Bristol Brewing – A Firkin Rendezvous and a Dock Sale
Bristol Brewing Company loves technology. We’re outfitted with all the latest geek accessories — iPhones and iPods, Macs, networks, online documents and calendars. One can overhear cute, slightly nerdy-sounding conversations between brewers and office staff about Wii’s and MMPGs and LEGAL downloads of funny or cool web content. But as much as we like our toys to plug in, we still love our beer to be decidedly old fashioned and traditional, at least in the way we brew it.
That’s why The Beerocrat gets all aflutter about firkins. (Actually, everyone around here loves a good firkin, but we won’t disrespect the Bristol boys — or men — by suggesting that they “get aflutter” about anything.)
So what’s a firkin? Well, for starters, a firkin is an English unit of volume, measuring nine imperial gallons or 40.9148269 liters (ah Google; like we said, we love technology). It also happens to be the name of the traditional English cask of that size, which is notable for having a bung hole on the side and is popular in the making of lovely, delicious cask-conditioned ales. We make our firkins by filling them with an actively fermenting beer and adding some additional yeast for a secondary fermentation, maybe we dry hop it if the style or our mood demands it, then we seal it up and let it work its magic.
Finally, (and this is where you come in) we get to drink it. And our favorite way of drinking a firkin is at the annual Firkin Rendezvous. We set up racks in the warehouse, invite 20 or so of our favorite other Colorado microbreweries to bring one or two of their best casks, get some of our favorite restaurants to bring in some food, and call you (also our favorite) over to party with us. The proceeds benefit the Colorado Brewers Guild, which benefits us all by fighting the good fight against potential evil-doers who would undermine our beverage of choice. The fun all starts at 1:00 on Saturday, February 21st. Tickets are on sale for $25 now at the brewery. Don’t wait until the day of to get yours — they’ll be $30 if we’ve got any left.
In other news, we’re doing a dock sale this Friday — you remember those, right? We bring back some nearly post-dated beer from the liquor store and sell it to you for $20 a case ($23 a case for bombers). It’s cash only, it starts at 4:00 and it’s usually all gone within 10 minutes to half an hour, so don’t dilly-dally like my friend Kristin who didn’t believe me that it goes quickly and thus didn’t get any last time. (Sorry to have to call you out like that, my dear.)
We’ll also be watching the SuperBowl here on Sunday. Robyn assures me that she’ll stay open till the bitter (or glorious) end. She’ll also have a table and powerstrip ready to go for those of you who want to bring a potluck dish.
Cheers,
Laura
The Bristol Beerocrat
