“Well,” Rudy emailed Monday night. “That was awesome.”

That seems to be about as good a summary of our Blue Monk event as I could hope to come up with. Dave, Ethan, Greg, Rudy and I manned a table at the bar for about two hours: longer than we had planned, because you folks just kept coming. The place was always full, but never overcrowded.

We had brought two beers: an American Pale Ale and a Saison, prototypes of the ones we plan to sell once the licensing and so on works itself out. They seemed to be universally enjoyed, and while you could say that it was because we were giving people free beer, I’d like to assert that it was primarily because Rudy makes some damn fine beer.

This may have been the first time you’ve had a CBW test beer, or perhaps you’ve had a taste some time before. Or maybe you haven’t been so lucky as of yet. If and when you do, though, I’d like to point you to the Rate Our Beer section of our website: you see, we’d like your feedback, good or bad. Whether you’re a certified Cicerone or someone who just had their first beer yesterday, your opinion counts. We want to make the best beer that we can, and you can help us. Be honest.

If you missed the event, or have had your whistle wet and are salivating for more chances to see our smiling faces, fret not! As the calendar on the front of our fancy new site proclaims, we’ll be at the Bidwell farmer’s market on May 28. We’ll be brewing again, our Citra Pale Ale, in case you enjoyed the beer on Monday and wanted to see where it came from. (Here I am reminded of Patton Oswalt’s “At midnight I will kill George Lucas with a shovel” routine, where he yells, “I don’t care where the things I love come from! I just want to love the things I love!”)

On Monday we also unveiled our new shirt design, based on our Embeer Buffalo slogan. They were literally hot off the presses when we got there, and people seemed to like them quite a lot. I know I think it’s a badass piece of clothing if I’ve ever seen one. Fortuitously, nobody seemed to notice they were, well, orange. On the night of a home game. We put those wheels in motion long before the playoff match ups were decided, we swear!

The shirts were designed by Dan Wangelin of Renoun Creative, and printed by our neighbor Barbara Rowe at Abaca Press. If you’d like one of your very own, you can order one online. Our storefront currently only displays our original shirt design (with precious few left), but that will be updated tomorrow to include the new hotness.

Think we’re resting on our laurels? We don’t know the meaning of the word! (No, seriously, he hung out with Hardy, right?) In fact, tomorrow? Bonus update.