Thursday, November 28, 2013


Happy Thanksgiving
Wow, what a year. So many so many awesome people have come into our lives this year that we will never had the opportunity to meet without the brewery. We have had a year of trying our best not to suck and it doesn’t come without a ton of help. We have produced more than 1,500 barrels of beer this past year. That is 46,500 gallons. We have hosted lots of private parties, done a few of tours, given some beer and money to several charities, and had a ton of fun. This being the season of Thanksgiving, I want to thank so many people. I will forget someone, but suck it up, it wasn’t intentional.
·        To all of the people who have bought our beer both at the tasting room and at local restaurants and bars. Thanks for buying our beer and thanks for raising hell when places don’t have us on tap.
·        To our regulars at the tasting room who have kept  us company week after week.
·        To our investors and their family members for helping us whenever we needed it whether it was manning festival booths, promoting us, or working behind the bar in the tasting room. Lisa McCormick, Lisa Stevens, Katie Caplenor, Jennifer Nelson, Sydney McCormick, Suzanne Hall, Intern Matt., Ashlee and Dustin Smith, Kelsey Nelson, the ‘other’ Nelson kids Emma and Elisha, and Allison Sims. Thanks Clay Gupton for coming in and busting ass to help us every week.
·        To my old man Bob “Bobarino” Nelson and Gary Fryery who did a ton of mechanical, plumbing and electrical work over the past 14 months.
·        To Karen Winford who documented our events in awesome photographs.+
·        To Austin Gray whose graphic art talents have branded us so well.
·        To my brother and his wife Tracy and Mary Nelson who have helped out almost every Saturday doing whatever needed to get done.
·        To my wife Pamela and son Wyatt who have been neglected while I pursue my dream, and who have been there to keep the ship sailing in the tasting room and paying the bills.
·        To my brewers John Overby and Nick “Wiz” Wisniewski for making great beer and working to continuously improve our processes, and for helping with the sound on special events.
·        To Tommy McCormick for always being there. What a bromance.
·        To Charles Nelson for kicking total ass on social media and booking bands.
·        Mike Stevens for doing anything behind the scenes that he can and sporting and awesome mullet.
·        Mike Caplenor for sharing his gift for carpentry, business and his sweaty bald head.
·        All of the bands that have come to play. A special thanks to all the bands who have come from out of town to play in the brewery. And for  those who have come back a second time, Thelma and the Sleaze, Crazy Aces, Static Revival and Them Vibes.
·        Charles Pierce & Worxgroup for being Mayday merchandise central.
·        To our distributor RS Lipman. Go sell some more beer.
·        To Ashley Francis who has been loving the people and selling our beer.
·        To Randy Jubilee and Mark Dunkerly for bringing us Jubilee and the attitude that goes with it.
·        To Dave Baughman and the crew at Allied Boiler, Mike at Walter Hill Plumbing and Rick Young at Diversified Metal Engineering. Your support has been awesome, and I’m sure the check is in the mail.
·        To all of the restaurants and bars that carry our beer. I love you.
·        Dawna, Joe and Michelle at the Art Barn.
·        Melinda Hudgins Noblitt and Nancy De Gennaro for the great press.
·        The Yeasty Boys
·        To “BAM” Dave Tratchet for etching those cool Jugs of Fun for event prizes.
·        Food trucks, My Roots, Two Guys in a Lunchbox, Shorty’s Pizza Bus, Miller’s Grocery, Govenor’s BBQ, and everyone else that has helped us out with food.
·        To Jarrod Franklin and his hungry dairy cows for picking up and properly disposing of our spent grain.
·        To Matt and Rent the Big Event for the use of the trailer and corn-hole sets.
·        Jamie Jennings at Broad Street Tobacco and Mike at Liquid Smoke for promoting our beer all over town.
·        Panther Creek. Thanks Melvin, JT and Jeremy for the lighting and advice as well as all of the support.
·        To Art and the MidState Brewcrew.
·        Tyler at Rebel Brewer for his hardware advice.
·        Sean “Talk to the Hand” for his fancy coffee for the “Talk to the Hand Coffee Stout.”

And Brandon Hanna Custom Tattoos for the never fading Evil Octopus.

·        I feel very loved. 
·         
·        Thank You
·        Ozzy


Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Festivals. Can't Live With 'em, Can't Live Without 'em.

Beer festivals are fun. Pay one price, get to try a ton of awesome beers all in one place with a bunch of cool people. Who wouldn't love that?

I'd like to give you the inside scoop from the brewer's perspective if I may. As I see it, there are three types of beer festivals:
The Givers: Those who are run by people who volunteer their time and give all of the proceeds to charity. We support these festivals and will participate and promote these as much as we can.
The Buyers: Those who make money on festivals, give a portion of the proceeds to charity and purchase the beer at wholesale from the brewer. We participate in these when it makes sense logistically.
The Takers:  Those who make money on festivals, give a portion of their proceeds to charity, and ask the brewers to donate beer in exchange for "exposure" for their breweries. The Tennessee Brewers Guild has taken the stand that as a group, we will not participate in these festivals. Mayday agrees with the guild. We take great pride in our beer and we believe it is worth the wholesale price that festival organizers would have to pay for it.  You, the craft beer lover, will gladly pay for the opportunity to attend their festival to drink our beer, but the organizers are unwilling to pay for the beer being served.

This is why Mayday will not participate in Brewsboro coming up October 12.

If you want to come by the brewery, buy a beer and discuss it, I'd be happy to.

Ozzy



Thursday, August 22, 2013

The People's Questions Answered




Mustaches
Life is too short not grow a mustache at least once and take a picture and post to the world wide web. Even if you say you can’t grow a mustache, then you grow the greatest mustache of all, the DTM (Dirty Teen Mustache).

Stouts
It is easier to make a good stout than any other style in my opinion. I like stouts

How to properly cut jorts
1.      1.Get your favorite pair of acid washed skinny jeans.
2.      2. Lay them flat on a table and fold them leg over leg.
3.      3. Stick your hand in a front pocket, take a sharpie and mark the end of the pocket.
4.      4. Very Important, turn front pockets inside out.
5.      5. Take scissors and cut at least 1 inch above the marked line.
6.       6.Wash and tumble dry for proper fraying.
7.      7.Wear proudly with your best cowboy boots and halter top.

Mullets
The only thing better than my grandmothers smoked mullet is some dude pumping gas with a mullet.

The people he meets at Mayday
This gets it’s own blog.

How affable the guys in Crazy Aces are and how Rad their music is..........or something about beer is good too, LOL
I can’t wait to see Crazy Aces play because we were on vacation the first time they played at Mayday.

The different grains and hops and when / why they are used.
Go on the tour.

I’d like an online tour of the brewery. It would be cool to see how it all works, at least until I can come in and take an actual tour.
Online would not do it justice. Come in and take a tour.

Black Sabbath
I just finished reading Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne’s memoirs. Very funny and informative. Their first 3 albums, Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality are timeless. The new album 13 is right up there.

How he makes Evil O..
Put just enough dark grain in it to make it dark. Then hop the dog doo out of it.

His opinion of good/bad beer.
This gets its own blog.

Guest Breweries
We love Panther Creek.

Chuck Norris!!!
We strive to be the Chuck Norris of breweries. No nonsense and take no prisoners.


Sunday, May 26, 2013

Wedding Crasher

We rent our tasting room/bar out to private parties after hours. We have been looking forward to this weekend, because two of our regular patroons, Dustin and Sarah were having their wedding reception from 8:00 to 12:00 Saturday night. Dustin and Sarah are awesome people, so we knew that their friends would be just as cool.

Another one of our regulars is Dave. Dave owns his own metal fabrication/powder coat/sand blast shop just across the railroad tracks from the brewery. Check out his work BAM Customs. Dave works on Saturday, and has always shows up around 7:00. The first time we met Dave we were having a private party that night and he shows up and stays thru the entire party, not knowing he was the only stranger there. So, now it is running joke that every time there is a private party, Dave will show up and hang with the actual invited guests.

Last night was no exception, we had bets going behind the bar about what time Dave would show. He strolled in about 7:35 and ordered his usual Angry Redhead. We made fun of him of course, because he has a reputation to live up to. Dave sat and drank with the regular patrons and actually met the groom. He finished his beer at about 10:00 and left saying he would come back.

The wedding reception went on and everyone forgot about Dave not being there.
 At 11:30, the limo driver arrived to pick up the bride and groom, and the party was still going pretty strong. Shortly behind the limo driver, in walks Dave with one of our Jugs of Fun in his hand. He had taken a jug and sandblasted a message for the newly weds. He said later that when he saw the limo go by his shop that he had better hurry up.

Dustin and Sarah loved the gift from the 'wedding crasher' and I (Ozzy) filled it with Angry Redhead to take on their hornymoon.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

What Took Me So Long?

 We have been a little busy since we opened, and I have needed to update this blog for some time. I thought I would just give you a few photos of the place and encourage everyone to come out to the tasting room. We are open Thur-Fri 4-8 and Saturday 1-8. If you don't know where we are, using Google Maps or Mapquest, just type in Mayday Brewery, Murfreesboro TN (or other software 521 Old Salem Rd Murf) and it will take you to our parking lot that looks a lot like the photo below. You will have to walk down a couple of long hallways, but it will be worth it.


Our brewery has some interesting "features"