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Thursday, June 7, 2012

Back From Reality

Time files.
 
Cliché?  Yes.

But how true it is.

After an event-filled ten days back in the States and the Brewery, I find myself being Mr. World traveler again. 

Backing up, I flew back to America on a Wednesday.  After getting back to Greenfield at about 3:30 pm and mowing the 18” tall grass in my back yard, there was no time to relax.  My boss sent me an email saying that he’d be at my doorstep at 5:00 am on Thursday for a business trip to Minnesota.  I tried to assure him that my presence was not necessary, and he assured me that it was.

He won.  (He signs the checks!)

So, our quick seven-hour drive Northward,  three hour meeting, and seven hour drive back yielded some very encouraging results, which I’ll write about at some future time.  Among the positives was the opportunity to chat with my boss on less of a business level and more as peers.  I am lucky in that we’re all striving for the same goals.  Too many people tolerate an adversarial relationship with their employers, and that’s unfortunate.  We’ve found a nice balance of mutual respect and everything seems to move smoothly as a result.

Finally, it was time to get back into the brewhouse and start brewing up some ales.  Not only did I get the fermenters all full, but we also pulled off a very successful Brewmaster’s Reserve “Tour of Europe” Dinner.  Chef Ron never fails to amaze me when he’s allowed to play fast and loose with a menu.  When I’m at a point where I can connect to the Internet for a good length of time, I’ll post some photos and descriptions of the event.

I flew back to Frankfurt last Friday, arrived at 8:30 Saturday morning and stayed at the airport.  I then flew back out at about 2:30 pm to Rome with a layover in Amsterdam.  My wife and son took a different flight to Rome and our flights landed within 30 minutes of each other.  We took a shuttle to a bed and breakfast and spent an “interesting” evening on the Italian hillside overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.  An early morning taxi ride took us to the Port of Civitivecchia, just outside of Rome.  From there we boarded the RCL ship, “Navigator of the Seas” for a seven-day Mediterranean cruise.

Our first port of call on Monday was Messina, Sicily, where we booked a shore excursion to the active volcano, Mt. Etna and the ancient city of Taormina.  Sicily has an interesting history which dates back to the pre-Roman times.  Throughout its history, the island has been occupied by the Romans, Byzantines, African Muslims, Normans, and Germans until its final liberation by the Americans.  You can see many influences of these occupations in the architecture.
As I write this on Tuesday, we are spending a day at sea before reaching Athens, Greece.   While I strive to make this a beer-centric blog, it would seem that more than half of my time in Europe is spent in wine country.  I will report, however, that there is Stella Artois on draft on the ship which is tasty.  I will also sheepishly note that I’ve had a couple of “oilcans” of Foster’s Lager from Australia.  An Aussie once said to me, “You know that Foster’s is Australia’s biggest export beer. 

There’s a reason for that…”

More to come.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Loosening the Reins

Many of you have met my assistant, Natalie, who has done an admirable job being my eyes, ears and hands in the Brewery while I’m away.

I must admit, I’m a bit of a control freak in the Brewhouse.  When I arrived at the St. Francis Brewery in June of 2009, I inherited an assistant who helped me learn the procedures that were in place at the time, and how the equipment worked.  From there, I modified those procedures and made the brewing operations my own.  As time went on, the necessity of an assistant diminished, and I had to let him go.  Fortunately, he moved on to bigger and better things and has become a fine brewer in his own right.

When the opportunity for me to study brewing in Europe presented itself, I knew that having an assistant would become a necessity once again.  Only so much can be done remotely, and I needed a physical presence in the brewhouse.

Enter Natalie.
 
Nat has an engineering background.  Like me, she decided that she wasn’t happy with her initial career path.  Unlike me, she came to this realization at a much earlier age than I, and that is to her great benefit.  I can honestly say that she has transitioned well into our little family, and I’m proud of the work she has done.  It is now with great confidence that I can leave the brewery for weeks at a time knowing that the sky will not fall in my absence.

I decided it was time to give her a gift.

A few months ago, she gave me a bottle of a beer she had homebrewed—an English Best Bitter.  It impressed me, as I’m a bit of a sucker for English Ales.  There was some room in the Seasonal schedule so I offered Nat the opportunity to take the lead on this one.  We ramped up her recipe to a full-scale commercial batch.  The June seasonal is all Natalie—she devised it, brewed it, fermented it and will be serving it tomorrow for our Mug Club.

So, if you’re a Mug Club member, stop in to the tapping at 7 pm Wednesday.  Everyone else can try theirs on Thursday.  Let us know what you think.