Bloggin the Bog

So our very-soon-to-be-released seasonal, named Bog Water, is already getting folks talking (read: typing) over on the BarTowel forum. The BarTowel is a great online discussion forum for all things beer in Ontario. They also host the Golden Tap awards, which we've won two of so far.

So anyway, they're having a conversation back and forth about whether giving Bog Water such an absurd name is a good thing or a bad thing. It got me thinking about how we actually came up with the name and how we developed the recipe.

BELOW: A typical bog with a walk (BogWalker).

One year before our actual launch, when we were in the depths of business plans and investor pitches, my dad, mom, sister and Kevin (her husband) and my wife and I went on a camping retreat. Basically, we discussed strategy while failing miserably to catch a fish, and then roasted "[insert objectionable incest reference here]s," a concoction my friends Eddy and JimmyRye invented involving marshmallows and hotdogs.

We picked up a bunch of Muskoka's beer 'cause we were just outside Huntsville, and started talking about names. At that point we had tentatively named the company Beau's Brewing Company and we had already landed on LugTread, but at that time we wanted to start off with three full time brands (until we learned what a logistical nightmare that would have been).

We have a goal to promote Eastern Ontario with everything we do, so we wanted to find names that would celebrate the local history, landscape etc. But we also wanted the name to stand out, be different, and hopefully be kind of fun, too.

I had printed out a list of all the endangered plants and animals that live in the nearby Alfred Bog (the largest and highest-quality bog remaining in Southern Ontario) that I had found on the Internet. So for a while we tried to come up with names that would pay homage to the Bog Elfin Butterfly, Fletcher's Dragonfly, Spotted Turtle, Red-shouldered Hawk, Golden Eagle, White Fringed Orchid, Atlantic Sedge or Rhodora, but nothing was sticking (fancy that).

That is until my Dad said, instead of the animals, why don't we name it after the bog, and call it Bog Water? At first, I have to admit, I thought it was a good joke, but nothing we would ever seriously consider. Who would drink something called BogWater? But he wouldn't let it drop, and it got funnier and funnier every time he brought it up.

What really changed it for me was when we had another strategy session over another fish that got away, and decided that we would specialize in all natural beer: all malt, certified organic, spring water, yadda yadda.

When we came back to BogWater, this time I threw the words All Natural in front. "All Natural Bog Water..." Now I loved it! It was funny, offputting at first, but intruiging at the same time. I loved it so much, I started throwing the All Natural phrase in front of everything I saw: "All Natural picnic table!" "All Natural "[insert objectionable incest reference here]!" and then all of a sudden... "Beau's All Natural Brewing Co."

Sometime in future blogs I'll write about other neat stuff about Bog Water: how we decided on the actual make up of the beer, how we got the bogmyrtle harvested (let's just say it wasn't easy), and how our brewer Matt had to develop a balanced beer using a wild-growing herb that had no commercial references to draw from.... but that's... another story.

Cheers, Steve

Who's ready for Spring?

Yup... pretty snowed in at the brewery these days, take a look.

January Update

No, we haven't taken the month off. I just haven't had access to the computron as mine up and died on Boxing Day. I got it back today and everything was wiped off. Let this be your reminder to back up your work often!!!

It’s looking like into mid-Feb now for the LCBO (boo). We've received something called a “commitment letter” from the LCBO that says they'll take on LugTread for a trial period at some LCBO stores in Eastern Ontario. (Yay!) Now we need to send in (yet) another sample indicating that this is from our first run and will be exarctly what we send for our first batch. (boo, less for us and you to drink). The good news is that a number of LCBO locations have been calling to find out when it’s going to be ready. (yay, they like us!) The bad is that we had a three-week delay (totally our fault) trying to get the UPC code to read on the LCBO system. (boo-you, technology).

In other exciting news, we will be releasing our first-ever seasonal soon. It’s been brewed, after two test brews on a pilot system. It’s tasting fantastic and I really can't wait to get this out.

If I wanted to be topical, I could tell you all about the global hop shortage and the increase in malt prices, but I'm sure you already have heard all about it. Personally, the whole thing smacks of piracy and collusion to me. I'm sure John Grisham could write a compelling novel about a naive brewer who stumbles into an evil plot perpetrated by Temperests and Destro under supervision by the Rand corporation.

And, we're gearing up to start selling into Kingston. The Iron Duke has some of our jugs already and on Thursday we'll be making our first delivery to the Queen's Grad bar, the ANAF bar (that's Army, Navy and Air Force), Sizzle (at the 4 points Sheraton) and any others who come on line before Thursday. This is exciting for us, as we started off with a goal of being an Eastern Ontario brewery and this is kind-of like the Western border. It’s also a town I used to spend a lot of time in and have many fond (read: blurry) memories of.

Last week was a new record for “beer out the door” for us. I'm guessing this is not very typical for breweries in mid- to-late January, so we're quite happy about it. And I was elected President of the Vankleek Hill Business and Merchant Association...like I don't already have enough to get done! Speaking of that, there's a lot of other stuff that I would love to get into, but I should really get back to work now.

Cheers, Steve