The Ceres Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a Friday, Jan. 12 ribbon cutting with city officials to mark the grand opening of the new Blaker Brewing and tap room at 1063 Montclaire Drive, Ceres.
The new business is hosting a grand opening weekend of events, starting with the Jan. 12 grand opening from 2 to 10 p.m. featuring music by Mattea Overstreet and food offered by the Food Fix. From noon to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 13, Blaker will offer food by Tri-Tipery and music by the Cash Prophets. The football playoffs will be the theme of the Sunday, Jan. 14 hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. with pizza by La Rosa & Sons.
Blaker broke ground in March on the 6,000-square-foot building inside the Miller Industrial Park.
Blaker Brewing started brewing craft beer in 2012 on the Lucas Dairy on Fulkerth Road in rural Turlock. The dairy grows corn, wheat and hops. Tom Lucas said his family wanted to expand the brewery from the farm-based operation and were met with open arms by Ceres Chamber and city officials.
The facility features a 1,000-square-foot tap room, malt cracking room and brew house with its stainless steel tanks.
"We're a little bit off the beaten path but people are going to find us," said Lucas. "In the beer drinking world that's kind of how it happens. We'll be at all sorts of events, you know, brew-fest events. We're putting together a marketing team and so we'll get the word out."
Blaker Brewing plans to get it beers into local restaurants and stores much in the same way that Dust Bowl in Turlock did.
Blaker Brewing's website notes 13 craft beers but Lucas continues to experiment to create new ones. The plan is to put three to four styles out on the market.
"We've probably made at least 20 different styles," said Lucas. "We have kind of a group of about 10 that are fairly solid that we can bring in right away. We're always experimenting and innovating and coming up with new stuff. We'll have a few handles in there that are always rotating new fresh supply of different styles."
The website mentions these products: the Vanilla Bean Milk Stout (4.9 percent alcohol); Plowed Under IPA (Irish Pale Ale) at 7.1 percent; Festa Vienna Lager (5.5 percent); the Measure-X American Double Brown Ale (5.7 percent); Big Nothin' Wee Heavy (9.9 percent); Summer of ‘38 Cream Ale (4.6 percent); Imperial Stout IPA, Almond Brown Ale, Honeybabies Blonde Ale, Fruited Saison, Berlier Weisse, Dark Oasis Yemon Coffee Porter and Fix Session IPA (5.0 percent).
The Miller Industrial Park in southwest Ceres consists of smaller lots and is now home to Classic Wine Vinegar, California Landscape Supply, Thrasher Golf, Golden State Utilities, CDC Construction, Irish Construction, B.J.'s Pest Control, Pools by Nelson and Chatz Roasting.
