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.

#fullsteamNEAR

#fullsteamFAR

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.

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!

]]> http://www.fullsteam.ag/blog/2010/02/twitter-contest-near-and-far/feed/ 1 http://www.fullsteam.ag/blog/2010/01/this-wednesday-support-a-local-hero/ http://www.fullsteam.ag/blog/2010/01/this-wednesday-support-a-local-hero/#comments Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:49:45 +0000 Sean http://www.fullsteam.ag/?p=1724 There’s a lot going on in Fullsteam land, but we wanted to take a moment to shine the spotlight on one of our true local heroes, Jimmy VerVaecke.

Jimmy makes good beer. Really really good beer.

Last year, Jimmy was talented enough to be selected for Sierra Nevada’s Beer Camp. He provides us with a short backgrounder:

Beer Camp is a special program Sierra Nevada runs where they invite various industry people out for a two-day insider’s tour and brewday. The campers get together and come up with the recipe and help brew it on the 20-barrel pilot system. Our trip was the prize for winning a gold medal at last year’s National Homebrewers Competition. You can read a little more about that adventure here, if you’re interested. The beer is called “Old Cantankerous” after the trouble we had getting 12 homebrewers to agree on a recipe. We also caused a little trouble on the pilot brewing system, so it was a fitting name.

The good folks at Tyler’s Taproom in Durham are hosting a special tasting this Wednesday, January 20th, starting at 5pm. Come on out to taste a truly unique beer, and meet a very talented North Carolina craft homebrewer.

Let’s raise a pint of Old Cantankerous to Jimmy this Wednesday! Hope to see you at Tyler’s in Durham.

(click on the image to see it full-sized)

p.s. Spelling Jimmy’s last name correctly was much harder than spelling “cantankerous”

What makes 2010 potentially AWESOME for you? (Besides, perhaps, this picture?) Post your hopes in our comments section! And no snarky political stuff! The future is almost here, and in the future people are happy and space ladies wear white boots and pet robot dogs with red noses. It’s AWESOME! YOU’RE AWESOME! HAPPY NEW YEAR!