That long day, Part I

As I said, long day. I woke up at 4:40 AM yesterday and woke Thomas. We got out the door about 5:15, no breakfast, no coffee (I did have a big glass of unsweetened iced tea), and hit the Turnpike. Look, I told him; we can hit a Wawa and get...something for breakfast, or we can drive farther and get breakfast. Smart lad; we kept driving. About 6:50, we got to the White Haven Family Diner, a random choice from Minerva. But I saw a Roadfood-approved sticker on the door as we went in, I knew we were OK. Great breakfast -- Thomas's chili omelet had cheese melted right into the chili, my scrapple was great -- and we were ready for the morning.

We took the tour at Bucknell University, then Thomas went to hang out in the library (really) while I interviewed Harold Kerlin of Copper Kettle Brewery. Harold and his brewery partner Russ Eisenhuth both work at the university, and worked together before that; they know each other well, and as Harold said, they know that they work together well, too. They are brewing CK on a one barrel 'system,' with one barrel food-grade plastic fermenters; all their beer is bottled, hand-bottled, and bottle-conditioned. They figure to make about 40 barrels this year. They started the brewery mainly because they had so many friends asking for homebrew that they couldn't afford to give it away any more! There are plans for an expansion, but not any time soon; not a lot of money in brewing one barrel at a time. You can find the beers at the Scarlet D Tavern in Mifflinburg and the Bull Run Inn in Lewisburg. Harold gave me a six-pack of samples I plan to get into soon.

We walked through rain to the car, and headed down Rt. 45 to Millheim and Elk Creek Cafe. I'll write more on that after I've played with the Corgis for a bit.