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.

Jeff and I were discussing a little dilemma we’ve been having lately. Joel has been getting sick far too frequently. And his sniffles always coincide with Mondays, which leaves Jeff and I running around like madmen trying to get the brewing accomplished.

It’s not like Joel isn’t doing anything. He’ll send an email every now and then. Something like, “Guys, I hate to do this, but I’m still trying to get over this polio. I might not make it to brewing tonight.” And he’ll order supplies for us online, as long as we tell him exactly where on the screen to click. And Joel has actually been doing a great job not infecting us (or the beer) with his strange, sickly cooties.

But the bottom line is that we’re in a down economy. And would love to cut costs. There isn’t anything Joel is doing for us now that can’t be done remotely. We could easily hire cheaper overseas labor to not infect us. And to send us cryptic last minute cancellation emails. So we put the vote to you.

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Just kidding Joel, we love you. But don’t push your luck this Monday.

Yes, yes, we know. You’ve been sitting at your computer for 48 hours now, wondering how brewing went Monday. “Were they close to their final gravity?” Yes. 1.068 on a targeted 1.069. “Did anything get blown up?” Yes. The last shred of our respect for Joel, who didn’t show up due to a little itty bitty flu bug. That should answer your major questions, so go ahead and get some food and take a shower.

We had some new people this week, so Jeff felt obligated to give the tour. If this whole brewery thing doesn’t pan out, I’m fairly confident he could find a job in the tour-giving field. He can even walk backwards while talking. AND drinking.

We’re excited about this beer, a red ale fashioned after the Highland Gaelic Ale. In a few weeks we’ll have a better idea of how it will be, but first indications are good.

Since this recap is a day late (and maybe even a dollar short), we feel compelled to wish you a safe and happy New Year! Whatever you do, make sure that good beer is in some way involved. And get better Joel. There, we said it.

Yes, after taking no days off for the holidays, we’re back at it. This week we’re going to play around a little bit with a new beer – something similar to the Highland Gaelic Ale. This beer is one of Jeff’s all-time favorites. In fact, if you’re ever looking for a boring, one-sided conversation with Jeff, in which you have to do literally no work, just bring up the Gaelic Ale.

Joel “I’m sick all the time but only on Mondays” Iverson will probably not be joining us tonight. Keeping your sniffles under control and whining about not having enough quilts is a full-time job.

We have IPA and milk stout on tap – and feel free to come a little earlier than usual, as we will probably wrap up a little earlier as well. Let’s say 7pm? Sound good?

Ok, BREAK!

Last night was definitely the coldest weather we’ve brewed in. Cleaning was particularly problematic, as our implements started to freeze as we were scrubbing them. (That’s what she said.) I don’t remember what I actually said last night, but I do remember my internal monologue: “Dear God Dear God Dear God.” And I also remember resorting to wearing Hannah’s small girly mittens.

Surprisingly we had around 20 people last night, hanging out in below freezing weather. Which means one of two things:

1. We’re doing something right
2. We have really stupid supporters

The brewing itself went well. The only hiccup was the cooling process, which took awhile since we weren’t able to use the immersion chiller due to frozen hoses. I would like to show off Joel’s new sparging system. It didn’t fit so nicely over our mashing setup, so Joel went MacGyver on us and bought a bunch of elbow joints. We still have a little bit of work to do on the top to prevent the hose from kinking. For now we threaded it through the hole in an adjustable wrench, which was clamped on to the sparge arm. I doubt even the great MacGyver could have come up with THAT solution.

Look out for the bourbon oak stout in 4-5 weeks. We’re excited about this one.

Wow. So it was cold outside this morning. My tongue almost froze to my steering wheel. Nonetheless, we will be brewing tonight. Joel is out of town on a mysterious last-minute “business trip,” which means we expect things to run very smoothly this evening. Tonight we’re brewing another batch of our bourbon oak stout. The last one disappeared pretty quickly. A good sign. And we will have scotch ale, IPA and milk stout on tap for your winter warming pleasure.

And for those of you who need that little extra encouragement to come because of the cold, I’m going to stop by on the way over to pick up a starter log so that we can ensure the fire (AKA party) is going for as long as possible.

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Mmmm. There isn’t much better than warm bread, especially when someone else makes it. Matt and Kate took some of our spent grain home awhile ago and last night they offered up the fruits (or carbohydrates) of their labor: some delicious spent grain beer bread, made with grains from either our scotch ale or our stout (I forget).

There is also actual beer in the bread, though Monday Night beer didn’t make it into this batch, as we haven’t been bottling much recently. I’ve been instructed by Joel that I am not to share the recipe yet. He is “still tweaking it.” Yes, Joel is our resident baker. Even though Baker is MY last name. It’s ironic.