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

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.

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.

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"

A message from the Brewer

Hello All,

Well, since the last blog post was back in February, its time for and update!

As close friends of the brewery already know, I have finally made the move down from Chicago!

Since then it has been quite busy. The first week consisted of me attending Boiler School over at Allied Boiler in Murfreesboro. Dave and his crew at Allied put on an awesome class that taught safe and proper operation of boilers. During the class I got an opportunity to get acquainted with Mayday’s boiler, which is pictured below.

After boiler school my attention has been focused on the Mayday brews.  We have been working with a couple companies getting quotes for hops and malt.  The unfortunate part about starting a brewery this late in the year is all the hop contracts for 2012 are done, meaning there aren’t many hops available.  Another one of the many small hurdles to overcome when starting a brewery.

Next up: Hot Chicken and Jorts III.  

Our good friends at Jubilee Beer will be putting on their 3^rd annual Hot Chicken and Jorts, This party is sure to be a blast! You can guarantee the Mayday crew will be there decked out in our full red neck regalia.  For more info on the party check out Jubilee’s Face book page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jubilee-Beer/211045733942

Finally, some minor work has been going on in the building. Hopefully the major work will start by the end of next week! 

Our equipment from DME is coming along nicely and is scheduled for delivery on September 13^th! And let me tell ya, this system is going to be SWEET! Pics of the equipment progress and other Mayday news can be found on our Mayday face book page. Check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/MaydayBrewery

Any who, there is a lot going on for Mayday and a lot more to come in the very near future! Stay tuned! It is sure to be a good time!

Cheers!
Wiz

This Time, Its Real

Wow, my last post was 8 months ago, during the last month we have:

Talked to a lot of bankers

Talked to a lot of people

Revised the financials a lot

Looked at a lot of buildings

Had a lot of investor meetings

Collected information from several equipment manufacturers

Began spending what will be A LOT of money

Drank a lot of beer

Made a lot of beer (relatively speaking)

After all of those activities, what have we accomplished?

We've decided to say "screw the banks if we have to wait on them, we'll never get open"

Met Mark Dunkerley of Jubilee Beer (good beer for a good cause) and have agreed to form a partnership where Mayday will brew additional styles of Jubilee Beer

We have collected enough investor money and reexamined and committed more of our own money to order equipment. We have a 30bbl brewhouse (930 gallons) and 4 fermentors being fabicated on Prince Edward Island @ DME right now. See the map above.

We have identified a bldg that we like and we are beginning to work through the details of the lease

We have firmly committed to R. S. Lipman as a distributor.

We have had a lot of fun telling our story and listening to other people's ideas

What we still have to do:

Raise about $90,000 from investors, if you are interested in owning a piece of Mayday Brewery, email me: ozzy@maydaybrewery.com

Negotiate and sign a win-win lease.

Elect a board of directors

Move our head brewer Wiz down from Chicago

Once those things are done, there is another long list of stuff that I hope to talk about as we go. We hope to be producing beer in the middle of September 2012. Stay tuned for further updates.

News

After the Taste of Music City, we were contacted by a lovely and talented reporter for the Murfreesboro Post named Melinda Hudgins. She visited us in our garage, and the next thing you know, we're on the front page of the paper. Sweet. See the complete article here.