Danger: busy Saturday approaching
Tomorrow is arts-and-crafts day at Jeff’s house! Joel will be building out a fermentation chamber for our new conical fermenters. The chamber will involve an insulated box that ducts cold air from our freezer, similar to the one built here by the Duo Team.
And while Joel is doing his best to not kill himself, I will be transplanting the rest of our hops. No longer will they grow (or not grow) on the volleyball court in my backyard. Nope, it’s only the sunniest areas of Jeff’s yard from here on out!
Terrapin revs up
There was a great article in the Athens Banner-Herald this month on Terrapin Brewery. I’ll hit the highlights. First, Terrapin started by contract brewing:
Since 2002 when Terrapin introduced its first beer, Rye Pale Ale, the Athens-based company has been contracting with other breweries to make its beer, most recently getting its bottled beer done at the Frederick Brewing Co. (now Flying Dog) in Frederick, Md., and its draft brew with Zuma brewery in Atlanta. The Rye has become Terrapin’s flagship brew, said Cochran, who is a brewer himself, but spends most of his time on the management and sales end of the business.
Why contract brew first? Money.
We spent three to four years of trying to raise funds before we were actually able to release our first beer,” Cochran said. “What we finally realized was we were not going to get the capital we needed to open a facility right off the bat, so that’s why we started contract brewing.”
They finally gained enough noteriety to raise $800K to open their own brewery with used equipment in Athens. They just finished building it out and plan to start selling beer brewed in their new facilities in early March.
Once Terrapin gets cranked up for production of both draft and bottled beer, the brewery is expected to make 10,000 barrels of bottled and draft beer a year. That translates to about 20,000 15.5-gallon kegs that Terrapin will make at home, but the company also will continue having the brewery in Maryland make 3,000 to 4,000 barrels of its Rye Pale Ale in bottles.
Here’s to more beer brewed in Georgia!
A Goodbye Bash
On Friday we said goodbye to our dear friend and fellow brewer Troy Bash (Yes, that’s his last name…AMAZING). No, he didn’t die but after his 8 month stint in Atlanta (as some sort of “project manager”) he is now being shipped off to Detroit Michigan. Rumor has it he can actually see Canada looking out his office (trailer) window. Anyhow, I decided that to say goodbye I’d try to incorporate Beer in as many ways possible into the menu. It included:
- Spent Grain Beer Bread (made with our grains and MNB stout)
- Cheese Fondue (made with Swashchuckler IPA)
- Whole Chickens injected with Stout/Garlic/Butter Marinade and smoked on the Big Green Egg
- Jonathan’s famous mashed potatoes (haven’t figured out how to use beer in these)
- Organic Greens Salad with Garlic/IPA/Wasabi Dressing
- Beer Bread Pudding (slow cooked in the crock pot using our spent grain bread)
Troy on the far left
Troy and his lovely wife
Jonathan getting ready to kiss Jeff (is Jeff puckering up for it??).
Monday Night Brewery: the trademark application
In addition to bottling for the party last night, we were also able to fill out and submit a trademark application for the Monday Night Brewery name. We’re proud to say that we were able to claim not only beer but also malt liquor and non-alcoholic beer. Can anyone say Monday Night Brewery Banana Kiwi Kooler?
BYOB
Tonight. BYOB. We realize this is not ideal, given that we are a “brewery” of sorts. But we’re stocking up big-time for the party March 15 (Are you coming? Vote on the sidebar!). If you think about it, swing by and bring a 6 pack of your favorite microbrew (excluding Monday Night beers, which are technically “not sold in stores” or whatever).
Hope to see you tonight!
The Drafty will wait a bit longer
I know many of you have been excited about the possibility of drinking our Drafty Kilt at the upcoming party (March 15 ? see you there). Unfortunately, that excitement will have to tide you over for another month or 2.
We started bottling the Drafty Kilt Saturday, but found that it wasn’t quite up to our standards. It’s not terrible, but we know we can do better. This batch didn’t achieve the attenuation we had hoped (during the Great Attenuation Slump of Early 2008). It is with a heavy heart that we withdraw it from the party’s beer lineup.
On the plus side, we’ll be focusing on the Drafty Kilt in the months after the Brewhaha, so expect some good scotch ale progress and some good scotch ale drinking in the near future.
