The pyramid

Well, that was a fun weekend.

You may have seen the picture at right on Facebook, because Ethan thought it was pretty damn cool. It’s a shot of all the kegs we went through this weekend between Bidwell and the Elmwood Village Festival of the Arts.

ewige blumenkeg

To recap: we made the Elmwood Festiv-ale, a saison, specifically for the festival. We sold the entirety of it to them: every keg we made. You people drank it in a day. So then we rounded up some kegs of Rutherford and sent them down, and those were drained quickly too.

Don’t you know we’re a nanobrewery? We can’t make that much beer! Which is a funny, roundabout way of saying: hot damn, thank you!

(This is also a great illustration of why we can’t sell beer at every event or every bar you’d like: we would like to, definitely, but presently we simply don’t have the capacity to be able to support it. You might think this means we need to expand capacity, and, hm, meaningful silence.)

But oh, we’re still around

We can’t be everywhere; that doesn’t mean we can’t be anywhere.

For instance: this Saturday? The Beer & Bacon Fest? Yes sirree. If you like beer and like bacon and strongly dislike breast cancer, perhaps this is relevant to your interests.

Immediately afterward: this Sunday, Mister Goodbar is doing its wing thing, with a variety of flavors and CBW on tap.

Er, well, apologies to the non-meat eaters out there. That’s a pretty barren weekend for you. To make it up to you, here’s a recipe for lentil tacos that I adapted from Allrecipies that’s easy, awesome and filling:

• 1 c finely chopped onion
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp canola oil
• 1 c dried lentils, rinsed
• 1 T chili powder (chipotle gives it a nice smokiness)
• 2 t cumin
• 1 t oregano
• 2.5 c vegetable broth
• 1 c salsa

Saute the onion and garlic. Add lentils and spices, stir for a minute. Add the veggie broth, bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes. Uncover, cook for 6-8 minutes more. Mash lentils with a fork for a bit. Add salsa, stir. Put in taco shells.

Top with whatever strikes your fancy: I’ve used slaws, escabeche vegetables, cheese and/or sour cream if vegan isn’t your thing, etc. It’s versatile and a great lunch.

Then: pick some hops!

All of that was this weekend (except for the tacos. Those were whenever you want). What about next weekend?

Hop pickin’ party, mother effers!

I’ve been talking this up for a month now. You get the drift: show up, hang out with other beer lovers, literally get your hands dirty as you play a part in the early stages of a beer’s life. “Literally use your hands,” not “literally dirty,” of course: you wear gloves! That’s more for your benefit than the hops’, though, as the oils will eventually irritate your skin if you touch them directly, rubbing the lupulin into your pores like it’s moisturizer.

Speaking, um, hypothetically of course. If I have been asked not to attend this year it was for, ahem, other reasons and we’re getting off topic.

Road trip!

Well, we aren’t going anywhere. Come on, I went to Cooperstown one weekend and St Martin the next. I need some time to rest.

The same can’t be said for the good folks at Harpoon, however: they’ve set off on a road trip that includes Buffalo as a stop.

Why is this relevant to CBW? Well, we happen to know one of their stops, because it’s us. Next Thursday they’ll be coming by at the start of retail to take a tour of our brewery.

Now then: I don’t actually know many specifics of the trip. We’re playing it by ear, you know? Casual-like. There may not be a huge to-do, but at the very least if you stop down you can pick up a growler of The IPA. It goes well with lentil tacos.