Hooch!

This past weekend we were the lucky attendees at Hoochfest, an all-day backyard barbecue thrown by our friends Ashley and Sebastian. There were long wooden tables, tons of food, insanely delicious homemade brownies, and party games. But the real star attraction was the beer, home brewed in the basement specifically for the occasion. Before you start thinking of bathtubs and moonshine, rest assured that this is no low-class home-brewing deal. There are computers involved, and probes, and tubes running from giant container to giant container. Very fancy stuff. I really should have taken a picture, but for some reason I wasn’t my usually shutter-happy self that day.

The games involved trivia (bilingual, even, so that all of the multinational attendees could play along), beer tasting (at which I kicked ass, FYI), hammering nails in to a log (as illustrated in the picture by the lovely and talented Matt), and holding out a full Maß beer stein with one arm for as long as possible (ow). There was also whipped-cream-tower-building for the kids.

Sebastian’s beer has gained such a following that he’s started selling it locally. Starting in August there will even be a Beer of the Month Club that you can subscribe to and have fresh seasonal beer delivered right to your door. The prizes for the party games were free subscriptions to the Beer of the Month club, and pretty much every person at the party won one. So not only were we invited over for copious amounts of delicious beer, but they will also be bringing more of this delicious beer to our house next month. How’s that for kick-ass friends?

Sebastian’s brewery has been christened Brauerei 8143, and I think their Beer of the Month Club is open to pretty much anyone in the Zurich area. Check out the brewery’s website to learn more.