OB: Press Releases

Oskar Blues Partners with Stranahan�s Colorado Whiskey

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 -0600

Starting this month, Oskar Blues Brewery will begin supplying the custom-made distiller�s wash for Stranahan�s Colorado Whiskey, the pioneering micro distiller located in Denver, Colorado.

Oskar Blues will craft about 3000 gallons of Stranahan�s wash each week in its Longmont facility. Stranahan�s will purchase the wash and truck it by food-grade tanker to its Denver distillery.

"This is a very big deal for us," says Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis.  "Jess and his team are whiskey mavericks, they�re doing for whiskey what craft brewers have done for beer. They�ve proven that with guts, talent and a blind eye to the status quo, one can make whiskey as good as any out there."

Since its opening in 2003, Stranahan�s had been making its Straight Rocky Mountain Whiskey from distiller�s wash provided by Flying Dog Brewery in Denver. In January, Flying Dog shifted its Denver brewing efforts to its brewery in Frederick, Maryland.

Oskar Blues contacted Graber immediately upon hearing of Flying Dog�s decision to move and offered its services.

The brewery-made wash plays a key role in the premium quality of Stranahan�s Colorado Whiskey. It is made for Stranahan�s from a recipe created by Jess Graber. After mashing in and fermentation, the wash is filtered prior to distillation. This filtering frees the wash of many of the harshness-producing characteristics found in traditionally produced whiskey mash.

"This cleaner, purer wash," says Graber, "gives us a really superior product to start with, and it reaches maturity much faster."

The wash gets another unique treatment in the hybrid pot/column still that Graber designed. It blends the benefits of the pot-type still used for scotch with the bourbon-style column still. Stranahan�s temperature and humidity-controlled barrel-aging room further enhances the quality of the whiskey and speeds its  development.

"By using all of these unique methods and extra efforts," Graber says, "we get an ultra-smooth and extra-flavorful whiskey that tastes way beyond its years."

"These guys are bold innovators." Katechis says.  "And they�re bringing whiskey back to a small-batch, grassroots level that�s unpretentious and people can identify with. They�re the kind of entrepreneurs we want to partner with."

Oskar Blues and Stranahan�s intend to develop various cross-promotional programs to highlight their collaboration.

Oskar Blues Opens New Brewery

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0600

First beers brewed and canned in new Longmont, CO facility

Oskar Blues Brewery has begun making and canning beer at its new 35,000 square feet brewery in neighboring Longmont, Colorado.

"I look around our new place," says Oskar Blues founder Dale Katechis, "and feel like I'm standing in the punch line to our 'Wouldn't it be funny to can our pale ale?' joke back in 2002. It's surreal. We thought the idea was hilarious and knew it had big potential. But this has become much bigger than we imagined."

"There's a bunch of people out there," Katechis adds, "who are ecstatic to finally be able to get delicious beer in a can. They love the deep, full flavor of our beer, and they love the irreverence of it being squeezed into a blue-collar can. They also love the portability and environmental and freshness-keeping bennies of cans."

The new facility will brew and package all of Oskar Blues Brewery's canned beers. Its new 50-barrel JV Northwest brewing system and 30,000-barrel
annual capacity will dramatically increase the brewery's production.

"Demand for our beers really blew up last year," Katechis says. "But as wonderful as that was for us, it put most of our distributors on back-order status. With our new brewery we're ramping up production and we'll keep our wholesalers, retailers and fans fully stocked with Oskar Blues beers."

Oskar Blues has $3 million invested in the new facility, which is located just 12 miles east of Lyons.

"Our new walk-in cooler," Katechis notes, "is about the size of our entire brewery in Lyons. And we have plenty of elbow room for more tanks, enough to triple our capacity to around 100,000 barrels down the road."

The Lyons brewery will continue to produce beers for the company's famed brewpub/music venue there. The house beer lineup at the brewpub will now be expanded to include new beers.

"Our brewpub is our heart & soul," Katechis says, "and it'll remain that way."

For the past four years, Oskar Blues has been producing all of its beer in the 3,500 square feet facility it built alongside the Lyons brewpub.

Last year that facility increased its production by 51%, producing 12,409 barrels of Dale's Pale Ale, Old Chub Scottish Style Ale, Gordon, Ten FIDY Imperial Stout and other beers in 2007. (A barrel of beer equals 31 gallons.)

The brewery produced 8,219 barrels in 2006.

Oskar Blues began canning its beers -- two cans at a time on a table-top machine -- in November of 2002. The company's flagship, Dale's Pale Ale, is the nation's first hand-canned craft beer and the trailblazer for America's growing microcanning niche.

Today Dale's is one of the most talked-about and honored beers made in Colorado.

Get details about Oskar Blues beers and see a short film on the company's pioneering Canned Beer Apocalypse at http://www.oskarblues.com/brew/ .

Oskar Blues Brewery's beers are canned five cans at a time on equipment from Cask Brewing Systems of Alberta, Canada. About two dozen US microbreweries now brew and can their own beer on this equipment.

The company's beers are now available in 18 states: CO, AZ, ID, WA, NM, GA, VA, NJ, PA, MA, NY, WI, RI, CT, MD, NC, FL and SC. In early May, Oskar Blues beers will be available in Texas.

The Oskar Blues brewpub was opened in 1997 by Katechis and his wife, Christi Katechis. The brewpub specializes in award-winning, southern-style cuisine and "Dixie-meets-the Rockies" hospitality.

The brewpub's intimate music room hosts the best national and local blues, Americana, alternative-country, bluegrass and jam acts.
Dave Chichura is the head brewer for Oskar Blues Brewery.

For additional info, interviews, photos or samples contact Marty Jones at 303-860-7448, marty@oskarblues.com or martysjones@att.net .
For more information visit www.oskarblues.com .

Fundraising with Birthday Celebrations: Merle Haggard and Dale's Ma

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

On Sunday, April 6, Oskar Blues will be hosting a fundraising celebration in honor of the birthdays of two of our fav-o-rite people: country music legend Merle Haggard, and Dale's ma, Shirley "Ya Ya" Katechis

From 4 - 9 PM we'll have a hearty collection of the area's best roots music makers playing all Merle Haggard songs in honor of his 70th birthday on that Sunday.

The bands include Halden Wofford & the Hi Beams, Boulder Acoustic Society, K. C. Groves, Whiskey Trip, The Double 8's and Dave Richey.

Merle has written a huge list of some of the best songs that ever covered the subjects of drinking, heartbreak, prison, and good -- and tough -- times. He's Dale's favorite artist.

The event also features a "Mama Tried" contest for the mama who sings the best rendition of a Haggard song. The bands will back performing moms if they like. The winner gets a $50 Oskar Blues gift certificate.

Ya Ya will be one of the moms covering a Merle song.

We're also hosting a contest for the best essay (500 words or less) from a mom detailing how much trouble her children were to raise. The writer of the best one also gets a $50 gift certificate.

And if you can prove you turned 21 in prison like the subject of Merle's famed "Mama Tried" tune, well that gets you free beer and food for the day.

The affair will also feature great food from our outdoor smoker, too, since this will be our first "Sunday Smokedown" of the season.

Admission is $25 for music and food, and $15 for just music.

Proceeds from ticket sales go to the Blue Sky Bridge Foundation, a Boulder-based outfit that helps abused children. (Details: http://www.blueskybridge.org )

To read a fascinating bio of Haggard go here: http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/haggard_merle/bio.jhtml

Here are the lyrics to "Mama Tried":
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/haggard-merle/mama-tried-507.html

Alright come see us April 6 and be sure and learn the words to "Okie from Muskogee."

Homebrew Special

Sat, 01 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

We are excited to be able to provide a special offer to all Oskar Blues customers. For a limited time, you can sign up for membership to the American Homebrewers Association� (AHA) and receive a FREE Chub Stick!

Cost of Beer Supplies (and Oskar Blues beer) Rises

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0700

As you probably know, the craftbrewing industry is wrestling with some dramatically increased prices for malts and hops. Our costs for malts in 2008 have risen about 100%, and the costs for our hops have increased by as much as 400% for some hop varieties.

Oskar Blues Brewery 5 Year Anniversary Party

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700

5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

December 1, 2007


	Greetings! Oskar Blues Anniversary Party Saturday, tomorrow, December 1, noon - 4 PM, we're having a party to celebrate our wrapping up the fifth year of our Canned Beer Apocalypse. Come join us and bring a bunch of pals. The affair features a Cajun buffet, a crawfish boil, beer-can chickens, a mechanical bull, a dose of live music (by our man Marty Jones and a few of his pals) and beer specials. We'll also be cracking one keg of a special batch of Old Chub that's been tweaked with an addition of Sandstone Park spruce tips (snipped from a tree in the park by the brewery), cocoa nibs, allspice and a few other treats. It's a special, one-of-a-kind treat, you'll love it.

Mini Keg Party

The party also serves as the rollout bash of a limited- release batch of 5-liter/1.3 gallon mini kegs of Dale's Pale Ale. The keg cans (with built-in taps) will reach select stores along the Front Range starting December 3. Visitors to the Oskar Blues pub can buy these cans filled with Dale's Pale Ale, as well as Old Chub Scottish Style Ale, Gordon, Ten FIDY and our other-in-house beers. They make a great gift, hint, hint.

Oskar Blues Home Page

Enjoy one of our 1.3 Gallon MIni Kegs at home


Ten FIDY Cans now in CO That's right, we've set free a couple hundred cases of our mighty, now-in-cans imperial stout. These "Half- Baked, Fully Roasted" bad boys are on the shelves of select stores. (Anita: Punch in the link from the home page if you can.) Get them while you, uh, can.		Oskar-Winning Shopping This holiday season, treat your beer-loving pals and loved ones to great gifts from Oskar Blues. Our Gear section has a load of new shirt desingns, classic OB hoodies, beer glasses and the ultimate stocking stuffer, Chub Stick. Best of all, you can buy it online right from the in-your-pajamas comfort of your home, and we can ship the items for you. Blast through your gift check-off list here:

Oskar Blues Celebrates Five Years of Canned Beer Apocalypse

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Pioneering microcanner marks fifth year with Colorado release of Ten FIDY Imperial Stout, Anniversary Bash, 5-Liter Keg Cans of Dale's

Boulder County Brews Cruise Returns

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0600

Last year's pre-GABF beer & bus tour was such a big hit that we're bringing it back again this year.

On October 10, one day before the start of the nation's biggest beer tasting, the Brews Cruise will carry 56 beer adventurers to Boulder Beer Company, Left Hand Brewing, Oskar Blues Brewery, and Redstone Meadery.

For a mere $40, riders get free transportation to these Boulder County beer and mead makers, breakfast, lunch, much free beer and honey wine, and all of the fun they can handle.

The Cruise is sponsored by the good people at Draft Magazine.

Last year's trip sold out, so get your tickets fast. Secure your tickets and get more details at www.lefthandbrewing.com.