It begins...

BRU handbuilt ales & eats is starting to take shape.  After piles, and piles, and piles of paperwork (not my area of expertise) we received the first of many permits and licenses that we will be needing as we build our new home.  Walls are coming down, new ones will be built and the fun has really begun.  Just like our beer, we will be doing as much as possible by hand.  Building the tables and booths, pouring the concrete bar, and much more (stay tuned for the stories).  Just like before, we will be re-using, re-purposing, and making our space as eco-friendly as possible.  And with a lot of hard work from many hands the space will come together.  We are very excited to share our new home (hopefully at the end of May) if all goes smoothly!  Make sure to check out our facebook page or instagram for updates, some fun contests, and more as we get close to opening day.

 --Ian Clark, beer chef / founder

BRU + food

I started down this path 18 years ago.  Making sandwiches in high school lead to culinary school at New England Culinary Institute, culinary school lead to working as a line cook in Maine, Hawaii, California, and finally Boulder.  In Boulder I found my home and worked my way up from line cook to sous chef to executive chef.  I spent 10 amazing years with the Big Red F restaurant group.  I learned my craft, I grew as a chef and as a person, I found the love of my life, I fell in love with homebrewing thanks to my now father-in-law, I opened BRU, and I kept cooking. 

But today, I start working on BRU handbuilt ales & eats.  I've always dreamed that I would open my own restaurant some day, to go to work in a place I owned, a place that stood for everything I believed in when it came to food and drink.  What I didn't know was that this restaurant would also be a brewery and just how hard it would be to get to those dreams.  It has taken many sleepless nights and a whole lot of patience (and I'm sure it will take a lot more).  It has taken the wonderful support of my family, my amazing parent-in-laws and wife who have spent endless hours in the garage with me bottling beer, sitting around the table brainstorming, laughing, yelling, and of course drinking beer.  But most importantly, I would never have gotten here without you.  Your support for BRU has been amazing, it has helped me get from step one to step two; combining my love of beer with my love of food under one roof.  

BRU handbuilt ales & eats will be my true expression of craft.  We will have 12 handbuilt ales on tap (one being a rotating chef's tap where I'll collaborate with other local chefs to further bring food and beer together).  Everything will be handbuilt, from scratch, just like our beer.  Most dishes will come out of the wood-oven to create a beautiful depth of flavor.  I'm still dreaming and testing, re-writing, and re-creating the menu, but for now dishes will include items like Wood-Oven Pizza and Housemade Goat Milk Ricotta with roasted almonds and spiced honey.       

So cheers to this new adventure and thank you for all of your support so far.  I look forward to sharing even more BRU with you in the coming months! 

p.s. make sure to follow us on facebook, we'll have many updates on the new space!

--Ian Clark, beer chef / founder 

2013 Kicks Off

It's a new year and we already have many things to be thankful and excited about.  The year kicked off with Draft Magazine naming BRU (yes BRU!) as one of the "2013 Breweries to Watch."  

"And we’re keeping an eye on… 

BRU Handbuilt Ales | Boulder, Colo.: Centro Latin Kitchen chef Ian Clark’s garage-based nano brewery pumps out newly bottled beers like the date-infused Obitus American Brown Ale and lemon(zest)-and-juniper-spiked Citrum IPA."

I feel so honored and ecstatic.  Given our small size this was very unexpected.  I'm so proud about BRU and glad that people are enjoying the beer.  

BRU has also launched the third beer in our lineup, Beezel.  Beezel is a Belgian Style Golden Ale handbuilt with honey, black pepper, and bitter orange peel.  I've always loved this style of beer.  It is crisp, effervescent, and has just enough Belgian funk on there.  I added bitter orange peel and black pepper to build out the fruity and spicy flavors in this Belgian yeast strain and the honey to add complexity.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  

Cheers to 2013!

--Ian Clark, beer chef / founder  

Many Firsts

The last couple of weeks have included many new firsts for BRU.  With the three-barrel system running smoothly we were able to start bottling Citrum, our India Pale Ale handbuilt with fresh lemon zest and juniper.  And when I say handbuilt I truly mean handbuilt, from the hand written recipe, to each bottle of beer, one at a time, being filled, and capped, and labeled, and numbered all by hand.  I couldn't describe it any other way then a true labor of love.  After two, impatient-long weeks of letting Citrum bottle condition the bubbles were finally just right, and we had another exciting first, selling our first case of beer.    

But that was just the start of many more firsts.  Eight days later we were at our very first Great American Beer Festival serving BRU to over 49,000 people.  It was the first festival we had ever attended, the first time pouring our own beer to perfect strangers, the first time really getting to see people smile when they took a sip.  It still never fails to excite, seeing other people passionate and as excited about our beer as we are.  

--Ian Clark, beer chef / founder    

Click here to find our handbuilt bottles of BRU

Wishing for Smooth Sailing

Our new 3 barrel system showed up at the end of June and as we approach the end of August I'm hoping we will have all of the kinks worked out. You of course expect some things to go wrong as you move from one system to the next, especially when buying used equipment from dairy yards. But, this move has definitely been challenging. Weeks went by as we waited for plumbing and gas to be finished, and then a few more when ingredients didn't show up. When it was finally time to try out the shiny new system everything went smoothly... until it was time to cool down the wort.  My heat exchanger, one of the used dairy pieces, didn't have the proper flow rate.    

A few, well a lot, of tweaks the following weekend and a new heat exchanger, and now brewing for the second time on the system today is completed.  Things went smoother, with only a few things to still work out.  I'm hoping next weekend will be a true success and we can really start producing some beer for your drinking pleasure!   

-Ian Clark, beer chef / founder