More Beer Hype
Here’s a regurgitated press release. Knowing these brewers, this beer will likely taste wonderful. Knowing Lost Abbey, it will likely cost you an arm and a leg to purchase. Still, it most definitely sounds like a beer we’ll be lining up to get once we find out were to get our hands on it.
RENOWNED LOST ABBEY BREWER TOMME ARTHUR TO GUEST-BREW AT BEND BREWING CO.
Award-winning Bend Brewing Co. Head Brewer Tonya Cornett will team with award-winning Lost Abbey Head Brewer Tomme Arthur to brew a traditional stein lager at Bend Brewing Co. on February 5 and 6, 2009.
Cornett traveled earlier this year to the San Marcos, California, brewery, the Lost Abbey, to collaborate with Arthur to make the first batch of this unique beer. On March 5 and 6, Arthur will travel to Bend so that he and Cornett can make the same beer at Bend Brewing Co.
Collaboration is one way that these two award-winning brewers can expand their creativity and more broadly share their talent with beer aficionados.
Tomme Arthur has been brewing professionally for 13 years and is widely respected within the industry. He has won multiple awards for his beers and was named Great American Brew Festival Small Brewpub Brewer of the year for 2003 and 2004. Tonya Cornett has also garnered several gold, bronze and silver medals for her beer and was honored as the first woman to win the title of World Beer Cup Brewmaster of the Year in 2008. Arthur noticed Cornett’s up-and-coming-talent while teaching a Hop Union professional seminar that she attended, and asked her to team up with him.
The two brewers chose a stein lager for its traditional nature and audience appeal. Stein lagers have been around for hundreds of years. Historically, rocks would be heated and added to a wooden kettle to set the wort (the liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer) to boil. Arthur and Cornett have modernized this traditional process. “We heat granite to red hot and drop it into the wort, which caramelizes the sugars, offering caramel-like toffee notes in the final beer,” explains Cornett.
Arthur will be in Bend for the two-day brewing process on February 5 and 6. The lager will be available on tap at Bend Brewing Co. towards the end of April.
Bend Brewing Co. overlooks Mirror Pond in the heart of downtown Bend and specializes in fresh beers brewed to match the spirit, beauty and charm of Bend itself. Open 11:30 – close seven days a week and offering Happy Hour from 4 – 6 p.m. daily, Bend Brewing Co. is located at 1019 NW Brooks St. For more information call 541-383-1599.
For more information, see www.bendbrewingco.com, www.lostabbey.com, or contact Bend Brewing Co. at 541-385-3137.
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uh wow, I dont know whats crazier, these two brewers getting together or the fact that they are doing it to brew a Stein Lager.
I have had one before, didnt taste any different then another light lager. But I will keep my hopes up.
Pretty sure that’s not a press release, but an actual story from the Oregonian. As for Lost Abbey beers costing an arm an a leg, the barrel aged stuff is pricey because it’s rare and take a long time to make. All the Port/Lost Abbey stuff retails for anywhere from $5 to $9 for bombers or 750s. Not that costly.
Sage,
where are you located? Maybe its cheaper where your at, i havent seen any Port brewing for under $10 bucks around here.
Not dissing on them though, its good stuff.
@Sage – I love me some Lost Abbey, but you have to admit that the price has more to do with perceived rarity than the actual cost of production. Take Lost Abbey’s new Red Poppy: it’s $15/375ml bottle straight from the brewery or $20/btl from a couple of online retailers. That amounts to $30-40/750ml, which is more expensive than anything from Cantillon, and their beer has to be shipped halfway across the planet (as opposed to a few hundred miles up I-5) to get here.
All that being said, the beers are delicious but I have a hard time justifying the purchase of more than one or two bottles of each release due to the cost.
Samuraiartist – I’m in San Diego, so yeah the beer is cheaper because I get it straight from the brewery. I know what the disty discount is and I’ve seen it in Boston for under $10, so maybe you’ve got a steep markup there for taxes / what-have-you. @Chris – As for stuff like Red Poppy, Older Viz & Angel’s Share Bourbon (all 375ml – $15 at the brewery), each of those is about a 10 barrel run and spends more than a year in the barrel. Lost Abbey doesn’t have giant warehouse space or a lot of brewing capacity, so the price reflects a) the stranded cost to occupy space (barrels & warehouse) that could otherwise be put to larger production & faster moving beer runs, b)the cost to produce a huge variety of great beer. Cantillon only does Lambic & variants while Port/Lost Abbey makes 21 varieties from Guezes to Huge assed Imperial IPAs.