WINDFALL!
No matter what your mommy taught you, it pays to win. I was recently the victor in a beer fantasy football league, where I edged out Chipper Dave in the finals. Dave is a most gracious loser, which makes me think he’s used to it. The stakes were high: a locally brewed 6-pack. Dave delivered with 6-er of New Belgium 1554, a delicious black ale. Besides Dave, there were also other losers involved. Six of them, to be exact, and they’re starting to make good on their commitments.
Last weekend I met up with Scott in the Brick Store parking lot, who delivered beer for himself and Virgil. And the only appropriate response to seeing these 2 6-packs is “Whoomp there it is.” First, from Virgil:
- Great Lakes Blackout Stout
- Goose Island Matilda
- Bell’s Expedition Stout
- Founder’s Imperial Stout
- Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout
- 3 Guys Off the Scale Barleywine
We can’t get any of these beers down here in Georgia. And no less impressive, from Scott:
- Dark Horse Brewing Company One Oatmeal Stout
- Founders Backwoods Bastard
- Dark Horse Brewing Company Crooked Tree IPA
- Founders Breakfast Stout
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA
- Dogfish Head Palo Santo Marron
The only beers out of these that we can get are the Dogfish Head. But I’m not going to complain about getting free Dogfish Head. The biggest question I now face is whether or not I should share all of these fine winnings with Jeff and Joel.
Brewing recap: My Little Pony edition
You know the worst part about brewing in sub-40 degree temperatures? Having to stick your hand in cold buckets of water/sanitizer/cleanser. Whenever possible I try to trick Joel into doing this for me. The conversation usually goes something like this:
Me: “Hey Joel, I accidentally dropped a new My Little Pony doll into that bucket of cleanser.”
Joel: “Really?” [Dunks entire arm into bucket] “I can’t find it.”
Me: “Oh, that sucks. Hey listen, while you’ve got your hand in that freezing bucket, would you mind trying to find those keg parts I left in there?”
BAM. Problem solved. Last night went well. We ended at a decent time (10:15), brewed our Belgian Dubbel without a hitch (.001 off on our target gravity), kegged about 25 gallons of beer (whoa) and mopped the garage (actually, not as fun as it sounds).
This picture, compliments of Jeanine, I include only because it makes Alex and me look like ghosts. Creepy brewing ghosts. Thanks to everyone who came last night. I’m continually amazed at how many people come even when the weather is atrocious. Then I remember. Free beer.
Dubbel, dubbel, broil and trubbel
Tonight we brew! We’re excited to be brewing a revised version of our Belgian Dubbel, which is getting closer to where we want it. That is to say, closer to “extremely delicious.” We should also have stout, scotch ale and IPA all on tap. At least until one or all of the kegs run out.
Come if you can. Jeff is about to have a baby (okay, Hannah is about to have a baby), so we’re going to have to shut down brewing temporariliy once little Teddy arrives. I know, shutting down Monday Night Brewery isn’t a great first act for Teddy’s life, but rest assured, he will be trained by a creepy Uncle Joel in the ways of beer brewing and, when the time comes, beer drinking.
Be sure to sign up for text message alerts about brewing every Monday.
Terrapin releases Dos Cocoas and announces next couple Side Projects
The latest limited release Terrapin Side Project is now out on shelves:
Terrapin’s third winter offering, available only in their 22 ounce “Side Project” bottles, carries the name “Dos Cocoas.” Chocolate lovers should hang on to something, as this black Porter blends both cocoa powder and cacao nibs (fresh beans from Ecuadorian cacao trees).
I for one am excited about trying it, as I love chocolate beers if done right. It’s like an alcoholic dessert. And their last Side Project, Gamma Ray, was quite impressive. Our friends at beernews.org also tipped us off to the announcement of the next two Side Projects. Both sound delicious and interesting.
Side Project #5: Terrapin Monk’s Revenge (Belgian Style Double IPA)
This new age beer style is a fusion of two great brewing traditions that are worlds apart – a hoppy American Double IPA and a classic Belgian Tripel.
Side Project #6: Terrapin 90 Shelling (Scotch Ale)
Traditionally, the Scotch call this beer 90 shilling. At Terrapin, we know it as ?90 Shelling.? Magnificently malty, this 90 Shelling Scotch Ale pays tribute to the full bodied ales of Scotland.
It’s great to see Southeast micros (and especially Georgia micros) exploring new beer territory. If anyone has a chance to try the Dos Cocoas before we do, please let us know what you thought!
More focused direction for MNB brand
I’ll be honest. This is a tough post for me to write. We’ve poured a lot of time and energy into the Monday Night Brewery brand over the past few years. And as “Marketing Guy and Outside-the-box Guru,” it’s been my baby. Or girlfriend, probably more accurately. But as we’ve come closer to a launch date, we’ve tried to be more objective about Monday Night Brewery and what we stand for. And as outlined in a previous post, we’ve narrowed it down to weeknights. We stand for celebrating the weeknight through good beer and good relationships, summed up in our rallying cry, “Weekends are overrated.”
This focus on the weeknight is something we need to communicate as clearly as we can to consumers. For most people (clearly not you, as you are reading our blog), all we’ll have is 3 seconds as they survey the package store shelves or the beer list at a bar. We aren’t going to have the marketing budget of Miller or AB to shove our brand down your throats. We need to stand definitively for one thing or else we’ll get lost in the shuffle. Turns out there is a lot of beer available.
And with that in mind, we have revisited the external elements of our brand, including logo, name, beer names and labels. The two constants will be our name, Monday Night Brewery, and our focus on weeknight consumption. We decided that our current logo doesn’t articulate this as clearly as it should. Particularly the font is hard to read at a glance and the monk doesn’t have any real connection to the weeknight.
I think we’ve found a logo direction that will allow us to hone our focus on weeknights while maintaining some of the other things we love about our brand, such as the beer names. That’s all I’ll say right now. Change is coming, not in who we are, but in how we communicate who are are to those that don’t know us. This will be a process, and we’d love to hear your thoughts on any and all of it. And in true MNB fashion, we will keep you updated.
This week’s brewing recap brought to you by Joel’s outsourced replacement
We’re going to try a little something new here at MNB. It’s called empowerment. Jeff, being the unwieldy CEO, isn’t too keen on the idea, but he doesn’t know how to delete blog posts. So here’s the drill. If you want to write something about MNB or your experience at MNB, shoot me an email. We’ll make it happen. This first installment in Monday Night Perspectives is brought to you by Colin Ake, the lovable but ultimately dimwitted regular. Colin decided to take on the persona of Joel’s new outsourced replacement, Mohindar.
This brewing recap, much like Joel’s former role with Monday Night Brewery’s operations side, has been outsourced. My name is Mohindar, and I spent all night cleaning stuff and doing Jeff’s beckoning. Brewing was wet. We tried our newest recipe – Acid Rain IPA (if any of you marketing types have a clever name for this, that’d be ideal). It should be a little more… acidic than our previous IPAs, with a touch of that one leaf that fell into the boiling wort.
Joel showed up tonight, but he mostly stood around looking useless, checking his iPhone. He mumbled something about “not being sick anymore” since he saw that poll on the website, but since I’m getting a paycheck, it’s TOO LATE, sucker. Little does Jonathan know, but Jeff is having me slowly overtake his duties as well. I’m currently reading two books: Being an Intemperate Asshole for Dummies, and How to Win Friends and Influence People. It is Jonathan’s unique combination of the two techniques that has brought some of the “feel” to Monday Night Brewery’s branding, but Jeff told me he thinks it will be REALLY easy to duplicate.
Most of our so-called “fans” stood in the garage and drank beer. Pansies. The real hardcore, come-almost-every-week guys, Colin and Nathan, stood outside in the rain and watched. Colin even washed something, being the swell guy that he is. Scott washed at least two things, which is obviously him just trying to win my job.
As a budding outsourced brewer that does simple tasks like Joel and Jonathan, I am humbled to be a part of Monday Night Brewery, no matter how little money I make. I hope one day to be trusted with the responsibility of manning the Monday Night Brewery call center. Soon, all you’ll have to deal with is the polite and kind Jeff, and won’t have to deal with the bumbling Jonathan. You already don’t have to deal with Joel.
Also, Jeff offered a $500 reward to whoever gets him to start using Twitter. If you read this and get Jeff on Twitter, I was a part of that and expect at LEAST half. Joel is finally on Twitter. We’ll see if he uses it.
I look forward to serving you some of our Acid Rain IPA sometime soon. Many blessings to you.
Mohindar
Despite tragic garage door accident, brewing is on tonight
Shattered glass. Precarious halfway-closed garage door. The ridicule of his peers. These are the things Jeff had to deal with after breaking his garage door beyond his technical abilities while trying to fix his garage door. Ironic? Yes. But still a little sad, in a pitiful sort of way.
Nonetheless, Jeff kept a clear head, knowing that we couldn’t brew tonight unless the garage door was, in fact, not deadly. He called in an expert in garage doors. And this garage door savant should have the door working by brewing this evening. Crisis averted.
Just a warning though: forecast for tonight is 90% chance of wetness. And wetness is the essence of moisture. We’ll be brewing regardless, but we can’t guarantee your own dryness if you come. What are we brewing? IPA, with a slightly lower IBU count and a slightly higher ratio of Crystal malt. What’s on tap? I have no idea.