As usual we are going to keep our lips sealed on where we are pending approval for a new brewing location...but we are knee deep in the process of gaining a Brewers license which is VERY exciting. It is easy for all of us to be wrapped up in the excitement of the future making patience hard on all of us and all of our fans, but we are surely spending our time wisely building the brand and learning new things. In fact, Larry has been busy with his new system brewing some fantastic creative craft beers lately.
He has so far successfully brewed a light and refreshing Saison, a new fruit infused Purple Possum Ale, and of course a seasonally fitting Chocolate Cherry stout that makes the house smell as amazing as Christmas itself. All the new beers have been taste tested and approved by the entire family and are sure to be a hit with all of you looking for a creative and delicious new brewed creation.
I am especially proud of my dad and all the fantastic creations that have come from that basement of his. I've been fortuneate enough to be a minor part of taste-testing and ingredient purchases and I must say nothing compares even close to a Purple Healer Creation.
I also promise that as soon as we get the official approval it will be posted here first!
We apologize that it has been a really long time since we have posted and update. The brewery is knee deep in excellent progress towards our goal of finally selling beers. We have not yet been given to go ahead to sell but have made progress in getting all the details worked out. Larry of course didn't want to just wait around especially with so many of you being interested in our company (thank you again for sticking with us). He went ahead and ordered the system. A few weeks passed between ordering and delivering of the system and the system had a grand tour of the area before arriving at Larry's house.
Larry decided that he was going to begin brewing at his Center Street house in Bloomsburg simply to get a good grip on the system and how his techniques would change upgrading to larger batches. He spent the better part of a week sorting through the junk in the basement, checking gas lines, running electricity, and of course sanitizing the area and building a shelf. At last a spot was available for him to begin the first real beginning for Purple Healer Brewing Co. Larry had rounded up the troops (Adam and Craig) to help move in the system into his basement and had them ready for a scheduled delivery time and the truck carrying it had to make stops all across PA first. After a few concerned phone calls and glances down the street a truck pulled in at about 7:00pm on Wednesday July 27th with the biggest box any of the boys had seen. I never saw such hard working determined men as I did watching the boys unpack the big box into several small boxes and carrying each heavy part around the house and into the basement. They set everything up and stood back drank water (and beer of course) and admired the 700lbs of pure beer making stainless steel sitting in front of them.
They system has been tested and the lines have all had water run through them. Larry has spent the past week locked up with the machine and the directions studying his craft and finally this Sunday he is scheduled to brew his first batch in the new system. Even though we make biscuits out of the spent grains we also share them with local farmers chickens who will be extremely happy to receive 40 lbs of yummy feeding goodness to their free range diets. I also am including the first snapshots of the brand new brewery in its temporary home.
Happy Brewing Larry and Cheers to Purple Healers first baby steps into what is sure to be a beautiful beer making business.
The very first picture after all the fermenters were put into place and the boxes unpacked.
First of all we want to apologize that it has been a bit longer than we anticipated to get the brewery up and running. There are many specifics that need to be addressed before anyone can open up a brewery and we are making sure that we do this legally, appropriately, and mostly outstandingly so that we can be around providing great beer for a long time.
I want to take this opportunity to address many questions we have received regarding the brewery. Many people have asked what is taking so long to get the construction process underway and the answer is really simple. We are still going to operate in the same building as La Fontanas but we will actually be our own entity not a part of the restaurant. When we are open and ready to sell our fine beers you will be able to enjoy them in that restaurant first. Construction is going to involve a lot more than we expected because we are converting a basement. We will need to perfect conditions to brew the beer and we need the exact license in place to be sure we are not operating an illegal entity. We are constructing our brewery under a restaurant with restaurant hours and we do not want to disturb the patrons of La Fontanas while we do this.
We haven't been able to post any information regarding this because things have changed a little bit every day. I still cannot release any specific date or timing in regards to the brewery but I can say that Larry and the rest of the team are sacrificing time, blood, sweat, and tears to make sure that we can be up and running soon. We do not believe we pulled any trigger too early we just believe that we owe you, the fans of our brewery the honest standings of the brewery.
As always we will put all public updates on here and we are more than happy to take any questions regarding the opening of Purple Healer on either email to Larry or Tacy.
Thank you for enjoying craft beer and being fantastic fans or us. We will be up an running as soon as we can and we look forward to meeting you all in our own space once it opens up.
That we in fact are ready for our BIG REVEAL of the top secret information as to where and when our beers will be available for public sale. If you have found this blog from our teasing captions all over our Website then you already know that we are joining forces with La Fontana's in Bloomsburg, PA. What you may not know is that this specialty Italian gem in our small little town has been our family's favorite place to eat since the day it has opened. When Larry began Brewing his beers he had shared a Rippinator with the owner of the restaurant and by then a close friend of ours. Needless to say as all of our finely crafted beers have done, we won him and others in the staff over. When Larry was ready to take this business into sales the whole team at La Fontana opened up their gracious arms and have decided to lease Larry a space in the basement to create his craft.
Purple Healer's first production system is the Brew-Magic Sabco system and will produce small batches (1.5 to 3 bbl to be exact) and as we grow so will the batches.
Larry is beginning the construction process this Sunday and hopes to have his system ready and of course the first round of brews available by the beginning of August (exact date will be posted on here and website). We will be updating you with pictures of the construction process, any changes in the menu, and of course a few brewing stories to keep you busy while you count down the summer months to join us in this incredible adventure.
The opening menu is set to include Rippinator our award-winning Dopplebock, Auntie M Amber, a Golden Ale for sweet summertime sipping, and Larry's newest and finest creation, the Russian Imperial Stout. To find descriptions of all the beers on this menu and other beers on this blog check out our site.
La Fontana is located at:
105 W Main Street
Bloomsburg, PA 17815 Make Reservations at (570) 245-0057
We are very excited to be able to have navigated our way through most of the legal spiderwebs involved in starting up a brewery and are incredibly appreciative of all YOUR support and patience as you anxiously await the day that you can freely order a beer instead of begging Larry for "free samples." Trust me when I say that Larry is more than happy to sell you all of his beers during any meals you will be enjoying at our local Italian Gem of a restaurant. May I recommend having the Rippinator with Rico's Spicy Arribata pasta or perhaps the Golden with one of his fine fresh market fish specialties...or maybe I should stop making your mouths water until it gets closer to August.
Many of you hop heads of this side of the Atlantic are probably familiar if not subscribing members of the Mid Atlantic Brewing Newsletter which comes out bi-monthly throughout the year. Many brewers turn to this magazine to network, gather recipes, get their muse, or just to learn more about the craft. Purple Healer is featured in this months edition on Page 24 with a lovely recognition of Rippinators claim to fame at "The Taming of the Brew" Festival in Bloomsburg, PA.
Don't have the magazine? Do not fret you can read the digital copy right here.
Also a big shout-out and congratulations to Damien of Old Forge Brewery who also has a small write-up about his production adventures.
Way to go Rippinator, Larry, and everyone else at Purple Healer Brewing Co.
Happy Memorial day to all who are spending the day remembering a special service man or woman in your lives. At Purple Healer we cracked open our newest Imperial Stout which Larry claims he "would stand up next to any other stout out there." If you remember in the description of a Russian Imperial Stout we previously posted, this stout has more character and flavor than, say, Guiness and it possessess drinkable qualities that are rich, dark, and luxurious. The Stout is surprisingly drinkable and smooth and has wowed even those in our family who don't drink Stouts.
Of course with this fantastic 90 degree weather and beautiful sunshine its hard not to daydream about our favorite wheats, IPAs, and goldens that are perfect for sipping poolside among our favorite family and friends. Larry is well ahead of all of you and has a Golden ale and the Helles brewed with fresh lemon ready top drink. He is also has next up in the kettles a summer IPA...our favorite English IPA hoppy and lighter and now newly named LDB Ale. Why would Larry give it the name with some strange initials?
Ask Billie, Desi, and Lucy the family "hoppers." What can we say at Purple Healer we are in fact big animal lovers.
Of course I know many of you are still anxiously awaiting the big reveal of where you can sip on our fine brewskies....and trust me news will break soon....just be patient and drink on!
In less than a week, specifically May 16th through May 22nd craft breweries begin a celebration that started officially by congress last year known as American Craft Beer Week.
Craft Brewing is not only about the beer we make and the thoughtfulness and ideas established by the brewers who design their unique beverages. It is also one of our nation's efforts to pull away from mass productions of big companies who cheapen food and drinks by pumping it full of corn and rice (both the cheapest and easiest grains to come by but not ingredients belonging in beer) and outsourcing integrity in the name of cost efficiency. We are a nation becoming more aware of the dangerous effects of "filling" animals full of these ingredients and hormones to make bigger, plumper, and assembly line-like meats. We also recognize in these tough times that local farming not only offers a better product but keeps in mind the TRUE American way to help thy neighbor succeed and use our own fertile lands being a nation that lacks a need to rely on importing products. Although imported beers are also made with integrity and offer us the base for our creative, innovative, and boundary-breaking beers made here in America, this week is set aside to celebrate the over 17,000 of us out there growing our own hops, grinding our own grains, and discovering new flavors from other local growers to offer a palate pleasing treat to the American Beer Drinker.
The Brewers Association is offering a wide array of events across the country to attend and enjoy. You can check the calender of events that are the largest here and start making plans to schedule out a chunk of time to celebrate with any local brewers you may know at those festivals. If you are like us nestled in the heart of Pennsylvania and may not be within an acceptable driving radius to one of these events, I am offering up an idea to celebrate the values and "informed consumption" involved with craft beers. Print out the Declaration of Beer Independence, have all of your friends and family turn this in to all the distributors, restaurants, and shops that limit their selection to the rice pumped, mass-produced, sell out beers because they believe the average American isn't willing to fork out the cash to try our artful creations. If you have been afraid to try a craft beer or have tried a few, may I suggest finding a place that sells local craft brews and find a friend who can recommend their favorite that you have never tried close your eyes and sip...and....enjoy. Try and taste it before you know what its made from. Enjoy the complexity of the hops as they add bitterness and flavor. Let the taste of the malt roll to the back of your tongue and enjoy how it pairs up with the seasonal flavors it was paired with. Don't form assumptions based on what others opinions are and find a new beer worth falling in love with.
Purple Healer may not yet be able to offer its beers for sale this week but we are certainly celebrating our American right to enjoy complex, thoughtful, organic, and all out amazing beers made by people with integrity. We have much to be thankful for from our established local breweries who got our carbonation going. Our friends at Marleys Pub and Old Forge Brewery are guaranteed fantastic places to sit back and sip fine beers while enjoying amazing food and great company. As a homage to the week, perhaps you have considered beginning the craft yourself. This is the week to begin and to get all of your supplies and the support and education needed to begin the craft, check out our friends at Keystone Homebrew and if you visit their Bethlehem location stop by and see Judy who got Larry started the right way.
As for us we are still taking the time to dot our I's and cross our T's and are planning to roll forward and be ready to rock this business in the near future. Purple Healer is all about family, innovation. character, and independence and community. We will celebrate this week with our own as well as other beers in hand. We vow to continue to operate our Nanobrewery with the same principles as our fellow craft brewers. We will stand behind the curiosity of others and we will share our successes with the successes of others who paved the way for us.
So Cheers and feel free wo post any events you may be having so we can all celebrate and enjoy with you.
Just when you thought that there was no relation between craft beers and the royal wedding, I have found a few nuggets of information to share with you that proves even our industry is just as involved with William and Kate as every other member of the living world today whether they are force-fed the feelings from the press or not.
Scottish dwelling, Brew Dog Brewery has gotten involved with the royal wedding by introducing the first craft beer laced with Viagra and a lot of their sense of humor. The beer is called Royal Virility Performance and costs almost $16.00 a bottle. It is true the beer is an IPA made with an herbal Viagra as well as Goat Weed and Chocolate. Its a strange concoction that was made in a limited 1,000 bottle batch. You can still buy the beer from their website if you'd like and it will be shipped out the day before the wedding. They decided to send along a bottle to Prince William for his wedding night and if he wasn't clear of the intention of this bottle it is comically labeled with the phrases, "Arise Prince Willy," and "Celebrate Big Willy Style." Who said brewers couldn't throw out some sarcasm in the name of royalty.
I'm sure Prince William is not going to be interested in drinking this beer because outrageously beer has been banned from the Royal Wedding and guests are forced to suffer through the same watered down liquor and cheap wines as the rest of us do at our most favorite weddings. Personally I think cheapening the beer as being not good enough because they do not have the taste for it is just the couple ignorance to the fine flavors and complex construction of craft brewing. The thought that goes into even the simplest brews is beyond just following the recipe. It's passion that makes great beer, it's excitement and creativity that adds character, and it's the time and process that makes the drink a fine drink. I would say they are missing out, but maybe they haven't tried some of the newer craft brewing and are simply blind to the uniqueness and complexity that adds depth to carbonation of selected hops, malts, flavors, and mashes in all of craft brewing. So I wish the couple the very best and if I am awake at 4am to watch the wedding live I'll be sure to enjoy a glass of Purple Healer because really...it is the finest drink I could have to enjoy a fine celebration.
However, I am not so sure about the Viagra beer. They say it takes three glasses for the effect to work and I'm sure at that price it would just be cheaper to just contact your pharmacist if you wanted that effect.
Its nice to see the sun shining again this afternoon after an extremely long run of clouds, cold, and showers. Even though the dreary weather kept us all in to enjoy our brews and we resorted to enjoying laughs with friends and family indoors, Larry at Purple Healer has been busy on a few projects of his own.
We are happy to announce the newest addition to his household, the converted freezer unit into a Keg-o-rator.
Larry converted his new shiny tapping system from a black chest freezer, a stained wooden panel, and of course a kit from one of our suppliers Keystone Homebrew. If you like what you see here you can also purchase one of these kits here and take on the satisfying and rewarding project yourself. Other kits and conversion items can be purchased through the Keystone Online Catalog or at either of their locations in Montgomeryville, PA and Bethlehem, PA.
Larry has been spending extra hours in the brew room for a few new projects. Currently boiled and in the fermenter is a fresh batch of our Auntie M's amber. I caught Larry mid brew playing a few classics by Jethro Tull and glowing.
Lets face it folks the man was born to make excellent beers for all of us.
Rumor around the tap is the Larry is also working on a NEW beer: a Russian Imperial Stout. For those that may not know what makes this particular Stout special let me give you some stats. This stout was designed by brewers in the 1800's to impress the Russian Czar and has been coined a beer that is fit for a king. It has a distinguishable malt flavor and a higher alcohol content. In fact all of the flavors in this delicious glass of drinking pleasure are dark and rich and with moderate carbonation it is a smoother version of other stouts. Larry is working very hard to get the right balance of flavor so that this dark, rich, impressive beer can impress all of our loyal fans all the while being a beer to satisfy all sorts of cravings and calm the soul like chocolate does.
Thank you to everyone who has participated in our NAME contest (ahem Jay) and please keep on sending some great ideas.
That's all the news on the brew front. You are going to have to sit there and anxiously await another issue of our brewing bittles. And don't forget your furry friend this Easter, there is still some time to pick up a pack of Puppy Hops all natural freshly baked cookies to put in your best friends basket.
I was meaning to post this contest earlier but I got so caught up in WINNING that best in show award that I simply didn't want to overshadow the event but now it is time to get back into business....and we are asking all of you to help out!
As several of you know we have named all of our beers from pets, family members, lucky numbers, and other "inside" tidbits. Naming our beers has been easy until recently. For our two newest brews we seem to have hit a brick wall in our creative juices and have decided to extend the invitation to all of you in this terribly daunting task of giving our great beer a great name.
The beers needing named as you can tell from our website are our Munich Helles and our English IPA.
So to make your job a little easier here is a brief description about each of the nameless beers.
Munich Helles: This is a bavarian-style lager that is perfect for sweet summertime drinking. It compliments lighter foods and has notes of lemon inside a medium bodied and mild grain style batch. It accompanies seafood, pasta, and chicken dishes well especially if they are grilled.
English IPA: This moderately bitter ale really captures the flavor of our English-style hops and is notably our "hoppiest" in the batch. This beer is also delicious in the springtime and summertime and pairs well with a nice hearty meal as it is a higher concentration of alcohol per glass. Who says the English didn't like a good buzz when drinking. We are looking for a name of this beer that would include bunnies being that it is so "hoppy" and that its about this time of year you see more of them hopping about.
So I suppose we should include a few guidelines for this contest. All entries can be submitted to brewmaster@purplehealerbrewery.com or as a comment to this post. We would like to come up with a name soon so all entries should come our way by May7th. With your entry please include the NEW beer name, reasoning why you made up that name, your name (it would be nice to give you credit) and a valid (why wold you fake it anyway) email address in which we can send you a big HOORAH if your beer name is chosen.
Winners will receive.....mad props for their creative ingeniousness and some sort of cool compensation probably in a drinkable form. Winners also receive the golden opportunity to boast and brag to all of their friends that our fabulous beer earned its identity from your awesome, incredible brain.
So drink a few think of some ideas and send them our way.
Yesterday Purple Healer Brewing Co. made its first public appearance at BTE's Taming of the Brew in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. The event had around 27 Beer vendors and 27 Food vendors and was sold out of its 500 tickets to the public making for a nice, crowded, toasty, good time for all. Among other breweries at the event, Purple Healer was in a competition for best brewery between other larges scale breweries including: Sly Fox Brewery, Ottos Pb and Brewery, Bullfrog Brewery, Weyerbacher, Marleys Brewery and Grille, Old Forge Brewing Co., and Troegs Brewing co..
Preparation for the event involved bottling around 10 cases of our crowd pleasing, "Ripinator" Dopple Bock, getting signage made, and rounding out an incredible staff including Larry, Marianne, Adam, and Pete all dressed perfectly and smiling ear to ear.
Larry was one of the first to set-up and arrive to the event and after much ado over finding magical tape to hang our banner and searching for scissors to lay plastic down to preserve the floor from any "spillage," we were set and ready to pour.
The beers were cold and the crowds began pouring in as Purple Healer made many new friends. In fact many came back for seconds and thirds hoping they could gain a good beer buzz from our very good beer.
The only problem we ran into was telling folks that we didn't yet have a place to purchase more of our fine crafted brews. Folks understood the nature of the business and took cards and promised to follow our updates online. Pete made a few friends who worked the event including the person in charge of cleaning out the dump buckets. We wont say which beers got dumped but the glasses stayed full of Ripinator and the smiles stayed plenty.
I think the crew was just as please with the response as folks filled out their voting cards and surprisingly to all of us many chose us.
In fact Purple Healer tied for Best in Show with Ottos Brewery with both breweries taking over 80% of the total votes. Not too shabby for a brewery that started in a second kitchen of an old home on Center Street, huh? Needless to say Larry was surprised, excited, and thoroughly pleased with the results as he accepted his Medal of honor.
Here comes the Purple Healer Train and we certainly are taking on the town one finely crafted brew at a time. We look forward and are open to joining any other food festivals, events, and competitions with our hops a shining! Thank you again to the BTE for hosting such an incredible event and thank YOU for all your continued support. Keep spreading the word and checking back....it wont be long now until our beers can be purchased and be a part of YOUR family event.
Today has two monumental occasions to celebrate, Larry the Brewmasters birthday and Purple Healers first on-air radio interview with 103.1 WILK.
Interviewing Larry was WILK's radio personalities: Nancy, John, Joe, and Bosco as well as Bill from MyBeerBuzz. During this really special interview everyone got a taste of the Munich Helles, Auntie M's amber ale, and Rippinator. John Webster and Bill were big fans of the ales but sadly disappointed that the IPA was still in the fermentation process. No need to be sad John and Bill, that IPA will be ready shortly and I'm pretty sure there will be two bottles with your names on them as soon as the reach bubbly perfection. Nancy couldn't get enough of the Rippinator and was eager to have more than just a taste of the beer. All in all I think Purple Healer has a new group of fans and we are more than eager to deliver our beers to the public soon. In fact if you watch the interview here you will see that the largest amount of excitement was over the question of WHEN will our beers be available for sale? I wish I had the exact answer to post here but for that question all I can say is that the business ball is rolling and we are going downhill. When all of our carbonation is set perfectly (like the IPA) we will be sure to share that information with all of you! Thank you to everyone in the production process of this very special day for our company.
One question we get a lot (including today) involves HOW did we even come up with such a crazy name. As Larry described in his interview, every beer, story, name, and idea stems from something from our family. "Ping" our family's newest Australian cattle dog was bred from a Blue Heeler breed and a Red Heeler Breed dog. Of course when you mix those two colors you get purple so we called her our little Purple Heeler. We thought the name was so cool that when Larry started brewing our fine beers he was going to call them Purple Healers (changing the spelling because we believe beer is much more "healing" than anything.
And as for "Rippinator...."
It is based off the name of our other cattle dog, Ripley contrary to all other ideas that it involves that funny bodily function or off of "getting ripped" from our beers. However we like that everyone comes up with some crazy ideas for it and honestly our beers mean something to our families and earned their name but you may call them whatever you like for whatever reason you want as long as you call them tasty (because really they are not that I'm not bias to the beer or anything).
Tomorrow we will be at "Taming of the Brew" at the Caldwell Consistory in Bloomsburg Pa and if you were luck enough to get a ticket to the sold out event we will see you there, if not do not fret, pictures will be exclusively available to our fans right here!
Hello fellow beer enthusiasts, and welcome to the official blog of our nano-brewery.
Purple Healer Brewing Co. LLC was established in 2010 and has been steadily growing since. We are excited to finally have the gift of technological communication to offer to our friends, family, and friends. Check back here often as this will be the home of exclusive news, pictures, recipes, and MORE.
We are extremely excited in the development of the company as are many of our followers and soon we hope to be able to sell our fine craft brews made from all-natural ingredients to the public. We are close and the dream is definately going to become a reality but as with all good things...we need time. Time to make the company as strong as it can be in tough economic times and time to of course get the paperwork in order.
Purple Healer is offering our Puppy Hops Beer biscuits for sale at several locations including Bloomsburg RV center and Dragonflyte Creations. You can also email Puppy Hops separately to place an order.
We will be posting some exciting news about events we will be a part of really soon so check back. And thank you for being a valuable customer of our up and coming nano-brewery in the great land of Northeastern Pennsylvania.
