Crooked Stave's New Fouder

A "foeder" the king of all barrels arrived this week! For all of you that have not yet heard Funkwerks has a sister brewery, Crooked Stave, that will be serving beers from our tap room.  Chad Yakobson is the founder of the new brewery and he has been brewing at Funkwerks for a couple of months.  Chad is focusing primarily on sours, and brettanomyces beers.  Funkwerks is planning on serving two of his beers in our taproom as soon as they are ready.  Yakobson has a MSc. degree in Brewing and Distilling from the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling, located at Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh, Scotland. "I am a Hophead with a serious Sour ale addiction. This has led to my interest in all things Brettanomyces."   Check out Chad's brewery website with up to date information on how his beers are doing.  http://www.crookedstave.com.

Brett Dream is in the Fermenter

Our spring seasonal this year is going to be "Brett Dream" it is a saison with some Brettanomyces Claussenii added for extra funk. People often ask how the name came about. It started with a discussion that Gordon, Anda, and I were having regarding how Brettanomyces effects dreams. I can't remember where but we read that some people have very vivid weird dreams if they drink to many Brett beers before bed. My wife says that we should make a beer and call it Brett Dream. Gordon and I laughed but the rest is history.

-Brad

Our Facebook page has a new look!

I encourage you to check out the new look for of our Facebook page and sign up for our email list!

1st Month Met with Success

We made it!  To all who have visited us in December, thank you for making our opening month wonderful.  In times of pouring from bottles and running out of beer we have made some new friends, celebrated a new year and enjoyed tapping some new saisons.
 
It didn't take Brad and Gordon long to catch up to the demand of our beer and we are happy to say by the end of January we will have six saisons on tap.  Also, along with getting our a tap at Choice City and our Saison on tap at Ace Gillett's, Funkwerks now has bottles of our Saison for sale in our taproom, Wilbur's on College and at Mile High Wine and Spirits in Lakewood.

A side note goes to our first featured artist, Jay Kelsall.  He has brought us three of his pieces to showcase in the taproom to help us warm up our walls in this cold weather.  We will also be looking for other local artists to contribute throughout the year so that we have a continuous rotation to liven up your visit with us.  If you are interested please contact me at jean@funkwerks.com with a few attachments of the art you would like featured.

Remember to always drink responsibly and to enjoy every last drop!

Cheers,

Jean

Bottles Will Be Arriving Soon!

We often receive questions about when bottles of Saison and White will be coming out. We plan to have bottles of Saison in the tap room fridge starting this Thursday. With a few local accounts coming on line over the next few weeks. White should be coming out in bottles in early March.

-Brad

Happy Holidays!!!

A BIG thank you to all that made our "soft opening" such a success.  I have had a blast getting to know others in the brewing industry and the many Fort Collins home brewers that are quickly becoming familiar faces.  Laura and I have poured many cases of our bottled Saisons and were sad to see the seasonal Cherry run out so fast.  However, we are anxiously awaiting Brad and Gordon's next yummy beer.  Stay posted to funkwerks.com and our Facebook fan page for updates on what we have on tap, and when we will have the bottles for sale of the Saison and White.

Thanks to our patrons for also being very patient while we work out all the kinks in our new home on Lincoln.  We are very excited to have flights available so you can taste what we have on tap, and we will be receiving our growlers very soon!!!

Hoping that you all have a very wonderful and safe holiday season.  It has been a very busy year for us here at Funkwerks, and we are looking forward to a very happy new year.

Cheers,

Jean

Time Flies

Man, time flies. The last four months seem like a blur. Beer making came to a screeching halt on August 1 while we moved into the new facility and prepared for the arrival of the 15bbl system.  Although we budgeted pretty well for equipment costs there was a lot of stuff we hadn’t counted on. They were mostly a list of stainless steel bits and pieces that continues to add up but one large cost that blindsided  us was the steam installation. The steam lines were already run from the steam boiler and stopped two feet from brewhouse. Should be an easy installation, right? Well, evidently getting it hooked up required an impressive web of copper pipe, steam traps, and solenoid control valves. I have to say, despite the sticker shock, the installation is totally professional and works great. Thank you to Brent and the crew at Mechanical Masters.

After four months of playing painter, plumber, electrician, sign hanger, mover, and janitor I can finally concentrate on brewing again. We managed to get our first brew going on November 13 with the help of David Meadows from Premier Stainless, Chad Yakobson of Crooked Stave, and a team of friends and family.  Despite some hiccups throughout the day, we were within 0.001 of hitting our original gravity. That first beer, Casper, is loosely a grissette or a light saison. That beer was followed by our White and our Saison effectively filling up our fermentation capacity. Look for those in the taproom over the next two weeks. 

We had planned on having a soft opening of the taproom on Thursday to work out any kinks but due to media exposure turnout was larger than expected. We also were under the gun to get Casper to clear in the fermenter in time for opening. I literarily was kegging the beer 10 minutes before the taproom opened. As busy as the taproom was, our new employees Jean and Laura had everything under control. I must say there was a huge feeling of satisfaction to look at a taproom full of people enjoying our beer. 

We are brewing an interesting beer on Monday but I’ll tell you about that next week.

-Gordon