Popular high-end craft beer maker The Bruery has announced plans to form a new brand, Bruery Terreux, which will focus entirely on farmhouse-style and oak-aged sour ales fermented with wild yeast strains.
The Orange County, Calif.-based brewery stated that it will “rededicate its focus” with regard to its original Bruery brand, “specifically on experimentation with non-wild ales, modern twists on classic styles and aging beer in bourbon and other spirit barrels,” according to a company statement.
Benjamin Weiss, the brewery’s director of marketing, told Brewbound that the original idea for a division was sparked, in part, by quality issues. In 2013, the company released five beers that, according to a company blog post from December, “didn’t go as planned.”
Weiss said the company has been producing its sour offerings in another warehouse for a while now, however, and believes its previous quality concerns are behind it. Nevertheless, he said, Bruery Terreux should allow the company to further diminish the chance of producing off-flavored beers, as the fermentation and aging of sour and wild offerings will shift to a separate facility, apart from its core line of of more traditional product offerings.
With the creation of Terreux, the company also plans to build a new tasting room in Anaheim, Calif. Weiss said The Bruery has invested upwards of $4 million to get the project up and running.
Earlier this year, the company announced the purchase of a new, semi-automatic GEA Huppmann brewhouse, a bottling line, centrifuge, multiple fermenters, brite tanks, and other equipment that will help double capacity. The project is being financed by loans from U.S. Bank.
The timeline for completion of the project is fluid, though Weiss said ideally the new facility will be operational by January 1, 2015. With the new space, Weiss added, the company will also be looking to hire staffers for the tasting room and brewery operations.
A full press release is below.
Anaheim, CA – The BrueryÔäó is excited to announce the formation of Bruery Terreux, a new brand that will focus solely on farmhouse-style ales fermented with wild yeasts as well as oak-aged sour ales. The Bruery’s original brand, will rededicate its focus specifically on experimentation with non-wild ales, modern twists on classic styles and aging beer in bourbon and other spirit barrels.
Bruery Terreux, which translates to “Earthy Bruery”, first and foremost takes inspiration from the earth, presenting flavors in as natural of a way as possible, as nature intended. Wort will be brewed on The Bruery’s brand new GEA CRAFT-STAR brewhouse and then transported to their own facility a few miles down the road. All fermentation, barrel aging and packaging will take place at this second facility. A brand new Bruery Terreux tasting room will also be opened at this location in late 2015 where customers will have the chance to enjoy Bruery Terreux’s offerings in a unique setting.
Current brands from The Bruery that are brewed with wild yeasts or bacteria such as Saison Rue, Oude Tart, or Hottenroth Berliner Weisse, will be transitioned to Bruery Terreux. The recipes will remain the same, but will be overseen by wild beer specialists and will be bottled under the new branding. Exciting new beers will also be added to Bruery Terreux’s lineup.
More details will follow over the coming months. As this project is subject to approval from the City of Anaheim and the California Department of Alcoholic Beverages, details are subject to change. Please follow Bruery Terreux on Facebook, twitter and instagram for late breaking developments.
About The Bruery
The Bruery is a boutique craft brewery located in Orange County, CA that specializes in experimental and barrel aged ales. Founded in 2008 by Patrick Rue, The Bruery produces over 50 different beers annually, with 15 seeing national distribution throughout their 24 state network of distributors. The Bruery also runs several ‘beer clubs’ including the Preservation SocietySM, Reserve SocietySM and Hoarders SocietySM .