1. Announcement of new web site and brand name
2. The Gluten Free Living Conference results
3. What’s coming next?
4. The Beers
5. Survey results
6. What is malt anyway?
7. Housekeeping

We hope you enjoy following our journey through the world of innovation and great beer.

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Brand Name and New Web Site  Top of Page  
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We are proud to announce our brand naming strategy, “Bard’s Tale.” And our tagline: “Good Friends. Unbelievable Stories. Incredible Beer.” We are also happy to announce our new web site, www.bardsbeer.com

At our site, you can learn more about us, our effort, our products, and availability. There is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to answer general questions. Please bookmark the site and visit often, since we will be continuously updating and improving the site.

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The Gluten Free Living Conference  Top of Page  
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The GFL Conference in Philly this past weekend was a great success. We were overjoyed with the positive feedback we received with regards to our Pale Ale. 43 of the 56 tasters (14 surveys didn’t have answers) said that our beer tasted similar to commercial and microbrewed beer with 5 saying it actually tasted better. Our greatest compliments actually came from non-celiacs who claimed that they would actually buy our beer over other microbrews. Over 95% of the 70 tasters said they would pay $8 a six pack with an average of 5 cases purchased per year.

To top off the great weekend we donated several extra bottles to the conference which, in turn raised $260 in donations for the University of Maryland Celiac Research Center.

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What’s coming next?  Top of Page  
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We will be attending the Rhode Island Support Group meeting September 15th.

We will also be in attendance at the CSA Conference October 10-13 in Omaha, Nebraska. We anticipate that we will have both the Blonde Ale and Pale Ale available for this event. So make plans now. Go to www.csaceliacs.com for more information.

If you are part of a local support group and would like to have us attend a meeting with samples, please contact us at info@bardsbeer.com

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The Beers  Top of Page  
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The initial Bard’s Tale product line will be comprised of two beer styles. A Blonde Ale that meets the demands for a light refreshing style beer. This beer is an acceptable substitute/replacement for the Budweiser, Miller, Coors and Heineken drinker. Several non-celiac beer drinkers actually preferred our beer to Heineken.

Our Pale Ale is more in line with the demand for high quality craft brewed beers. This is not to say that the Blonde Ale is not high quality. Since Pale Ale is the most popular microbrewery style, we decided to start with this style. Once these two brands have hit production, we will move toward other styles such as, India Pale Ales, Extra Special Bitters, Stouts, Porters, Ambers and a Light Beer (low calorie). We have already started experiments for a stout.

The ingredients of all our beers are 100% GF and are made up of a combination of sorghum, buckwheat, corn, honey, hops and GF brewer’s yeast. Since we are also Celiacs, we have spent considerable time investigating our condition and making sure everything we do ensures complete elimination or absence of gluten.

We have also received concerns about the quality (taste) of the beer. Let us assure you that even though we are Celiacs, all of us were beer lovers before being diagnosed. While we have the utmost respect for Budweiser, Coors and Miller and their brewing capabilities, we have spent considerable resources and time drinking specialty, micro, and craft brews such as; Bass, Guinness, Sam Adams, Red Hook, Sierra Nevada, Rhino Chasers, Red Tail, Buzzard’s Breath, Flying Dog, Saranac, Pete’s Wicked Ale, Harpoon, Magic Hat, etc. And such obscure beers such as Ed’s Original Cave Creek Chili Beer, that actually has a real whole chili pepper in each bottle. While we would never claim to be expert beer judges (we’re sure our friends in the Northwest could teach us a thing or two), we are highly confident that our beers will at least meet and hopefully exceed the quality of beers available to non-Celiacs (we think the GFL Conference supports this claim).

In addition, we have scoured the globe (literally) researching brewing techniques using these alternative grains. We have spoken to researchers and professionals in Africa, Europe, Australia, Mexico, United States, and Canada. We truly believe that our tireless research and experiments down to the chemical level of brewing science, have given us the capability to brew GF beers at a level higher than several traditional micro and craft brewers. We don’t want to over-sell our beer or set unreasonable exceptions, but we are very confident that you will be rewarded for our efforts.

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Survey Results  Top of Page  
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At the time of this writing, we have received approximately 220 responses to our initial survey. This was far more than we ever expected. Thanks to everyone who participated. Of the respondents:

- 70% were women
- 15% were between the ages of 25-34
- 26% between 35-44
- 27% between 45-54
- 26% over 55
- 89% said they would pay $8 a six pack
- 70% would pay $9
- 49% would pay $10
- The average was 5 cases a year
- 63% would buy beer over the internet

Thank you again for all your help.

Note: There were several comments and concerns about the questions pertaining to the pricing of the beer. These concerns were around us having a captive audience and taking advantage of this opportunity by gouging or ripping off our potential customers. These concerns could not be farther from the truth. The purpose of the questions were to determine what the market might bear based upon our cost structure. For instance, if we determined that it would cost $9 a six pack (retail), we wanted to know if people would pay $10. If they wouldn’t, we knew we wouldn’t have a business, or we would have to figure out how to change our cost structure. If the cost was $6 a six pack, we wouldn’t charge $10, that’s just poor business. Especially since we know people would buy more beer at the lower price. Yes, this is a business and we need to make money, but not at the expense of alienating our customers.

It is critical that we build and maintain your confidence in us while working at a level of integrity second to none. We know there are many companies that give lip service to the concept of customer service. We are not one of those companies. We also realize that words on a piece of paper or computer screen are not going to make you believe. Only time will tell, but we are ready for the challenge.

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What is Malt anyway?  Top of Page  
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Based upon several responses to the survey about malt beverages, we felt it was important to clarify the concept of malt.

We know that several Celiac publications, both online and in print, have communicated the malt is not safe for Celiacs. Technically, this is a misleading statement. We believe that the organizations making these claims know that a large majority of malt is made from barely and this is true. But malt by definition is not tied to barley. Malt is actually the result of a process that can be used on any grain/seed that can be germinated. Therefore, one can make malt from sorghum, buckwheat, rice, corn, millet, etc.

The purpose of malting grain is to modify the chemical properties within the grain to improve brewing/distilling processes. This is mainly the growth of enzymes that are used to convert starches to fermentable sugars which in turn are converted to alcohol by the brewer’s yeast. Therefore a malt beverage can be GF depending on the grain being used.

We hope this clears up some confusion. If you still have questions, please feel free to contact us and we will do our best to get you the appropriate answers.

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HouseKeeping  Top of Page  
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If you were forwarded this newsletter by a friend and would like to subscribe, you can do so at our web site www.bardsbeer.com/signup.asp .

If you would prefer to no longer receive this newsletter please email info@bardsbeer.com with 'unsubscribe' in the subject line.

Cheers,