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Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Meet the Team: Katelyn

Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Welcome to the latest edition of Meet the Blue Stallion Team. Whether they’re pouring beers for you behind the bar, brewing test batches, or cleaning fermenters, we’re proud of the team we have. This blog post series will help you get to know the people that make Blue Stallion possible. Expect a new post every month or two. We ask everyone to fill out this goofy questionnaire so they can have a little fun with it.

Fourth in our Meet the Team series, this post lets you get to know Katelyn. She’s been a bartender for us since June of 2015. She’s got a bubbly personality and has a way of making anyone excited to try one of our new beers.

Katelyn - Meet the Blue Stallion Team

 

Name:

Katelyn

Hometown:

Sarasota, Florida

Years in Lexington:

Five, so far.

How long have you worked at Blue Stallion Brewing?

I’ve been loving every minute of it since June of 2015!

What’s your favorite Blue Stallion beer and why?

The Scottish 70 Shilling! This beer is light enough to drink all day, while its soft notes of malt and caramel offer a beautiful, subtle complexity which keeps me coming back for more.

What’s your favorite non-Blue Stallion beer and why?

Choosing one beer is impossible, so here are two for your reading pleasure: For warmer weather, I really love Brasserie Saison Dupont, which is light and refreshing with a nice amount of funk (always go for the funk). In colder months, Stone’s Xocoveza is my go-to, and I always stock up on bottles to store. This Mexican hot chocolate beer is even better because, well, it’s beer.

What’s your favorite food?

Duck confit mac-n-cheese. Get on this level.

What’s your favorite band?

The answer to this question is ever changing, but, at the moment, I’m really into Ohio Players.

What’s your favorite Lexington non-profit and why?

One of my favorites is NAMI, the National Alliance for Mental Illness. NAMI offers support to people who are not only suffering from their own disease, but also to their family members and friends. So often people with mental illness are outcast, ignored, and abandoned, mostly because of an ignorance to this particularly devastating type of disease and the hardships which mental illness brings, and this organization helps people to find steady housing, employment, and support.

What’s your favorite Saturday morning cartoon from growing up and why?

X-Men, during elementary school I even colored the front of my hair so that I could look more like Rogue because I was a third-grade badass. This particular cartoon brings a lot of nostalgia and reminds me of hanging out with my older brother, who was awesome enough to let me tag along to everything he did while we were growing up.

When you’re not pouring beers, what do you like to do?

Being around my dogs is my favorite past-time, but I also really like to sew, ride my bike, and spend time in my kitchen. I would consider my fiancé a pretty good hobby, too.

Who rocks the lederhosen the best during Oktoberfest?

Whichever owner is down for giving me a bonus. Victor. Hands down, that man can rock anything, but he looks particularly suave in his German attire.

What ridiculous conspiracy theory do you think will actually turn out to be true?

That the Denver airport is a portal to Hell. Any airport, really: flying is great, but airports suck.

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Announcements

Craft Beer & Community – Mission Monday Celebrates One Year

We recently celebrated a milestone at the brewery with the passage of a year since we launched the Mission Monday program! It began as a discussion on how we can give back to the central Kentucky community we love so much. We decided donating 10% of taproom sales to local non-profits was a great idea. In November 2014 we announced the program and started holding events early in 2015.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mission Mondays, we host them every Monday in the taproom. Blue Stallion donates 10% of taproom sales to that day’s featured local non-profit. Additionally, the featured organizations hold their own fundraising activities in the taproom and use the event as a platform to promote their cause. Some groups we supported this past year include: GleanKY, Finley Foundation, GPA Lex, Community Action Council, The Nest, Explorium of Lexington, Friends of Lexington Public Library, plus many more.

It took a little while to get the word out, but we’ve now held events for 31 local non-profit organizations and donated almost $4,000 to those same groups. That’s not counting the fundraising efforts of the non-profits themselves in our taproom through silent auctions, raffles, cooking contests and more activities. By our estimates, those funds raised are more than 1.5 times our 10% of sales donations, or around $6,000. That means, in its first year, the Mission Monday program had an impact of approximately $10,000 on local non-profits working to benefit our community.

While we’re very proud of the success Mission Mondays have seen so far, we want to see it grow even more. The goal is to double our donation amount to $8,000 for the next 12 months. With your help, we know we can.

If you or someone you know is associated with a local non-profit you think would benefit from holding a Mission Monday event at Blue Stallion, please visit our request page.

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Announcements

October 2015 Local Artist of the Month

Blue Stallion Brewing is proud to feature Dawna Scripps as our Local Artist of the Month for October 2015. Dawna was born in Texas and was raised all over. She has a studio at The Artists’ Attic on the 4th floor of The Square in downtown Lexington.

From the Artist:

DawnaScripps02I am a self taught artist, specializing in painting happy! I love to paint city scenes of places that make me feel welcome, festive, creative, and full of joy. My scenes may not look exactly like the place I paint, but I like to think about what’s inside the bricks and mortar, and use that to fill the space on my canvas. That, along with character (characters) and charm that many places in Lexington exude. Take a few minutes to look at the details. You never know what you might find. Whatever you discover, I hope it makes you smile.

You can reach Dawna Scripps on her website, Whimsythings.net, or via email at dawna@whimsythings.net.

Help us spread the word about our Blue Stallion Local Artist of the Month program!

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Artist of the Month

September 2015 Local Artist of the Month

Blue Stallion Brewing is proud to feature Margie Miller Rigney as our Local Artist of the Month for September 2015. Margie is a native of Lexington, Kentucky and currently resides in Scott County with her husband and family. She is the owner of “High South Art House” – a working studio and fine art gallery in historic Georgetown, Kentucky. Her work includes, but is not limited to: Equine studies, Portraits, Landscapes, charcoal studies, abstracts, livestock, and wildlife work.

[frame src=”http://bluestallionbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150820_133218.jpg” width=”300″ height=”169″ lightbox=”on” title=”Margie Miller Rigney – September 2015 Local Artist of the Month – Blue Stallion Brewing” align=”none” ] [frame src=”http://bluestallionbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150820_1332372.jpg” width=”300″ height=”169″ lightbox=”on” title=”Margie Miller Rigney – September 2015 Local Artist of the Month – Blue Stallion Brewing” align=”none” ]

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From the Artist:

I created this acrylic on canvas series specifically for Blue Stallion Brewing for the “Local ARyist of the Month” spotlight. When I found out that my work was going to be here, I immediately began thinking about color in Sepia.

There is something extremely authentic about beer and the art of brewing.

Beer is something that feels like home to most of us.
It has a history with us;
it’s a comfort as well as a luxury.
It’s timeless.
When fads have come and gone, beer has sustained it’s position.
It is steadfast and true.
It’s like that old friend that knows you, even after years have passed.

I want to honor the tradition of local brewing through subject matter that felt Genuine, Real and a part of our past. So I decided to paint a “Prohibition/Repeal Day” themed series and it was a great experience.

Sepia appears as brown and white, but if you look closely you can find blues, dark purples, creams, yellows and hints of orange in this unique color mix.

I hope you enjoy viewing ot as much as I did creating it. Cheers!

~Margie Miller Rigney

You can reach Margie Miller Rigney on her Facebook page or via email at margie.m.rigney@gmail.com.

Help us spread the word about our Blue Stallion Local Artist of the Month program!

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Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Meet the Team: Victor

Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Welcome to the latest edition of Meet the Blue Stallion Team. Whether they’re pouring beers for you behind the bar, brewing test batches, or cleaning fermenters, we’re proud of the team we have. This blog post series will help you get to know the people that make Blue Stallion possible. Expect a new post every few weeks. We ask everyone to fill out this goofy questionnaire so they can have a little fun with it.

Third in our Meet the Team series, this post introduces you to Victor. He’s been a bartender for us since we opened in July of 2013. A homebrewer for quite some time, Victor has contributed to many brews for Test Batch Tuesday. If you’ve spent any time at the bar, you’ve probably already had conversations about brewing and his favorite beer styles.

Victor02

Name:

Victor

Hometown:

Houston, TX

Years in Lexington:

9 years this August

How long have you worked at Blue Stallion Brewing?

Since we opened two years ago

What’s your favorite Blue Stallion beer and why?

Tough call!  I’m a beer omnivore but if I had to take one BSB beer into space to sustain me while escaping alien, body snatching pods that will make us all into Dick Cheney … Oh, sorry.  I started to answer question 13.  Favorite Blue Stallion beer is last fall’s Oktoberfest.  It was the best example of this style I have ever tasted, including German imports. The Oktoberfest I always wanted to brew.

What’s your favorite non-Blue Stallion beer and why?

Once again, a difficult choice.  Probably draft Fuller’s ESB fresh off the boat from England.  I used to get this at a little British pub in Dania Beach, FL.  Marvelous biscuit and crystal malt notes, with fruity esters in the background.  Nice East Kent Golding hop character also.

What’s your favorite food?

Vietnamese spring rolls with spicy hoisin peanut sauce.

What’s your favorite band?

I’m basically a blues man but I like a lot of different styles. I like bands that can do a little of everything so I would have to say Gov’t Mule.

What’s your favorite Lexington non-profit and why?

My favorite nonprofit is Surgery on Sunday.  It as group of volunteer medical professionals who donate time and expertise to provide free outpatient surgery to the working class poor.  The lack of access to health care is one of the major problems affecting the working poor.

What’s your favorite Saturday morning cartoon from growing up and why?

I grew up during the tail end of the Golden Age of animation in the 1960’s and have always loved Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. I really enjoyed the way juvenile and adult humor was combined in these cartoons as well as the sheer wackiness of the animators known collectively as “Termite Terrace”.  I was also a big fan of Jonny Quest.

When you’re not pouring beers, what do you like to do?

Brew beer of course! I also like to camp, hike, fish and to go sailing and kayaking when I have the opportunity.

Who rocks the lederhosen the best during Oktoberfest?

I think that Sian, Anna, Lillian and Carl rocked their dirndls much better than the guys in their lederhosen.

What ridiculous conspiracy theory do you think will actually turn out to be true?

I wouldn’t call it ridiculous but GMO’s in agriculture are already causing problems in the areas of antibiotic resistance in humans and with altered DNA escaping into the wild.

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Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Meet the Team: Anna

Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Welcome to the second edition of Meet the Blue Stallion Team. Whether they’re pouring beers for you behind the bar, brewing test batches, or cleaning fermenters, we’re proud of the team we have. This blog post series will help you get to know the people that make Blue Stallion possible. Expect a new post every few weeks. We ask everyone to fill out this goofy questionnaire so they can have a little fun with it.

This month’s post gives you some background on Anna. She’s been a bartender for us since we opened in July of 2013. An artist at heart, she’s been gracious with her talents on several occasions. Most notably, the Blue Stallion corn-hole boards as well as a custom kegerator we auctioned off for charity.

Anna - Blue Stallion Brewing

Name:

Anna

Hometown:

Brasstown, NC

Years in Lexington:

Five years, give or take.

How long have you worked at Blue Stallion Brewing?

Since we opened!

What’s your favorite Blue Stallion beer and why?

The Bourbon Barrel Aged Doppelbock.  Even though it is the season for lighter beers, I am loving this dark strong concoction.  It is robust and complicated but has the perfect finish with just enough bourbon energy.

What’s your favorite non-Blue Stallion beer and why?

Wyder’s Cider Reposado Pear Barrel Aged series.  This has to be my new jam.  I love a good cider in the summertime, but the hint of tequila through their barrel aging is the icing on the cake.  For a hot summer day you can’t lose with any of these brews.

What’s your favorite food?

Anything my boyfriend Tyler decides to cook for me.

What’s your favorite band?

Die Antwoord and Tegan and Sara.

What’s your favorite Lexington non-profit and why?

The Bluegrass Rape and Crisis Center.  This non-profit helps sexual assault victims.  They are a leading force in education on sexual assault and ending sexual violence through knowledge in Kentucky.  I am proud to support them.

What’s your favorite Saturday morning cartoon from growing up and why?

I don’t know if this qualifies but The Magic School Bus.

When you’re not pouring beers, what do you like to do?

When I am not pouring beers I like to paint, scrapbook and hang out with my boyfriend Tyler and our cat Mary Samsonite.

Who rocks the lederhosen the best during Oktoberfest?

Kore obviously rocks them the hardest. Although Zac’s feather hat rocking is a close second.

What ridiculous conspiracy theory do you think will actually turn out to be true?

The moon is made of barbecue spare ribs.

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Artist of the Month

June 2015 Local Artist of the Month

Blue Stallion Brewing is proud to feature Angie Lister as our Local Artist of the Month for June 2015. Angie is a visual artist who lives and works near Lexington, Kentucky. She earned her B.A. at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an M.F.A. from Azusa-Pacific University, and has been a professor of Art in Kentucky since 2012. Lister works mainly in painting and drawing. Five of her paintings are part of the permanent collection at the University of Kentucky Hospital.

These four paintings are from a series of seven, based on microscopic images of tears, which vary depending on the reason you are crying.

[frame src=”http://bluestallionbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/LAOTM_June2015_041.jpg” width=”300″ height=”214″ lightbox=”on” title=”Angie Lister – June 2015 Local Artist of the Month – Blue Stallion Brewing” align=”left” ]

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From left to right, the pieces are as follows:

  • “Expectation” 4’x2′ Oil and Charcoal on Panel
  • “Laughter” 4’x2′ Oil and Charcoal on Panel
  • “Release” 4’x2′ Oil and Charcoal on Panel
  • “Rememberance” 4’x2′ Oil and Charcoal on Panel

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You can reach Angie Lister for a price list or to request commission work on her website or via email at lister.angie@gmail.com.

Help us spread the word about our Blue Stallion Local Artist of the Month program!

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Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Meet the Team: Sian

Meet the Blue Stallion Team

Welcome to the first edition of Meet the Blue Stallion Team. Whether they’re pouring beers for you behind the bar, brewing test batches, or cleaning fermenters, we’re proud of the team we have. This blog post series will help you get to know the people that make Blue Stallion possible. Expect a new post every few weeks. We ask everyone to fill out this goofy questionnaire so they can have a little fun with it.

Our inaugural post introduces you to Sian. She’s been a bartender for us since we opened in July of 2013. Her contributions go way above and beyond slinging beers. She’s the one scheduling the best food trucks in town and keeping our guest tap list on point, in addition to a hundred other things.

As much as we love having her around, this post is actually bitter-sweet. Sian is leaving us in June to pursue other opportunities out west. She’s got some ambitious goals, and we know she can achieve them. So if you stop by the tap room in the next week and a half, be sure to bid her a fond farewell! We’ll definitely miss her!

Sian Mason

Name:

Sian

Hometown:

Right here in Lexington! I was born in New Hampshire and we moved around a lot when I was a baby/toddler, then ended up settling here when I was 3.

Years in Lexington:

16 total, 1993-2007 and 2013-2015

How long have you worked at Blue Stallion Brewing?

Since we opened in July 2013!

What’s your favorite Blue Stallion beer and why?

I go back and forth on this one quite a bit, but right now the Maibock is definitely my main squeeze. It’s got a perfect balance of hoppy and malty flavors, and it’s incredibly versatile and approachable for drinkers who are new to craft beer, while also being something a serious beer aficionado can appreciate.

Honorable Mentions: Doppelbock, Pilsner, Wee Heavy, and Hefeweizen

What’s your favorite non-Blue Stallion beer and why?

This is such a tough call, but I have to go with what I’d say is probably the best guest beer I’ve ever ordered at Blue Stallion: Stone Xocoveza. It had so many different flavors involved (chocolate, coffee, chili peppers, cinnamon, and nutmeg) it could have easily gotten over complicated, but instead it was incredibly well balanced with a little heat from the peppers to even out the sweeter flavors. I refer to it in the past tense because it was only made once, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get over it.

Honorable Mentions: Revolution Fist City, Prairie Cherry Funk, Freigeist Geisterzug Gose, Pliny the Elder, Great Lakes Chillwave, Lagunitas Lil Sumpin’ Sumpin’, and Alesmith Speedway Stout w/ Vietnamese Coffee.

What’s your favorite food?

My mom’s chicken tortellini soup with fresh-outta-the-oven french bread. I’ve gotten pretty good at making it myself but nothing can compare to when mom makes it.

What’s your favorite band?

Anyone who’s ever had a conversation about music with me in the taproom knows I could never choose just one, so I’m gonna roll with a list for this question. The Gaslight Anthem, Ratatat, The Smiths, New Found Glory, The National, Childish Gambino, Francis and the Lights, Forgive Durden, Everclear, The Eels, Mike Doughty, Cake, The Damnwells, City and Colour, Bayside, Arctic Monkeys, Angel Haze, and so so many others but I’d better stop now before this gets out of hand

What’s your favorite Lexington non-profit and why?

The Bluegrass Rape Crisis Center, because as a survivor of sexual assault I can say with confidence that rape crisis counselors are actual superheroes who do such important, difficult, and emotionally taxing work, and they usually do so as volunteers.

What’s your favorite Saturday morning cartoon from growing up and why?

Recess! I could explain why, but I think this Buzzfeed listicle illustrates it pretty well.

When you’re not pouring beers, what do you like to do?

When I’m not behind the TallBar™ you can find me taking yoga/pilates/spin class at the Y, hiking, reading, writing, watching TV, dancing around my kitchen while procrastinating housework, driving around singing at the top of my lungs or listening to comedy podcasts, or watching NFL football or college basketball.

Who rocks the lederhosen the best during Oktoberfest?

Victor, duh.

What ridiculous conspiracy theory do you think will actually turn out to be true?

I don’t know that I believe in any particularly ridiculous ones, though I do consider myself a rather skeptical person. I believe the narratives we’re fed by the government and media are often at least somewhat removed from reality and I rarely take them at face value.

Oh, and if you believe Princess Diana’s death was an accident YOU ARE A DAMN FOOL.

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Announcements

9 Medal-Winning Beers and Goodbye to LCBW 2015

Today marks an end to another Lexington Craft Beer Week. It was an incredible week filled with great craft beer events throughout the city. Again, LexBeerScene.com did a great job sponsoring the week-long event.

Alltech Craft Brews and Food

The week was full of awesome happenings for Blue Stallion as well. One of the last big events of the week was Alltech’s Craft Brews and Food Fest. We were excited to hear our beers brought home 9 medals in all, 4 silver and 5 bronze! That’s in addition to the 4 medals our beers brought home last year.

Silver Medals:

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  • Blue Stallion Oatmeal Stout
  • Blue Stallion Munich Helles
  • Blue Stallion Doppelbock
  • Blue Stallion Irish Red

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Bronze Medals:

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  • ​Blue Stallion Maibock
  • Blue Stallion German Pilsner
  • Blue Stallion Smoked Lager
  • Blue Stallion Wee Heavy
  • Blue Stallion Märzen

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Test Batch Takeover

One of the most popular events we held all week was the Test Batch Takeover. We had 14 small batch experimental beers on tap at one time! You can see the full list here. Several Lexington homebrewers helped us with five of the brews, and they were fantastic. Some favorites of all 14 included:

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  • P.B. & Stout (peanut butter chocolate stout)
  • Bourbon Ball (nitro imperial stout)
  • Wet T-Shirt Contest (watermelon wheat ale)
  • Badger Blood (Belgian wheat ale w/ tart cherries)
  • El Diablo es Verde (cream ale w/ cilantro, lime & habaneros)

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We got a lot of good feedback on the beers and we’re putting a lot of consideration into bringing a couple back at the production level. Thanks for making it such a great day!

New Beer Releases

We released a whopping 4 beers during Lexington Craft Beer Week (not counting the Test Batch Takeover). The response has been great to all of them. If you haven’t had a chance to try them, you need to get down to the taproom soon. Here’s a list:

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  • Maibock
  • Equuleus (old ale – Ethereal collaboration)
  • Lightringer ESB (extra special bitter)
  • Bourbon Barrel-Aged Doppelbock

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Until next year, Prost!

Categories
Announcements

Blue Stallion & Ethereal Collab Beer – Equuleus Old Ale

Equuleus_Logo_Web_LCBW

Equuleus Old Ale – Collaboration Brew for Lexington Craft Beer Week

Lexington’s two newest breweries, Blue Stallion and Ethereal, are teaming up for a collaboration brew for Lexington Craft Beer Week called “Equuleus”, an Old Ale. Equuleus, Latin for “little horse”, is a constellation in the northern hemisphere said to represent Celeris, Pegasus’ brother. The name is a great melding for Blue Stallion and Ethereal, referring both to the horse and the heavens.

[frame src=”http://bluestallionbrewing.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/KoreAndrew_DarkCandiSyrup.jpg” width=”150″ height=”195″ lightbox=”on” title=”Andrew & Kore make dark candi syrup before brewing Equuleus” align=”left” ]
Old Ale falls into the “Strong Ale” category and the malty goodness is going to shine with this one. With Ethereal’s help we even made up a batch of dark candi syrup just for this brew.

Equuleus will be on tap Wednesday May 13th in the Blue Stallion taproom. We’ll also have limited edition pint glasses on sale for $2 with the beer and $3 by themselves.

It’s also Wednesday Night Live, so we’ll have music from The Swells starting at 8pm. Lyles BBQ will be here at 5pm with their delicious smoked meet dishes.