Last week was the end of a big month filled with lots of beer events. Unfortunately the Super-Wacky He'Brew/Coney Island End-Of -Month Keg-O-Rama got pushed back a little while. The truck had to roll from the brewery before the special cask was ready, so we will reschedule that once we get an ETA on that cask. The rest of the pieces are already in place (translation: We have the rest of the beer in house currently). Stay tuned.
The cask of Duck Rabbit Porter with cherries (sour ones from northern Michigan) was tasty last Wednesday. Great turnout, too. Vanessa (above, tapping the cask) set the record for the most bling on a cask tapper thus far. Nice earrings V! If you missed it, it was a who's-who of NC brewing. Paul Phillipon of Duck Rabbit there as expected, and Oscar Wong, owner of Highland Brewing Co. made a surprise appearance. Those are two of the greatest beer people you could meet, in a business full of great people. The Flaming Lips show at Chastain that night was eye-opening, to say the least. Confetti cannons, 5-foot diameter balloons, dancing girls in silver 60's-era Star Trek suits, a giant catfish in a Captain Kangaroo-type suit, white wolves, smoke machine, exploding things. You know, pretty much a normal Wednesday night. Nothing unusual there.....
Get ready for a whole new look on the Taco Mac web site starting Tuesday. New company, new bells & whistles, new format, etc. Preliminary peeks look great. Due to these changes, the September beer dinner has not been posted yet. Why? I promise to NEVER bore you with technical jargon. This is no exception. The only thing worse that reading that kind of crap is writing it. Just trust me, everyone will be happier once this new web company takes over for the morons who used to take our money for screwing up our business. We decided not to give them any more chances to mess anything up going into the stretch. So, if you are interested in signing up for the Cajun/Creole inspired beer dinner featuring Abita beers at Lindbergh on 9/22, you need to contact me. Use the "Beer Dinner" link on the web site, and I will get the e-mail. Once the new company launches our web site Tuesday, we will eventually go back to using the Pay Pal service, but until then, sign-ups go through me. The menu looks great, and I can send you a copy via your e-mail address. We have two planned in October: the first one is with Duvel/Ommegang/Maredsous/Chouffe (all owned by the same company, in case you were confused), and then a collaborative dinner with Terrapin & Left Hand (see last post regarding their collaboration beer-Depth Charge).
Lastly, this is the final time you will hear me say, "Passport Club". On Tuesday we officially announce the new Taco Mac Brewniversity. I offered everyone the newsletter describing the improvements to our current system a few weeks ago. If you are still in the dark, the news goes live with the new web site Tuesday. We are going to do some "Card Swap Parties" in the next few weeks. The first one is Thursday at our Crabapple store. If you are in the area Thursday night, stop in to get your info swapped from the old card to the new card, ask questions about the improvements, or just sign up if you are still not a card holder. We should be there until 7 or 8 pm, I am not really sure. I just go where they tell me to go.
I actually will be in Virginia on Friday, but not in Norfolk. I will be in Fairfax to visit my brother and his family for Labor Day. But the title of this post is a line from a famous song about travelling, and right after Labor Day, the Beer Travel season begins. Not familiar with the Beer Travel Season? That's is when I spend 8 days in northern CA visiting brewery after brewery, some days as many as 3. By the time I get my laundry done and caught up at work, it is GABF time. Five days after that I am back to Colorado for a brewery trip that spans into the beginning of October. That, folks, is what September is like in my world. Add into that my birthday and football season, and you could say that I am partial to this month basically every year. I promise to take lots of pictures with my new camera. Luckily it does not have any problems focusing while I am drinking. The downside to all of this travelling is that I may not have much time for writing here, so once a week will be about all that I can muster. The upside is the material I will have once I cool my heels.
Have a great week everyone. Let me know if you want to take a look at that Abita menu. Once we post it on the new web site, sign-ups will be brisk. Talk to you soon.
