Just a close knit beer family

While running errands the other day I got a funny call from Andy at Triangle Brewing Co.  He needed a favor.  Now, you need to understand this.  The Boys From Triangle are some very resourceful, self-reliant, guys not above some serious razzing and I’m one of their favorite targets.  Andy calling me for some help?  Well, I got ready.

The back-story started a few hours earlier, when after quite a struggle with a recalcitrant cask to be tapped at a Alivia’s, (home to Triangle’s weekly cask program), uncovered some technical weirdness with the tap.  Frankly, I’d never seen a gizmo like this thing.

So, the Boys From Triangle decided to borrow a tap from me, which I delivered to their brewery early in the afternoon and picked up my service fee in the form of a pint of Triangle IPA. Sweet.  Nice beer and a nice Good Neighbor feel.

Back to the call from Andy a few hours later.  It turns out my tap didn’t match the threads of their system.  Okay, three serious beer guys and we couldn’t have anticipated that move.  Huh?  By now Andy had inveigled the All About Beer Magazine staff to beat it up to Alivia’s, declaring a state of emergency!  When he called me they were cheering on The Boys From Triangle as they struggled mightily for hours trying to get this cask tapped without disturbing the cask ale.  Time was of the essence because the cask tapping party loomed.

I was doing a site inspection for the World Cask Ale Festival coming this October (get your tickets, not many will go on sale) and didn’t have my office/car keys.  Did I tell you that the staff was at Alivia’s?  So I called Angela, but then thought of the landlord.  Three trips back and forth from their office to mine before one of their keys unlocked the office.  I called Angela to tell her not to come, but she’d set out to let me in the office and left her phone at Alivia’s.

I am getting to a point, patient reader.

I drove home and pulled the correctly threaded nut off of my own tapped cask of Top of the Hill Saison, which later leaked all over the refer and the shop, and triumphantly delivered it to Alivia’s, The Boys From Triangle and the gang from All About Beer Magazine and the World Beer Festival.

Within moments we all had pints of Triangle’s cask IPA.  Then I looked around the gathering and realized, ah ha, one of my favorite moments — beer community! Here was the local brewery, owner and manager of one of our better beer bars, and the crew from the world’s best beer magazine and four spectacular beer festivals, all conspiring together to get a pint of brilliant cask ale on a beautiful Thursday afternoon.

It was a great toast from all of us.