Answering a Few Questions

Let's start with the easiest and most frequently asked question: "When will your bottles be available?" Answer: June 7th we start shipping.

Now, onto the fun stuff. Our release parties in the Sacramento region have thus far been totally kick-ass fun! The reception by the community has been outstanding, and the satisfaction we feel watching people enjoy a second pint of Saison is hard to put into words. You see, we feel anyone can down a pint of beer, but to see you get another one says that you actually like Saison! We've killed kegs at every event we've had, sold all our glassware and generally been overwhelmed with how fast the beers are selling throughout the region. In fact, and I'm sorry to say this, we're to the point now where we expect to sell out of Saison sooner than anticipated. We can't take new orders for the beer right now, but we're working to fix that ASAP (Peter's brewing tomorrow, in fact!). You should be able to still find Saison where it's currently being sold, but we just can't expand to more locations until we get more beer. Thank you!

Bottle Saison Batch One vs. Batch Two

We learned a whole lot with batch one of Saison. This was the batch we did everything by the book when it comes to embracing traditional practices. The one thing that has slowed the whole release down was our decision to bottle Saison completely flat, with zero carbonation. We like the idea of having a 100% bottle-conditioned beer, but ultimately lack the production capacity to continue this lengthy process. So we've made one tweak in batch two - we're bottling with about half the volume of CO2 we hope to have in the finished product, the rest will still come via bottle-conditioning because we think that's important for the style. What's that mean to you? Well, not much. Astute palates may detect a slight change in body and a bit more hop character in batch two. However, we don't see there being a difference that impacts the beer, overall. Guess we'll leave that for you all to decide - we'd love to know what you think from batch to batch.

Our Future

Another question we've been asked about a lot is if we plan on having our own location. Yes, it is our goal to open a small place in Sacramento (likely east Sacramento so we can sell bottles) in the near future. We're working on some legal stuff and will soon be looking for investors. Once that's all lined up, we'll move as fast as humanly possible to get the doors open. We're planning on a 15-barrel brewhouse with 30-barrel fermentors, some food service, pints and growler fills (along with keg sales for home use). We'll be sure to keep you posted on that, as well. Thanks for the inquiries on that.

With this in mind (while we're answering questions), we've also got a handful of beers planned for future release. However, we're going to stick with Saison through the summer as we work hard to build our brand here in Sacramento. We've said it here before, but it bares repeating - Saison is the flagship beer for Odonata Beer Co and we're working now to make sure it's available throughout the region. Brand building doesn't happen quick or easy, so we're trying to make it as smooth as possible with a beer that we believe in, a beer that's got broad appeal while being completely craft. As the brand builds, you'll see a lot more of our Reserve, Seasonal and One-Off creations.

Online Store

Yes, this is in the works! We hope to have this up sooner than later (weeks, not months). Here we're going to sell T-Shirts, Work Shirts, Hoodies and Glassware - sorry, no beer. For now we're only going to ship within the USA. We're getting all that figured out now.

That's it for now. Thank you, everyone, for your continued support and all the kindness you've shown to Peter and me - we appreciate it every single day! Truly, thank you.

- Peter & Rick