Ground Breaker Gastropub Open Tuesdays and Other News

Ground Breaker Gastropub Serving Burgers and Beers on Tuesdays Starting November 18, Special Wednesday Supper for Thanksgiving Week

Following the success of our Wednesday Suppers, Ground Breaker Gastropub is excited to announce our next weekly event: Burger and Beer Tuesdays. Starting November 18, the gastropub will be open every Tuesday from 4-9 PM serving only burgers and beers at a discounted price. For $10 we will offer our grass-fed beef burger or a vegan spent ’grain’ burger with your choice of toppings and a side of kale chips or winter vegetable slaw. Additionally, glasses and pints of our beer will be $1 off.

Gluten-Free Buttermilk Fried Chicken

On Wednesday, November 26 (the day before Thanksgiving), Ground Breaker Gastropub’s special Wednesday Supper will feature gluten-free Buttermilk Fried Chicken. The price will be $10 for three pieces of white meat and $8 for two pieces of dark meat. The sides will be collard greens, black eyed peas with shredded pork, coleslaw, pumpkin soup, and pecan pie for dessert. Please contact us ahead to make a reservation. We expect to be at capacity.

Also, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with our current events. The Wednesday Supper menus are posted weekly.

Thomas OhashiComment
Ground Breaker Brewing Releases St. Denny Dubbel Style Ale November 12th
st. denny

Ground Breaker is pleased to announce the 2014 release of St. Denny Dubbel.

St. Denny is brewed with roasted chestnuts, roasted lentils and dark Belgian candi syrup. It’s lightly hopped with Oregon-grown Sterling hops, and fermented with a blend of two gluten-free Belgian yeast strains. It comes in at 6.5% ABV and 25 IBU.

When Ground Breaker’s founder James Neumeister was starting out as a homebrewer, he contacted homebrewing legend Denny Conn and asked him where he could learn to brew using the batch-sparge method that Denny advocates for homebrewing. Denny invited James over that weekend, and after a day of brewing under Denny’s tutelage, his word quickly became the rule when James was homebrewing, prompting his other brewing partners to start referring to Mr. Conn as ‘Saint’ Denny. This background, combined with the common practice of Belgian beers having ‘Saint’ names, inspired the name St. Denny for this beer.

St. Denny Dubbel style ale bottles will be released at Ground Breaker’s Gastropub Wednesday, November 12th. In addition to the regular St. Denny the pub will be pouring versions made with coffee, oak, vanilla beans, garam masala, and cranberries.

About Denny Conn
Denny Conn has been homebrewing and teaching others how to brew since 1998.  He has been a member of the Governing Committee of the American Homebrewers Association for nine years, is a BJCP National beer judge, and is a member of the Eugene homebrew club Cascade Brewers Society.  His second book, Experimental Homebrewing (co authored with Drew Beechum), is out now and is available at your local homebrew shop or online at Amazon.com. Denny has influenced countless professional brewers and has a yeast strain named after him. He currently lives in Noti, Oregon with his IPA loving wife, five cats, and two dogs.

Thomas OhashiComment
GABF Gold Medal, Boise Distribution, Seattle Squash Tapping, and Gastropub Tuesdays
gabf

Ground Breaker Brewing Wins Gold At The Great American Beer Festival, Again

Ground Breaker Brewing is pleased to announce we took home the gold medal for gluten-free beer at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival with our Dark Ale. Dark Ale was the first beer to feature a new recipe including roasted lentils in place of oats. Taking top honors at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF) reinforced our excitement in this latest round of recipe advancements.
 
2014 was the third year Ground Breaker participated in GABF. In 2012, shortly after opening, we took home the bronze medal for our Pale Ale. In 2013 we took home the gold medal with our IPA No. 1.

Now Available in Southern Idaho 

In September we formed a partnership with Northwest Specialty Beverage, a new craft distributor in the Boise, Idaho area.  As of Friday, October 3rd, our beer arrived for distribution in the southern half of Idaho. Check http://www.groundbreakerbrewing.com/where-to-buy/ or https://www.facebook.com/groundbreakerbrewing as we add new locations carrying Ground Breaker in their area.

Seattle Squash Ale Tapping

On Monday, October 13th, we will be delivering a keg of our newly released Squash Ale to our friends at The Beer Junction in West Seattle. It will be on tap as part of their Pumpkin Junction Fest which runs from October 11th through October 19th.  For more information about the festival see: http://www.thebeerjunction.com/#!pumpkin-junction-2014/c80a

Gastropub Tuesdays

This summer, in addition to our regular Gastropub hours, Thursday through Sunday from noon until 9 pm, we have been open from 4 until 9 on Wednesdays featuring a completely new menu every week. Based on the popularity of our unique-menu Wednesdays we have decided to feature this special menu on Tuesdays as well, beginning in November. We will share more details as we get closer to our first Tuesday opening. For more information about the gastropub see: http://www.groundbreakerbrewing.com/gastropub/

 

Thomas OhashiComment
Ground Breaker Brewing Celebrates Local Harvest with Release of 2014 Squash Ale
squash ale

Ground Breaker Brewing is pleased to announce the annual release of Squash Ale, made with locally grown squash from the fields of our friends at Love Farm Organics. Because we only use freshly harvested squash for this beer, it has historically come out at the beginning November. However, this year the warm summer has brought us an early harvest, and the beer will be finished a few weeks earlier. After being picked, the squash was aged for a week at the brewery to achieve peak flavor before being sliced, diced, seeded, and roasted in the oven at Jensen’s Bread & Bakeries, a local dedicated gluten-free bakery.
 
During production, pumpkin seeds are toasted, crushed, and added to the mash. Squash Ale is then ‘triple squashed’ with added squash in the mash tun, kettle, and fermenter. The fermenter addition consists of squash that has been slow roasted for several days into a squash butter. A gentle addition of cinnamon, nutmeg, and toasted coriander has been added to complement the squash flavors and aromas.
 
The beer will be released on draft on October 8th in the gastropub, and to celebrate, there will be special menu items and three additional versions of Squash Ale on tap at the gastropub. One aged on oak, one brewed with coffee, and one with an additional blend of spices including black peppercorns, bay leaves, chili flakes, and cloves. Pub only beer quantities are limited to one keg each, so don’t miss out. Squash Ale will be rolling out to stores in the weeks following the release.

Thomas Ohashi Comments
Ground Breaker Brewing: New Beers and New Labels Roll Out With The New Name
labels

It was a big shock when we first heard we were going to have to change our name, but if it had to happen, it couldn't have happened at a better time. We had just reached a milestone in recipe development, and were in the process of rolling out new recipes for our beers. To celebrate, we were also working on a new look for our labels.
 
The recipes we started with in 2011 were developed in the garage of our head of R&D, James Neumeister. They were great recipes and they got us started, but with gluten-free brewing still being in its infancy, we know that there are still many things to learn, ingredients to discover, and techniques to develop.
 
Since opening, we have heard from many people asking that we discontinue the use of certified gluten-free oats in our beers. Finding a suitable way to make good beer without oats was difficult, but never one to give up, James eventually found a solution. Lentils provide us with the proteins we need to maintain a nice head and carbonation without the avenin protein found in oats. The ability to roast lentils to different levels also provides us with another palette of flavors that wasn’t previously available to us.
 
Fast forward to the present, we are proud to announce that our new recipes are officially in production, and accompanying them are new labels with our new name, Ground Breaker. We’ve grown pretty fond of it, and hopefully so will you.
 
Pale Ale - The first beer we released and a favorite. It’s very special to us, so we changed little beyond the transition from oats to lentils. The addition of golden Belgian-style candi syrup helps make Pale Ale a consistently great beer.
 
Dark Ale - With this beer we are taking full advantage of the lentils by roasting them until they look like dark chocolate to bring additional depth to the roasty and chocolaty flavor of Dark Ale.
 
IPA No. 4 - Following a long series of ingredient studies, we have reworked IPA No. 2 into the new IPA No. 4. While the hops remain unchanged, the ingredient ratios of the sorghum, buckwheat, and lentils are significantly different, resulting in a smoother, less sharp beer that allows the 90 IBUs and heavy Crystal dry-hopping to shine through more than before.
 
IPA No. 5 - Our latest 60 IBU IPA borrows from our past IPAs and brings the best of what they offered together in one beer. Crystal hops bring classic pine and citrus notes while Santiam hops add hints of tropical and stone fruits. IPA No. 5 is brewed with chestnuts, lentils, and sorghum.
 
We hope you enjoy drinking them as much as we enjoy making them.

Thomas Ohashi Comment