millstreambrewing.com

A guest article by beer ranger Eric Vigil:

A fabulous time was had by all at the 15^th Annual Greater Peoria Area’s Jaycees International Beer Festival. There were 56 booths with beers from all over the globe. And Eric and Aaron were there to represent us at Millstream.

Here they are setting up the booth on Friday evening.

And then Ready for Business.

Of course Eric and Aaron had to test the New Windmill Wheat, John’s Grocery White Ale, Schild Brau, and Maifest beers to make sure they were properly chilled.

The Mike and Carrie Show, a local duet with a large local following did acoustic versions of many 80s hits and had the audience swaying with enthusiasm. Later on we met this couple Brittany and Brett from CR who were big fans of our beers.

Saturday, Millstream was helped by Lou and Deb, the hard working couple kept the first wave of beer drinker’s mugs full.

They were challenged by this family of beer drinkers who came well prepared; these sisters were assigned to bring back beer for the whole family with their dad’s great invention of the beer fest sampler tray. Dad was off relaxing with a portable table and chairs sending the children to forage. We never met this man, but liked his style.

Later in the afternoon, the second group of eager volunteers arrived at the Millstream Booth. Craig, Megan and Jean, three happy go lucky graduates from Northwestern University in Evanston Illinois. Megan and Jean in particular have degrees in Chemical Engineering and were able to understand Brew master Aarons ramblings on the properties of Noble Gasses and the laws of physics in relation to the draft dispense of beer. They were incredibly peppy and stayed an hour after their shift was over, keeping those glasses full. We at Millstream lift our mugs to them and say “Hoch soll er Lieber!”

Lastly there was John S Rhodell, a famous local, brewer, with his Scotland Strongman and parade of bagpipes. This man carried a keg over his shoulder for a distance of greater than 100 yards and at the end of the parade, he lifted the full 15.5 gallon keg over his head before tapping it. Again at Millstream our hats are off to you, as we say, “Einer starker Mensch!” And wish that we had someone at our brewery to challenge them in a Keg hauling contest.

Spring is here, come on down to the brewery and get a pint of our delicious Maifest beer while you can. Its a tasty brew, a light colored bock beer, hopped up with fresh Crystal hops. Its a very hard to find variety, I recently read that some of these rare hops are grown on less than 50 acres. Their noble, floral aroma blends nicely with the strong malt background of this bock beer. Its also the strongest beer we regulary make at 6.0% alcohol by volume. We only make a little bit of this beer, since spring is a pretty short season. When this is gone in about a month’s time, you can start looking for our Warsh Pail Ale.

Maifest will be here on May 5th this year so mark your calendars and plan on coming down to the brewery to see the festivities.

Our first ever bottle party was a great success. We had a good turnout, especially in the face of some warnings of severe weather. From 3:30 till 5:30 everyone pitched in and helped us bottle our three millionth bottle. It was really something to see all these people helping out, carry a case here, a bottle there. People we had never seen before were moving pallets of beer around in our warehouse. Those of us who normally run the bottling line just stood around in amazement.. where did all these people come from! Finally we ran the three millionth bottle through and there was applause and a little speech by Teresa about how far we have come with this brewery in the last seven years.
The band, Electric Mule, braved the weather and came and setup in the warehouse around 6pm. However they were missing their drummer! Word was sent out, and soon we they had a local fill in. He was only 16 years old, but he could play the drums really well.. and sing and play guitar. He did a great Johnny Cash rendition of “Folsom Prison” that had people clapping and stomping their feet in our warehouse.

The ‘Brewmaster Special’ beers were a big hit. The first was our Wheat dry hopped with Simcoe hops.. very orangy and citrusy. The second was a spiced stout, dry hopped with chinook hops and dosed with a bit of cinnamon. Many people commented that the spiced stout would make a great holiday brew… something to think about.  Look for more ’special’ beers this summer at our beer festivals and events.