SOUP & BREAD: a fundraiser for Martha O'Byran Center, Dec 7th, 6-9 PM

Our friend Meg Guiffrida is putting together a fundraiser for the Martha O'Bryan center called "Soup & Bread" next Wednesday Dec 7th at our taproom from 6-9 PM. Several local chefs, food writers, and other good cooks will be on hand with their best soup recipes, served with fresh bread from Provence Bakery and pints of Yazoo beer. The event is free, but we will hold you upside down and shake you for a donation for the Martha O'Bryan center, and Yazoo pints will be specially priced, with the proceeds being donated to the Martha O'Bryan center too. As always at Yazoo, kids are welcome.

The author of "Soup & Bread" will also be on hand promoting and signing copies of her book. Soup & Bread is a program that has raised thousands of dollars, one bowl of soup at a time, for the Greater Chicago Food Depository. Author Martha Bayne and illustrator Sheila Sachs, the longtime art director of Chicago Reader will be there to sell you a copy and inspire you with their amazing story.

So all in all a good time will be had. I have word that one of our favorite Nashville musicians, Paul Burch, might stop by and play a few tunes as well.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/bites/archives/2011/11/29/soup-and-bread-local-chefs-writers-cook-up-party-at-yazoo-to-benefit-obryan-center

http://www.facebook.com/events/278505805524534/

http://soupandbread.net

Cheers!

Linus

Get your tickets early for tours this weekend!

We will be open on Friday 4-8 PM and Saturday 2-8 PM this Thanksgiving weekend. Tour tickets are selling fast on our website today, so I'd suggest buying them early if you want to reserve a spot. As always, we keep some tickets back for people who walk up, so if you want to just hang out, have a pint, and catch the next available tour, you can do that too! We've also gotten in some cool swag, including our new red or black hooded sweatshirts, and the newest Yazoo swiftwick socks. You can get them online at www.yazoobrew.com or at the taproom this weekend.

"Bottled on" or "Best before"?

Well, that was an interesting little poll we ran. It seems that a large majority of y'all like having a "bottled on" date rather then just a "best before" date. I'm glad that's what we do then! Our beers generally hold up well for three months after the bottled-on date. SUE holds up well for at least a year if stored cool. We're working on our entire process now to eliminate as much oxygen pickup as we can, from fermentation all the way through packaging.

Hop Project 61 out in bottles today

For this batch, we used some Magnum at the beginning of the boil, and then Warrior and Cascade throughout the boil and for dry-hopping in the fermenter.

We have liked using Warrior but it can have a slight tea-like finish. So our goal was to see how well it blended with a classic citrusy hop like Cascade. It has the aggressive upfront bitterness we've come to expect from Warrior, but a mellow grapefruity flavor and aroma.

This batch, #61, will be available in middle TN, and in Knoxville. It's marked NO61NOV14.11 on the label.

And I'd like to note a slight change in our philosophy behind the Hop Project series going forward. We are going to stick with a specific recipe for a little longer than just one batch from here on out, so that we can get each Hop Project out to all of our distribution areas. We plan on making two-three times as much of each recipe before changing to the next one. So the next batch, #62, will be available for a longer time, and hopefully in all the markets we sell our beer. And that's a good thing, since we managed to score a good bit more Galaxy hops for the next one!

So this guy just stopped by the brewery today unannounced, hate it when that happens (that's Ken Allen, founder of Anderson Valley Brewery)

Bottling up some Fall Lager today! Nice label huh? My mom did the artwork. Thanks Mom!

This will probably be the last couple hundred cases we do this year. It's out in our Brewmaster Reserve four packs.

Two more 80 bbl tanks heading our way from Vancouver! Just in time too...

Here's a picture of a truck loaded with two new 80 bbl tanks (they will hold about 2480 gallons each, or about 24,000 bottles of Yazoo). Good thing too, we need them! Let's hope for good weather on the trip from the Northwest, and no low bridges!

You will soon be able to get Pale Ale, Dos Perros, Gerst, and Hap and Harry's at the Bridgestone Arena!

We've worked out a deal with the Bridgestone Arena to expand their Yazoo offerings at Predator games, concerts, and other events at the Arena, starting with the CMA Awards this coming Wednesday. There will be multiple locations on all three levels offering draft pints of Pale Ale, Dos Perros, Gerst, and Hap and Harry's (the lager we make exclusively for our distributor in Nashville, RS Lipman). But the highlight will be a big presence right when you walk in off Broadway and 5th, near section 118. We're dubbing it the "Music City Taproom" right now, with sixteen taps of just Yazoo, Gerst, and Hap and Harry's. That's almost as many as we have at our own taproom! But no growler fills, sorry.

The Arena is making a concerted effort to offer a more local experience to the fans, and I think having more local beer will go a long way towards scoring that goal. Here's to a great season - go Preds!

And thanks to J.R. Lind at the Nashville Post and Dana Kopp Franklin at the Scene for the coverage: http://www.nashvillescene.com/bites/archives/2011/11/02/yazoo-scores-a-big-new-draft-beer-presence-at-bridgestone-arena?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NashvilleSceneBites+%28Nashville+Scene%3A+Bites%29

Something good is coming out of it...

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/nov/01/sierra-nevada-not-building-brewery-blount-county/

Sierra Nevada isn't coming to TN.

As I have written before, I'm not a big fan of all the restrictions and stipulations that were added to the TN state law that now defines what high-gravity beer is, and what license a brewery needs to obtain to brew it: http://yazoobrew.blogspot.com/2011/05/sb-1224-high-alcohol-beer-bill-before.html

But something really good is coming out of all of this. We Tennessee brewers realized we needed a common voice, and have been working on forming a TN craft brewers guild. Brewers from across the state have met twice since the summer, we have adopted a set of bylaws, and are in the process of forming a non-profit organization that will both promote TN craft beer across the state, and represent the interests of TN craft brewers in the legislature. We hope to have the guild officers elected by the end of the year, and some marketing and legislative agendas formed in the Spring of 2012.

We don't have any announcements yet but please "like"us at http://www.facebook.com/pages/TN-Craft-Brewers-Guild/233391146692611
and follow the TN Craft Brewers Guild at @TNcraftbrewers on twitter.com.