Welcome to the last Thirsty Thursday update of 2012! Wow. My finger’s going to have to get used to moving all the way over to the 3. 2013. No sir, I don’t like it.

Assuming a plow has come somewhere near your street (on a completely unrelated note thanks to my neighbor for helping get me unstuck this morning), don’t forget we have retail hours four out of the next five days!

• Thursday (that’s today!) 3-7
• Friday 3-8
• Saturday 10-8
• Monday (that’s New Year’s Eve!) 3-7

All hail Cowthulhu!

That’s right: come get a growler on the way to your New Year’s Eve parties! I’ll probably be playing Harvey Danger’s Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas, because I didn’t have to work on Christmas and there aren’t any New Year’s themed songs that I’m aware of. Now then, let us visit three spirits…

The Ghost of Christmas Past

2012 was the year we opened. When Community Beer Works became a reality, turning “that thing I spend a lot of time on” in my wife’s eyes into “that thing I spend a lot of time on, that also makes beer.” It’s hard to think back to a time before April 20, 23 months (fnord) after we first met in Ethan’s basement. What a ride! This is a job where I don’t mind leaving a comfy couch and a new episode of Parks & Recreation to go wash kegs until midnight. Think about that.

This year brought us Frank and The Whale, De Maas (formerly our newest beer) and The IPA. It saw Jams come and go. Frank was wet hopped, then super dry hopped. The Whale got tossed in a barrel, then infused with coffee. We made a barleywine with brettanomyces — brettanomyces! — that everyone inexplicably enjoyed. Don’t you know that brett is as divisive as religion and politics in the beer world? But you all came together like the Whos down in Whoville, and we held hands and sang a song and had some beer together.

Metaphorically.

The Ghost of Christmas Present

I’m sitting in front of a computer. This is a boring ghost and I would like my money back.

The Ghost of Christmas Future

Now this ghost, this ghost right here is the exciting one. When I get to thinking of all we accomplished this year when we were only up and running for two thirds of it, what we’re going to be able to do with all 12 months and a fully operational brewhouse gives me chills. We don’t even know all the cool stuff we have planned yet! It’s yet to be devised!

Mmm, taps.

There aren’t going to be two straight months of “yep, still building that cooler” updates in 2013. There will be no “sorry, we can only make enough to be at three bars.” None of that. This year was like an on-ramp, and we’re in the left-hand lane now.

What’s that? [citation needed]? Okay, let’s get down to it.

The first new beer of the year will be ready by mid-January. It’s going to be a winter saison, and will feature a special ingredient. Eh? You want to know what it is? Well then, Convenient Straw Man, don’t quote xkcd at me. You’ll find out soon enough.

The final thing for the final post of the final year that didn’t start with CBW in your life is, fittingly, about an upgrade to the brewery I’ve talked about in the past. This year died as it lived, blog-wise. You see, the one thing we have left to do, the one final bit of work that’s still on our to do list, is our tapbox.

If you’ve been at the brewery you’ve seen it, but it may not have caught your eye. Up until last week it was just a wooden box with some holes on it sitting behind the retail counter. It’s made by Rusted Grain, from floorboards reclaimed from houses in the city. Now that our glycol system is online it means we can finally mount it to the wall and start using it. We’ve got the hardware now, and it should be functional — and replacing our keg fridge/jockey box combo — by sometime next month.

See you next year, Buffalo.