Meet Emilio, the Cascade hops vine

In honor of the legendary movie, The Might Ducks, I’ve named my second hops sprout Emilio. Like the Mighty Ducks ? and Monday Night Brewery ? Emilio is a fighter. Sure, he might not have the latest hockey equipment. But I’m sure someone will pitch to buy new sticks and uniforms for everyone right before the big game.

quack… Quack… QUACK… QUACK!!!

Drafty Kilt – A Beautiful Thing

This past weekend was the first sampling of the Drafty Kilt, our Scotch Ale which spent 4 weeks fermenting before spending another 2 weeks in the bottle. Since all 4 weeks were spent fermenting in a plastic container, there was a general expectation that this would be yet another case of over-bubbly alcohol water. But grace abounds. The Drafty Kilt is truly a work of art – a strong malty flavor with substantial caramel and a hint of smokiness. Original gravity was about 1.085. I think it may be my favorite beer yet.
I’m confident that it will continue to mellow out as it ages, but it’s a fantastic beer as is, if you ask me. This evening we’ll be running through all the latest beers again as a group and putting together game plans for each beer’s next batch. Stay tuned…

How to waste a Cow Tipper Cream Ale in 2 steps

1. Put a Cow Tipper Cream Ale in the freezer to cool it quickly.

2. Forget about said Cow Tipper. Go to bed.

That’s it! In the morning you will have wasted a cream ale. There will be a strange fizzing sound coming from the freezer. Once you open the door you will know why. It was because you were a dumbass.

So. That’s it. Questions?

William the hop vine claims life

I’ve decided to name each one of my hop vines as they sprout. Meet William the Willemette vine. He’s all green and awesome. I hate to break it to all the ladies out there, but I could definitely see myself marrying one of these vines. I’ve never been more proud of anything in my life.

*sniff* Thanks William… You… You complete me… *sniff*

Beer = Energy

A recent AP article highlights collaboration between a Foster’s brewery in Australia and a bunch of scientists. They figured out a way to convert brewery waste water (generally higher in sugars) into clean water and energy. I’m thinking Joel (Mr. Operations) needs to figure out a way to do this for us. With our monster volume we could probably power a remote-controlled car or something.

IT’S ALIIIIIVE!!

There has been a conspicuous lack of sexiness in our blog lately. The reason: I’ve been away on a company retreat, complete with a high ropes course (which I CRUSHED). Unfortunately, During the 2 nights and 3 days that I was away, I was panicking about my most recent endeavor, growing hops.Fortunately, I had no reason to panic. Saturday I planted 4 Cascade vines, 2 Willemette vines and 2 Chinook vines.

From the picture you can see that I decided to put the pots on our sand volleyball court. I’m going to teach the Cascades to bump, set & spike later, just as soon as I can afford tiny knee pads. I’ve been watering them religiously, and was worried that 3 water-free days (with no rain) would end my hop farmer aspirations.

But upon my return… lo and behold… A lone Willemette sprout was peaking its way through the soil, just smiling at me as if to say “I could kick some serious Cascade ass on the volleyball court.”

Look for updates on my baby hops. We’re going to start experimenting a bit more with natural ingredients and hopefully organic beers in coming months.

So Many Beers…

Last night was a busy one for MNB. We sampled 5 new batches, including 4 completely new beers. Plus we brewed up a 10-gallon batch of Weissguy and had our first MNB beer on tap. The quick rundown:

Cowtipper Cream Ale: Turned out well – I’d say 3.5 out of 5 stars. I wouldn’t naturally gravitate towards a cream ale, but ours was crystal clear and had a very smooth mouthfeel. It actually did have a kind of creamy finish to it.

Bog Monster Cranberry Ale: Probably a 2.5 out of 5. Nice fruit flavor, but too tart for my liking. I can’t tell if using real fruit would tone down the tart flavor or not. The fruit flavor was just about right, so I would hate to back off the extract too much.

Base Jumper IPA: Another 2.5 out of 5. Definitely bitter, but without the complexity that a double IPA should have. Despite a solid 8.5%, it just didn’t have the intensity I was looking for. I’m dying to get this one right, so I’ll keep fiddling.

Casserole Ale: 3 out of 5. This was a total mish-mash, and also our first beer served on draft. It had a nice bitterness, but not a lot of body. Still, a good beer to sip on a Mon ay night.

Swashchuckler IPA: I figured this batch was bad (brewed about 6 weeks ago), and suspicions were confirmed last night. Overcarbonated at 2 weeks, and well on its way to being a gusher. Yuck.

In other news, Peter picked up a couple more glass carboys a couple weeks ago, so we are completely done with any fermentation in a plastic bucket. So far, this seems to have helped us avoid the contamination issues that have been plaguing us for the past month.