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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.

Categories
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!