Clarkehead Brewery

As some of you may know, my wife and I have been involved with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation for a few years, since making friends with Paul & Debbie Motenko, who’s daughter Stacy has been living with CF all of her life.  She’s in her mid-20’s now, has graduated college, and marching on with her life.  She still lives with CF, as there really is no cure.  The only thing the CFF can do is continue to raise money for medical research and advances that will prolong the life of its victims, of which Stacy is one.

Some of you may remember Paul Motenko.  He’s the co-founder of BJ’s Brewery, an annual Gold and/or Silver Medal Winner at the Great American Beer Festival.  He became friends with my wife under the oddest of circumstances, but it was one of the best friends she could have made.  Paul, Debbie and Stacy Motenko are a rare breed of people.  Through the difficulties Cystic Fibrosis has faced them with, they’ve managed to never wane from their inertly strong human spirit.  And I can tell you first hand, it is rich.  It’s a spirit richer than I could ever imagine achieving.  Love seems to pour out of their veins, no matter the struggles they’re faced with.

On my 40th birthday, Katrina arranged for me to be a guest brewer at BJ’s.  All it took was a phone call to Paul.  He made it happen in a heartbeat.  It turned out to be one of the best gifts I’ve ever received.  It literally changed the way I brewed beer, and made me appreciate not only the craft, but the profession of making beer.  I not only respected brewers more that day, I learned to respect the beer I make.  Every drop of my beer needs to mean something.  So whenever I ask you to taste the love, I mean it.

This brings me to the point of this post.

When they first discovered Cystic Fibrosis, you were lucky if you made it through elementary school before it killed you.  It’s that horrible of a disease.  But because of money raised by the foundation, medical advances have been made that extends the life of victims of the disease well into their 20’s and 30’s.  So the fundraising done by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is helping these kids live longer, and allowing their families more time with them before the disease takes them away from them.  There is no cure, yet.  But they are extending their lives. Hopefully we can find a way to raise enough for a cure someday.  Ideally in my lifetime, but more importantly in Stacy Motenko’s.

Cystic Fibrosis is not a disease that our government provides funding to fight, so only money raised by the CFF goes toward medical research and advances in the medicine they can take to extend their lives.

Each year in May, the CFF has this fundraising walk called “Great Strides.” Katrina and I are part of a team, sponsored by Bryson Financial Group (Katrina’s company) as well as BJ’s Brewery.  We will walk a 10K in a large group of people who raise money with us to help fight this disease.  I cannot walk with them if I do not raise money for their cause, so I need your help.

Please click here to donate to our group walk. This link will take you to the CFF web site where you can make your donation online. The money goes directly to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Here’s the bonus:
For every $25 donation you make, I will personally send you a 12-ounce bottle of Clarkehead beer  as well as a 2 ounce vaccuum sealed bag of my own Clarkehead brand beef jerky.  You can have a bottle of beer of your choice, from whatever I have on tap – and currently that’s a Belgian Tripel, Chocolate Stout, IPA, and a scant amount of Hard Apple Cider.

Once you make your donation, just send an email to me with your name and address, and the style of beer you would like and I’ll get your package to you. We’ll be brewing a Hefeweizen this weekend, so if you’d like to reserve a bottle of that, feel free. Should be ready 3 weeks from the date of this post.

We’re calling this campaign “BJ and a Beer”  — BJ standing for both Beef Jerky and BJ’s Brewery.  If you’ve not tasted my beef jerky, it is incredible.  People often offer to pay me to make it for them.  I cannot legally sell my beer or beef jerky.  So I am sending the beer and beef jerky to you as a favor for helping me help my friends who are living with CF.  Believe me, it means the world to me right now.

This is not resale, this is Clarkehead giving back to you for being so kind and passionate to all of my friends who are inflicted with this unfair disease.  People do bake sales and sell cookies to raise money all of the time.  To be crystal clear – I’m not selling anything to you.  I’m giving it to you for doing me this favor.  That’s all this is.

Paul, Debbie and their daughter Stacy are great people, and if I can give back just a little, it would make me feel better.  And I know sending beer in the mail is “against the rules.”  But Cystic Fibrosis is against my rules.  I don’t think it’s fair.

Thank you for your donations, for supporting my friends, and more importantly the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Cheers to all of you,

Phil

One thing you may notice that’s missing is the Clarkehead Ale Mafia.  I didn’t bring this over from the old site for one major reason – no one’s brewing.  Initially, when I set up the old web site, I started the Ale Mafia as a group of my friends who would eventually start brewing and get bitten by the bug as hard as I did.

One friend ended up getting that bug.  One friend does not a mafia make.

End of the Clarkehead Ale Mafia.  For now, at least.

Another thing that you may notice is our new slogan “Cat got your tongue?”  The old slogan “Feel single, see double, drink Clarkehead” was cute – for 6 years.  Then, several friends of mine actually started feeling single, and all hell broke loose.

I don’t have to tell you how I feel about that.  It makes me sad. But then again, since Clarkehead Brewery is all about cats, the new slogan just seemed to fit better anyway.

It’s a long story why this site is now a blog.  I guess it’s because times have changed and I simply don’t feel like dicking around with FTP, designing new web pages, updates, etc.  I do it all day at work.  I don’t want to do it in my free time too.  I simply want to write about the things I love, which includes beer.

This site is going to be fresher, updated more often, and in about a year will be the new clarkeheadbrew.com.  It’s a long story, but Yahoo! sucks and I had to pay them to be my registrar for one more year.  Then it moves here and everyone will be happy.

I have a lot planned, including some appearances on other podcasts.  Because I don’t talk enough, and I need to talk about beer – just not on my own show.

Capice?