It’s no secret that Kalamazoo city officials are exhibiting a big push to grow the craft beer community in our area, and we have been lucky enough to enter the Kalamazoo beer community at this very exciting time in one of the best cities in the nation in which to operate a brewery. Kalamazoo is home to one of the oldest micro-breweries, and is welcoming several new breweries this year including Bigg Dogg Brewing, Arcadia Brewing Company and our own Boatyard Brewing Company. Michigan has quickly become the fifth largest beer state based on the number of breweries it hosts, and the appreciation for craft beer continues its rapid growth among Michiganders.

Winning this vote will give us more than bragging rights around here. It will give our community the push it needs to continue the rapidly growing support for craft beer production in Kalamazoo and the surrounding areas. It has the potential to help boost our economy and encourage more aspiring brewers to do business here.

We hope that you will take a moment to vote for Kalamazoo as Beer City USA 2013 by following the link on the votekalamazoo.com website, and we also hope that you will spread the word about this great opportunity for Kalamazoo and its community of wonderful beer loving people. Tell your friends and followers far and wide that Kalamazoo IS Beer City USA! Together we can make this happen for our community.

We would like to thank all the great people that have guided us through this past year.  Our legal team from Miller Canfield led the way, providing professional services with care, diligence, and concern for our dream. Read about our attorney and beverage specialist Joe Infante and his passion for brewing.

We would also like to thank the wonderful team at Imperial Beverage for providing support and patience as we worked towards licensing. Now that BBC has received its licenses, the focus of the next twelve weeks will be finalizing the buildout and installation of its new ten-barrel brewing system from Quality Tank Solutions.  BBC expects full production and distribution of its products by Mid-June.

Subscribe to our email list for announcements about numerous launch parties and offers. The brewery will immediately ramp up brewing with its half-barrel system to introduce its ales at teaser tastings in Southwest Michigan.  When the City of Kalamazoo completes its inspections and provides BBC with all necessary permits, we will be open for tours during our buildout.

Dan Gilligan is currently working on the design and development of the retail and taproom space that is planned to be completed during the summer months.

Powell Design Works is completing a massive redesign of the brewery’s website.  Look for our new online store, integrations with numerous social media platforms, and expanded information about the brewery.  Look for the launch of the new website by late Spring.

We are thrilled to have become a part of our state’s beer culture and invite you to join us in celebrating the spirit of Michigan through the enjoyment of great craft beer.

Cheers!

Brian C Steele, CEO Boatyard Brewing Company

At some point those voices made their point, and I began to view our brewing more as a form of art and less as an expression of scientific practicality. Brewing had become a way to express myself in a collaboration of wort and yeast.  The question was now, “Do I have anything worthy to express?”  I began this creative quest by digging out an old recipe that I had been working on for a few years.  It was to be a unique porter that I originally started crafting at the Saugatuck Brewing Company with Barry Johnson.  The idea was to create a porter that was poured and consumed on Christmas Eve.  A porter that would help celebrate the friendship and family bonds that made Christmas special in my family.

While working on the recipe at the Saugatuck Brewing Company my first thought was vanilla.  It seemed that everything in our house, had vanilla in it, as my parents created cookies, cakes, and fudge.  So with our first try we added just enough vanilla to fill the nose, but not enough to overwhelm the palate.  It was a nice porter, but not worthy of Christmas Eve.

The development of my special porter was stalled as we began the preparation for Christmas in December of 2010.  We had the big family Christmas at our house and I was still whining about the vanilla porter I made for Christmas Eve.  In the middle of one of my whines my father said, “Son, you should make a shoo-fly beer for Christmas.”  For those of you who didn’t grow up in central Pennsylvania, shoo-fly usually refers to a pie made from black-strap molasses.  My first reactions was a hardy chuckle, but my father’s comment set into motion a series of ideas that energized my artistic flair.  I set off on a journey to use all of the flavors of my Christmases past infused into that vanilla porter. I laid in bed that night and thought of the Christmas Eves I had been lucky enough to enjoy.  I thought of the food and drink that had been fussed over by four generations of my family.  The food and drink that brought joy to those beautiful nights.

I took that same vanilla infused porter recipe from a few years earlier and began some pretty unique tweaking.  First I needed that lovely molasses.  You just can’t celebrate Christmas in Pennsylvania without molasses.  I think it is even a state law that you must consume a few ounces every December or they will cancel Groundhog’s Day.  So I tossed out a little of the base malt and replaced the sugars with a wee bit of molasses.  For those who have never used molasses, it is heavenly in dark beer, but a little goes a long way.

I also remembered the smell of rum and raisins each Christmas as rum cakes baked in the kitchen.  To capture those flavors in the beer, I caramelized plump raisins in the oven and then deglazed the pan with a generous portion of dark rum.  That pan sat all night, melding the flavors from the dried fruit and rum.  I added that mixture towards the end of the boil and let the magic begin.  When sampling the wort, I knew this brew was really close to what I wanted.   An amazing vanilla extract from Chicago was added after fermentation and our Christmas Eve Porter was born.

Last Christmas Eve we enjoyed this porter for the first time and created a tradition we hope to carry on.  On Christmas Eve, Dan and I took our bottles and delivered them to friends and family.  No note or card, just a little gift left by the front door from friends who wanted the flavors of Christmases past to come alive again.  A porter that would help all of Santa’s helpers with those “some assembly required” gifts.

Imperial has made an enthusiastic commitment to develop the BBC brand and create market strategies that will provide for an exciting launch of Boatyard Brewing’s products. Fans of Boatyard Brewing should start to see Boatyard Brewing beers in Kalamazoo during the first quarter of 2013. Boatyard Brewing’s Lost Peninsula IPA, Blonde Horizon, and Midnight Star will be offered on draught when distribution begins.

Friday, September 14th at 5 PM
Boatyard Brewing Company
432 East Paterson Kalamazoo, MI

Here at BBC we like to make related beers, beers that have the same family background.  Our first attempt generated two of our fan favorites; Blonde Horizon and Midnight Star.  These two ales may not look alike, but they both fell from the same family tree.  Now we are creating our Following Seas Rye Stout.  Created with the same base and adjunct malts as our Fair Winds Oatmeal Stout, we mashed in our beloved rye and tweaked the hops profile to bring out this beer’s naughty nature.  The Neobritannia yeasties are currently doing their job in the fermenter and we are giddy for our first taste.  We hope to have this one ready to go by the first of August!  Stop by the brewery and have a sample on us.

Sunset Amber: All of our tasters kept clamoring for us to make an amber ale.  So we sat down a created our Sunset Amber.  We used a pale ale base malt with additions of brown sugar, chocolate malts, and caramel malts.  As with many BBC ales, we tossed in a bit of rye to add a hint of spice.  The wort was boiled using a hops profile containing both Cascade and Chinook varieties.  This ale was fermented with an American Ale yeast and produced an ABV of 7.9%.  We really like this one!!

Kalamazoo Cream Ale: This ale was dreamed up on a hot spring day.  We focused on our efforts on creating a light-colored ale that would be easy drinking and lower in alcohol.  What we created was a complex collection of base malts, flaked barley, corn, and lactose.  We used Cascade and Saaz hops with an American Ale yeast to finish it up.  As primary fermentation was ending, we found we hit the mark with taste and an ABV of 5.0%.

Last month we introduced you to Kay-Lips-O Chocolate Milk Stout and Channel Crossing Belgian Wheat.  We sponsored a few tastings around Kalamazoo and offered these two new ales.  Both ales were very well received, but the chocolate milk stout was a huge hit.    According to Ed Smith of Kalamazoo, “The chocolate milk stout is the best beer I ever had.”  Thanks Ed,  we like your attitude.