Monday Night Recap: “Not as funny since Jonathan is not writing it” edition

I’ll start with a disclaimer that this post will not be as funny as Jonathan’s recap, nor will you find any links to incredibly attractive pictures of me.  What you will find is a fact-based dissertation of yesterday evening’s events.  Finally.

1. Jeff was there the whole evening. For those of you who come on Mondays you’ll know that Jeff usually returns from his “day job” around 8pm, he strolls in, mumbles something about “attenuation, mash efficiency, blah blah blah” and then proceeds to mingle with people while Jonathan and I brew the beer.  Yesterday Jeff was actually the first one there and while our gravity did end up closer to where we needed it, he successfully violated every SOP (that’s Standard Operating Procedure for your artistic folks) we’ve ever had in place.  It was great to have you Jeff.

2. We fixed our chest freezer. OK, so since we didn’t find a chest freezer that fit our exact size requirement we had to go with the next best thing – which meant the new one was 6 inches too long.  But no worries, I had a plan all along and when recent MNB attendee Andrew showed up first he went to town on the knocking out modifications with me. Within about a half hour our new fermentation chamber was fully operational (although not quite symmetrical).  Basically we filled in the last 6 inches with some foam insulation and we’ll use the existing top for the time being.

3. We harvested our hops. I think we sat a new record for actual work being done by our Monday Night attendees (usually they just get in the way and drink our beer).  Rob, Justin, Andrew and David (albeit in a more “supervisory” role) did an amazing job pulling down vines and plucking the pure goodness from our organic hop vines.

Rob adds value by harvesting hops. Kurt adds value by talking and watching.

4. We did a marketing survey. Yeah, we figured the least we could ask in return for free beer would be some marketing insights.  So….we put our two versions of the Belgian Peach Dubbel on tap next to each other and asked for votes.  This pic is from an early tally but I think the final ended about about 3 to 1 preferred “B” which is less peachy.  We originally brewed something that was about 3x the “more” amount and it would have been called “too much” (although Jonathan and all the single ladies LOVED it…but I think Jonathan was lying to win the single ladies approval).

Who wrote "needs more body"? Our response: "So does your mom"

5.  We brewed beer. Shocking.  Who would have thunk we could do so much in an evening.  We brewed a batch of our drafty Kilt scotch ale – the last two that were in the fermenter had to be dumped because it died on us.  We used on our sweet new brewmagic and safely placed it into our new fermentation chamber.  It better be good.

Photo credits: Jeanine

Brewing is on, help us harvest our hops!

Now that we have a new freezer, we can safely brew again. Join Jeff and Joel tonight (I will unfortunately be out of town) to break in our new fermentation chamber.

We will also be harvesting some hops and could use some extra hands. If you don’t have any hands, please come on by anyway. You can tell jokes to the people harvesting hops.

Last, we have a little bit of beer, but not a ton, so if you have a 6-pack of Awesome lying around, feel free to bring it. See you guys tonight!

Let’s make a deal!

We would like to welcome the newest member of the Monday Night family into the world:

No, it’s not “Don the Amazing Sales Guy,” it’s the big white box. Our new chest freezer. This means that we will finally be able to brew beer again, because we will have something to keep the fermentation temperatures where they need to be.

Thank. You. Don.

We are speaking at the New Media Atlanta conference tomorrow

Even though we still haven’t found a suitable replacement for our chest freezer, and hence cannot brew any beer at the moment, time moves on.

Tomorrow I will be giving a short presentation at the New Media Atlanta conference, centered on the role of social media in business. I’ll be talking about beer, Mondays and… social media. If you heard our Ignite ATL presentation, it should be similar, but with a focus on how we’ve used social media to further our goals. It’s not too late to sign up.

If you haven’t heard the Ignite ATL presentation, we have it on good word that the official videos will be posted soon. We’ll be sure to post it once Colin gets his act together.

The Brewgrass Festival: Beer + Bluegrass = Awesome

On Friday evening I headed up to Asheville, NC with Jeff, Hannah and baby Teddy for the much anticipated Brewgrass Festival. Despite rain for much of the weekend, the clouds spared us on Saturday. Which is fortunate because Jeff wasn’t wearing his lucky watermelon rain boots.

We got to the Brewgrass Festival around 1pm and the bluegrass was already blaring.

Granted, not all of the “bluegrass” music sounded like bluegrass. There was a definite jam band feel at certain points in the afternoon. Which some people probably loved. We did not.

We had a lot of great beers, too many to mention. But Jeff and I both loved the casked porter from Green Man the most. Nuanced and complex, this porter was on the money.

We also met the fine folks behind Bruisin Ales, who graciously plastered our bodies with stickers. And we finally got to taste the beers from LoneRider, who we interviewed awhile back. I must say, they make some fine ales.

Since we won’t be making it out to GABF this year, it was good to get the festival out of our system. Highly recommended.

Well at least it’s not raining (brewing canceled)

As if the months of rain we have had in Atlanta weren’t enough, our fermentation chamber is still broken. We are going to be spending this evening scouring Craigslist and Sears stores to find a suitable replacement.

If you venture outside this evening, don’t turn into a prune!

Seriously, don’t. You might get eaten by an old man by accident.

Asheville’s Brewgrass Festival this weekend

Question: What is better than good beer and good bluegrass music?

Answer: Nothing.

Jeff and I are headed to Asheville this weekend to partake in the Brewgrass Festival. We invited Joel but he had a pilates class that he couldn’t get out of. This even sells out months in advance, so we’re excited. The South is well-represented in the list of breweries in attendance.

So here’s the deal. If you’re going to be there, let us know. And if you’re not going to be there and having a really crappy day tomorrow, cheer up and think about how much fun we’re having in your absence.