I know most of you fell for the grand deception pulled off earlier in the week by Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The U.S. and British press were unknowing pawns in the scheme, reporting that Her Majesty would be coming to U.S. on a State visit, arriving at Richmond to attend festivities at Jamestown, and then off to the Kentucky Derby. What you did not know and I can now reveal to you are some details of the Queen’s Saturday visit along with her husband Prince Phillip, to my garage brewery to celebrate Big Brew 2007!

Many of you are probably saying to yourself “Damn! Rich invited us to drop by, but did we? No…” You probably were stuck somewhere wearing a cheesy sombrero, drinking bad margaritas or Corona in celebration of Cinco De Mayo. Or worse, you were all dressed up in your best formal clothes, sipping a watery mint julep out in the hot sun, waiting to watch a three-minute horse racing spectacle; while The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, Rich and his brew buddies were mashing in, boiling wort, and drinking great home brewed craft beer, having a great time!

The British Secret Service are quite good at setting up such grand diversions, especially after all the practice given to them in past years by many a Prince Charles and Camilla rendezvous (‘Hey Cam and Chuck, We missed you at the Beer Walk this year…’) It was really clever of them to pick Richmond on one extreme and Louisville on the other with my garage being pretty much right in the middle, just a few miles off of I-64. It was done so discretely that not even the highest placed members of Les Amis Du Vin had the slightest clue of Her Majesty’s real mission.

Liz (after a few beers, we forgo the formalities), dropped by just in time to help me mash in my grains. “It’s been a while since Phil and I broke out our Cajun cooker for brew day” she said regrettably. “I miss that smell of malted barley.” She also confided in me that she prefers German beer to British styles (oops, I let that slip), and she cannot stand macro brand lagers. She even made an off-color remark comparing Coors Lite to making love in a canoe or something.

After She and Phil got their fair share of great beer, steamed mussels and shrimp and a few Belgian Frites, they needed to “make an appearance” at Churchill Downs for the race. She was really looking forward to Louisville, not for the silly horse race but because she was finally going to get a chance to visit Bluegrass Brewing Company. She heard from some guy in CAMRA that they made a killer pale ale, so she was not lying to the Louisville press when she told them she had to hurry off for an important appointment with the BBC (wink-wink). We hated to see them go because Phil was just getting started and they did not have to drive. I really didn’t know he could clog like that! He’s better than Bob Wise if you ask me.

For those that attended Big Brew 2007, Thanks for coming… As for 2008; who knows what will happen. But ya better be there!

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