Thu, 12 Nov 2009

Draft Beer Update
Victory St. Boisterous Hellerbock kicked. Replacing it is Stoudts Smooth Hoperator. A great local beer following a great local beer. Life is great here in Philadelphia.


Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the big day. This will be our 21st Firkinteenth. Our crew knows what do tomorrow, which is why I am surprisingly calm right now. There is only one missing firkin (but we noticed it and it should be here tomorrow) and one aborted firkin. Much less chaos than usual, which is also why I am surprisingly calm right now. All of the signage is done and printed out (and online), which is also why I am surprisingly calm right now.

- I still remember the first Firkinteenth, February 1998, which was very modest. Duzer and Pat were behind the bar. Duzer, Pat and I will all be here tomorrow too.
- I remember the 2nd one, which was only a month later and equally as modest.
- I remember the 3rd one which was the one that put us on the map.
- I remember the 4th Firkinteenth, August 1999, that turned out to be the hottest day of the year, when the Grey Lodge became the Sweat Lodge. The Friday before that was so cool that not only did we not have the AC on, we closed the windows because people were cold. Oh the irony.
- I remember the 11th Firkinteenth, February 2004 , which was the last one to be managed solo, right before I asked Pat to come on board. That was the really cold one where people sadly had to line up outside. Now with two floors and a noon start time, there have been no lines since.
- I remember wanting to have a then unheard of 13 firkins for the 13th Firkinteenth in May 2005. Instead we had 15.
- I remember the 14th Firkinteenth, January 2005 which was really pleasantly warm.
- I don't remember when we first broke 20 firkins.
- I remember the 17th Firkinteenth, July 2007, when I came in and a large crew already had things humming.
- I remember the 19th, February 2009, which was also pleasantly warm.
- I remember the 20th Firkinteeth, the mother of all Firkinteenths, which occurred during Philly Beer Week. We opened at 9am and had over 30 firkins.

How many Firkinteenths do you remember?


Today's Link
It's a Veteran's Day link, a day late, but worth the wait.