Happy Snowy Friday!!!!

As we prepare for another weekend of brewing (we do occasionally do that between our day jobs, shuttling Zeke across the county to learn his "R's", monitoring the construction process, brushing up on our Borough code, researching the federal licensing process.......well you get the idea) we thought it would be a good time to share with our friends and followers why we're doing this.  I mean, of course we'd like to make a little money from it, who doesn't?  And I'd be lying if I told you I haven't already done the math.....Honestly though, it really is about the beer.....Good beer....and we aspire to provide that to our customers, along with some "different" fare, be it spent grain pretzels, interesting meat pies (perfect with a stout on a snowy January Friday),or cheeses that smell like Zeke's socks and have names almost as unique as ours.

When Sarah and I were married in December of 2011, we had a local brewer from York make us an Oatmeal Stout for the wedding.  We had pint glasses made as well and created a logo centered around our much-discussed last name and my favorite beer. (Sarah, btw, is the artist, so any of the creativity you see in the decor, the logo, t-shirts, etc, comes from her.  I just build stuff and brew)  That's really how it began.  Over the past year, during which we sold a home, lost a job, planted a ton of tomatoes (not recommended), moved a family, shed a daughter to college (Esther), got another job (ick!) and covered easily 25,000 miles on the PA turnpike, we decided it was time to get serious about our half-assed attempts at putting something together that included some of our favorite things; beer, food, and more beer and food.  While sitting in another fine brewpub in Manheim, we began a discussion that all too often starts with Sarah saying, "How hard can this be?".  Unfortunately, or fortunately, if you like the IPA, the owner of the brewpub joined the conversation and offered to show us his brewing system.  The same version now sits in our basement, awaiting the trip to it's final destination down the street from our home.  Our first batch was an Oatmeal Stout, with much help from our friends at Lancaster Homebrew.  Some say that batch came out perfectly.  My favorite compliment was "This isn't horrible at all, it's actually quite delicious."  I made another two batches of it to follow that up, each one of them with their own unique unexpected variation.  Those were received as well as the first.  We've been brewing in earnest since the first week of October, and have brewed all but two weekends since.  One thing you will find out about us: Sarah will always compliment the beer and I will always tell you why it's not perfect.  And both are totally accurate.

Fittingly, we are out of Oatmeal Stout, which tells me I know what's going into the mash tun this weekend, right after a trip to The Country Store (Buy Local! Brew Local!) for some more organic rolled oats.