Raise the (New) Barn

Kara and I, and the whole team here at Tilted Barn, are finally ready to officially announce what may be the worst kept secret in the industry: We are building a new Barn. This is something we have been working on tirelessly behind the scenes for over two years now and we are beyond excited to get started on this next phase for us and to share the details with all of you.

As those of you who have visited us here on the farm know, our sense of place is almost as important as the beer: the packed Barn on cool nights with the wood stove roaring; the field by the pond on summer afternoons and evenings with the sun setting in the background; the Christmas tree fields in the winter with families seeking out the perfect tree. All of these scenes are an integral part of who we are and for this reason we have chosen to keep our new brewery on our farm rather than look elsewhere. The new building will be situated on the hill overlooking the sheep and donkeys grazing through the hops and Christmas trees with the original Barn in the background. This is the best view of the farm, which we are happy to share with everyone who visits.

The Barn itself has become another icon for us, and while we would have loved to continue to use our original Barn for our brewery, we have outgrown it. We looked at many building options for the new brewery and quickly realized the only choice we were happy with is a traditional New England post and beam barn. We wouldn’t have it any other way. With help from Frank Karpowicz Architects and renowned builders, South County Post and Beam, we are making our dream Barn a reality. The new post and beam Barn will feature an expansive tasting room, three times larger than our current space (with full heat and indoor bathrooms!), overlooks to the production area featuring our new 30 barrel brewhouse, a sizable oak barrel and foeder program, and of course, a large outdoor lawn, seating area, and patio to enjoy the quiet life we are fortunate enough to have out here on the farm.

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Despite all of these new features you will still see a lot of familiarity here. Our tasting room hours will grow but you will still see the same core staff hustling all around, Violet and Libby will still be running around collecting dirty glasses from everyone, Summit and Tupelo will still be looking for spare crumbs and ear scratches, and because we are staying on the farm and using our unique water source here, the profile of our beers will remain the same. And with our increased capacity we will be able to explore new and unchartered beer styles.

We will do our best to keep everyone informed on updates and progress. As of right now we are hoping to be up and running in the new Barn late summer 2020. With our increased capacity we will be able to be open much more often, likely Wednesday through Sunday to start. You will also see more of a Tilted Barn presence on tap around RI and beyond once we are running full speed. Thanks again to all of you for your support over our first five years. We can’t wait to share the next five in our new space.

Cheers!

Matt and Kara

Let's Keep it Fun

When Kara and I first decided to open a brewery in our Barn we hoped that people would at least make the trek down the dirt road to check us out, sample some beer, and maybe take some home. For a little while this is basically what happened and everything was pretty laid back and simple. Eventually more people found out about us so we increased production a bit, built a bigger tasting room, offered oysters and food trucks, etc. Crowds were steadily increasing so we made some changes to try and keep up; expanded brewhouse and capacity, even bigger tasting room, more parking. Recently, however, we have seen a larger increase in people making the trek down our long dirt road to visit the Barn. We couldn't be more appreciative of the support that everyone has shown; both newcomers and long-time regulars alike. We basically open up our home and farm twice a week and, for the most part, everyone is very respectful and has a great time. We've tried to take a laid back approach and not set many "ground rules", however, with the recent crowds and lines we wanted to speak up and try to set some guidelines to make it fair for both us and you guys. This may be a bit long-winded but we appreciate you taking the time to read this as it will lead to a more enjoyable experience for everyone...even the chickens.

1.) Showing Up Early: We get a lot of questions (and support from our customers to respect our privacy!) about when is an OK time to show up and wait in line. We informally put it out there that we would appreciate nobody showing up more than an hour prior to opening. This is not only to respect our privacy but also to make it fair to everyone who plans to show up that day. If 100 people came at 11:00 on Saturday morning to line up then that means people who wait until 1:00 may not get any beer to take home, which we feel is unfair. Therefore, we're officially putting it out there that we would like nobody showing up more than an hour prior to opening on Fridays and Saturdays, or any time at all on days we are closed. We will have a sign at the end of the road stating this for those who don't see this post on our website. We don't want to put a gate up as this seems pretty unwelcoming so please respect this! If you happen to come more than an hour early, please don't park along the driveway or along Route 2 as this will cause traffic issues. Exeter is a beautiful town...take a drive around, grab a coffee, visit some of our neighboring breweries, and then come back. We would appreciate it.

2.) Line Etiquette: We have gotten a few reports about people cutting in line recently. Since we aren't out there we can't really police the line (and don't intend to) so please be respectful. If we do notice this or if someone reports it we will politely ask that the person joins in the back of the line. Again, we just want to make it fair to everyone.

3.) Parking: We have some very handsome and somewhat capable friends and family that help to direct traffic in the parking lot. Please take it slow and work with these guys to make parking safe for everyone.

4.) The Farm: We are happy to have everyone take a walk and check out parts of the farm while you're here. Please be respectful of our home though. Certain areas we like to keep "off-limits" for everyone's safety and our privacy. Feel free to walk around the yard in front of the brewery, the Christmas tree fields by the parking lot, and hopyard. Please do not go down by the pond (for safety reasons) or past the house (for privacy reasons). Thanks. 

5.) Kids and Dogs: Kids are more than welcome to visit the brewery and farm, however, they have to be under adult supervision at ALL times! We have had a lot of incidents recently of kids in areas where they shouldn't be, throwing rocks, etc. so please keep them close by. And please don't let them hang on the chicken fence! Dogs, however, are not allowed anywhere on the farm. We have two farm dogs who are very friendly but are protective of our chickens and other animals and can be territorial at times. 

6.) Beer: Since we sell out most weekends we realize that some people show up, wait in line, and don't get to take any beer home. We hate this just as much as you do. We try to set limits on beer that are fair, split the allotment each weekend, and always keep some on hand for onsite pours and tastings. We are working on increasing production (yet again!) but for the immediate future, things will be relatively status quo so please bear with us.

7.) Keep it Fun! At the end of the day, we want to provide everyone with some great beer and an even better experience. While we hate to be setting "rules" we feel it's necessary for everyone's sake. Please let us know if you have any questions, comments, or issues (or compliments!) when you're here. We truly appreciate all of your support and are looking forward to what the future brings. Thanks.

Cheers!

Matt and Kara

16 oz. of freedom

By now you've probably heard the rumblings and rumors that we have been working on canning our beer. It's the next logical step for us as a brewery; we love growlers but cans last longer, travel well, and will reduce lines at the brewery since they will be pre-packaged and ready to go. The time has finally come and beginning on Saturday this week we will be offering some of our beer in 16 oz. cans. Here are some details...

To make a long story short, we decided to purchase our own canning line rather than rely on a mobile canner. It offers us much more flexibility in both scheduling and also which styles of beer we will be able to offer. That being said, it's going to take us a little time to dial everything in and make sure we're comfortable. So, for the first couple of weeks we will likely have lower case counts and limits. Once we get everything squared away our case counts and limits will increase and so will the variety of beers offered in cans so please bare with us and be good to each other!

Aside from having cans, everything else will remain the same. We will still be offering tastings and full pours in the taproom; we'll still have food trucks on most days; and you'll still be stuck seeing all of the same faces behind the bar. We're extremely excited for this next chapter for TBB and hope you are as well. Thanks for all of your support - without it we wouldn't be here!

Cheers,
Matt and Kara

(updated - we are no longer offering growler fills)

July - August 2016 Schedule

We'll keep this short and sweet and get right to it. Starting this Saturday, July 9th were going back to every Saturday from 1-4. Finally. And! Starting next week (July 15th) we'll be doing Friday nights every week as well. That's right, Friday nights from 5-8 and Saturday afternoons from 1-4 every week. Construction of the new system was a bit delayed but is back on schedule. Once we finally get everything online we may add another night as well. Stay tuned.

We're going to do our best to make sure we have enough beer every Friday and Saturday. We've bought a few more 2 barrel tanks to bridge the gap until the bigger system comes and we've been cranking out batches in preparation. We're going to hold enough beer back on Friday nights to get through Saturday. So there's a chance that we may be out of beer for fills late on Fridays, but we'll make sure to always have multiple beers on for tastings at least.  This way we can make sure to have plenty of beer for the busy Saturday crowds.  We'll also keep our social media pages updated if we run out of beer for fills, so check before you come.

Thanks again for all of your support. Having trouble keeping up with demand is a problem, but a good problem to have. See you at the Barn.

Cheers, 

Matt and Kara

 

 

 

Spring 2016 Update

We normally don't like to do this but we're going to start off with the bad news first: we're going to be closed this week (Saturday 4/2/16). There's no easy way around it...we literally can't keep up with you guys. We had the most beer on hand to start the day than we've ever had last week and you guys cleaned us out. We are maxing out production on our current system, have self-imposed limits on certain beers (below the state 72 oz law), and are only open for 3 hours per week. And we still can't keep up. On one hand we're beyond excited at what we've been able to build with you all over our first 16 months of operation.  We continue to be humbled at the turnout every week, even on cold, rainy days in the middle of February, or snowy nights in December. But on the other hand, it's not easy when we have to make the decision to take a week off from sales to catch up. We like to be consistent and it's not an easy choice to deviate from our normal schedule. Long story short, we hate it as much as you do.

Now...on to the good news. The end is in sight. We realized pretty quickly that our initial brewing system would not be sufficient and we've been working on our expansion plans for over a year now. The Barn renovations are essentially complete and our new, 7 barrel brewhouse is arriving at the end of April. We'll need a couple of weeks for installation and test batching on the new system but by late May/early June we'll be putting out a lot more beer and having to take a week off will be a thing of the past. In fact, we're planning to increase our hours to include a couple of weekday afternoons/nights and longer Saturday hours once the new system is on-line. Stay tuned for updates. 

That's about all we have for now. We have a lot of other plans for the near future too but it's probably best to wait until things become more concrete. In the meantime, we hope to see you at the Barn this spring and summer. We'll continue to rotate in some new beers and will be bringing back oysters, wood-fired pizza, and other goodies during the summer months. Thanks for all of your support, we truly appreciate it.

Raise the Barn.

Cheers,

Matt & Kara

 

 

Better late than never...

Well, it's been 8 months, 15 different beers, multiple beer fests, LOTS of growlers, blizzards, floods, oysters, and many, many Saturday afternoons at the brewery since we opened and we're finally taking a minute to catch our breath and say "hi". When we were planning Tilted Barn Brewery we hoped to get off to a good start but never imagined the whirlwind that has ensued since our opening day back in November. We wanted to take a minute here for a quick update and talk about what's in the works here at The Barn.

For those of you that we see almost every week, thanks! We've made some great connections and look forward to seeing you guys every Saturday. For those of you that haven't made it down yet, we hope to see you soon. We are normally open every Saturday from 1-4, unless there's a Brew Fest somewhere that day. We keep our Facebook and Twitter pages, and this website up to date every week on our hours and what's available for growler fills.

Our biggest challenge so far has been keeping up with demand. Don't get us wrong, this is a great problem to have but is something that we focus on all the time. We were initially hoping to do tastings and growler fills at the brewery twice a week and get on tap at a few local bars/restaurants. This obviously hasn't happened. We weren't anticipating such big crowds and literally don't have enough beer to be open more than once a week, let alone to send out for draft accounts. We're working on it though...more on that below. We're happy to say that even with the big crowds on Saturday we generally keep the lines and wait time to a minimum (sorry for the 2-hour wait to those of you here on opening day!).

So, on to the question we get asked all the time: "When are you going to expand?!". Since we want to keep this update (relatively) short, the quick answer is soon. Very soon hopefully. We're starting work on the barn in a couple of weeks actually to make space for new, bigger fermenters, a revamped tasting room area, and a hop drying space. Once that work is done we'll be able to get some bigger tanks in there to increase production. Trust us, nobody is more excited than we are to get to that point. As we get a better handle on the timeline we'll be sure to keep you guys updated. Once we increase production we plan to expand our tasting room hours and potentially get on tap at a few locations around the state. Time will tell. In the meantime, we'll keep seeing you guys every Saturday afternoon and will do our best to keep up with demand. Thanks for being patient.

Alright, time to get back to work. Thanks again to everyone for all of your support. There's a LOT of work that goes into each and every batch from start to finish but we're enjoying every minute of it, mostly because of the great feedback we're getting from you guys. Thanks.

Cheers,

Matt and Kara

Raise the Barn