Thanks for catching up with us. We have a lot of action at the brewery this week, and we are thrilled to be closing in on setting all our tanks. Take a look at whats been happening- a good variety of updates here to read about.
Peace, Love and Beer..................................... TM
Rolling in the tanks: It took some fancy fork lift work, but our fermentors, and hot and cold liqour tanks are now set in place. Seeing these massive stainless steel tanks through the extra large windows has everyone on the street excited. Pretty cool stuff.
Hot Liqour Tank Moves In
Here is a shot of one of our many varieties of hops... and ya, they are growing right here in Eastern North Carolina. The cones are really amazing, and have far exceeded our expectations. What a beautiful sight.
The Sight of Sweet Hops, Eastern North Carolina
Our Dark Cloud Munich Dunkel label has been approved. This label is just one example of our four approved labels. Each label brings out a unique aspect of life in Eastern North Carolina. Dark Cloud takes you right out to the country.
Mother Earth was one of the many craft breweries to attend the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference in Boston. We had a great time and got to meet so many great people in the craft beer industry. We had an unbelievable time with Rob and Alan from Premier Stainless (pictured above) and the knowledge we took back to Mother Earth is irreplaceable. We are getting our brewing equipment from Premier and it was really enjoyable spending quality time with Rob and Alan. We are looking forward to having them in Kinston in about 4 weeks to do our install!!!!
The Craft Brewers Conference is a really fun and educational experience. There is a big trade show that allows you to meet vendors from all over the world, plus a ton of seminars taught by colleagues in the brewing industry. The CBC gives new breweries excellent perspectives of the exciting times that are yet to come.
Back in March Josh and I went to Delaware and spent a couple of days with our friend Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head. It was really great to see Sam again in Boston. Sam has been so helpful to us and I can't thank him enough for all the advice and support he has given us, not to mention this delicious Burton Baton I am sipping on while I type this blog! Thanks Sam!!!!!!!
On Thursday night of the CBC we went to Harpoon Brewery where they had 60 beers from different Northeast breweries on cask. For those of you who don't know, cask beers are often referred to as "real ale". Cask Beer is brewed from only traditional ingredients and matures naturally. This unfiltered, unpasteurized beer still contains live yeast, which continues conditioning the beer in the cask which is known as secondary fermentation. This process creates a gentle, natural CO2 carbonation and allows malt and hop flavors to develop, resulting in a richer tasting beer with more character than standard keg beers. Cask beers are served room temperature without any extraneous gas, usually by manually pulling it up from the cellar with a hand pump or beer engine. Ahh...Cask beers are so yummy!!!!!! Mother Earth is looking forward to serving some of our beers on cask in the Tap Room so get ready for a mouth full of flavor.
Anyway, it was a great time at Harpoon and we were able to spend some time with Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing and this year's CBC keynote speaker. I have a lot of admiration and respect for Greg. I think he has done a lot for the craft brewing community and he is so eager to see the craft beer industry succeed. If you have not seen the video Greg made to kick off his CBC keynote speech I highly suggest you watch it. It shows the respect and camaraderie that all the people in the craft brewing industry share. http://www.vimeo.com/4298464.
Greg was really excited about our project and even sported a Mother Earth sticker during cask night at Harpoon!! Thanks Greg for everything you have done for Mother Earth and the craft brewing industry.
It is always great to see familiar faces when you are traveling but also great to meet some new faces along the way. The CBC gave me the opportunity to see some old friends but also make some new friends. Cask night at Harpoon seemed to be the night that everyone was talking and getting to know each other. I don't know why??? It could have been the 60 cask beers?? Anyway, I was able to meet a North Carolina Colleague who I had a great time with. Thanks to a mutual friend sending me a Facebook message, I was able to hang out with George Allen of Bison Brewing in Charlotte, NC. I had a great time with George and really enjoyed the information and feedback we gave each other about the North Carolina craft beer scene. I look forward to a long relationship with George and Bison Brewing in Charlotte.
I would also like to thank Sam again for this Immort Ale that I am now sipping on since the Burton Baton is now gone.
Sam, do you make a beer that is not unbelievable???
Well, since we have gotten back from the CBC we have had all kinds of things going on with the building. I feel like things are really starting to move and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All our sub contractors are lined up and they are all eager to get the project finished. The boys at Ernie Everett Site Prep are still working away and I can't wait to post another blog and talk about the progress we are all making. This week we poured part of the cement slab that will support our 40 BBL fermenters and Uni tanks, which is just the beginning to all the concrete we will need to support all the our brewing equipment.
Mother Earth is dilige
ntly working and things are starting to shape up. All the down stairs window openings will come out next week and the remainder of the concrete should go in next week as well. We have a wonderful carpenter, Tony Hughes, and he is working on getting the Mother Earth corporate offices, lab, and workroom framed up. Tony is on the ball so we should have some updated pictures very soon! Needless to say, the next few weeks at Mother Earth are going to be really exciting!!
Peace, Love, and Beer.............................TM
The last couple of weeks at Mother Earth have been action packed and fun filled. We have really progressed quite rapidly and everything is moving along as planned.
Last week Josh and I spent the day at Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery in Farmville, NC getting to know Paul and his crew and I have to say they are a first class operation with a crew of first class guys. They were so nice to welcome our new venture to Eastern North Carolina and invited us to their facility with open arms.
Josh and I are always eager to go see other breweries and get to know the people behind them. The brewing community is very friendly and we all have the same goal, to see the craft beer industry thrive! Having said that, we all support one another with great enthusiasm and support. Paul Philippon, founder of Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery, showed Josh and I a detailed tour of his facility along with letting us sample some fresh Amber Ale, Milk Stout, Brown Ale, and Porter. I think Paul makes excellent beer and I can't wait to have a long relationship with Paul.
Cheers to Paul and the Duck Rabbit Crew!
As far as the construction goes everything is still rolling right along. We have filled the massive hole, which would have been under the brew house, and have all the steel in place to fully finish the demolition.
We have gotten the cut-through done between the brewing facility and bottling line. This was a big part of the renovation and was a little challenging structurally. We got everything structurally sound and are happy to say this is behind us. This crucial cut - through will give us forklift access from the main brewery to the bottling line, cold room, and storage rooms. This was a big part of making "the flow" of our brewery operation a reality.
Along with getting all the holes covered up and cut-through for the forklifts we are in the process of removing half of the second story floor. Taking out half the second floor will kill two birds with one stone: 1.It will allow us to have a huge amount of height to house our 40 BBL fermenting vessels and Uni tanks. 2. The remaining part of the floor will house Mother Earth's corporate offices. The second floor offices will overlook the brewing facility through a glass wall allowing everyone to feel as if they are a part of the brewing process. It is sure to be a great and fun environment at Mother Earth Brewery.
Besides meeting with Duck Rabbit and continuing the construction we are tackling all kinds of other things that are keeping us really busy. We are heading to Raleigh on Thursday to see the premier of Beer Wars with our friends at Lone Rider Brewery in Raleigh, not to mention a few Shotgun Betty's' and Dead Eye Jacks' before the movie!!!. It is sure to be a great time and I can't wait to see the movie I have been waiting so long for. I am so excited about Beer Wars you would think it was a sequel to North Shore, Rad, or Big Wednesday??? (Ha-That was for everyone that knows me.)
The Mother Earth team is chugging right along and getting closer to production everyday! We leave next week for Boston and will be attending The Craft Brewers Conference for a week so I am sure we will have lots to talk about when we get back. As for now, thanks for all the support and for actually following this blog. For me, along with everyone at Mother Earth, we can't wait to provide some wonderful handcrafted ales and lagers to each and every one of you very soon.
Peace, Love, and Beer..............................TM
Mother Earth Brewing was one of the many major sponsors of the 4th Annual Run for the River road race in downtown Kinston. I have always loved our local river and what it brings to the community and I had so much fun running in the race.
It was a hot and humid Saturday morning and I was ecstatic to be running in the Kinston 8K. I have run this race three years prior and was so excited to be running and representing Mother Earth Brewing. It is funny how the weather works in Eastern North Carolina but it seems to be different every year for the Kinston 8K. It has been windy, cold, very cold, and this past Saturday really muggy and hot. We recently got our first run of Mother Earth T shirts and I was so excited to be wearing one. I decided on race day that Mother Earth was sponsoring so I was wearing my Mother Earth T shirt. Needless to say a tan 100 % cotton T shirt on a hot and muggy day gets really wet and heavy. However, I made it to the finish line probably weighing and extra 10 pounds but I showed my support for Mother Earth. It just so happens that the finish line was one block from the brewery and you can see the future brewery in the background of the picture below.
We have had a lot of fun designing our logo, labels, tap handles, and everything else that goes along with starting and designing a brewery. As I said earlier, we are so excited to have our first run of t shirts and all our friends seem to be having fun wearing them. It is great when my friends wear their shirts at the same time, or is it???
Anyway, enough with all that. We are steadily working on the building and are really starting to make some headway. We had an unbelievable amount of steel delivered last week and they are putting a lot of that in right now. We had some structural things that we needed to take care of and the more creative we get the more steel we need. Hopefully, all the steel will be in by the end of the week and we can start cutting floors, walls, windows, outside walls, and pretty much anything you can cut.
My man Joe has been a blessing. He and my good friend Ernie Everett have helped us out a lot and have showed me that they can do about anything. They really seem to be excited about our project and I consider myself very lucky to be able to work with skilled and great people like Ernie, Joe, and all the crew at Ernie Everett Site Prep. Joe told me he could do anything, even operate a crane and he was right! He drove that crane a lot better than I can drive my car???
The building and construction are going along as planned and we are seeing progress every day. We are still hoping to be sitting back in the summer/fall and drinking some of Josh's great beer! The Kolsch that we brewed was really awesome and I can't wait for everyone to be able to share my excitement about this beer. We have a lot going on this week and I will definitely be blogging about all the fun, progress, and enjoyment we are having at Mother Earth Brewing.
Peace, Love, and Beer.....................TM
After months of designing the tap handle we have finally reached the end, now for production
Well, we have been working on this project for quite some time now and it is finally turning into a reality. The construction seems to be going pretty good, just a couple of snags here and there. We have been working hard on designing the interior of the brewery so it will function with ease and we are still going back and forth with the architects. It is amazing how many details are located in the interior design of a production brewery.
On January 16, 2009 Josh and I made the official announcement of Mother Earth Bewing. It was a cold and windy day but the turn out was great and everyone seems to be really excited about our project. It is such a pleasure to be able to fulfill a life long dream.
The building we bought was originally the first drive -thru pharmacy in the state and has since then been several other business including a discount grocery store. We knew we were going to have a big renovation but it is amazing how many things pop up when restoring an old building. Just last week I was drilling through the floor in the main brew house to check the thickness of the concrete. To my surprise the drill went all the way through the floor and a hidden secret basement was discovered. HOLY CRAP! This could be a great hidden room?? It was only about 10 X 20 feet but still, WOW! Needless to say we will need to fill that up b/c it will take a lot of concrete to support all that stainless steel. So there goes my hidden room.
We are very close to having all the kinks out and hopefully things will start to move pretty quickly now! We are expecting our equipment to arrive in early May so that will be an exciting day when all that gets here!
Besides doing construction work and making all the crucial decisions that are involved with starting a brewery we are having so much fun and are truly enjoying all the things that go along with the start up. I can't think of a better profession to be in these days.
We also recently brewed our first batch of Kolsch that we will be selling. Josh and I used our recipe and brewed 10 gallons on Josh's high tech home brew system. I must say it is delicious and I can wait for everyone to try it! For those of you that don't know a Kolsch is a a clean, crisp, light drinking, beer that offers a very slight fruity flavor and aroma.
Appearing light gold in color with a delicate head, this light bodied beer is easy to take pleasure in and appeals to nearly everyone who samples it. Expect to enjoy a slight tang in the finish.
We are going to continue to work hard and keep all our friends updated and can't wait for everyone to taste and see the finished product!
Peace, Love, and Beer......................TM
