It has been a long time since we had a Malter of Month posting….mostly because we were waiting on the bio from our new Vice President, Mr. Alex “TR-8R” Hartlaub. Well, he has finally responded and his reason for delay was with good reason. Here is Alex’s Bio…………
OK I can finally submit this as what has become my second obsession can now take center stage as I welcome the Return of the Mash Tun. See, I come from a huge family of first generation Star Wars fans and this past fall was a bit hectic for me, chasing down and hounding George Lucas for any advanced knowledge of the released Star Wars sequel, The Force Awakens. I can say with certainty that he didn’t really know much. As I cornered him in the bathroom of a local Burger King, and he was reaching for his phone to call in the 501st he was very adamant that I was chasing down the wrong guy. I needed to be asking JJ Abrams.
Again, a difficult nut to crack. But when I asked the J-man (as I called him) about some potential plot hints at the upcoming movie, he acted like I was “disturbing” his bath. I mean, come on man, the door was opened. I grabbed a beer, and closed the toilet seat before I sat down to chat. He owes me that much. But I digress and there is still a court case pending so we’ll just leave it at that. After my wife Jillian posted bail I grabbed a keg of homebrew and camped out in front of the theater for a few weeks. No big deal. I’ve pretty much seen the movie about 13 times so far since the 18th.
But it’s brewing you seek in this story, yes. It’s brewing I will give you. I started homebrewing shortly after Episode 3 was released. Since I thought at the time the full story has concluded I needed something else to pass my time, so I started brewing. I started out as others have in the past, with a little blue Bantha milk….sorry bad joke. I started brewing with extract and found I really enjoyed the hobby. I enjoyed fruit beers in particular, and although my craving was strong, my shame was unequaled…..it was almost as if I made out with my sister or something. So as I started to delve into the dark side of craft beer enjoyment, I found if I wore my Stormtrooper helmet or costume to bars, I got a lot free drinks, even fruit beers. So that habit stuck.
A short time after, my wife found out a guy in her Triathlon club also brewed, and it just so happened that my carboy had a bad motivator, and she suggested I give him a call to see if he had one I could borrow. That was how I was introduced to the Manty Malters group. It wasn’t much longer after I joined and I had a considerable number of extract beers under my belt that I felt I was going to make the jump into all grain. When I brought this up to the group, they were very supportive. I told them “I will not fail them, I am not afraid.” “You will be…..” they said. “You will be…..” Ahhh, good times. But you know what they say, do or do not, there is no try. So I did. It’s been all one big Jawa party since.
