Mo Mo Mosley (or, Dylan's almost forgotten post)

So today the 30th of June, I said, “Dylan I need another blog post” and he said, “But you never posted the last one.” To which, I quickly recalled he was right. So here it is with the date listed correctly.

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Every week is full of change around here and I'm glad of it- it means were almost there.  But this weekend was a little different.  This weekend was the Heritage Fest in Forest Park where we got to pour our beers alongside all the Homebrewers in the Homebrew Tent.  All I can say is that it was really cool.  Firstly I guess I should mention that the beers that Mike poured went over really well.  We had a Rye Pale, a British Special Bitter, and an American Brown - all around 4.5% abv and around 100% neato.  I provided historical and stylistic drinking commentary and managed to work in some of my stand-up comedy as well.  I hope everyone understood the difference between the two.  Perhaps the two were conflated and I just provided hysterical commentary.  

Anywhoo.  Secondly, the Homebrewers really brought their A-game.  Maybe I'm romanticizing, but homebrew makes me weak in the knees.  Sometimes due to over-indulgence, but mostly because I'm a gardener, a sometimes carpenter, an eternally in-debt art student, and a fan of Henry Thoreau.  Ok, I'll admit not all homebrew is destined for greatness, but warts and all, homebrewing is a story and usually that story is honest if nothing else.  Its a hobby I have a lot of empathy for and if you are ever interested, just ask me at the brewery and I'll be glad to help in any way I can.   Homebrewing is easy and pretty cheap.  That is until you make it complicated and expensive, which is what every hobby does to you eventually.  At least with Hombrewing you get beer out of the deal.  

So whats been going down at The Civil Life?  Well, we got our Boiler installed and insulated, our Glycol is run, the concrete floor is sealed, and Carl has found that painting for free doesn't pay the phone bill.  And yet HE KEEPS ON PAINTING!  We've gotten a few orders of neato stuff in- draft box taps, glycol for the tap lines, keg cleaning supplies, rakes for the mash tun.... Christmas in June.  Oh, and before I forget, Jake's extended family showed up this weekend and pitched in some hands so at least 2 jobs I thought I'd be doing this week are done- hanging the auger motor and skim coating our trench drain.  So, hey THANKS!  All of the Volunteers deserve far more THANKS than I can give, but please believe me that your efforts are really appreciated.  Oh, and Thanks to my Mom for bringing me a sandwich on Friday.  

And as long as I'm Thanking people- Thanks Jake, the whole thing is looking good.  

AND- I probably need a little more beer related stuff in here.... back to the beers we poured at Heritage Fest I'd like to point out that in the English Scheme of Pale ale there are sub-styes = Ordinary Bitter, Special Bitter, and Extra Special Bitter.  These sub-styles reflect a graduated change of gravity (how big the beer is), alcohol, color, and hoppiness.   You probably won't see a lot of imported Ordinary Bitter as its alcohol (3.2 -3.8%) is low and doesn't travel well on boats.   Regular, Best, Premium, or Special Bitter  roams to about 4.5% and ESB gets to the low 6's. Session beer as defined by the website BeerAdvocate is beer with no more than 5% alcohol so each of these could be considered a session beer (albeit a lower abv esb...).  Ta Da.