Mother Earth Brewing

Mother Earth was one of the many craft breweries to attend the 2009 Craft Brewers Conference in Boston.  We had a great time and got to meet so many great people in the craft beer industry.  We had an unbelievable time with Rob and Alan from Premier Stainless (pictured above) and the knowledge we took back to Mother Earth is irreplaceable.  We are getting our brewing equipment from Premier and it was really enjoyable spending quality time with Rob and Alan.  We are looking forward to having them in Kinston in about 4 weeks to do our install!!!!

The Craft Brewers Conference is a really fun and educational experience.  There is a big trade show that allows you to meet vendors from all over the world, plus a ton of seminars taught by colleagues in the brewing industry.  The CBC gives new breweries excellent perspectives of the exciting times that are yet to come.

Back in March Josh and I went to Delaware and spent a couple of days with our friend Sam Calagione at Dogfish Head. It was really great to see Sam again in Boston.  Sam has been so helpful to us and I can't thank him enough for all the advice and support he has given us, not to mention this delicious Burton Baton I am sipping on while I type this blog!  Thanks Sam!!!!!!!

On Thursday night of the CBC we went to Harpoon Brewery where they had 60 beers from different Northeast breweries on cask.  For those of you who don't know, cask beers are often referred to as "real ale". Cask Beer is brewed from only traditional ingredients and matures naturally. This unfiltered, unpasteurized beer still contains live yeast, which continues conditioning the beer in the cask which is known as secondary fermentation. This process creates a gentle, natural CO2 carbonation and allows malt and hop flavors to develop, resulting in a richer tasting beer with more character than standard keg beers. Cask beers are served room temperature without any extraneous gas, usually by manually pulling it up from the cellar with a hand pump or beer engine.  Ahh...Cask beers are so yummy!!!!!!   Mother Earth is looking forward to serving some of our beers on cask in the Tap Room so get ready for a mouth full of flavor.

Anyway, it was a great time at Harpoon and we were able to spend some time with Greg Koch, CEO of Stone Brewing and this year's CBC keynote speaker.  I have a lot of admiration and respect for Greg.  I think he has done a lot for the craft brewing community and he is so eager to see the craft beer industry succeed. If you have not seen the video Greg made to kick off his CBC keynote speech I highly suggest you watch it.   It shows the respect and camaraderie that all the people in the craft brewing industry share. http://www.vimeo.com/4298464. 

Greg was really excited about our project and even sported a Mother Earth sticker during cask night at Harpoon!!   Thanks Greg for everything you have done for Mother Earth and the craft brewing industry.

It is always great to see familiar faces when you are traveling but also great to meet some new faces along the way. The CBC gave me the opportunity to see some old friends but also make some new friends.  Cask night at Harpoon seemed to be the night that everyone was talking and getting to know each other.  I don't know why??? It could have been the 60 cask beers??  Anyway, I was able to meet a North Carolina Colleague who I had a great time with.  Thanks to a mutual friend sending me a Facebook  message, I was able to hang out with George Allen of Bison Brewing in Charlotte, NC.  I had a great time with George and really enjoyed the information and feedback we gave each other about the North Carolina craft beer scene.  I look forward to a long relationship with George and Bison Brewing in Charlotte.

I would also like to thank Sam again for this Immort Ale that I am now sipping on since the Burton Baton is now gone.

Sam, do you make a beer that is not unbelievable???

Well, since we have gotten back from the CBC we have had all kinds of things going on with the building.  I feel like things are really starting to move and I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  All our sub contractors are lined up and they are all eager to get the project finished.  The boys at Ernie Everett Site Prep are still working away and I can't wait to post another blog and talk about the progress we are all making. This week we poured part of the cement slab that will support our 40 BBL fermenters and Uni tanks, which is just the beginning to all the concrete we will need to support all the our brewing equipment.

Mother Earth is dilige ntly working and things are starting to shape up.  All the down stairs window openings will come out next week and the remainder of the concrete should go in next week as well.  We have a wonderful carpenter, Tony Hughes, and he is working on getting the Mother Earth corporate offices, lab, and workroom framed up.  Tony is on the ball so we should have some updated pictures very soon! Needless to say, the next few weeks at Mother Earth are going to be really exciting!!

Peace, Love, and Beer.............................TM