Diacetyl in Beer Land!

The evening before our first meeting with the marketing group, trouble struck. It finally happened. Everyone had warned me that I would get really sick at some point in Vietnam and they were right. I went to bed in my room above the taproom and I awoke in the middle of the night to the worst pain I have ever felt. I ran to the toilet and sat down. I hunched over and just cried. Then, it came from up top too. I was a literal fountain of bodily fluids, sitting on the toilet and puking on the bathroom floor.

After things quieted down a bit from my insides, I took my t shirt off and turned the shower on. I rinsed the tile clean and laid in the fetal position on the floor. I let the warm water stream run on me. After a while, I got up, turned the shower off, dried myself off and put on clean clothes. I crawled back into bed and tried to go back to sleep.

In the morning, I texted Mike about my situation. It was bound to happen at some point he replied. A bit later, he knocked on my door and came into the room.

“Here, my wife had them make you this,” he said as he handed me a clear mug of tea with a long handled yellow spoon. I took a sip and set it down. He sat down on the floor at the end of the bed.

“We've got that meeting this evening with the marketing group. Are you gonna make it?” he asked.

Never being the limiting factor in any equation, “I'm gonna try” I told him.

There was a knock at the door and a woman from the kitchen came in with a bowl of thick, white soup. She smiled at me, set it on a small stool next to my bed and left.

“Whats this?” I asked Mike.

“Congee. Rice porridge” he replied.

While it was much too soon for solid foods, I was touched by their thoughtfulness. Mike and I discussed beer things for a few more minutes before he left me to rest up. I laid in bed in the aircon and napped and watched computer movies. Around noon, I had finished the weird tea and was feeling much better. I slowly began to work on the congee and by that afternoon, I was upright and ready to attend the marketing meeting.

The team at the marketing group was made up of a mix of western and Vietnamese folks. It was a small company that Brook had found. He met us at their little office. On this first visit, Mike outlined his intentions for the brand. He didn't want it to be pretentious or stuffy. He wanted it to be Viet focused and accessible to the every day person. A lot of the other craft beer brands charged higher “western” pricing. He wanted to keep prices inline with the macro brands.

Brook agreed with this. I liked when Brook was around. Mike behaved differently, more professionally. I listened a lot and didn't say much. The group told us they would put somethings together and then we would meet again. We headed back to the taproom and I went straight up to bed.