Thanks to everyone who came to the 2008 Fresh Hop Festival! We had a great time and poured a lot of beer. Our Scottish-style ale, Twin Stag, was debuted for the public and was well received.
Next up for us is the 2008 Holiday Ale Festival in Portland, Oregon.
We are excited to have brewed a fresh hop version of our India Pale Ale as a seasonal for October and for the 6th Annual Fresh Hop Festival on October 4th.
Chris and I collected the hops locally and then threatened to move into the warehouse:
Jeff In Hops
Chris In Hops
We used a massive amount of fresh Cascades in this special release, which will be start to be available around festival time, including an appearance at our Fresh Hop Festival Brewer’s Dinner at Bob’s Keg & Cork on October 3rd (see Bob for more info on that):
Fresh Hop
See you at the festival!
Thanks to all who attended the Sweet Summer Ender yesterday. It was great fun for us. We always enjoy catching up with our current beer fans, and meeting new ones. The entertainment, wine and food was top-notch, and the weather (as is most always the case) fantastic. See you at the Fresh Hop Festival.
Thanks to all who attended Case of the Blues 2008. Chris and Julie as well as Marcelle and I enjoyed seeing you there and serving you our beer. Thanks for choosing local, and helping out the Yakima Greenway Foundation and Junior League of Yakima.
Thanks also to all of those behind the scenes- volunteers, staff, other breweries and wineries- who made our first beer show a great one to remember.
Craft Beer Reports Mid-Year Numbers
Boulder, CO– July 28, 2008 The Brewers Association, the trade association representing the majority of U.S. brewing companies, reports beer sales from American craft brewers¹ (see 2007 Craft Beer Industry Statistics) continue to grow despite a softening economy and challenges with raw materials supply and pricing. Craft beer dollar sales during the first half of 2008 increased 11% compared to this same period in 2007. Yakima Craft Brewing Co. is one of the craft brewing companies contributing to that growth. The Brewers Association attributes this growth to a grassroots movement toward fuller flavored, small batch beers made by independent craft brewers.
According to The Nielsen Company, beer sales are affected the least by the economic downturn, with wine sales showing the most impact. Additionally, craft beer is gaining customers from across all segments of beverage alcohol.
“Newer brands by the larger brewers, like Belgian style wheat beers, have huge distribution advantages over beers by independent craft brewers,” said Paul Gatza, Director of the Brewers Association. “These brands can grow when the large brewers decide they want them to grow with the ability to impact what brands get shelf space and tap handles. At the same time, beer from craft brewers is being requested by the customer, which encourages distributors and retailers to make the beer available.” According to the Brewers Association, 1,420 of the 1,463 U.S. breweries are independent craft brewers.
The Brewers Association reports that in the first half of 2008 volume of beer sold by craft brewers grew by 6.5% totaling an estimated 4 million barrels of beer compared to 3.768 million barrels sold in the first half of 2007. Harry Schuhmacher of Beer Business Daily stated, “Crafts have really taken pricing this year given high input costs, and yet it is still driving volume gains faster than the beer category.”
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Yakima Craft Brewing Co.
2920 River Road
Yakima, WA 98902
(509) 654-7357
(509) 654-7358 FAX
It’s been out for a while, but you can check out the article on us at Yakima Herald-Republic.
Some time back, Jack Curtin contacted us about including our regulatory experiences in a piece for American Brewer Magazine. As I told Jack, our experiences were great, and have mostly remained that way past start-up.
We had a long conversation, and Jack wanted to include more than what would be in the article for others to see. You can read more about our conversation on Jack’s Liquid Diet blog.
Welcome to our new blog. Old technology? Maybe. But for us, this blog will hopefully help us to keep you up to date on happenings around the brewery without too much muss and fuss.
First, we enjoyed attending and serving our beer at the Downtown Business After Hours that took place on July 15th, beginning at Santiago’s. If you’re not familiar with this event, it is put on every month by the Yakima Chamber of Commerce (yes, we are members) at different locations around town. We brought our Pale Ale and our Amber Ale.
Peggy from the Chamber sent us this memento:
Business After Hours, July, 2008
The Business After Hours event for August will take place August 19th at the Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences. We will again be serving our beer, this time the Pale Ale to attendees. If you are a student or Chamber member, we’ll see you there!
Before that event, and as listed on our Find Us page, we’ll be serving our Pale Ale and Amber Ale at A Case of the Blues and All That Jazz, an annual event benefiting the community through the Yakima Greenway Foundation and Junior League of Yakima. Hope to see you there.
Stay tuned to this blog and our announcements mailing list for more Yakima Craft Brewing Co. information.