North Carolina brewing HISTORY.

One day you'll say that "you knew me when"...

Observe:

A brewery startup is, appropriately enough, starting up by my buddy Sean over in Durham. Everybody's on edge to hear the latest news on a finalized lease and a location and an opening. Following along with the brewery's development, the e-commerce section of Fullsteam is fired up and accepting electronic currency for merchandise.

First item?  A Hogwash! shirt:

Two choices for your brand spankin' new Fullsteam Hogwash! shirt.

Smoke that shirt?

- Naw.

- Yee-Haw!

What?  "Smoke that shirt?"  The explanation:

Announcing the first-ever Fullsteam tees! These aren't your ordinary shirts...our new Hogwash! shirts come HICKORY-SMOKED for that gen-u-swine (oh no I di' in!) smoky smell. We slow-smoke our Hogwash! shirts over hickory wood in the same traditional Carolina smoker used to hickory-smoke our malted barley.

Granted, that trademark smoke smell should fade after a few washes. But, heck...we live in the South! It's not like we wash our clothes that often anyway. Am I right, Yankee Stereotype Guy?

We'll have pictures of the shirt-smoking process in a few days. We're also experimenting with some cutting-edge Internet scratch-and-sniff technology, where you can preview the smell of the shirts simply by touching your computer monitor.*

Don't want to smell like a Carolina pitmaster? You can certainly order a non-smoking shirt...just choose the "naw!" option, and your shirt will smell as fresh as honeysuckle pie.

* In combination with sitting by a campfire for approximately three hours.

Sweet. And this is the email I received today concerning my order:

FLASH!

Thanks for purchasing the first-ever smoked Fullsteam t-shirt! (everyone else to-date has been a lame-o non-smoker). We're smoking a batch this weekend, so I'll ship it to you on Monday!

Take care, and THANKS for the support!
Sean

Chalk another one up for brewery groupie stardom.  Fame falls upon me.