Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year!

Well, its New Year's Eve...so much for an awesome 2009. In the last year we won 3 Golden Tap awards, a Gold Medal at Mondiale in France (1 of 10) and two medals (out of three) at the National Organic Championship. We were named the #1 thing to try before you die by Ottawa Magazine, best local beer by Metro newspaper and one of 10 unique entries in the Ottawa food scene in the past decade by the Ottawa Citizen.

Mr. and Mrs. Harper poured a couple pints at 24 Sussex for us, and George Wendt visited our Oktoberfest, along with 5,000 of our closest friends!

We just started selling into Toronto LCBO stores, we've added a bunch of new fermenting tanks - 42,840 litres worth to be exact, our new bottling line has arrived (but still isnt actually working).

We rounded out our seasonal line-up with Beaver River in the Spring and we did a special one-off project with the Canadian Amateur Brewer's Association.

We've been lucky enough to try Piggy Market's and Elk Ranch's sausages made with our beer, Art-is-in Bakeries Beau's Bread, Pascal's Awesome beer ice-cream, as well as sauces, chutnies and steak-and-mushroom pies with our beer.

We've grown from 13 employees to 24 in the year. We received a very welcomed grant from the Ontario government to help us keep expanding.

We sponsored or donated well over $50,000 to worthwhile causes like Prostate Cancer research, Amnesty International, Ottawa Jazz Fest, Kelp Records, FrancoOntarien festival, Operation Come Home, Yes Women Can!, Brockville Memorial Hospital, Therapeutic Riding, Bon Apetit, Tulip festival, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, Military Families Fund, Capital Pride, the Ontario Provincial Police Association, Rideau Valley Roller Girls, Canadian Diabetes Association, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Feast of Fields, the United Way, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Canadian Breast Cancer research, the Vankleek Hill Agricultural Society, The Ontario Federation of Agriculture and more.

I made a New Year's resolution that I would post weekly and by my count, including this one I hit 26 - or about half way to my goal. My resolution for next year is to keep this momentum going, to make sure our beer stays as tasty as ever, to grow only when growing helps make us cooler than we are, to dramatically increase our support for charities and indie music and arts and to get to 52 blog entries for next year.

Thanks again to everyone who bought one of our beers this year.

Thanks to everyone who signed up to our Facebook Group, the Beau's Army.

Thanks to everyone who voted for us for a Golden Tap, or a best local beer competition.

Thanks to everyone who visited the brewery for a tour and brought a friend or a relative or a bus load of people.

Thanks to everyone who asked a restaurant to start carrying our beer.

Thanks to everyone who gave us a tip about a new restuarant, or a good one to approach.

Thanks to all the wonderful restaurateurs who made the choice to buy fresh, local, organic beer instead of a beer that came with a big advertising budget.

Thanks to all the bartenders, waitresses and waiters and sommaliers and chefs who willingly took on the role of Beau's salesrep and talked passionately about our beer to your customers.

Thank you to the bloggers, editors, and journalists who felt that what we were doing was newsworthy.

All of our success in 2009 is really your success. Everything we are is possible because of everything you do for us. We have been truly blessed this year with kindness and support from so many people.

I'm looking forward to 2010 with unbridled enthusiasm. I hope you'll join me at midnight to ring in the New Year with a LugTread or a BogWater (actually I'm planning on mixing Bogwater with champagne for a twist on a Black Velvet, but you get my drift)

Oh Yeah!

11 comments:

Michael said...

Happy new year. Keep the kegs filled.

Unknown said...

we love you too, and your beer... all the best to your gorgeous family... keep it comin' :-) Lo

Anonymous said...

you had me at Beau's! happy new years beau's army may the beau's keep a flowin and the growth keep a comin! all the best in 2010!, sean from the uncy duncy clan!

The 40 Year Old Father said...

I figured out why I consider your beer to be so beautiful. Part of it may be the word, Beau(tiful), and part of it (I know!) is you. Steve, you're a great guy who makes even better beer. From the first visit to your brewery in March '08, to running into you at the Golden Tap Awards, you're a class act. I'll have to wait until February to be back in Canada and get your fine brew at the LCBO in Toronto, but don't be surprised if we make another "drive-by" appearance at the brewery.

Cheers (with Prosecco - being in Italia and all!) on a great '09 and to an even better '10! All the best success and tonnes of happiness. You more than deserve it!

SimpleMedia said...

Congratulations for all the great achievements in 2009! Happy new year!

Keep the momentum!

Cheers!

accidental altruist said...

Happy New Year and all the best in 2010!
~Jenn Farr~

Shawn said...

Congratulations on a very successful year! I stopped by the brewery 3 weeks ago and I was very excited to see the progression of the brewery i.e. the new seasonals and the new 4 pack bottle. Keep up the great work and I'll keep up my drinking of Beau's!

Cheers, Shawn

bruno said...

Bonne année à tous les Ontariens.Aprés un cour séjour à Vankleek Hill ou j'ai découver votre biére. J ela deguste entre amis à Toulouse (France)
Bruno

Michael said...

Steve, family and gang: keep up the good work. It's always a treat to find a bar/pub/restaurant with Lug Tread on tap...

(OBTW, do you still run volunteer bottlings?)

Anonymous said...

Salut, j`ai eu l`occasion de degouter votre biére et ,comme je peux dire que je suis un fin connoisseur du gout de la cette boisson alcoolique-aliment(j`ai des etudes en chemie alimentaire, fementation, technologies et processus) vous etes sur le bon chemin.Bonne chances dans votre development!

Anonymous said...

Congrat's. I just picked one up the other week at the LCBO. It was great.