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
It’s interesting that Joel, finally being able to pick his own picture, chose one that had a guy who clearly waxes his chest, and wears knee pads.
Kevin, I’m glad you brought that up. It is interesting, though not altogether unexpected. Joel is a closet “shirtless rollerblader.”
I’m going to “go there”: Although frequently referred to as the hop “vine”, it is technically a bine; unlike vines, which use tendrils, suckers, and other appendages for attaching themselves, bines have stout stems with stiff hairs to aid in climbing. -Wiki “Humulus” Entry