The brewing event of the year
Brew at Russian River with the founders of
Sierra Nevada, Russian River, Monkish, Trillium, Side Project, and more
BREWERS
RETREAT
CRAFT BEER & BREWING Brewers Retreat
Brew With World-Class Master Brewers at Russian River
MAY 21 - 24, 2023 | Russian River Brewing Company (Sonoma County, CA)
There are a limited number of tickets for the country's best brewing experience! Brew with world-class master brewers over four days at Russian River Brewing Company (Sonoma County, California).
At this exclusive retreat, you'll collaborate on small-batch brews (15-30 gallons) with some of the country's top brewers, connect with brewery owners from around the country, enjoy some beautiful meals created just for the event by the culinary team at Russian River, and relax in wine country. Three nights at the Flamingo Resort, brew days, educational sessions, transportation, bottle shares, lunches, dinners and select beers are included, but space is limited, so book today!
We'll ferment and package the beers to send you a handful of cans to enjoy. You’ll have the ultimate collaboration beers to share with your friends!
Craft Beer & Brewing All Access members members save $300+ on tickets!
Brew With
Vinnie & Natalie Cilurzo
Founders, Russian River Brewing Company
Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo are the founders of Russian River Brewing Company in Santa Rosa and Windsor, California. The brewing industry power couple are two of the most respected in the world of craft beer. Their downtown Santa Rosa brewpub has been a legendary destination for craft beer fans for many, many years, and the production brewery in Windsor, California is the culmination of decades of experience plus a desire to build their dream brewery. In 2008 Vinnie was honored with the Brewers Association Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Brewing and in 2017 Vinnie and Natalie were honored with the Brewers Association Recognition Award. Natalie was the keynote speaker at the 2022 Craft Brewer’s Conference in Minneapolis.
Ken Grossman
Founder/Owner/President, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.
Ken Grossman founded Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. in 1980, with the goal of providing his customers with the kind of beer he liked to drink—hoppy, dark and flavorful. His background in homebrewing, uncompromising approach to quality, and financial savvy helped him build one of the most successful craft breweries in the U.S.
Cory & Karen King
Founders, Side Project Brewing
Cory and Karen met working in a fine dining restaurant and discovered they shared a love for learning about wine and beer and traveling around the world to visit those wineries and breweries. This passion led to an experimentation in apartment homebrewing, where Cory handled the brewing operations and Karen kept the Brew Notes. After moving to St. Louis together in 2007, Karen started a career in beer sales and Cory began selling wine. Cory eventually became a professional brewer before he and Karen applied that love of wine and Belgian-style beers to create Side Project Brewing and sold their very first Side Project beer in 2013. They opened The Side Project Cellar in 2014 and as their incredible team of staff members grew, they all worked to open the Side Project Brewing Tasting Room in 2016.
Henry & Adriana Nguyen
Owners, Monkish Brewing Company
After pursuing a PhD in Early Christianity and homebrewing mostly Belgian-style beers, Henry and his wife, Adriana, started Monkish in Los Angeles, where they were born and raised. The brewery initially focused solely on Belgian-style and mixed-fermentation beers — and the occasional spontaneous fermented beers, which are a challenge given the Southern Californian warm climate. As a yeast-driven brewery, Henry has expanded the brewery’s scope to include hoppy beers (i.e. IPAs) that are more focused on yeast character than simply hops. And with their affinity for monastic brewing traditions, Henry and Adriana embrace the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of brewing, and their brewery remains nimble and intentional in creating meaning through beer.
Matt Brynildson
Brewmaster, Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Matt’s storied career in craft beer started simply enough with a job in Michigan as a hops chemist, putting to use the chemistry degree he earned in 1993 from Kalamazoo College. A dedicated homebrewer, he soon decided to make the leap to professional brewing, and after graduating from the Siebel Institute in Chicago, made his way to Goose Island. There, he shot up the ranks to head brewer as the brewery itself grew in stature. In 2000, he heeded the call to go west, joining the SLO Brewing Company, and became head of brewing operations after the acquisition of SLO by Firestone Walker Brewing Co. The past fourteen years with Firestone Walker Brewing Co. have been marked by explosive growth, buoyed by a fundamental dedication to expert brewing craft and driven by Matt’s own meticulous dual focuses on process and technique plus world-class sensory analysis. He’s a renowned hops expert, and under his leadership Firestone Walker Brewing Co. has won a total of 42 medals at GABF (20 of them gold). At this retreat, Matt returns to his homebrew and pilot brewing roots and is looking forward to sharing two decades of professional brewing experience with attendees.
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Ben Edmunds
Brewmaster, Breakside Brewery
Ben is the brewmaster at Breakside Brewery in Portland, Oregon, where he oversees the company's production brewery and two pub breweries. As founding brewer of Breakside, he helped grow the company from a small brewpub into a successful 30,000 barrel regional brewery. Under Ben's leadership, Breakside has won many medals at national and international competitions, including 8 World Beer Cup awards and 22 Great American Beer Festival medals since 2011, as well as six Brewery of the Year honors at the Oregon Beer Awards.
JC & Esther Tetreault
Founders, Trillium Brewing
JC & Esther Tetreault opened Trillium in 2013, with the desire to create a lifestyle and experiences through the lens of a modern New England farmhouse-inspired brewery. Launched with the support of family, friends, and community, Trillium has expanded to six locations, including two full-service restaurants in Boston & Canton, MA, a greenhouse-inspired taproom in Fenway, an open-air beer garden in downtown Boston, a 163-acre farm in North Stonington, CT, and a full-scale production brewery. Since the early days of homebrewing, JC & Esther have guided the Trillium vision of innovation & experimentation, focused on a constantly expanding selection of styles. From signature hop forward IPAs and traditional saisons to dessert-inspired stouts & fruited Berliner weisses, Trillium's portfolio represents the exciting intersection of modern and traditional brewing. Bringing the founding intention of a farmhouse-inspired brewery to life, the Trillium team recently debuted Habitat, a series of spontaneous ales featuring New England grain as well as a multitude of lagers with Trillium estate farm grown heirloom corn and small grains. Consistently ranked among the best breweries in the world, Trillium continues to evolve and grow with an uncompromised dedication to quality & sustainability.
Neil Fisher
Founder/Brewmaster, WeldWerks Brewing Company
Neil began homebrewing with friends at his home in 2009, and over the next few years, a full roster of nearly 2 dozen different colorful characters would come around once a month to brew, learn and enjoy one another’s company. Fast forward a few years to the 2014 Big Beers, Belgians, and Barleywines festival, held at the time in Vail, CO, which is home to one of the nation’s best homebrew competitions. A soft agreement was made in advance that if Neil was able to bring home a medal at this prestigious competition, he would consider opening a brewery. Well, as it happened, he didn’t win a medal – he won two. That informal agreement quickly turned into a business plan, and 11 months later, the first beers were poured at WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, CO.
Nick Gislason
Cofounder, Hanabi Lager
Nick Gislason is the cofounder of Hanabi Lager, a small and focused lager producer based in Napa, California. Through Hanabi, Nick is seeking to tell a deeper story about barley varieties, farming practices, origins, and brewing techniques. He’s also the winemaker for a prominent winery in Napa.
Dick Cantwell
Cofounder, Elysian Brewing
Dick Cantwell is an award-winning brewer, author, and educator from Seattle, Washington. After becoming interested in home-brewing in the late 1980s, Cantwell began working in the craft beer industry in 1990 at Duwamps Cafe, Pike Place Brewery and Big Time Brewery and Alehouse in Seattle. From there he went on to found Elysian Brewing Company, later sold to Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2015. He ran brewing operations at Magnolia Brewing in San Francisco from 2017 to 2019 when it sold, as part of the New Belgium sale to Lion/Kirin. Cantwell is an accomplished author, having written four books on craft beer, including co-authoring the widely praised Wood & Beer: A Brewer’s Guide. He has also been honored with awards, including the 2004 Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation and Excellence in Brewing, presented by the Brewers Association, as well as Large Brewpub Brewmaster of the year in 1999, 2003 and 2004 at the Great American Beer Festival.
Sean Lawson
Founder/Brewmaster, Lawson’s Finest Liquids
Lawson’s Finest has earned critical acclaim and an enthusiastic fan following. Sean started the 1bbl nano-brewery with his wife Karen in 2008 after 20 years of home brewing. His specialty maple beers & IPA’s have garnered awards at the World Beer Cup, Great American Beer Festival, and at two National IPA championships (2011 – Triple Play IPA and 2016- Super Session #2). Lawson’s Finest grew to a 7bbl system in 2011 in a small sugarhouse style shed next to their home. In 2018 Sean and Karen opened the Waitsfield brewery, taproom and retail store.
Itinerary
DAY 1 (MAY 21, 2023)
- 3:45pm: Welcome Happy Hour (The Flamingo Resort)
- 5:45pm: Depart for Dinner
- 6:30pm – 8:30pm: Dinner (Russian River Santa Rosa Pub)
- 8:30pm: Bus to The Flamingo Resort
- 8:45pm - 11pm: Bottle Share (The Flamingo Resort)
DAY 2 (MAY 22, 2023)
- 9:00am: Bus to Russian River (Windsor)
- 9:30am – 11:30am: Taste & Learn Seminar + Brewery Tours
- 11:30am – 5:30pm: Brewing session
- 1:00pm: Lunch (Russian River—Windsor)
- 6:00pm: Dinner (Russian River—Windsor)
- 8:00pm: Bus to The Flamingo Resort
DAY 3 (MAY 23, 2023)
- 9:00am: Bus to Russian River (Windsor)
- 9:30am – 10:30am: Taste & Learn Seminar
- 10:30am – 11:30am: Beer & Cheese Seminar with Janet Fletcher (Publisher, Planet Cheese)
- 11:30am – 5:30pm: Brewing session
- 1:00pm: Lunch (Russian River—Windsor)
- 6:00pm: Dinner (Russian River—Windsor)
- 8:00pm: Bus to The Flamingo Resort
- 8:30pm-11pm: Bottle share (The Flamingo Resort)
DAY 4 (MAY 24, 2023)
- 6:00am – 10:00am: Enjoy your morning at The Flamingo Resort
- 10:00am: Checkout at The Flamingo Resort
Location
The event will be hosted in Sonoma County, California. For accommodations, we will be staying at the Flamingo Resort, while all brewing activities will happen onsite at Russian River Brewing Company (Windsor, California). Tickets include three nights at the Flamingo Resort and all transportation to get to/from Russian River.
Sponsors
We are a Colorado based brewery equipment manufacturer specializing in professional quality small-batch pilot and nano brewing systems. As a family owned and operated business established in 2011, we pride ourselves in providing unrivaled quality and customer service. We manufacture and support small batch brewing systems for brewers and breweries worldwide. Ruby Street Brewing is unique in that all equipment is built to order with flexible designs, customizable options, competitive pricing and short lead times.
RMS Brewing Solutions takes the hassle and frustration out of milling and grain handling systems for the world’s best breweries and distilleries. From bulk storage and conveyance to milling and custom specialty equipment, RMS Brewing Solutions has you covered with turn-key system design, fabrication, and installation. Focus on your craft and leave the rest to the grain handling experts at RMS. Start your process off right with premium milling equipment. Malt is often the most overlooked and most expensive part of the brewing process. Don’t trust these critical steps to just anyone. The best trust RMS because their reputation is on the line. RMS equipment is designed and produced right here in the USA. And with systems deployed in all 50 states, we’re local everywhere.
Our mission is to invent, not just innovate, high quality brewing equipment and accessories for brewers all over the world. Since our launch in 2013, we have many market "firsts" to our credit including a conical bottomed stainless bucket, a weldless kettle trub dam, an insulated 5 degree sloped floor mash tun with center drain, and an integrated temperature control system custom designed for our Chronical series fermenters. We don't just talk about great customer service here either - we do it! One customer, one day, and one beer at a time!
In 2004, BSG recognized that the craft brewing and homebrewing community needed a dependable source for diverse ingredients from around the world. Since then, we have earned the trust of our customers by delivering the finest brewing ingredients at competitive values, all backed by outstanding customer service and depth of industry experience.
We continue to search the globe for new and interesting brewing ingredients that we can bring to our customers. Consequently, our product list continues to grow as we strive to better meet the needs of both professional brewers and homebrewers. Additionally, our knowledgeable and friendly sales and management staff comes from the professional brewing & homebrewing communities, so we can assist you in everything from recipe formulation to troubleshooting.
Whether it's exclusive specialty malts, in-demand hop varieties, or premium brewing aids we have you covered; great beers are made from select ingredients. BSG is committed to being your partner, and shares your passion for creating outstanding beers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Have other questions? Contact us.
TICKETS
When is the last day I’m able to purchase tickets?
The last day you can purchase a ticket is when we sell out.
If I purchase a brewer ticket now, can I purchase a companion ticket for the same event later or do they both need to be purchased at the same time?
You do not need to purchase the companion ticket at the same time. Just let us know if and when you want to add your companion.
BREWING
Are the identified Master Brewers confirmed to participate?
The listed brewers are confirmed.
Can I pick the brewmaster that leads my group?
Yes. Prior to the event we will send out a survey for your preferred lead brewer. If a brew group is full, preference will be given to the attendee that purchased their ticket first. That said, we’ve always accommodated every request.
What type of beer will be brewed?
The brewers will collaboratively develop a different recipe for each day of brewing, and each team will brew threads of that recipe which will be fermented in the Russian River pilot brewery.
What type of system will we be brewing on?
We will be using beautiful systems from Ruby Street Brewing (15-30 gallon).
Will retreat attendees be allowed to participate in the brewing process?
You will be allowed to participate in the brewing process and collaborate with the pro brewer.
What are we going to do with the beer we are brewing?
When the beer is ready, we will package and ship 4-6 cans to each participant.
LODGING
What time can we arrive at the Flamingo Resort?
You can arrive in the morning to participate in the activities they offer; however, you may not be able to check into your room until later in the day.
How late can we stay at the Flamingo Resort?
You can stay for the day to participate in the activities they offer; however, you will need to be checked out of your room by 11am if you're not staying Wednesday night.
TRANSPORTATION
May I be provided a discount if I don't use your transportation?
There will be no discount if you do not use our transportation. The transportation is included in the overall package.
FOOD & DRINK
Which meals are included?
Sunday dinner, Monday lunch and dinner, and Tuesday lunch and dinner are included in the ticket price.
How much beer will be provided?
At each dinner we will provide the equivalent of at least one beer. Happy hours and receptions will offer unlimited pours.
"This event is something that outshines almost any experience I've gone to in the past. The brewers that attended this conference were so open with all of us about brewing methods, tips/tricks, etc were just fantastic!"
- Doug K. (Brewers Retreat Austin Attendee)
"I want to tell you all that it was awful and never come, but this would just be to keep it a secret and protect it for myself. In fact, this was the most incredible beer experience I've ever had."
- Allan M. (Brewers Retreat Colorado Attendee)
"This was an amazing experience - to be able to not only meet, but hang out and brew with Brewing legends like Mitch Steel, Henry Nguyen, the crew from Jester King. What can I say? How could it be better?"
- John W. (Brewers Retreat Austin Attendee)
"This was a wonderful week. Brewing with the pros; and testing recipes. Friendship and a good time, all with a common subject; all in a beautiful retreat."
- Nowell G. (Brewers Retreat Austin Attendee)
Invite your friends
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