Yuletide Grand Opening at the Unifier Brewing Company
The Invitation:
To celebrate their Grand Opening to the public, the newly established Unifier Brewing Company in Seaside is hosting a party at the Winter Solstice, on Saturday, December 22nd, kicking off the Yuletide season with free drinks, snacks, a tour of operations, and music. Stop in, enjoy the atmosphere, sample the wares, and take home a bottle or place an order for delivery!
((Come join us for the party in #city-square on Discord on Saturday, December 22nd at 8pm EST))
((Post below to show off party outfits, describe your visit, or otherwise add to the story!))
The Setting:
As you walk up to the brewery building, there are lights of green and red twinkling on every part of its brick exterior. When the owner has wings, she can reach anywhere! Those who enter from the cold are surrounded with warmth and a symphony of holiday scents, evergreen, citrus, spice and baked goods overwhelming the usual smells of fermentation.
Juniper flits about indoors, hanging garlands of woven pine and cedar branches, interwoven with tiny, twinkling white lights. A pile of herbal wreaths sit on a table nearby, to be added to the décor: sage, marjoram, dill, rosemary, and bay leaf. A few larger wreaths of juniper sprigs, heavy with berries and interlocked with pine needles, already hang from the two closed side doors. In a far corner, a small live spruce tree sits in a half-barrel pot, decked with lights, garlands of popcorn and cranberries, carved wooden ornaments, and a gleaming (real) gold star on top.
The concrete floor of the entry is swept clean and set up with tables of hors d’oeuvres: frosted sugar cookies, finger sandwiches, cocktail sausages, cut fruit, cheese, olives, and toast points with various complicated dips. A copper pot packed with snow holds bottles of ginger beer, root beer and sparkling lemonade. Another table across the room is covered with small cups and two large punchbowls with ladles: one cold and creamy white, the other warm, dark red and spiced, with slices of orange and apple floating on top.
A small bar is installed along the opposite wall, stocked with bottles printed with the UBC logo and labeled: Dark Rum, Juniper Gin, Cinnamon Whiskey, and Firefae Mead. The bar, helmed by Nicklaus, has two beer taps (small beer and lager), an array of mixers, and a small menu of featured cocktails: Seaside Mule (vodka, lemon juice, and ginger beer), Cranberry Gin and Tonic, Whiskey Hot & Sour, and Jotun Grog (rum, gin, sour cherry juice, honey, and seltzer).
The door to the back workspace stands open, with a sign reading: “Please Enter: Tours Available Upon Request.” Beyond is a wide, tall warehouse filled with boilers, mash tuns, barrels, and racks of raw ingredients, as well as a forge and oversized brick oven in the back corner. A round table and a half-dozen chairs are set up near this hearth, which blazes with the fire that heats the building. Lingering yeasty smells seep from the various sealed metal containers, each labeled with a cryptic marking: a string of runic letters and numbers on an attached card. From the workspace, the doors to the racking room are also open, but inside is only row upon row of barrels and bottles, stored horizontally on shelves for aging and clarification. The other door, to the stairs, is locked tight, with a carved wooden sign reading “Private: No Entry”, and another juniper wreath atop that.
Once the party begins in earnest, the background sound alternates between conversation, Yule carols led by whomever volunteers (including the owners), seasonal music from a MP3 player and Bluetooth speaker, or, whenever they arrive, live music from a trio of satyrs.
((More on the location can be found here))
