The holidays are just around the corner and at Mightybytes that can mean just one thing: Mightybrew!

Yes, it’s been a holiday tradition since 2008 that we brew beer to share in the spirit of the season with friends, family, and co-workers. This holiday season was no exception and we brewed two pale ales: one west coast-style and one India-style.

Celebrating Mightybrew’s Three Beer Anniversary and the Opening of Brew Camp. Let’s Make Beer!

Three years ago, we invited Jared Saunders, founder of Little Green Cube and expert craft brewer, to teach us how to brew our own beer. Rather than send holiday cards, we thought it would be cool to share our homemade brews with clients and friends. And naming the beers and developing labels showcased our creativity. Mightybrew was officially born. We even won some awards on those early efforts.

This year's winter batch includes an Imperial Pale Ale and our own custom version of a Brown Ale.

Tis the season, and at Mightybytes that means it’s also beer season! This year we’ve made some changes in our annual brewing adventures, moving on from pre-packaged beer kits used in past years, to recipes from Extreme Brewing by Sam Calagione. Add in our some of our own creative improvisation and holiday Mightybrew 2010 bubbles to life.

Tim, our fearless leader, is often coming up with ideas to improve our business. When he suggested recently that our company go green, we all cheered.

Perhaps referring to him as fearless is a tad extreme. When I say he's fearless I mean he doesn't fear irrational things, like, oh, cake. He fears no cake. But he does have rational fears, about things like, say, we humans screwing up our environment so badly that poor ol' Mother Earth can't fix herself back up again. And we, his employees, share that fear.

"But what's the first step in going green?" I asked in a trembling, afraid-of-new-things kind of way.

"Take a look at the 'eco-Andersonville Sustainable Business Certification Program Worksheet'" he boomed in a commanding baritone. Baritonally commanded, I did so. Once finished printing the sizable document I shook my fist at the heavens, suddenly realizing the irony of printing out on mashed-up trees a document specifically dedicated to reducing the amount of things we print out on mashed-up trees. Damn. Karma-wise, I deserved to be chopped up into cubes and scattered about the roots of a young sapling as fertilizer.

Cold and tasty, the new Mightybrew selections were home-brewed, bottled, capped, and hand-labeled by the crew just in time for the Return on Engagement Book Launch party.

As doors opened on the party, over 200 beers were ready for thirsty partygoers. Extreme Chicago heat during the event and a shaky performance by the central air in our new space led to repeat ice cooler visits by sweaty attendees and the near complete decimation of our supply.

The beers were named during regular company meetings over the past few weeks and labels created mere hours before our shindig.

What did we discover? This batch tastes even better than last year’s batch.