Greetings from space: MIR, our brewhouse

Did you know our brewhouse was once part of a proposed manned space station? This three-section orbiter was intended to serve as a remote science lab, where scientists would study the effects of water contaminated with sugar fungus.

Here is the original design of the planned space station:

Unfortunately, budget cutbacks scuttlebutted the initial project, and only one of three compartments was ever built.

Rather than disassemble the station, the modular unit was re-engineered as a brewing vessel. Thanks to innovative design, the brewhouse — now nicknamed “MIR,” a tribute to its erstwhile intention — is a highly-efficient, integrated combination mash tun, lauter, and whirlpool.

Here is MIR landing into our new facility:

And docked:

Eagle-eyed observers will notice that the backside of MIR is somewhat dented. We can only presume that this damage occurred during early flight simulations. Our engineers are assessing the damage this week. We are confident that the vessel will hold pressure and operate flawlessly.

MIR launches to the public May 17th.

* certain portions of this blog post may not be true.

The NEAR and FAR leaderboard!

Find out how close (or far) you are from Fullsteam Brewery! Let Google maps tell you: http://fullsteam.ag/Zb. Then simply hashtag the result on Twitter, or post it to our Facebook fan page!

#fullsteamNEAR

Rank Twitterer Distance
1 vinay_shank 0.2 miles
2 10ch 0.3
3 Jenny (Facebook) 0.3
4 Heather (Facebook) 0.3
5 Helena (Facebook) 0.3


#fullsteamFAR

Rank Name Distance
1 er_smith 11,821 miles
2 carsondial 3,824
3 Ryan (Facebook) 3,300
4 kate5405 2,989
5 bjornidentity 2,923

Winners announced the day we open! In case of a tie, we may need to have a walk-off that morning to find the closest person! (Sorry, we’re not going to walk it off to determine the FAR leaders!)

Need more info? Check out this page.


Twitter contest: NEAR and FAR

Announcing a spur-of-the-moment Twitter contest! (We’re @fullsteam on Twitter. Follow us!)

This contest has TWO winners, each receiving a Fullsteam workshirt. The contest winners will be announced on the day we open, which we hope will be in the late spring.

CONTEST #1: NEAR
We’re looking for the person who *lives* the  closest to Fullsteam Brewery (726 Rigsbee Avenue). Our brewery is in an industrial area, but downtown, Old North Durham, and Trinity Park aren’t too far away!

To see how close you are to Fullsteam, use this link: http://fullsteam.ag/Zb For the “NEAR” contest, be sure to select the “Walking” pull-down option.

Tweet the distance using the hashtag #fullsteamNEAR. Like this:

1.5 miles #fullsteamNEAR

CONTEST #2: FAR
We can think of a few followers who live in distant lands….but which of our Twitter followers lives the *furthest* from Fullsteam?

To see how far you live from Fullsteam, use the same link: http://fullsteam.ag/Zb This time around, select the “By car” option. Google Maps has a little fun with this — see how they instruct people to kayak across the Pacific to travel from Fullsteam to Kyoto.

Tweet the distance using the hashtag #fullsteamFAR. Like this:

9,919 miles #fullsteamFAR

Every day, we’ll search Twitter for the #fullsteamNEAR and #fullsteamFAR hashtags to keep track of the NEAR and FAR leaders. We’ll post the leaderboard for both NEAR and FAR on the Fullsteam website, using only Twitter names to highlight the leaders.

MUTUAL TRUST
Let’s keep it fun and keep it real. Don’t lie about where you live just to try and win the contest. In the case of a tie (more likely for the “NEAR” option), we may send you a Direct Message to clarify how close you live. We won’t share this information or use it for any other purposes.

TELL A FRIEND!
Neither near or far? Tell a friend who might live far away (or close) about Fullsteam! We just ask that they follow Fullsteam on Twitter before posting their distance. You may just help someone win a shirt, which will make you Super Happy.

DID WE MISS ANYTHING?
This is our first Twitter contest, so we may have overlooked something. Feel free to post questions here or on Twitter. We’ll clarify the game as necessary.

GO GO GO!
Let’s get started! Let the tweets begin! Near and far, we want to hear from you!