Moosehead Tribute Christmas Tree

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MaxOut

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I know this has nothing to do with brewing beer but I thought if anyone would appreciate it it would be the members of homebrew talk. Over the past year I have not brewed on the MaxOut Brewstation. In early January I lost a close friend unexpectedly who was also my brewing partner. It has been difficult for me to get back into the brewery. Although I consider myself a beer connoisseur of sorts and really love a good IPA I still prefer a crisp refreshing lager on those hot summer days. My lager of choice has always been Moosehead Lager or my own brew 444 that I created as a clone to Moosehead lager. So in the absence of my homebrew this summer I have been accumulating a lot of empty Moosehead bottles. My wife came up with an idea to make a tree out of the Moosehead bottles. With the help of my wife, friends and family we have amassed a large quantity of Moosehead bottles. I originally laid out the design of the tree in CAD software and estimated I would need 597 bottles to make a tree approximately 10 feet tall and 5.4 feet wide. When I started assembling the tree I decided to make it wider at the bottom to 6 feet. There was one major flaw in my cad design aside from widening the tree I had added a space between each bottle in the design. This error along with widening the tree significantly increased the number of bottles needed to accomplish this tree. Luckily we continued to save our Moosehead bottles and had enough.

So this is what we ended up with.

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448285694.240200.jpg

The tree and star is close to 15' in height, 7' wide at base with 999 bottles adorning it.
 
We delivered the tree to our camping property in Virginia where we decided it would be displayed until New Year's. This is where most of the beer was consumed with our family and friends so we decided it would be a good place for it to reside. Now came the time to stack the bottles. I had originally designed a clip that would attach to the bottle and have a hook to hang it on the wireframe. Unfortunately time did not allow so we went with Plan B and attach the bottles with rubber bands. This turned out to be a long and strenuous task as the rubber bands did not allow you to move the bottles once you let go. It took nearly 12 View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448287288.331822.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448287307.814664.jpgView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448287338.152727.jpghours steady with two people helping to hang the bottles.View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1448287238.107384.jpg
 
I posted this write up with the tree on the Moosehead Lager Facebook page that describes the conception and the meaning of the tribute tree. Not sure if you are aware but Moosehead is family owned and is the largest and oldest independent brewery in Canada. Early in Moosehead history they had several fires and tragedies that nearly shut them down but were able make it through. Oh and the founder and original creator of Moosehead was a lady [emoji57]

Here's the write up-

Moosehead Christmas Tree

This Christmas tree is made of empty sealed Moosehead beer bottles. Each beer was shared and consumed amongst friends and family. Symbolically each bottle encapsulates the special moments of our 2015 summer. Where the beer was is now filled with love and special memories we are thankful for. The Moosehead Christmas tree is over 14' tall and has close to 1000 bottles adorning it.

This Moosehead Christmas tree was built as a tribute to Moosehead beer and the Oland family. We are thankful that through great challenges and disasters the Oland Families stood steadfast with persistence and perseverance to rebuild and remain an independent brewery. Moosehead beer was built on tradition and family values and this tree represents how thankful we are for both.

Thank You and from our family to yours Merry Christmas!
 
Great job! You have mad fabricating skills! That is a nice tribute and I am sorry for the loss of your friend and brewing partner.

John
 
And I thought I was cool with the Rolling Rock Christmas tree made with my bottle tree. I stand humbled, sir! :rockin:
 
So cool and a great tribute. Moosehead is pretty tasty. Wish I had the skills to build something like that!
 
Thank you for the nice comments. I've sent pictures of the tree to various Moosehead contacts with very little response. Moosehead on Facebook said they would feature of the tree there but I have been unable to contact anyone else within Moosehead.
 
Moosehead put the tree on their blog and did a nice write up.

http://www.mooseheadbeeracademy.com/inspiring-tree/

I got a phone call today from none other then Andrew Oland CEO/President of Moosehead Breweries Limited thanking me for supporting Moosehead and offered to bring me and my wife to New Brunswick for a personal tour of the brewery [emoji15][emoji16] I am blown away by the overwhelming response from this tree. Turns out the people who make up the Moosehead company are as awesome as the beer I've enjoyed for nearly three decades.
 
I gotta admit I'm really excited about touring the brewery. I'm also going to get to try many of the other Moosehead brands I can't get here in Md.
 

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