This Week at Tyranena Brewing
Greetings fellow Tyranenaeans,
What a challenge things have been as of late. If anything could have gone wrong in the last couple of weeks… it has. I won’t bore you with all of the details… and merely thinking about them has my stress levels and blood pressure rising. I’ll just leave you with this image… me attempting to work on tiny, little electrical components that I can barely see is much like a bull stomping through a china shop… and just as destructive… and probably as expensive… Hopefully, we will be getting a new component in today, as the old one is no longer in one piece. Brewing is a bit more challenging without the automated temperature controls. In other news…
Come Celebrate Obama Night On Tuesday, January 20.
Okay… so I voted for the hot soccer mom, but we are going to celebrate Obama’s Inauguration on Tuesday, January 20. I don’t know that we have any details worked out yet…
but I have been thinking of several things:
- A Sarah Palin costume contest (participants get a free pint),
- a Wii bowling contest (beat Obama’s score of 38 and get a free pint — that’s fewer than 2 pins per ball!)…
- and/or a “Who said this in the campaign?” contest
Think we had some other thoughts floating around but we’ll see what we ultimately come up with. One thing is for sure… we will have Greg bartending (for those that don’t know… Greg is our most conservative bartender… and enjoys his political debates with our most liberal of Tyranenaeans (mainly Steve, William, Richard and Don)). Patricia seems to think we should make it a black tie event… but I don’t think I own one. Suggestions are welcome and details will follow. I do know that we will be tapping a new beer at the event…
Come Enjoy A MacObama Ale At ObamaNight.
Yeah… I am pretty sure that Obama is not Scottish… but we brewed our 2009 version of our Scotch Ale and will be tapping on ObamaNight. We have slightly altered the recipe from last year… marginally increasing the amount of peated malt (I could not taste it in last year’s version)… and using the traditional ingredient of roasted barley (just a wee bit)… we removed a dark caramel malt and replaced with… well a special malt that should also contribute well to the overall character. As always, we use plenty of Scotland’s finest Golden Promise as well as our Wisconsin base malt. This beer weighs in at about 7.7% ABV. We are looking for a name for this beer… in fact, we have been looking for a name for the last few years and have had no success. Won’t you help us? The beer is going to be dedicated to an early resident of Lake Mills, a Scottish gentleman who served in the military and unsuccessfully tried to raise sheep on the north edge of Rock Lake. Please submit any suggestions to [email protected].
Post ObamaNight Hangover. I’ve spent the last two months complaining about the rising costs of all of our ingredients and such. As of January 1, we passed along a price increase to our wholesalers… and Wednesday, January 21 we will be increasing prices in the Tasting Room.
Tyranena In ObamaLand? Maybe. Jessie is looking into the possibility of distributing Tyranena beer down to our neighbor to the south. Have thought about this in the past… but the laws in Illinois are not exactly brewery friendly. Having seen the fun New Glarus and Bells have had in Illinois, we have been putting this off. But now may just be the time.
Tyranena Brewing Company Closing? Perhaps. I’m trying to get appointed to the U.S. Senate. My bid to be Illinois’ junior Senator appears to have failed (I know the Illinois’ Governor’s phone was tapped… hopefully not his email, though). I am still holding out hope that I might yet be selected to represent the State of New York as its junior Senator. Right now a career change sounds like fun. Speaking of fun…
Vacation Destination. I am in desperate need of a vacation… just ask anyone who works here! I would appreciate any suggestions for a good adventure.
Unblended Devil Over A Barrel On Tap. We recently put a keg of the 100 percent barrel-aged version of Devil Over A Barrel. Yum! It will not last long.
Brewer Nevin’s First Week. Benji’s replacement, Nevin, began working this week… we’ll see how long he lasts! Thankfully Benji is here to do the training… at least for the month of January. We are giving him a pretty full first week with lots of brewing, filtering, bottling and kegging.
Brewing: Brewing a double batch of Rocky’s Revenge and batches 2 and 3 of our next Brewers Gone Wild! series beer this week.
Bottling: Bottled 455 cases of Bitter Woman IPA on Monday and 372 cases of Rocky’s Revenge today. 2 cases of mislabels for each flavor will be available at 4:30 pm this afternoon.
Wednesday is Pitcher Night! That means $7.00 pitchers and Gardetto’s snack mix. Come see little Adriane before she heads off to Costa Rica on Friday!
Thursday is Thirsty Thursdays. Thirsty Thirsdays is your opportunity to earn a beer on us. Each time you join us in the Tasting Room on a Thursday night you’ll receive one stamp for each tap beer you purchase on your Thirsty Thursday card. Buy yourself a well deserved beer, earn a stamp. Buy someone else a beer, earn another stamp. When the card is full, turn it in for a free pint and be entered in quarterly prize drawing! The drawings will be held at Hopluck Dinners. Participants need not be present to win.
Friday is a Special Live Music Performance: Danny Miller Band. Mug Clubbers Joe Trytten and regulars Tom & Dick Krueger have recently retired… and have decided to celebrate this milestone at Tyranena this Friday night. At their special request (and because they’re paying for it), the Danny Miller Band will be performing from 7 to 10 pm. They have left the party open to the public, so please, come enjoy the music and pat any or all of the “fuddy-duddies” on the shoulder! (Hey, they came up with the term fuddy-duddies… I’m just repeating it!)
Danny Miller Band – Harmonica-Powered Blues – 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Saturday is Live Music: Frankie Lee. It’s a blues weekend here at the brewery! In Chicago, a harmonica is a “harp,” as in “blues harp.” In Lake Mills, the bluesy sound of “harpist” Frankie Lee is instantly recognizable to Tyranena regulars. Frankie is responsible for adding that essential harmonica flavor to many performances at the Tyranena Tasting Room. Come check out the blues stylings of Frankie Lee and crew this Saturday night.
Frankie Lee – Chicago-Style Blues – 7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
Future musical performances can be found at: www.tyranena.com/events/musicschedule.htm.
Sunday is… the Last Day of the Weekend! Coming down to the brewery may be your only chance to avoid all of that housework, yardwork or other assigned special projects. We’ll have the NFL Playoff games on our high-definition screens… maybe even with the volume turned on. Join us between 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
