bernie moore

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by Melissa Coulter

Bernie began brewing for us in October 2001. He's most frequently seen tramping around the Blue Cat in galoshes, peering into brewing tanks, or sitting at the bar with a pint (after his shift, of course). In mid-March, I sat down for lunch with Bernie, as I often do. But this time I had a tape recorder and a list of silly questions with which to pester him. Here is our conversation, in full.

MC: So, what’s your full name?

BM: Bernard Lee Moore II.

MC: That’s a very distinguished sounding name. Didn’t you have a different name when you started here?

BM: Yeah, I changed my last name. I was named after my grandfather and I was pretty much raised by my grandparents, so I changed my last name, which had been my stepdad’s last name, to honor my grandfather.

MC: Now you recently got married in the last year--

BM: Yes, I got married December 27th of 2001.

MC: Where do you guys live? Out by Walcott?

BM: We live in Dixon. There’s about 210 people who live there. And it’s out past Walcott. The middle of nowhere, really.

MC: So what do you do on your days off in Dixon?

BM: Well, when we moved here to Iowa my wife and I both got our own four-wheelers, so we do a lot of riding. We do that quite a bit. And since we just bought a new house, most of our time goes into working on our house, and fixing it up how we want it.

MC: Tell me about your brewing background.

BM: I started out --I had moved to Texas originally just to go to school to become a chiropractor. I started working in a brew pub, just working security.

MC: Where was that?

BM: That was in Dallas at the Coppertank Brewing Company. I started working as security and the assistant brewer had left. He took a head brewer’s job in Alaska or something like that. So, I showed some interest and started talking to the head brewer there and he hired me as his assistant. I had some background in chemistry - organic chemistry - and so I had a good idea of what was going on. But the whole process was fairly new to me. My boss, who was the head brewer, his name was John Sims, and he was the president of the Craft Brewers Association of Texas. He was a pretty well recognized brewer in the state of Texas. So, he and I worked together there, I guess about two years. I was his assistant. It was pretty awesome. He and I end up being real close friends - spent a lot of time hanging out, even not at work. He was definitely a really good boss. After about two years there, Coppertank decided they had to start cutting costs, so they decided the brewing operations would be better if just one person did it. I went around to some of the other breweries in town and there was a brewery called Great Grains Brewery. They weren’t a brew pub; they were an actual microbrewery. They make about twelve different beers there, I think. Everything was bottled --we did all the bottling, all the labeling, stuff like that. And we distributed it basically all across Texas. So, I did that for, probably, another year. Then once my wife and I decided to get married and start our own family, we decided we were going to move back here, because this is where she was originally from. So, once we moved back here I wasn’t real sure what I was going to do, if I was going to work construction with her uncle...And I stopped over here and talked to Dan and it just so happened that he was looking for a brewer, so I got the job.

MC: What’s your wife’s name?
BM: Jill.

MC: Do you have a favorite beer to brew?

BM: I don’t really have a favorite to brew. It’s always fun to do the big beers, you know, like our Winter Ale or the stouts. It’s more work, because of the more grain and everything, but it’s just a mental thing - making a big beer, you know - those are kind of fun.

MC: What’s your favorite beer to drink?

BM: Our favorite beer here to drink, so far, has been the Winter Ale. I really like it. It’s got a good maltiness to it, quite a bit of hop character. Just to my taste, that’s what I enjoy so far. Of course, there’s 38 other ones that we make here that I haven’t had yet. My favorite beer if I was going out to buy a beer is called La Fin du Monde. It’s a Trippel and it’s made by Unibroue, a brewery in Quebec. It’s a really good beer, also. They actually carry bottles of it at RIBCO. I was kind of surprised they had it.

MC: Now on to my goofy questions. What place would you return to in a second?
BM: I don’t know that there’s any place I would go back to in a second. I enjoyed working at the Coppertank, just because of the guy I worked with. We were close and we had a good time at work. That was nice, but I don’t think I would go back there if the job was offered to me. I’m pretty happy here - new house, and the brewery here is great - the set-up we have here, so, not a job I would go back to.

MC: What’s a place you couldn’t be paid enough to return to?

BM: UPS. When I lived here in the Quad Cities before, I got hired for UPS loading trucks. I wasn’t an unloader or anything or a sorter, I was a loader-

MC: Highly specialized.

BM: Yeah, it was terrible. I think I worked there five or six weeks. I worked in the afternoon 4:00 to 9:00, so it kind of ruined the first part of your day and you couldn’t really do anything in the evening, ‘cause you would come home all tired. I might sound like a wimp or whatever, but it got to the point where I was in a bad mood during the day, because I had to go to work, and I was in a bad mood when I got home from work.

MC: Yeah, my husband had one of those jobs.

BM: It’s just not worth being in a pissy mood.

MC: What’s your favorite alcoholic beverage?
BM: Other than beer?

MC: Other than beer.

BM: Umm...I’d have to say Crown Royal. I like bourbon and Crown is a pretty good bourbon, so if I’m not drinking beer I usually drink Crown - Crown and Coke or Crown on the rocks.

MC: I enjoy Maker’s Mark, myself. What’s your favorite non-alcoholic beverage?
BM: Favorite non-alcoholic....Let’s see, I guess Bud Light doesn’t count - kind of, but not really. I would have to say...I don’t know, I drink a lot of Mountain Dew.

MC: That was going to be my guess - I see that in your glass quite often. Let’s see...celebrities...who’s a celebrity that you would like to hang out with?
BM: Well, I’m a big baseball fan and an even bigger Yankees fan. Don Mattingly was always my idol as far as baseball players growing up. But I think, of anybody on the Yankees team that I could go hang out with, it would probably by David Wells. He seems like he’d be fun to go partying with or have some drinks with.

MC: Which celebrity would you like to take a swing at?
BM: Hmmm... I don’t know. We’ll come back to that.

MC: Are you watching the Oscars this weekend? Are you into that?

BM: Nah, not really.

MC: What’s the best movie you’ve seen in the past year?
BM: I can’t remember. Name some movies and I’ll tell ya.

MC: Well, I hardly got to the movies at all last year, myself.

BM: I did see Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

MC: Yeah, I saw that one, too! Of all the movies that I could see when I did actually get to the theaters...

BM: It was pretty funny, especially if you’ve seen any of Kevin Smith’s other movies.

MC: Yes. I’m a huge Kevin Smith fan. I’m waiting for them to come out with the Kevin Smith boxed set on DVD.

BM: Yeah, with all five of them. I think there’s five of them, isn’t there?

MC: Yeah, Chasing Amy, Mallrats, Clerks-

BM: Clerks -

MC: Dogma and Jay and Silent Bob.

BM: The South Park Movie -

MC: Yeah that was really one of the best musicals to come out in the last several years -

BM: - past the language and the toilet humor. If you’ve ever seen the great musicals and you compare them musically, it’s really awesome. They start the movie with one song and they end it with the same song. And then you have the big climactic, dramatic song right in the middle and everybody had their own parts that all tied into the same song --

MC: "La Resistance" -

BM: Viva la resistance! That has to be one of my favorite movies.

MC: So, if you could try any other career, what would it be?

BM: Hmmm...food critic.

MC: Food critic? You know, Joel said the same thing.

BM: Really? He works in that field, I don’t. I’d have to say, also, maybe a sports announcer.

MC: For baseball?

BM: Mmm-hmmm. Or maybe the Yankees team chiropractor. I still enjoy chiropractic.

MC: Did you get your degree as a chiropractor?

BM: No. I never actually started the chiropractic school. I’ve taken everything required to get in, but I never actually started. It’s one of those where you’ve got to be really sure before you start. Because to get a third- or half-way through and change your mind - that’s a lot of money to pay back.

MC: A lot of money and a lot of time spent.

BM: But, being the chiropractor for the Yankees - getting to travel around with them and go to all of the games - that would be cool.

MC: So, any amusing stories from you childhood or adulthood that you’d like to share with me?

BM: Well, the first time I got drunk.

MC: Alright, let’s here that one.

BM: I was about five or six, maybe.

MC: You’re kidding!

BM: We had an exchange student living with us from Germany. And she had come over and she had brought these gummi bears. I found them one day and I ended up eating a whole bag of gummi bears, and then we went out to eat. The whole time we were out to eat - of course, I don’t remember - this is what I’ve been told - I was just yelling and climbing on the table and under the table and running all over the place. So finally we left the restaurant and I guess I was just sweating really bad. On the way home they had to hold me on the floor of the car and put the vents on me to blow some air on me. They didn’t know what was going on until they got home. It ended up that the gummi bears were all filled with bourbon or whiskey or something like that.

MC: Oh my God.

BM: Yeah, they were bourbon-filled gummi bears, so I got pretty drunk.

MC: That’s incredible. Well, I think I’ll let you get back to your sandwich. Just one more question: How do you like it here at the Blue Cat? Do you like working here?

BM: Definitely. Of course, the food’s great so lunch is always good.

MC: Yeah.

BM: And all the employees - of course, I haven’t even met everybody here, ‘cause I’m here during the day and most people work nights - but the people that I have met have been great. Like I said, the brewery set-up is real easy to work on. The things - as far as brewing - that Dan would believe in, certain techniques or principles of brewing, are pretty close - actually almost the same - as what I was taught when I was first learning, so that works out real good.

MC: So did you figure out a celebrity you'd like to take a swing at?

BM: No. I don't really hate anyone that much.

MC: There's no one that annoys you?

BM: That annoys me..... Not a celebrity. Fanatics annoy me. Anyone who is focused on one thing and nothing else. Close-minded people. They annoy me.

MC: Amen, brother.