in hand by the end of march and we can put a down payment on some equipment and begin the building permit process. We take control of our new brewery March 1 but we have some work to do before we can start the renovations. next week will be 1 year from our first licensure and almost 2 years since we decided to start a brewery. let that be a warning to all you potential brewery owners out there: this process is not for the faint of heart:) Business aside...onto the beer!!!! We bottled the second batch on Belfast Black this past weekend and again tonight. This second batch is tasting incredible and I cant wait for everyone to try it. We did an unprecedented number of cases, 60. Previously we've dabbled in around 40 cases/month. We're ready to again bottle a huge amount of our Liopard oir, the golden farmhouse ale we are brewing this Sunday. This beer is getting all our attention and love. Starting off with a sour mash on Friday evening which will give the beer a twang and lower the pH of the mash to a proper level, then the brew day consists of 5 types of grain, local hops and three yeast strains. bottle day will see us adding brettanomyces clausenii. This lower gravity beer, 4.8% ABV, will develop fruity and tart notes over time as it ages. The two test batches we did back in December are tasting so good, i drink at least 2 bottles a night. In the future, once we have more space and our own building, this beer will be oak ages for a few weeks to further its complexity. Possibly also a year round addition to our line up. What else is new?? We are reworking our summer Pale ale recipe and re-naming that as well. This one is featuring a whole slew of unknown British hops and a cool syrup used in commonly in Britain, Lyle's Golden Syrup. This will be another 4.5 % ABV offering with the potential to go year round. We are working on a easy drinking summer ale as well. We were thinking wheat beer but decided that's as a little too standard and boring for our likes so....Jason Lynch is doing test batches of a rye beer hopped exclusively with Amarillo, the IRA hop ;) We'll see the fruits of our labors for these two new bad boys soon. Speaking of Amarillo, since we are so low on the hop totem pole as far as ordering, we were informed last week when we went to purchase our monthly 44# of Amarillo, that they weren't available. So, realizing that we're artisans and we can roll with these punches, we decided to use a blend of Cascade and Centennial in the next batch of IRA. We'll be sure to put a sticker on the side of each bottle so you'll know what's what. Till next time, Slainte
Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com
www.laverybrewing.com

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Inspiration

January 13, 2011

Just a quick thought....I think, for me at least, inspiration for new beers comes more from music than other beers...just sayin. I often catch myself daydreaming about a new beer idea while rockin out to my favorite recording artists, especially MIA (that lady really gets my mind moving in a creative and off the wall direction, which i love). Again, just saying. No big revelations here except to all you non-brewers out there, you should think of brewing as an art form with the 'Big Three' (BudMillerCoors) being a bunch of boring prints or elevator music and craft beer being the punk rock, hip hop, Zeff,reggae, Warhohl, Pollock, Dali, etc of the beer world. Music is my muse, beer is my art. Slainte
Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com
www.laverybrewing.com

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Hoppy New Year!!

December 28, 2010

Well, 2010 was a a great year for us. We were licensed in February and have been brewing at capacity almost since day 1. Most of the year has been spent researching everything we need to move into our own space. Countless meetings with contracters, plumbers, electricians, accountants, bankers, lawyers, brewers, graphic designers, printers, etc etc. We've learned a lot and we're confident we'll be moving into a downtown location of our own within the next few months! 'T''s have been crossed, 'i'i's have been dotted, money has been secured, business plan is printed and numbers all check out. As soon as the lease is signed, I'll announce it here and on facebook. We plan on having an open house party once the construction is done and the equipment is in place. We still have a lot of hurdles to jump through but at this stage of the game, we feel like the we crossed the threshhold and it's only gonna get better. As far as the beer, we still brewing at capacity, about 400 gallons a month (around 180 cases). Sounds like a lot but we have plans for even more. There is lots of interest for our beers in Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Philadelphia. We brewed our Devil Bird and all bottles were sold out the week before X-Mas!There are still some draft accounts pouring it but I'm sure that won't last past New Years. We have brewed the Belfast Black Smoked Porter, it's in bottles and kegs and should be hitting the streets this week. We brewed another batch of IRA yesterday and are planning on dry hopping this one with a new hop called Citra (in addition to Amarillo and Centennial). Our spring release is taking shape, the test batches are being brewed and tasted now. Its a low gravity farmhouse Saison thats bottled with Brettanomyces Clausenii, an old British brewing yeast. The keg version will be 'clean' but the bottles will gain sourness and funkiness as they age. Thats all for now folks! Slainte
Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com
www.laverybrewing.com

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Small and Quick on our Feet

November 16, 2010, 2010

The conventional wisdom is you need a million barrels of beer a minute to be profitable. Nano and pico brewers are defying this logic as are we. While we are brewing a lot of beer at any given time, we are currently only brewing a couple of times per month. We have bid on a brew house though, its in CT and we should find out if we got it within the next couple of weeks. Back to the title, we decided to not let our small size be a hindrance but rather an advantage. We can make split second decisions about ingredients, process, packaging that other small craft brewers can only dream of. For instance, we decided in late October to brew a holiday beer. Jason Lynch did the test batches, a label was designed and submitted to the Fed's and the beer was brewed last week. We are packaging this beer in 1 L flip top "grolsch-style' bottles. What other brewery can do that? We are like mad-homebrewers with a lot of equipment..We are thinking of packaging all of our seasonals in different size bottles, just because we can. More info to come. Devil Bird Holiday Spiced Ale will be released the week after thanksgiving.We brewed it with a ton of malts, almost 30 pounds of honey, orange peel, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and star anise. We are trying to spread the release out to prevent what happened to our pumpkin beer: it was sold out in 2 weeks... Slainte
Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com
www.laverybrewing.com

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The Toddler Years

September24, 2010

Well, after our first 7 months in business, I feel we are getting over the 'infant' stage our of brewery. Businesses are like babies; you grow them, love them, devote every waking hour to them and they shit and piss and puke all over themselves. Eventually, they learn to control themselves and grow up a bit. I feel our Lavery Brewery has reached our next stage, the 'toddler' stage. Its been all I could do, up til now, to put out a semi-consistent product, pay bills and keep my head above water. We have firm distribution in Erie and our beer is selling fast. Now, we can learn to walk a bit and begin to do what we set out to do; brew amazing and creative ales with as much pizazz as humanly possible. To this end,we've welcomed a new 'parent' into our company. Jason Lynch, homebrewer, marketer, graphic designer extraordinaire, has become partner and co-manager, along with myself and Nikki. Jason (or J2 as we call him) believes in our brewery and sees a bright future for Lavery Brewing and wanted to be a part of it.The next few months are going to be a whirlwind of brewing, getting loans and setting up our own brewery. i expect to be opena dn ready for business by January 2011 (more or less). Having three kids, I know the toddler years are a lot more fun 9no more diapers ;) I hope you all are loving the beers and the stories on the labels. Please email me with any feedback, good or bad. Slainte
Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com
www.laverybrewing.com

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Pumpkin Ale

August 24, 2010

Having neglected this blog for over a month now (honestly-due to the busy summer months), I thought it ripe time to give everyone a status report. Everything is great! See you all soon. no really, IRA has been flying off the shelves (so fast indeed, we ran out a few weeks back - good news for consumers because that means everything is ultra fresh). We are taking a break from the red for a couple weeks to brew our Stingy Jack Pumpkin Ale, which the first batch is completely pre-sold out. We're wrangling with the Fed's to approve our bad ass labels. Apparently pumpkin and spices are unusual ingredients which require mounds and mounds of paperwork. Third submission is the charm. We harvested almost 20 # of fresh hops from my Dad's hop plantation of Sunday (not bad for a first year crop. These will be used to hop the batches of Stingy Jack. We've also partnered with port Farm's to again use their local pumpkins in our beer. Kelly told me due the weather, the pumpkins will be ready laste August. plan is to brew this Sunday and release this stellar beer on Sept 18, halfway to St. Paddy's Day. I don't know where you all will be, but we'll beat the Brewerie celebrating. The hunt continues for money. I thinking pushing back our planned opening from Fall 2010 to Spring 2011 is a wise quesstimate. Until then, feel free to hit us up on facebook, or email me with any questions or concerns. PS, I do apologize for the really carbonated bottles. We are fixing that :) Patience is a virtue my friends
Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com
www.laverybrewing.com

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Artisan Beer

July 20, 2010

I think an uphill battle a lot of us small-scale craft breweries have had to face is getting the idea that brewing is a mix of art and science. I’ve actually had people ask me “what kind of machine turns water into beer?”. No beer machines..yet. A lot of breweries focus on either one aspect or the other; science or art. I tend to view myself as an artist with a good grasp of the science. For me, brewing isn’t about making the exact same beer over and over again, it’s about letting my mood, the ingredients I could get that month and/or even the time of year affect how I brew. For instance, I decided to add Centennial hops to the latest batch of IRA…why, because I like them and I think you will to. Maybe if I like them a lot, I will keep adding them, maybe not. The beer stays the same, so you know that when you buy a bottle or a pint, the quality will be excellent and the flavor will be 95% the same but there also may be a little surprise in that glass for you as well. This goes against everything the the macro-breweries have shoved down consumers throats…beer should be bland, watery and consistent. Beer is a similar food product as bread. Both products are affected by things like yeast, grains, water, herbs and the brewers/bakers finesse in putting them all together. I buy the best ingredients I can afford, and use them regardless of expense (for instance..how many hops I dry hop the IRA with). Cost is more of a side thought but quality and creativity are always on the forefront. So, if you buy a bottle or pint of IRA and find it not exactly to your liking, send me an email and tell me why you did or did not absolutely love my beer. Also, please be adventurous and buy a bottle from time to time, I’ll try to keep you on your toes. Slainte
Jason Lavery
jason@laverybrewing.com
www.laverybrewing.com

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Bottles

June 25, 2010

Bottles are finally available. After dealing with the Fed's, they are finally happy with our labels. So are we. The images are very eye catching and there is lots of good info, including the story behind the Red Hand. Also, by the way, we hand bottle, hand cap, hand label and hand pack these bottles. Rest assured I touched each and every single bottle that we sell. Don't know if that's much incentive to purchase a Lavery bomber, but I hope it is. Another batch of IRA is conditioning after being dry hopped on Wednesday. Planning to bottle and keg this batch next week sometime. Helpers are always appreciated. Slainte

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A Perfect brew Day

May 17, 2010

Well after last weeks disaster, I had a great day yesterday. I was never able to cask condition the last batch of kegs but am confident the next batch will be. Yesterday, I had a few helpers with me at the brewery. Chapin, Mike, Christie and Steve all volunteered to help mash, clean and stir with me at the brewery. We brewed IRA #6 and the day went perfect; no missed mash temps, no clogged pumps, no boil overs, etc. I'm going to the brewery tonight to check on the fermentation progress. Thanks guys, again, for all your help. Slainte

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My mother told me there'd be days like this

May 10, 2010

Friday was one of those days where you curse everyone out cause nothing went right. Maybe you kick the dog for good measure as well. Everyone knows I'm learning my way in this big craft brewing world. No professional experiecne..just passion. A lot of techniques must be reinvented when I want to apply them. Stuff other brewers probably learn about in classes like "Carbonating 101'. Up til now, we've pumped our fermented beer over to the 'brite tank' and injected co2 into the side and thats how our beer was carbonated. We decided to switch to a traditional form of carbonating used by the British called 'priming'. Basically the same thing as a bottle conditioned beer - you add priming sugar into the flat beer, seal up the keg or bottle, the yeast eat the sugar you introduced and produce co2 into the sealed vessel. Well on Friday at around 9pm, I decided to give this method a try. I had already bought a special tap that could allow sugar, water, gas, etc to enter the keg via the gas in port. I found a small funnel that fit into the gas in port. I meticulously measured out my sugar, vented the co2 out of the empty keg and poured my sugar into the funnel. Well apparently I didn't vent all the gas cause the keg 'burped' throwing sugar all over my face and eyes. Ok, lesson learned. Once the keg was completely vented, I found the dry sugar was not going down the funnel smoothly. I had to mix the sugar with water. Problem was, I didn't have sanitary water to mix my sugar with. So, I grab my 1000 mL flask and headed to the Brewerie's kitchen. Boiled up 1000 mL's of water and waited for it to cool. Measured the sugar...again. When I went to add the cooled boiled water to the sugar, I find the vessel I measured the sugar in wasn't big enough to hold the sugar and the water and clearly 1000 mL was not going to be enough to mix enough sugar for 6 bbls of beer. So I promptly said "f%^k It' and called it a day. I canceled the brew day that was supposed to happen in about 8 hours and left the brewery defeated. Over the course of 2 sleepless nights, I figured it out (Seriously, I dream about this shit every night). At first I was going to give up and transfer the beer to the brite tank and let carbon dioxide win this fight but then i said to myself 'Jason, are you a brewer or are you a man?'. I didn't know how to answer that question but figured it out anyway. I would pre-boil enough water to mix all the sugar for the entire batch and re-package the water into sanitized water jugs. I pre-measured all the sugar into sanitary ziplock bags. I figured out a way to insert sugar and also let the keg burp as needed without spewing. We'll see on tuesday evening if my plan works. If not, I'm transferring to the brite tank. I guess the question is why go through this trouble? Any time you transfer, you pick up oxygen, which is really bad for finished beer. You also run the risk of contaminating the finished product. Also, it's just super cool. This is pseudo cask conditioned ale, which in my opinion tastes better and has finer bubbles of co2. I like the idea of using as little technologyu as possible to make beer. humans have been doing this for 9,000 years without co2 tanks. Why can't I? Also, it's better for the earth; no metal o2 canister to transport. You guys be the judge. Batch #5 IRA should hopefully hit the bars next weekend (May 21) if all goes well :) Slainte

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HAZARD Homebrewing

May 6, 2010

Last Saturday was the first meeting of the newly formed Erie based homebrew club, HAZARD Homebrewing. HAZARD stands for 'homebrewers and zymurgists alcohol research division', a name I came up a year ago when trying to get a group started. This group finally came to be thanks to Don Maier and Facebook! We have around 27 members so far and are planning monthly meetings. Our first meeting was at my house and it was great. IO enjoyed myself a little too much to actually count the numbers of attendees but I think it approached 15 or 20. Not a bad beer in the bunch. Seriously, these beers (and ciders) were amazing.I look forward to attending every meeting and finally having some other people to geek out on beer with. Slainte

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Erie MicroBrew Fest

April 26, 2010

We had a great time pouring beer and talking to all the beer lovers at this years microbrew fest. We even had a small chance to sample some other brews (good job Voodoo on that amazing 'Cowbell' stout). Lavery Brewing Co. placed 2nd as peoples choice for favorite brewery and our IRA placed 2nd as well for favorite beer. Thanks all for the kind words and the votes! Slainte

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The Brewing Network

April 12, 2010

Last night, Nikki and I appeared on The Brewing Network's 'Sunday Session'. The BN is the only live beer radio show in the world and does an incredible job of putting out excellent entertainment and information for the brewing world. A lot of what i know about yeast biology, processes and ingredients come the BN. I am a Corporal in the BN Army as well. You can download free podcasts of the shows on iTunes Music store. Also check out www.thebrewingnetwork.com. Slainte

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St. Sidonius Saison

April 7, 2010

The St. Sidonius Saison is beginning to hit the streets of Erie. So far, it's on tap at Jack's Place in North East and the Brewerie at Union Station. This is our spring seasonal, brewed on the first day of spring. We are probably only going to do one batch of this beer this year so get it while you can. What to expect; a pale, yellow ale fermented with White Labs '568 Belgian Saison Blend' yeast strain, hopped to 38 IBU's with East Kent Goldings. Grain bill is simple; 220 # 2 Row, 110 # malted wheat and 50# simple sugar to dry it out. It's clocking in at 7.2% ABV and finishes brutally dry (1.007). Let me know what you think. Slainte

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Kegging

March 24, 2010

Kegged the second batch of IRA last night. Some slight changes; I combined the 15 minute and 10 minute hop additions (I don't think I was getting much more flavor by splitting them up) and I added another pound of roasted barley to get a nice red color. Let me know what you think of IRA #2. I brewed our "St. Sidonius Saison" on Saturday (incidently-the first day of Spring). This beer is fermenting away and will be released April 17-at the Micro Brew Fest. Next Brewday is tentatively April 2, another batch of IRA. Until then, Slainte.

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Saturday night was Alright

March 16, 2010

Well if beer consumption is any indication (which it is) we did alright at our launch party last Saturday. We kicked 4 kegs and made some progress on 2 more. A moment of panic arose at 9:30 when we released after 2.5 hours of partying, that our beers were gone. Penn Beer rose to the challenge and performed an industrial sized beer run. The festivities continued. We met so many awesome people who seem,ed to appreciate the labor of love that our brewery is. Many old friends came out as well to show us some support. New Irish band Paddy Whacked rocked the nearly overflow crowd for almost 3 hours.To sum it up, a perfect way to begin the long journey of business ownership. Thank you and slainte to all!

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St. Patrick's Day Parade

March 5, 2010

I'm more giddy than a school girl with a new Bratz doll. A Lavery family tradition has been to watch the St. Paddy's Day parade every year and wave our big Irish flag. They say everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's day but to actually be Irish-American is a truly amazing thing. Well this year, we're going to be IN the parade. That's right, we'll be marching in the parade, throwing candy out the window, waving our logo flag and the Irish flag and blasting the Pogues 'Rum Sodomy and the Lash'. My kids are so ecstatic. We're in the third division and we hope to see you all there.

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Brewer's Cup 2010

February 28, 2010

I had a great time yesterday afternoon judging the 26 brews at Brewerie's 3rd Annual Brewer's Cup. The quality of the beers continue to amaze me as well as the creativity. Here are some of the most memorable beers I judged; Greg Wigam's American Stout, Jake V's ESB & Dave M's Ordiary Bitter. Dave won Judges Choice Award for his Brown Porter and the People Choice Winner was a Belgian Golden Ale. There was also a Pale Ale brewed with concord grapes that reminded me of champagne. Good stuff all around. Ton's of fun to get together and geek out on beer.

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Tasting at U-Pick Six

February 20, 2010

Our first Lavery tasting will be at U-Pick Six on March 3 (Wednesday) from 7-9pm. We'll be tasting both our Belfast Black and our imperial Red Ale. A third special beer will also be available. Stay tuned to Facebook for more frequent updates. We truly hope to see you all there.

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First Day of Sales

February 18, 2010

Jason went out with Scott Saber from Penn Beer today to begin pounding the payment and selling some beer. We sold 6 accounts, which was the goal going in. Great news, indeed! A couple unexpected accounts bought some beer (Alto Cucina and Calmari's)and we also got the taps we wanted (and needed)- Oscar's, U _Pick Six, 6 Pack Shop and Brewerie. We're going to hit up Fox n Hound, Molly Brannigans, Nelsons, Plymouth, Joe Roots and a few others asap. First Lavery delivery will be this weekend or early next week!

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A New Brewery

February 13, 2010

A new Brewery has just descended the birth canal!I see the crown….oh my..it’s a handsome son of a gun, isn’t it?! My beautiful baby has finally been delivered. I got word from the Fed’s at 12:28pm on February 5 that we are in business. The PLCB called me at 10:25am on February 11 to let me know the license is in the mail. We wasted no time making arrangements with Scott (Penn Beer-our wholesaler) to start selling next Thursday. Fortuitously, we have 2 beers to offer right now..our Belfast Black smoked porter and our Imperial Red Ale (IRA). I’m transferring the IRA to carbonate today and the wife and I are kegging it this Sunday. The Belfast black is rich, medium bodied and moderately hoped with East Kent Goldings. It has a faint smokiness (which has-sadly- faded since it’s been in the keg 2 months) reminiscent of bacon. The IRA is aggressively hopped with Amarillo and Cascade. It starts life @1.075 and finished dry (thanks to good old cane sugar). It has burnt orange reddish color that is absolutely stunning. I spoke with amazing homebrewer Kevin Harbusky on Thursday about a collaboration brew. Plans are in the works for Kevin to help us with our Spring Seasonal- Saison de Jason-( i really hope i come up with a better name by the time this beer drops :) . The next step is getting our labels approved..another Federal process. until then, we are draft only. look out for our awesome handmade tap handles custom made by Erie legend Bob Jensen. Some ideas we’re planning.. a chocolate and beer festival for this Fall. A community brew day..come down and clean up after me…I mean help me brew. A collaboration brew with a celebrity..guess which one? Until we see you again…
slainte
Jason

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Fully Licensed!

February 11, 2010

Lavery Brewing Company is fully licensed and will begin selling beer next thursday! Get ready Erie!

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New Website Launched!

January 6, 2010

Our site is ...... alive !!! Check it out www.laverybrewing.com. More pictures/videos and better words to come :)

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