Beerfly Alleyfight update

We're now less than four weeks away from Beerfly Alleyfight (if you don't know what that is, read this post, then go here to buy tickets, then go to Rock Bottom on May 22nd and drink and eat and have fun!). I have a couple of exciting updates regarding the Alleyfight...

First, I found out who Leah and I will be paired with for the Alleyfight: actress/musicians Laura Grey and Laura McKenzie. For all of you, it's exciting because they have a hilarious show out right now called "The Laura on Laura Comeback Tour." I haven't seen it yet but I'm hoping to get there soon (it's every Thursday night for the next month). And I know it's hilarious because they were guests on the Drinking & Writing radio show this month, which you can listen to via podcast here; the podcast feed seems to be down right now but I'll let you know when it's back up.

Now, for me personally, working with Laura and Laura should be a blast because Laura Grey and I were actually friends back in high school (huzzah for Downers Grove South! (sorry, "huzzah" is my new favorite word)). I didn't even know she was active in Chicago's theater community until I heard the Drinking & Writing show the other week, and now I find out we'll be working together for the Alleyfight. It's a small world, especially here in Chicago.

Okay, I feel like this post is one giant run-on sentence but since I've read both Faulkner and Pynchon over the past few months I know what a run-on sentence looks like and this post is not a run-on sentence. Pressing on (focus!), here's my update on the beer side of things. I "dry-puffed" our Kokopüffenweizen that we brewed for the Alleyfight. The term isn't totally accurate since I actually crushed four cups of Cocoa Puffs, blended them with 2.5 cups of water, and then boiled the mixture for fifteen minutes before adding it to a carboy and racking on top of the goop. My estimate suggests that 1/2 cup (~19 g) of Cocoa Puffs has a gravity of 1.010-12 in 2.5 cups of water, so our starting gravity should get a bump of about three points. Right now our gravity is down to 1.016, which is just about terminal, and the Weizen aroma is awesome... the perfect blend of estery and phenolic. I also designed the label that you see above; it took me the better part of a day and I'm actually pretty proud of it.

One last brewing note... This past Monday (April 19th) I racked our 59° Fahrenheit Maibock. Holy crap does it taste good. I'll give it a couple weeks to lager but then I'm putting this bad boy on tap even though ideally I should let it lager for a good month. If my notes are correct, it finished at 1017.