Teaching our “About” page how to ride a bike

It’s time we grew up a little. We’ve been developing Monday Night Brewery for over two years now, and yet we were still content with the same About page from 2006. This simply cannot stand.

We’ve taken a stab at revising it. That’s not to say it won’t change again. Joel unfortunately has the admin password to our website, and so he might sneak in late at night and add some expletives. Silly Joel…

Interview with a brewer: Maui Brewing Co. in Hawaii

Next up in our interview with a brewer series (in which we interview professional brewers to find out what we’re doing wrong) is Garrett from Maui Brewing Co. in Hawaii. We got turned on to these guys after hearing a friend rave about their coconut porter. I also heard a great interview with them while trolling my archives of Basic Brewing Radio. Maui Brewing has an incredible local focus, which is part of the reason why us Georgians probably haven’t seen them on the shelves. Secretly I’m hoping they abandon their morals for long enough for them to get some distribution out here. But don’t tell Garrett.

1) In a nutshell, for our non-Hawaiian readers, who are you guys and what are you about?

We sum it up in our motto ?Handcrafted Ales & Lagers Brewed with Aloha.? We are committed to making a truly local, world-class product. Others beers that preach ?Hawaiian? are made in the mainland and shipped over here, we refer to them as ?fake-local.? For us it?s about being true to what you say you are. We see a great deal of local support for our products due to our story. Besides being ?truly local? we are also the best craft beer in Hawaii, with more than 26 medals in the last two years, we also have a strong commitment to our community. We take good care of our staff, and have recently been chosen as the Green Business of the year for Hawaii in recognition of the numerous measures we take to care for the environment.

2) If I understand correctly, you got into brewing via investment consulting. How did a corporate background prepare you for brewing, if at all?

It helps every day. From a sales and marketing standpoint, as well as understanding P&Ls, Balance Sheets, Cash Flow, etc. Knowing how to use financial tools helps you streamline and learn what makes business sense and what doesn?t. Ultimately beer is far more fun, and is about so much more than money. Spiritually it?s been very rewarding.

3) What’s your favorite thing about what you do?

To borrow from someone I respect, dare I say admire, the other Garrett from out East? Garrett Oliver, ?Wine is a handshake, beer is a hug.? I?m a pretty easygoing person and enjoy having a good time. As crazy busy as we are most of the time, it?s nice to see the reception of our beers being so positive. I like the fact that at the end of the day we have a fairly peaceful life, when were done for the day it?s easy to grab a sixpack (okay maybe a twelvepack) and head to the beach with my wife and dog. It?s a pretty sweet place to be brewing beer.

4) You obviously aren’t able to brew with 100% local ingredients, but you still value your community. What does ?brewing local? mean to you?

Our malt and hops of course have to be brought in, yet wherever possible we brew with local fruits and spices to make truly unique beers: mango, pineapple, guava, vanilla, mac nuts, Lilikoi, and various varieties of local honey to name a few. Beer is mostly water 99% or so, if the water isn?t from the local earth, it?s not local beer. It is more than ingredients; it?s who?s brewing the beer and how you respect the community. I?m not saying contract brewing and alternating proprietorships are ?bad? but I do believe the consumer should be given the information to make an informed choice, something their robbed of when the label requirements are as relaxed as they are. Currently only principal business address (city and state) is required, that leaves it open to a lot given that no requirement for where the beer is actually produced.

5) If you were to start a brewery from scratch, what would you do differently this time around (if anything)?

I did start the brewery and distribution from scratch, so if I was to do it again I?d have trusted my gut more on how the facility should be designed. I would?ve definitely gone bigger on the brewhouse. I guess hindsight is always 20/20. I?m happy with the decisions I?ve made; we grew 400% last year so really it isn?t that bad. Ultimately you need to make the decisions the best you can with your means at the time. We knew we?d grow fast, but no one could have predicted this rate. I just have some redesigns that will be implemented in the coming months to increase efficiency.

6) Cans vs. bottles. Cans seem to have the edge in terms of portability, recyclability, and protection of the beer. Are there any other drawbacks to cans other than the stigma of canned beer, and have you been happy with the move to cans?

I think the stigma is awesome; it sets us apart from the rest of the market and gives us an opportunity to twist people?s minds on so many levels. Selling beer, in any package, comes down to educating the consumer. Bottom line is cans are better than bottles for the beer and for the environment. If bottles were better, we?d be bottling. We care about the beer, a lot of effort goes into each batch and we want to be certain that it is always protected once it leaves our caring hands. The can eliminates light and oxygen damage and therefore the beer stays fresher longer. We joke, ?if can can if no can bottle?. Furthermore our cans are made in a local Ball facility on the island of Oahu, with our commitment to supporting local economy it?s a natural fit. ?Buy Local First? is what we ask of our consumers so it?s important we practice what we preach. Plus with cans being locally produced the carbon footprint is reduced dramatically.

7) What marketing tactic has been the most beneficial to you in getting the word out? If “word-of-mouth,” what’s the second most beneficial tactic?

Local or not, if the beer isn?t any good it?s a hard sell. Obviously local is important to us, I?m sure I?ve mentioned that a couple times, but quality and consistency are extremely important to the success of the company. Our beers are considered among the best quality beers in the world. Word of mouth is only as good as the words ? if people can speak positively about the products it helps, if not it?ll hurt. We are also quite vocal about the truth in origin of our products. I?m a believer in that people do business with people they like, so your conduct both on and off the clock is important. What you do for your community, the ethics and morals that drive your mission as well as how your staff feels about the company are of paramount importance. You are nothing without your team and it?s important to take good care of them as well, empower them with knowledge and respect.

Rainy brewing session with no beer doesn’t affect attendance

Fun was had by all. It wasn’t the greatest of nights, and people brought their own beer (we did have about 2 gallons of pumpkin ale on tap), but we brewed through it. I don’t have pictures yet, so please enjoy these pictures from last week and pretend that they were taken last night.

The biggest surprise of the night? For me, it was that people actually showed up. We still had about 30 in attendance. And we didn’t even have beer to serve. It’s encouraging that Monday nights, while about the beer, are also becoming fun nights of socialization and building relationships. The beer is merely a tool through which we are able to interact with one another.

In other news, the brewing of the Eye Patch Ale went well, despite Jeff not being able to make it till 9pm or so. We sparged inside the garage since it was still raining out, but it stopped in time for us to boil outside. We ended up a little high on our target gravity because we tried a 90 min boil instead of the usual 60 and forgot to factor in the extra boil off (which I’m sure Jeff would have noticed had he not been cooped up in his office). But we were lowering the target from the norm for the Eye Patch as an experiment, so no harm, no foul. Also, I’m addicted to Twitter. It’s official.

At the end of the night we cracked open a Rogue Double Dead Guy, an imperial version of Rogue’s wildly popular Dead Guy. In a word: overrated. It’s a completely fine beer, but nothing to write home about. Sweet in the nose, hoppy in the mouth. In fact, the coolest part of the beer is the bottle. Not to disparage the beer too much… but the bottle is THAT awesome.

Brewing tonight: I’ve got good news and bad news

First, the good news. Despite it being the Monday before Thanksgiving, we will be brewing tonight. Some people may argue that this isn’t “good news,” but “great news.” I don’t want to talk semantics. We’ll be brewing up another batch of our Eye Patch Ale.

Now the bad news. We may or may not have any beer to drink tonight. Yep, that news is pretty bad. We had a fermentation mishap with our Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale (the heater wasn’t turned on, so it fermented at too low a temperature) and we’re “between” beers as some of our other beer is carbonating.

What does this mean for you, the MNB beer lover? BYOB. We can’t be certain that we’ll have any of our beer, so if you want to drink you might want to pick up a 6-pack tonight. Hope to see some of you tonight, even if you’re giving us the evil eye. No Keystone Light allowed, Travis.

And yes, we should have a fire going.

Travis, listen up

Today’s Beer Haiku Daily has an important life lesson for Travis, who is dancing precariously close to another smackdown, like a little kid trying to prove he’s a man by touching a hot stove. He keeps leaving these little quip comments on our blog. In and out like a ninja, but not a cool ninja. More of a wimpy, annoying ninja that can’t brew beer without copying someone’s recipes (Lagunitas clone, anyone?). I reprint the haiku here without Captain Hops’ permission, in the hopes that he won’t sue us for everything we own:

Learning his lesson
He cut down on the smack talk
At the pub dart game

Travis, if you have trouble following any of this, feel free to send us an email. There’s still time to apologize to us. For those of you who have no idea what’s going on, it might be worth peeking into the archives. Or Travis’ archives.

Weekends are overrated

The title of this post is our tentative new tagline. Though we’re not going to refer to it as a tagline, we’re going to refer to it as a rallying cry, because it sounds cooler and less corporate. What does “Weekends are overrated” mean to us? Here are a few bullet points:

• Not about living for the weekend, but about enjoying every day as much as you can
• Quality, not quantity – if you’ve got work the next day, you shoudn’t be binging, but there’s no harm in enjoying a good brew
• Relationships – beers that go great with meals but are also complex enough to stand on their own if you’re grabbing a beer with a friend

We haven’t printed our rallying cry on anything yet, so it’s still subject to change, but we like it and it seems that most people we run it by also like it. Of course, there will be some of you that don’t like it. We’d love to hear your opinions, but you’ll have to be pretty persuasive. Joel is stubborn.

Monday Update: The Election, Our Lactic Stout, and Jeff’s Recipes

Yesterday was a big day with lots going on for MNB.  Highlights are as follows…

Election Update (just when you thought you’d gotten enough)

We at MNB care deeply about the community we (literally) serve (beer to) here in Westside Atlanta.  While you’ll notice we stayed far away from federal politics on this blog our local politics are a different issue.  I’m proud to inform our readers that I officially launched my political career last night.  That’s right, I was elected as an “at-large” board member of the Berkeley Park Neighborhood Association.  Yeah, it’s kind of a big deal and if my meteoric rise tracks anywhere close to that of Obama or Palin they just might need to watch out for me in 2012.

Lactic Stout

We brewed a milk stout last night and despite the frigid weather had nearly forty people come out.  Although Jonathan shared his thoughts on this beer in a previous post I think the real reason we were doing it is because Jeff is about to have a baby (well, not him literally but his wife).  I think he read somewhere that a milk stout can be substituted for baby formula so he wants to perfect this beer long before the baby arrives.  For those of you who think babies don’t enjoy a good beer I refer you to a previous post.

Jeff’s Recipes

Jeff has been hitting the books lately.  Although we give him a fair amount of crap about it he has managed to come up with a few decent recipes and some that were not quite as hot.  While I won’t go into the details here I uncovered some major deviations from MNB SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) last night and on top of that he was complaining about having to wash out a few kegs (he doesn’t do well with “manual labor”).  What Jonathan and I have finally realized is that we need to embrace Jeff in his full Harvard-book-loving-excel-crunching glory.  We love you Jeff.

120 Minute IPA

This is how we finished the evening.  

Yummy.