June Lake Brewing

Kilmister Ginger Beer ~

That's right folks, it's finally time!  This Sunday at 11am we will be tapping our first 1bbl pilot batch of Kilmister Ginger Beer at our tasting room.  Be there early because this stuff is going to go quick.  With a 28 gallon yield we have less than two kegs worth so get it while you can.  Sorry in advance, but absolutely no growler fills :-(

Also on Sunday at 5:30pm we're hosting the June Lake Brewing Gran FollowMe trail ride.  This is an hour to an hour and a half intermediate trail ride followed by $1 beers for all the riders that participate (that are over 21 of course).  Meet at the tasting room with your favorite riding attire and wheeled apparatus at 5:30pm Sunday, and we'll head out to have some fun around 6pm.  More info here - https://www.facebook.com/events/666222573452439/

In other beer news we'll be releasing our Silver Lake Saison tomorrow (Friday August 15th).  This is our lightest color, flavor and alcohol beer to date.  Finishing up around 4.9% ABV and 26 IBU, this beer is clean, dry and an all around good time.

To round out beer releases our Archimedes Red is on track for beligeration Friday August 22nd, and the much anticipated Hutte Double IPA will be following up with ultimate palate domination the last Friday of the month (August 29th).  So plan accordingly and join us on a beerventure of your own.

Big thanks goes out to everyone that made Bluesapalooza two weeks ago, and the 60th annual June Lake Fireman's BBQ this past Saturday.  If you missed them be sure to make it out to the upcoming Kamikaze Bike Games September 18th - 21st.  Rumor has it JLB will be posted up at the upper Bullet Rock Garden for the Pro DH race Saturday the 20th to heckle and generally cause disruption.

This just in: Stainless Steel Cups and Growlers are back in stock!  So come on by the tasting room between 11am and 8pm any day but Tuesday (the one day we're closed) and check out what we've got ripping.

Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

June Lake Brewing
LET THERE BE BEER!!!

That's right we're brewing it up!  After receiving blessings from the building permit deities we fired up our 15bbl system and jumped right into some JLB SmoKin Porter Love.  That's right our first homebrew testbatch on our pilot system was also our first production batch on the JLB production system, and it's fermenting along nicely!

So it's been busy and haven't been sleeping much, so here's the highlights -

• Production area permitted to operate prior to tasting room signoff
• Eight 15bbl batches fermenting
  • 30bbls SmoKin Porter
  • 30bbls Deer Beer Brown Ale
  • 30bbls Junemontane HiPA Collaboration Ale
  • 30bbls Alpers Trout Pale Ale
• 15 days to finish tasting room (paint/texture/epoxy penny floor/bar/signage/parking/draft system/etc...)
• Package 120bbls of JLB
• Get final building permit signoff and certificate of occupancy
• HUGE GRAND OPENING PARTY JUNE 21st!

Come by anytime to help hammer out the tasting room and checkout the beer factory.  Lastly we want to send out a big thanks to all those who've helped in all manner of assistance and support, we couldn't have done this without you!

Thanks, and Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

June Lake Brewing
Beeramid ~

The pharaohs had the right idea: pay them with beer+food and they'll move mountains.  So in homage to those who've helped us get to where we are today we constructed June Lake's first ever Beeramid. Comprised solely of our first shipment of kegs, the JLB Beeramid was a marvel of modern engineering (not really, it was actually pretty sketchy).  Sadly we had to deconstruct it due to the possibility of Beeramid envy from neighboring businesses (actually I was scared it would collapse on our new-to-us beerlivery vehicle).  That's right we've now got 170 15.5 gallon and 174 5 gallon kegs that are in desperate need of filling with amazing beer.

So next steps are to get final county building permit signoff on our production area (this week) and then start the super major cleaning mission to get everything ready to test the brew system (next week), and proceed with full-on production (soon)!  That being said June 21st is looking better and better for an opening of grandeur.  So get your accommodations lined up, pick out your finest Guayabera shirt, and definitely reachout if you're looking for lodging/camping/vagrancy advise.

Thanks, and Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

June Lake Brewing
Gad Zooks ~

Wow, totally apologize for the radio silence (last update was April Fools), but it's really been that busy.  From cutting down and milling the bar (thanks for the help Johnny) to standing/placing our tanks and brewhouse, we've been checking boxes off the ever shortening list.  Check a snippet of our forth coming construction time lapse - http://vimeo.com/92418265.  Our Director of Visual Awesomeness (yeah Robert Bradford!) is masterminding the full time lapse for release after opening and it's going to be world detonating.  So yeah this is totally happening!

Here's most of the stuff we've got left:

• Hardwire all equipment + finish general electric
• Finish plumbing to brewhouse + HLT
• Finish coldbox
• Drill/epoxy tank hold downs + special inspection
• Install burner stack + brewhouse vent
• Install icebreak + gutter
• Plumb + install glycol system
• Receive raw materials + ancillaries
• Full deep clean of production facility + brewhouse/tanks
• Final county inspection/signoff
• Test brews
• Full on production!
• Start/finish tasting room + bar
• Start/finish exterior + signage
• GRAND OPENING!

Hard to believe we've come so far... big thanks to all of you for supporting and helping where you can.  Hopefully next bi-weekly booze letter (circa ~ May 15) we'll have a solid Grand Opening date to announce, but I can tell you something will be going down towards the end of June.  The big timing thing is making the beer (go figure...). 

Right now we've allotted ~20 days from the day we brew our first production batch until we can open, so we basically have a month to get the production area buttoned up, get signoff on our building permit, and start brewing.  After that we can focus on getting the tasting room and signage dialed in.  Twenty days is plenty time to build a tasting room with a 30'+ bar made from a 100 year old Jeffery Pine tree and a genuine meat hook from the civil war era (*not sure on accuracy of actual age).

So stay tuned for developments and stop by if you want to take a look at progress, but don't get bummed if we don't have time for a full-on tour... gotta build the brewery first B-)

Thanks, and Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

June Lake Brewing
Funded ~

Another busy two weeks have elapsed and we're getting it done by the numbers:

1. Funding - Congratulations and welcome aboard to all our new JLB preferred stock holders.  The equity raise went swimmingly and we far surpassed our minimum, big thanks goes out to everyone involved and stay tuned as the dust settles.
2. Tanks - Our tanks have arrived and they look fantastic!  The brewhouse and all of our remaining equipment should arrive by the end of the month, so we're looking on track for a late June grand opening party (we'll provide the punch and pie, details below).
3. Remodel - Sparky (our electrician) has completed wiring the premise and Itchy Ed is doing his thing and getting the insulation thrown up.
4. St. Kramer's Day - We start putting up dry wall Monday March 17th (aka St. Kramer's Day), so come by and lend a hand (again we've got the punch and pie covered).  As a matter of fact if you're available anytime during the week of March 17th drop by the brewery (large ass warehouse directly behind the General Store) and we'll give you an interactive tour (read - free physical labor accompanied by verbal beratement and lunch).
5. Licensing - With everything filed we're expecting word on the inevitable approval of our Federal TTB (Alcohol Tabacco Trade Bureau) license any day.  Once this clears all our state and myriad of other regulatory clearances will follow suit.
6. June Grand Opening - That's right, we're going to open the doors to the public this June (pending absence of volcanic eruption and/or yeti attack).  Exact date TBD, but June 21st is looking pretty tasty.  I mean it is the longest day of the year so what better day to drink some supremely awesome JLB?

Aside from that we haven't got much going on so stop on by next time you're in town and say hi.

Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

June Lake Brewing
Frame it Out ~

Wow, it was so busy last week we didn't even have time to bust out the bi-weekly newsletter... Don't fear, we weren't neglecting our valued TestPilots, it was just busy.  From buying a used forklift (still deciding on a name/paint scheme) to framing out our entire tasting room, we had a lot going down.  Oh yeah, we also got a call from our brewery supplier asking if we could take delivery of our fermenters this week.  Suffice to say we've got a lot going on and we're getting closer to opening every single day.

So this week we're looking to receive three of our 30bbl conical fermenters, our 30bbl HLT (big hot water tank), start and finish our wiring, and get our framing inspection signed off.  Next week we plan to finish all our bathroom and internal wall plumbing, insulate the building and begin our 7k sqft sheetrock extravaganza.

The JLB equity offering is going well, and if you're at all interested in owning a piece of the awesomest brewery on Earth, be sure to reach out and ask us about the details before we close the offer in a little under two weeks on Monday March 10th.  Don't miss your chance (it may be the only one) to be a part of history!

Thanks, and Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

June Lake Brewing
Let it Snow ~

With two feet of fresh snow over the past week, winter has finally arrived!  After a frantic couple of weeks getting all our trench drains cut/broke/formed and poured, not to mention getting the all important bathroom plumbing installed/inspected and poured, we were ready for a little excursion into the wild... and Ullr provided with 24" of love!  Big thanks goes out to Joe Walsh, Ramon Camacho, Doug Nelson, Phillip Michael, Johnny Kimball, Jeff Kramer, Dave Tomaszewski, Shaun Paunch Maurer, Darth Hacker, Bobman, Aaron Dore, Fitz, Mark Fogg and everyone else that made it happen, now it's time for some framing.... and more snow of course!

On the beer front the second 1bbl test batch of Alpers Trout Pale Ale was bottled last week by our trusty line of bottling chimps and it turned out swimmingly.  If you're in the June Lake area hit us up and swoop by the house for a taste of this approachable pale crafted from Pilsner/Wheat/Munich/Crystal malts and Cascade/CTZ/Crystal/Mt. Hood hops... it is delicious!  Last weekend we brewed the second 1bbl test batch of our well received Hütte Double IPA and it's fermenting along nicely.  With an OG of 1.090 and a expected final gravity of 1.018 this should yield a 9%+ DIPA with a palate annihilating 128 IBU!  Oh yeah and we plan to dry hop this monster with a pound of Citra hops.

To wrap it up, our equity offering and term sheet is ready to rock and we will be reaching out to those who've expressed interest in becoming a stock holder in June Lake Brewing by way of equity investment this week.  We'll be hosting meetings with potential investors this week in June Lake, and Sarah will be in the San Diego area next week to do the same down south.  If you've already expressed your interest in investment you'll hear from us.  If you're interested and haven't reached out, email [email protected] or [email protected] for more info.

Thanks, and Stay Awesome!
Justin/Sarah

June Lake Brewing
Waiting for Snow ~

Huzzah, our test batch of Not So Hoppy Holiday Ale has been very well received by all those who've partaken!  If you haven't tried it, venture over to June and give us a holler, but you better hurry cuz there isn't much left.  Getting ready to brew our second test batch of JLB Alpers Pale Ale we're toning down some of the Caramunich malts to give the brew a lighter hue, but it will still pack that same malty body balanced with a mild hoppy bite courtesy of Cascade and Mt. Hood hop additions.

Waiting for our remodel permit, we're ready to get ripping on our location buildout.  First order of business after we get legit is cut our trench drains and bust out some concrete (get ready to drop some more hammers boys).  On the funding front we're working on putting together a private equity offering to raise the final cash we need to finish the remodel, acquire our super bitchen brew machine, and get to making beer.  So if you're interested in owning a piece of the most awesome brewery ever in the coolest location in the world, stay tuned...

Lastly June Mountain is open to the top, but we're still waiting for the weather to wake up.  As it turns out Ullr (Old Norse patron saint of skiers and snow) had been seen hanging out on the beachs in SD catching some rays.  So we went to find him... After much searching we came across some killer sunsets and beyond awesome beer, but no Ullr.  Rumor had it we'd just missed him and he was already off to go party with his buddy Santa up at the North Pole before ramping up our much needed winter.  So fear not, snow is on it's way!  Until then enjoy some fine holiday spirits. 

Hoppy Holidays!
Justin/Sarah

Only 3 Days Left to Fund June Lake Brewing
Just around 3 days left to go with the JLB Kickstarter campaign, and we're pushing hard for our fundraising goal.  Though it seems impossible we can still do this, but we'll need your help:

1. Think of the one person in your life that loves craft beer, and happens to have a bunch of extra cash laying around... now tell them about the JLB Kickstarter

It would also help to push the campaign out to your FB and Twitter, but now's the time to really bust out the heavy artillery and get that thing into mass media and in front of some individuals with a bunch of disposable income. 

With this in mind Justin underwent a live IAmA at http://www.reddit.com/r/Beerit/comments/1rib16/hi_im_justin_walsh_a_california_craft_brewing/ this morning at 10am.  What is an IAmA you ask?  Well it's an online question and answer session (Ask me Anything) in which the subject states their background and what makes them a special and qualified person to speak and be questioned on a specific topic.  In this case Justin posted the following intro - "Hi, I’m Justin Walsh, a California craft brewing entrepreneur about to open his first brewery. It's been a heck of a ride, ask me anything!"

Thank you for everyone's continued support, and of course... Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

Only 7 Days Left to Fund
June Lake Brewing

With only 7 days left to reach our funding goal with the JLB Kickstarter campaign, we thought we needed a little extra awesomeness... So we ordered up some snow!  Not really, but we definitely got some.  With a solid blanket of white on the ground and sub 20s as I type this in June Lake this AM, we're definitely getting closer to shred time.  With that in mind it's super important to support and share our Kickstarter  (trust us there's definitely a correlation).  We've yet to reach our goal, but it's totally within our grasp, so we need your help:

1. Support the JLB Kickstarter
2. Post about it on FB and Twitter at least a dozen more times
3. Think of the biggest ballers you know and tell them to support and share the JLB Kickstarter or forever regret not being part of the first brewery ever in the coolest town on the planet earth!

It's important to support and share the campaign, because if we don't reach the goal nobody will be charged, nobody will get any rewards, and the community of June Lake will cry.  Now you wouldn't want that would you?

Thank you for everyone's continued support, and Cheers!
Justin/Sarah

p.s. - did we mention you should support the JLB Kickstarter?