ManNight 2010: Super Hero Edition
I don’t take myself very seriously and thankfully, my friends are in the same boat. Which, if we actually were in a boat, we would more than likely dub it the SS Silly. The wives, of course, would call it the SS Stupid.
Over the last four years, we have taken it upon ourselves to hold a testosterone filled night about once a year to celebrate all things Man and thus, ManNight was born. A friend of Eric asked, “Can’t you just sit around and drink beer and play poker?” Sorry, no. Remember, we’re on the SS Stupid Silly. Every ManNight has two things: a lot of cooked meat and a theme. Typically we drum up a theme at a BrewDay, or some other gathering, and then spend several weeks planning/ordering/making our “costumes”. We’ve done leisure suits, a luau, a Viking invasion and this year: Super Heroes.
However, before we enter the Hall of Justice, let’s talk food.
I was pressed for time on Friday (a little thing called work), so I opted to cook two 10 pound Boston Butt’s on the Summit’s Rotisserie. I opted for the Summit, because I can maintain an even low temperature and could essentially set it and forget it.
It was quite chilly at 6:30 in the morning and after wiping the frost off the grill, I crossed my fingers in hope the Summit would handle 20 pounds of pork. Thankfully, it did. I’ve abused the Summit’s roto motor and it continues to perform. Love it.
The Butts were rubbed with my slightly fine tuned Coffee Rub from a couple weeks ago and smoked with a little bit of hickory. They spun for 12 hours before being pulled off.
Since this is ManNight, we typically have a vegetable-less dinner. So, the second meat serving was a stack of thick cut strip strip steaks.
With The King’s “help”, the 26 inch kettle easily fit all 12 pieces of meat. I say “help”, because all he did was stare at me. It was somewhat disconcerting.
Meanwhile…back at The Hall of Justice:
The Table of Man was set. There are three symbols of ManNight: The Man Trophy, the Tiger and the portrait of James T. Kirk. All were present.
Now although this was a Super Hero theme, the definition was rather loosely followed in some cases. For example, I have already mentioned The King. The only time he is associated with the word “super” is when it is followed by “creepy”.
Rounding out the rest of the Super Best Friends were Major Jackass (although not pictured with ears), Neo, Wolverine, the Greatest American Hero(s), Mr. Incredible and James T. Kirk (the real one!). My costume? I wanted the dumbest Super Hero that was “legitimate” and then once removed. I was Aqualad, Aquaman’s emotionally distant nephew. It was because of me there was no fish for dinner.
As with any ManNight, we made outlandish plans for the next ManNight and then retired to the basement to rock out on plastic instruments and impress all of our virtual fans with our “superness”. Yes, it was Rockband time. Although, the only person at ManNight with a tail wasn’t always happy with the setlist.
I should note it was a mostly homebrew night. Dave brought a keg of his Power Pack Porter and I had the remains of my Porter as well as my relatively new Belgian I kegged last week. Drew brought a bottle of his ManNight barleywine. Lacquer finish was one reaction. Yes, but very, very tasty lacquer finish. It was deadly, but good.
Well, if you made it to the bottom of this long post, you are more super than we are. It is a whole bunch of silly/stupidness, but if you don’t take goofy pit stops on life's journey, what are we going to have to laugh at when we hit 60? ManNight was a whopping 9 hour affair, but when you have Wolverine serving poppers form his adamantium claws, it goes by real fast.
