Millstream Makes News!
Wow what a day! I’m just frazzled! Lets see, first, I came in early to transfer two beers for bottling on Tuesday. Its time to bottle the second batch of stout and another batch of White Ale.
Then right when I took over from Chris on brewing, Channel 2 News called up and said they would like to come down and interview us about our GABF Silver Medal. They have been covering the event the whole time, and were even at the GABF when we won the medal!
So they came down during the busiest moment of my day. We brewed Schild Brau today, and I was right in-between the first and second batch. They shot some stock footage of me hosing down the kettle. I was like “I can hose this as long as you would like!”. But a few minutes seemed to be enough. 
Then they interviewed me. I tried to be as truthful as possible, without sounding too haughty about the win or dismissive of the award. I’m actually not sure what I said, in retrospect. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I remember trying to emphasize just how difficult it is to win a medal, and to win one consistently. Finally, a local homebrewer, Jeff Schaefer, just happened to be in the tasting room dropping off his samples for the THIRSTY CLASSIC. So they interviewed him too! What luck! He was also kind enough to give Farmer Don a ride home after he dropped off his grain truck. Thanks Jeff!
They said they are going to air the Special Feature on Nov 1st and/or 2nd. Someone please record it for me (I’m sure I’ll be here brewing or something).
That threw off my schedule. But I was just about back on track when Scott and his fiancee Dawn dropped by from the Old Capitol Brewery (formerly Fitzpatrick’s in Iowa City). They are opening up on the 31st of THIS MONTH. Wow! He seemed very knowledgeable about both beer and restaurant business. He said that they are going to try to make 6-8 of their own beers, and they will have many other beers from other breweries on tap on the “old” side of the bar. He mentioned a belgium beer, Mackeson’s XXX stout, and our Schild Brau. He said they have been very busy overhauling the place. All the tap lines have been replaced (about time!). They are considering what to do with Gary’s old brewing system. There just is not enough room in the place as it is, and they are going to tear out the old system and replace it either with grain storage, or with serving tanks. Yes that’s right, there are no serving tanks, so there is currently a heck of a lot of kegging involved in getting the beer to the bar. He agreed with me that it was nice equipment, but monstrously oversized. Its a 20bbl system (we only have a 10bbl). A seven bbl system would have been plenty fine and left more room for more tanks and ingredients storage.
Well I was thoroughly impressed by Scott, and I wish him luck in his endeavors. I really can’t wait to try his beers. It will be so great to have friendly brewpub on board in this area, its like having neighbors again, its been QUIET around here lately!
Finally I just noticed that both the THIRSTY and IBU Homebrewing Clubs have great new websites up… fancier than this one! Congrats! I might just have to try to one up them (but I just finished redesigning this site…)
October 25th, 2004 at 6:51 am
A feature story on Nov 1 or 2? That will be a refreshing break from campaign “coverage!” I’ll have to remember to tape that.
I, for one, am very excited about the new brewpub in I.C. Am I the only one who thinks it’s criminal that Iowa City has never had a brewpub (I never really counted Fitzy’s)? I recently tried the new brewpub in Ames–hopefully, Old Capitol will be better than that one. I was very unimpressed.
The key in Iowa City is, will they cater to beer lover, or to backwards-cap wearing, bud light-drinkng “dudes?”
October 25th, 2004 at 8:20 am
Well, I can tell you right now I will look and sound like an idiot during the interview. It is not every day that someone sticks a huge camera and spotlight in your face. The news guys are really nice and that helps keep the nerves calmed down. Now, I have quite a bit of experience drinking and brewing beer so I figured I could handle almost any question I was asked. So, of course the curve ball question was, “Why do you like drinking beer?”. What kinda question is that. Well, I stammered through the taste and body part. I remember saying something about milk and soda; I also tried to give Millstream a good plug. What I wanted to say but didn’t was that liquor burns my throat and I can drink beer all day without tipping over. But who can say that on TV? Anyway, hope it turns out OK.
October 25th, 2004 at 9:49 am
My impression of Old Capitol is that they are not going to cater to the Lite drinkers. They will be putting Bud Light and Michelob Ultra on tap, in exchange for all the help the bud distributor has given them in opening up the place. But it will only be on the “old side” of the bar, and the told the Miller/Coors guys they could keep their lite products. They are going to try to make the “new side” of the bar more fun, with better music, a Mug club, and free wireless internet.
Jeff, don’t worry. They will re-edit everything that we said so that it will look good anyway. I’m grateful that you were there, and not one of our many clueless tourists… I’m sure whatever you said is better than what one of them would have said!
The tough question for me was “so what does your Schild Brau Amber taste like?” I so dislike trying to describe the taste of beer. It seems whatever I say, really doesn’t do it justice. I think I said, “oh, its very smooth and caramelly” or something like that. It always makes it sound like we are drinking candy.
October 27th, 2004 at 12:06 pm
Thanks for the plug for the new THIRSTY web site.
By the way, I stopped last night and met both Paul and Scott of Old Capitol brewpub. Paul is all that you said he was. He is quite interested in cultivating a relationship with homebrewers as well as the commercial brewers in Iowa. I am looking forward to the opening Sunday.