The Frank Debate

Well, believe it or not, the brewers at New Holland Brewing Company now have their own blog. I suppose I should begin by attempting to explain some sort of purpose behind all of this, if there is one. The goal is to leave one member of the production crew in charge of posting to this blog each week. This should allow for a variety of different viewpoints, topics, and beer fueled mayhem as we see fit. So to kick it all off, let's talk about Frank. First of all, Frank is the working title of a sour beer experiment that we've been playing with. Being a fan of just about every sour beer I've been able to get my grubby little paws on, I'm personally pretty pumped about it. For a moment let's forget about what this beer tastes like or is named and get to a little debate floating through the brewery: to keg or to bottle? On one side, there is a viewpoint that we should bottle all of this beer into 750ml bombers and be done with it. The other opinion is to take a keg or two and release this beast upon the unsuspecting Holland public at our pub. I say both - not because I want people to experience something they may not otherwise try (which I do), not so the company can make more money, but simply so I can sit down in our pub and have a pint of this amazing shit. That's it, that's my big argument. I want to be able to drink this beer that has been in the works for about a year now, this beer that has made the trek from Fairbanks to Commerce Ct., after tastings, blendings, and weeks of trying to carbonate this son of a bitch, I want a pint. Now a bit on why we call this beer Frank, even though I know that this name will get shot down just like every other beer name we come up with - once it hits the shelf it will probably either be called some p.c. name that doesn't mean a damn thing or some random ancient Greek name nobody can pronounce. Here lies my argument for Frank: we had a friend of ours come through the brewery not too long ago, who just so happens to work for a large craft brewery in the region. He brought us a little of his sour beer project that he was proud of (and rightfully so) and after tasting it, we offered up a sample of our little experiment. He didn't seem the least bit interested, so after he left we drank the two side-by-side and came to the conclusion that ours was just a little bit more "out there" for lack of a better description. Needless to say, we at the production crew have un-officially named the beer in his name - almost like throwing down the gauntlet, slapping him in the face with our collective glove, and challenging him to a sour beer duel. Hopefully we can slip through the cracks with the name Frank, but we'll just have to wait and see what the powers that be come up with. Regardless of the name, or how it is served (draft or bottle), we're proud of the beer, which is what matters to us at the end of the day. Until next time.....