Tonight we had our first meeting at CBW HQ, as CBW. I’ve gone on in the past about our operating agreement, but it’s done, and so we’re all officially owners. That’s awesome. As is meeting in a building that’s ours, all ours.

I walked into the office. Radiohead was playing loudly on the speakers (Radiohead always seems to be playing in the office. This is not a bad thing). A dog was sitting in a cage. I had never seen this dog before, it not being one of the two dogs previously brought to CBW meetings. No one else seemed to be in the building. I was confused.

So very pretty

Dave soon returned with his dinner, and then Ethan arrived, and then Rudy, and then Greg. We discussed business: what do we need to do to submit our TTB application? What do we want from the website redesign I’ve needed to do for months? (sidenote: if you want to chime in on that, please feel free! But if you want animated gifs and green-on-yellow comic sans text, I am way ahead of you). Ideas were presented, awesome ones, like [redacted] and [redacted]. We’ll get to those soon, and in one case that means ‘four paragraphs down.’

Our shiny new single tier burner system has been completed by Psychobrew. It’s just waiting to be delivered now, and will coincide with the arrival of our still-being-forged Stout Tanks and Kettles setup. It’s nifty. We got the pictures scattered throughout this post, and I was very, very happy.

Then, after the meeting was over and we were simply sitting around and talking (not that it was much different from the meeting proper), Ethan and I got on to the topic of QR codes. ‘It would be awesome,’ I said, ‘to stick them in various places with no label or context.’ ‘Do it!’ was Ethan’s response. So, we have a QR code now! It’s to the left. Although, all it does is point you to communitybeerworks.com, and you’re already here, so perhaps posting it here wasn’t the best move. Prepare for the ultimate in indie underground marketing coming to bathroom stalls near you.

(no, this isn’t really anything besides something silly that amused us briefly)

And finally, something silly to amuse us for more than a brief period of time: Words With Friends! It’s the Scrabble knockoff for the iPhone (and, I hear, soon to be Android), and is a great way to pass a trip in the bathroom, since you play it with an opponent whenever you have a spare moment. I’ve been playing with my wife, Rudy and other assorted beery people for a while now, and had an idea. So, allow me to present:

The first CBW Words With Friends Invitational

Still super pretty

The idea is that anyone who can play (sorry, Android, for now. Right?) signs up, and then we randomly generate brackets and hold a double elimination tournament. How do you get an invitation? Well, it’s pretty exclusive: you have to live in Buffalo, or like beer. Or know one of the CBW people, at least tangentially. Essentially, you have to read this paragraph. Sign up by commenting (not on the Facebook post: this one here).

Signups will close next Thursday, 1/13, at noon EST. Brackets will be announced on next week’s Thirsty Thursday post. The winner gets nothing but a smug sense of superiority. And maybe I’ll buy you a beer if we’re ever out together.

Okay? Sound like fun? Sign up! Even if you’re no Scrabble master (who among us is? I just play like a douche.), we’d love to have you. Just obey Wheaton’s Law, with looking up words, okay?

See you next week.