It’s been a crazy week, as you may have surmised from the lack of interesting posts. We’ve been in the process of changing hosts. It hasn’t been as smooth as we would have hoped (read: our website has been down more than we’d like), but we’re confident that the worst is behind us. And with that in mind, we’re looking forward. To the weekend. And more specifically, to the Great Decatur Beer Tasting Festival (hereafter called the Decatur Beer Fest).

Jeff and I will be making the trek out to the East side of Atlanta from our comfy cocoons on the West side to drink some beer in the heart of downtown Decatur. We hope to see some of ya’ll there. I’ll be wearing my classy MNB t-shirt. There will be 77 breweries represented. Some of the ones I’m looking most forward to are:

• Allagash
• Duck-Rabbit
• Highland
• Dogfish Head
• Avery
• Great Divide
• Left Hand
• North Coast
• Lagunitas
• Victory
• Stone
• Merchant du Vin
• Ommegang
• Unibroue
• Budweiser American Ale (haven’t tried it yet, eager to hate it)

Jeff, I’m sure, has his own list. And he’s probably more snobby about it. Look for an update early next week. My goal is to get Jeff plastered (not easy) and then get him to pose topless with the volunteers (probably easy). We’ll see how that goes.

Yes, this is the time of year when breweries start to tout their prestigious GABF medals. Well we’ve got a little bling of our own. Today we were named the clear victors in Adam’s “Best Homebrew Sites” contest. How did we win? You, the tireless masses, voted. And I voted twice. And I think my mom voted. And DJ wasn’t nominated.

Regardless, a win is a win. We ended up with over 3 times the votes of our closest competitor, Lazy Brewer. You know what that says to me? DOMINATION. Move over InBev, there’s a new smallish homebrew site in town.

You may have noticed that our website is all jacked up. We’re changing hosting providers and haven’t worked out the kinks. Who is to blame? Mostly Al Gore, but also Joel. Obviously.

Nevertheless, we are brewing a slightly scaled-back version of the Eye Patch Ale tonight. Come on over to Jeff’s around 8pm to partake.

Don’t worry, we’re not moving to somewhere lame like Delaware.  We’re just moving our site over to a new bigger, better, faster server this evening.  What this means to you:

• Quicker, more reliable load times when you click on all the amazing pictures of me
• No downtime (we were getting death threats from our fans last time the site went down)
• Better beer (site loads faster, we waste less time on it, we spend more time brewing beer…I think the logic works)

Also, don’t post any comments between now and tomorrow or else they’ll be lost in never never land as the database will be in transition from one server to the other.  BTW, we’re thinking about creating a never never land feature as a permanent one we could use selectively for certain commentors on the site (and Chris, maybe you can patent that for us).

The Great American Beer Festival is the mecca of beer festivals in America. 400 brewers, 1800 beers, 3 days (and plenty of water). And it’s going on right now. If there was one place that someone looking to start a brewery should go, this would be the place. But we’re not in Denver, we’re in Atlanta. Why?

Because we’re losers. I wanted to go, but couldn’t swing the vacation day(s) right now. Jeff and Joel are equally swamped. And while this may be the right place to go, I’m not sure if the timing is right. This time next year we will be much farther along in terms of planning – who knows, maybe we will have launched already! But no excuses, we’re losers.

In spite of this fact, we’ve been living vicariously through our beer blogging friends who are attending. You can follow along on Twitter, or just read a few of our favorite posts thus far:

Surviving the GABF: Great tips from DJ over at Fermentarium on how to get through the GABF alive. Free beer, after all, has the power to elevate AND the power to cripple.

Celebrating an Anniversary: Chipper Dave from Fermentedly Challenged (who I will undoubtedly crush in this week’s beer blogger fantasy football league matchup) recaps his day of volunteering at the GABF. 14 hours. Was it worth it?

First off, be sure to vote for us as the best homebrewing blog over at Beer Bits 2 (check the sidebar). We may not be the best straight homebrewing blog, but some poor soul nominated us, and we’re determined to win this popularity contest. I will NOT be the ugly guy that no one wants to take to prom.

And now a quick recap of the HOToberfest beer festival that Joel and I attended Saturday afternoon with Joel’s cousin Matt. This new (first year) beer festival was held in Glenwood Park. $35 got you a tasting glass and free range of the tents. There were plenty of great beers there – some of my favorites were from Unibroue, Allagash, Avery, Victory and Dogfish Head. Matt brought along his camera and apparently has some skills:

Joel and I also had a good semi-buzzed discussion about tap handles. I think Terrapin does a great job with this (see above). The keys in my mind are:

• Consistency
• Bold, easily readable letters of the beer style
• Something a little different

We’ll be thinking about MNB tap handles further. I want them to be made of diamonds and glitter, but Jeff said no. Be sure to vote for us!

Last night was busy. We had at least 30 folks come by. More folks than Joel knows, period. And we’re hoping that the Drafty Kilt will turn out splendidly. Sorry for the poor quality pics. I had to use the ones from my iPhone since I forget to take legitimate pictures last night. To make up for the quality I’ve decided to name the pictures really well.

I call this one “Contemplating Sparge at Twilight.”

And this, our greatest work, I call, “Caged the Scurrying Fury of Delicious.”

Notice Joel pretending to work in the foreground. He was actually posing for the shot. Thanks to all who came, we’ll see you again next week!