MISQUAH — Progress at the old Co-op creamery on Second Avenue — the one that has been empty since 1987, not the one on Birch Street that has held this newspaper since 1897 and is going nowhere — can now be measured in rounds. Test batch two was brewed Tuesday and test batch three on Friday, and Annika Holt, pressed for an assessment, offered the fullest technical disclosure to date: “Closer. Then close.”

Jonas Holt confirmed that the difference between the two involved “a number we changed,” and that the number, like the name on the sign, is not yet a matter of public record. The sign itself, mounted above the door and wrapped in canvas since mid-July, has entered its third week of being conspicuously unlooked-at by passersby, several of whom have developed a sudden interest in the opposite side of the street. The Holts say the canvas comes off at the opening, in August, and not an hour before.

The week’s smoke produced the building’s first emergency call, if it can be called that. On Wednesday, with the advisory at its thickest, a passing motorist reported smoke rising from the creamery roof. Fire chief Gary Sundberg drove over, identified the plume as steam from the brew vent, confirmed by smell that the building was producing bread rather than danger, and departed. “Best call of the month,” he said. The full exchange appears in the Blotter, where Deputy Vang has logged it under a category he declined to invent twice.

The town’s name campaign continues without encouragement. “Cultured Cow” retains its lead among suggestions the Holts have not asked for, with late support arriving for “The Second Batch,” proposed on the grounds that it is honest. The Holts, asked if any town suggestion was under consideration, exchanged a look the town has already begun interpreting.