Any interest in a fantasy football league?
As stewards of the Monday Night name, I feel it our duty to organize the first ever Beer Blogger Fantasy Football League. If you’re interested in getting trounced by yours truly, let me know. When we have enough interest I’ll go ahead and start up a league for us.
The NFL, a long-time bastion of terrible beer, is about to feel the wrath of the beer snobs! We shall crush Miller Lite underfoot and pour out Bud Light on the heads of our enemies!
I taste the Fat Tire and I find it good.
I’ve been hearing these Colorado snobs rant about their New Belgium Brewery for far too long. They seem particularly adamant about a certain “Fat Tire” beer. A few friends (thanks Phil and Kristen!) vacationed to Colorado, toured the brewery, and brought a whole mess of beers back.
It was heaven. I won’t go into much detail on the beer, though it was an excellent balance of hoppy and buscuity ? very drinkable, which is not necessarily a good thing in my case. You can find legitimate reviews here at Brew Brain, here at SevenPack, or here at BeerAdvocate. And, yes, the pick is not of the Fat Tire label. I also had an Abbey Ale, and that picture turned out the best. That’s how I roll.
P.S. The Abbey Ale was delicious.
Saturday morning brew session!
Every once in awhile Joel will have a brilliant idea. This weekend, he totally challenged what Monday Night Brewery is all about: brewing beer on Monday nights. In true paradigm-shifting outside-of-the-box thinking, he proposed, “Why not Saturday mornings?”
Why not, indeed. Joel and I and a couple other folks (including The Goche, who was celebrating his 21st by brewing beer) met up at his place to brew a 10 gallon batch of the WeissGuy Hefeweizen. Andy zested some oranges and tangerines… Andy took a nap while we worked… It was fun. A worthwhile kickoff to the weekend.
Fortunately, the weekend is still going strong. Why? Because we’re brewing beer AGAIN tomorrow night! Joel picked up a bunch of ingredients for a new California Common ale we want to try. And yes, a new beer means a new name. More on that later.
The Goche tastes beer for the first time. The Goche does not like it.
But I can’t blame him… I didn’t like it at first either. I just pretended to like it so my friends wouldn’t call me weak. My roommate, affectionately called “The Goche,” celebrated his 21st birthday last night at midnight by cracking open a bottle of Lumberjack Stout.
That’s right. His first beer ever was a Monday Night original. Though, in hindsight, perhaps a stout was not the greatest choice. I think a Coors Light would have been more palatable.
Just look at that face… the slightly disgusted grimace of a soon-to-be beer lover.
Georgia hates microbreweries
Our neighborhood restaurant (and by that I don’t mean Applebee’s) is incredible. It’s called the Treehouse and it’s a converted house with a huge deck, great food, and g eat beer.
In a recent visit there I was quite disappointed to find that nearly all (3 out of the 4) beers they carried on tap were no longer available. At first I thought the waitress was just kidding but as I explored the topic further I became a bit upset. Turns out all three of these beers now have a new distributor in the Atlanta area. Turns out that distributor (who shall remain nameless) is the “King of Beers” and as part of their policy they simply won’t be selling to small establishments such as the Treehouse. Not cool in my opinion.
Georgia has this wonderfully insane system that essentially gives all power to the distributors and big brewers and screws both the consumer and the microbrewers (see article). In a country and a time where the small guy is able to compete like never before (ex. mom and pop can compete against Fortune 500s via tools like ebay) we have this strange segment of products (beer) that just haven’t gotten the benefit ? especially in Georgia.
Hopefully the landscape will start to change in the coming years. Stay tuned for things like Support Your Local Brewery, SaveBeer.org and other grassroots movements to force political change (as well as tastebud changes for all our friends who have NO idea what good beer tastes like). And remember at the end of the day to support your local establishments (if they are not Applebee’s).
“Please pardon our progress”
I hate that phrase. No one’s going to think more of you because you call it “progress” instead of “mess.” Nonetheless, we’re making progress. Specifically on an email newsletter (perhaps to be sent out today, so sign up soon!) and a complete site overhaul.
Joel gets weird about our website, so that one might take a little longer to get the “okay.” If you happen to load our site and get some weird looking alien MNB (example above), pay no heed. We’re just testing, and we’re too bootleg to test anywhere other than on our live website. We KEEPS IT REAL!
Last night
We brewed beer last night! It was awesome. Here’s the lowdown:
Southern Monk: We brewed the first batch (and hopefully not the last batch) of our peach Belgian beer, the Southern Monk. All went well, even after Joel peed in the wort.
Weissguy Hefeweizen: One week into fermentation, we transferred into kegs. We’re going to let this one sit for 3-4 weeks (compared to our usual 2 weeks) because the extra aging really seems to bring out the flavors of this beer. We also saved the yeast and hopefully we will be able to reuse it in our next batch.
“Nameless” Barleywine: Oh. My. Glory. After 2 weeks of fermenting, we transferred into kegs. This sucker is going to be AMAZING. Already flavorful and spicy, we’re targeting about 12% ABV. Suck on THAT!
Last but not least, our “Nameless” mint chocolate stout: Yes, we made ice cream stout floats. No, they were not terrible. In fact, they were amazing. I don’t care what you say, I stand behind my new favorite dessert.