Haw River Barn Raisers Party

I didn't donate on the "barn raiser" level, but we did whatever level got the tekus and private tour. I haven't heard any updates about in a good while. But honestly, I'd rather just keep waiting until they start brewing some more interesting stuff at this point, because the two times I've been out there so far they haven't had anything that was all that good IMO.

 

I was thinking about this the other day. Before the gofundme or whatever was used, there was the barnyard raisers. I did the max one that was supposed to include the sour with white cherries and a party for us. Not really sure, but would love to find out if there is any intent to come to terms on this. I still have my 2 tickets...

 

Hang onto those tickets—we're still working on plans. Original intent was to have everyone in before we opened (hell, looking at the idea of a party in early 2013 is silly, as we didn't even start construction until January 2014), as a "sneak preview" sorta thing, but then as we got closer to opening, we realized it didn't make sense to have our VIPs in before we had any beer (duh, in hindsight). So then we were hoping to have something this summer, but it's just been an absolutely insane schedule trying to keep up with demand without killing the five of us (and most of our aged and sour beer is still in barrels), so we're putting plans together to schedule the party early next year in a cool spot right across the river here in Saxapahaw, so we can bring out a few kegs that we've reserved and some new stuff that'll be coming out of barrels this fall/winter. We just don't want to half ass the event, basically—again, apologies for not keeping everyone better informed.

I promise we haven't forgotten about you. We've just been shitty about keeping everyone updated. We'll make good with better updates very soon, and will keep everyone posted as soon as we nail down plans for the party and promised goods very soon. Pinky swears.

 

I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the Haw River beers that I have tried.

 

Damn good response. Cheers!

 

I like the breakfast dubbel and the oatmeal pale ale. Just haven't been a fan of all the Belgian ones like the tripels, the wit, the golden, and most of the saisons thus far (although I did like the most recent one that's in distro in kegs currently).

I know not everything can be a crazy sour and whatnot, but I just need some funk and dryness, all the ones I mentioned have been too sweet. Where are the ones they have listed on their website like the Rusted Plow saison, Cottonpickin Farmhouse IPA, or Little Wooden Leg? I wasn't expecting to see the stuff we saw at Raleigh Rare the last couple years yet, but was expecting to see more variety than we've seen.

 

I heard the barrel-aged grisette was really good, haven't had a chance to try that one. Definitely going to try and get my hands on one of the barrel-aged breakfast dubbels coming out soon.

 

Some of the funky and sour stuff is still in the works (keep in mind we've only been licensed to brew beer legally since last fall, so anything aged is pretty much still aging at this point), and we're just starting to pull some of the barrels and get them worked into rotation. The beers listed on the website are coming, we promise: both Cotton Pickin' and Rusted Plow have been aging on their respective brett strains in our foeders since the first of the year, and we're ordering bottles this week, actually, to get the first batch of Cotton' Pickin on shelves within the next few weeks. Rusted Plow should follow soon after that, most likely. And the base beer for Little Wooden Leg's in a barrel as I type this, just letting it age on it's brett strains while realizing some trouble with the local fig harvest this year, on account of a late cold snap last winter. Just taking a little longer to get viable figs this summer. Patience, my friends—we're trying hard to do things the right way, so we'd rather wait for a local farm to supply fresh, delicious figs than order them from Sysco and have a box of frozen fig puree dropped off the back of a truck for us. We hope the difference means as much to our patrons as it does to us.

Also, as far as variety goes, we've got 12 taps flowing just about all the time in our small tasting room in Saxapahaw, and turnover on the kegs has been pretty quick this summer, so we're changing our menu just about every weekend. Some folks many have an issue with some of the beer we're making, but this is the first I've heard "lack of variety" as being one of them.

 

If you ever have to use a food distributor, please dont use big evil sysco. You have 2 family owned distributors in your backyard, Eg Forrest (winston salem) and Orrells foodservice(lexington). Both have reps in your area and each focus on local vendors as much as possible.