Piney River Brew in the Lou This Week

Summit Distributing is proudly carrying the Piney River brand in St. Louis.

And this is how you will get Piney River Brew in the Lou. …

Monday, November 2^nd

Today and throughout the week, Piney River begins leaving the Summit Distributing warehouse for bars, restaurants and retail shelves across their distribution area.

Tuesday, November 3^rd

Joleen & Brian Durham and Rick Lange, Piney River sales, move up to St. Louis for a few days.

• We are beer of the month at Lucky’s Market (with locations in Rock Hill and in Ellisville), you will find us there sampling Piney River beer from 4 to 6 p.m. (both locations), and there’s a rumor that you might be able to pick up Piney River homemade beer brats at Lucky’s too!
• Brewery Night at Flying Saucer, 6 to 8 p.m., Piney River on tap.
• Piney River Trivia Night at iTap in Soulard, 8 p.m., Piney River on tap and FREE Piney River for the winners of each round.

Wednesday, November 4^th

• Sample the beer and buy some to take home at: Craft Beer Cellar in Clayton, 3 to 5 pm
• Piney River Night at Three Kings on Delmar, 8 p.m., Piney River on tap and paired with something delicious from the kitchen.

Thursday, November 5^th

• Piney River Tap Takeover at the Barrel Bar at Everything Wine and Cigars in Dardenne Prairie
• Sample the beer and buy some to take home at: Fields Foods in St. Louis from 4 to 6 p.m. or at
• Lukas Liquor in Ellisville from 5 to 7 p.m.
• Piney River Happy Hour at Layla in the Grove, 5 to 7 p.m. There will be $3 pints during happy hour and Black Walnut Wheat, Float Trip Ale, Missouri Mule IPA and Sweet Potato Ale will be on tap.
• Piney River Tap Takeover at Shamrocks in St. Peters beginning at 8 p.m.

Friday, November 6^th

• Sample the beer and buy some to take home at: Total Wine in Manchester from 4 to 7 p.m.
• Brewery Night at Tilted Kilt in St. Charles, 7:30 p.m. Our beer will be on tap, and you can keep the glass, too.

Besides the aforementioned places, you will find Piney River in other area locations where it’s never been in the past. If you have a favorite bar or restaurant or liquor store where you want Piney River, ask for it! It’s certainly available now.

We hope you will join us at one (or more!) event this week. We look forward to seeing some familiar St. Louis faces, and we look forward to getting to know many more of you, too.

Brian speaks to about 60 members of the sales team at Summit Distributing last Thursday night to educate them prior to launching our brand in their market.

Hello Arkansas! May We Introduce Craft Beer from the Ozarks?

Last year, when Piney River Brewing was still a mere nanobrewery, we were contacted by a craft beer loving salesman, James Denoyer, from Glidewell Distributing in Arkansas.  James expressed his eagerness to have Piney River beer in the Ozarks.

Although we knew that a lot of great outdoor activities take place in Arkansas, we really couldn’t fathom making enough beer to send to Arkansas when James first contacted us late last summer.  Perhaps it’s time for a couple of personal disclaimers here….Brian has a great love for the rice fields and flooded timber of Arkansas, which are great places for duck hunters (which Brian is at least once a year).  As a small child, I lived in Pocahontas, AR where my dad had a job.  I had this crazy Southern drawl that sounded just about adorable coming from a three-year old, pig tailed girl.  I’m not that adorable sounding anymore, but I do have some fond memories of those early days in Arkansas.

While we couldn’t fathom making enough beer to send to Arkansas, Brian and I could both see how Piney Pints would work for craft beer lovers in the state.  As we were able to meet the demand from our Missouri distributors, we talked again to James about getting our beer out in Arkansas.

Glidewell is another family owned business with a long business history in Arkansas.  James is absolutely passionate about craft beer and getting it to people in Arkansas.  Perhaps most importantly, a brewer at another Midwest brewery spoke very highly of Glidewell and the job they have done promoting his beer brands noting that he wished all of his distributors would promote his beer as well as Glidewell.

Brian and I submitted the required paperwork to the Arkansas Beverage Commission and were approved to sell Piney River beer in Arkansas beginning July 1^st.  Shortly thereafter a refrigerated box truck from Arkansas appeared at the BARn, and we loaded a pallet of McKinney Eddy Amber Ale on the truck—Arkansas bound!

You can find Piney Pints of McKinney Eddy today at several places in Little Rock:  Colonial Wine & Spirits; Popatop on University; Springhill in North Little Rock; Flying Saucer; Big Orange Burgers and O’Looneys.  There will be many more places that will add Piney River beer in Arkansas, too…stay tuned.

We’re coming to see you, too, Arkansas!

Grapes, Grains & Growls (Beer Festival) on July 21 in Little Rock

Fest of Ales (Beer & Bourbon Festival) on August 17 in Fort Smith

Little Rocktoberfest (Beer Festival) on October 6 in Little Rock

The Flying Saucer in Little Rock is also opening their arms wide to the new craft beer in town.  Piney River glass night is July 26th—you can drink our beer in one of our pint glasses and keep the glass!    Then, we’ll be at the Flying Saucer on the evening of August 16^th for a Piney River Brewing tap takeover.  You’ll be able to really get your Piney River beer on!

Personally, we’re looking forward to enjoying Piney Pints on the Buffalo and White rivers as well as Bull Shoals and Norfork lakes.  Maybe we’ll see you there!

American Craft Beer Week…Thank You!

Five different towns in the Ozarks.

Three tap takeovers.

Two tastings.

Half price growler fills.

American Craft Beer Week is coming to an end, and our Ozarks style celebration is complete.  Earlier this evening Brian, Andy and I sat on our patio in the waning daylight, Ozark fireflies blinking all around us, and we toasted to a great week.  We covered some country.  We had fun.  We survived.

We can never thank all of you individually, but we do want to say a big thank you to everyone that came out and enjoyed a pint or four, tried our beer and patronized our hosts.

A big thanks to The Open Range Steakhouse in Willow Springs, Fisher and Brown Speakeasy in Rolla, Horseshoe Saloon Bar’n Grill in Salem, Hy-Vee and Brown Derby International Wine Center in Springfield.  We really appreciate you allowing us to celebrate this week in your businesses!

Thanks also to our distributors, Grellner Sales and Heart of America Beverage, for their support of locally brewed craft beer. We couldn’t have done what we did without their support.

There were some funny moments…like at Open Range when the bar and staff were rather overwhelmed with Piney River Beer drinking customers, so Brian and I got a crash course in running their POS system.  A BARn regular gave me some cash, and I rang up their drinks.  “When did you learn how to use the POS?” she asked.  “Just now,” I answered.

There were some GREAT moments…the opportunity to see a line up of Piney River Brewing tap handles.  And even better and greater–Open Range, the Speakeasy and the Horseshoe are all planning to add additional Piney River taps to their draft line ups.

I didn’t have much time to take photos during American Craft Beer Week, but I did snap this photo from our tap takeover at The Open Range…several patrons signed the declaration of craft beer independence.  It’s not every day you can add your John Hancock to a declaration of independence, especially one supporting craft beer.

For those of you that have been following this blog over the past year, you might recall May 18th, 2011.   Brian and I celebrated 15 years of marriage with a float trip on the Big Piney River and Fat Tire and Buffalo Sweat in cans.  We found out that day that our SBA loan for our brewing equipment was approved–a memorable day for us for the rest of our lives.

May 18, 2012 rolled around this year, and Brian and I were hosting simultaneous beer tastings at two different locations in Springfield.  No idyllic photos of McKinney Eddy or Brian holding a Piney River bronzeback on this anniversary, but Scott Gargus at Brown Derby International Wine Center did snap this photo of the two of us shortly before Brian left for his tasting at Hy-Vee.

So we weren’t in a canoe on the river yesterday, but we did get to have lunch with Sherry at The Midway Bar & Grill in Mountain Grove.  Sherry’s is proud to have two locally brewed beers on draft at her bar.  Being in Springfield also gave us the opportunity to see our friends at Farmer’s Gastropub and enjoy a celebratory dinner with great craft beer.  Stacy and the staff at Farmer’s are proudly serving Piney River beer, too.  And those experiences make Brian and I think that the next 16 years are going to be more interesting and fun than we can possibly fathom.

Tonight on the patio we were already talking about what we can do to celebrate American Craft Beer Week in the Ozarks next year.  So, let’s plan to celebrate again together next year, but don’t wait that long before you enjoy another Piney Pint!

Cheers!