Where IS the Beer?
Hi There!
Since I haven’t gotten a newsletter out for some time, I thought I should now that August is here. I could give all sorts of excuses, but none really hold water. Dog days!
I’m going to start by letting you know what has been happening with our brewery and how that has affected the taproom.
A long, long time ago (January), we ordered a 60 bbl fermenter. For parts of each of the last three years, we’ve not been able to keep up with demand. Because of that, Colin and I made the decision to go big and get a 60 bbl fermenter rather than another 15 or 30 bbl. We also knew that decision would mean we would need to remodel the brewery in order to accommodate a larger fermenter. We planned and planned, worked our budget and felt we had things under control.
But of course, rarely do things go as planned. When she was a little girl, my niece Alex, overheard my brother-in-law and I talking, over breakfast, about a project we were working on and the problems with it. When we headed out the door to get to work, Alex said, “Good luck with the problemaject!” I think that’s a great word for what happened with this project.
The 60 bbl fermenter was supposed to arrive mid-April, no later than early May. It didn’t arrived until June 24 – and that is when our “project” turned into a “problemaject.” After learning of many delays, we were told it would be here on June 22nd, so we began getting ready for it several days in advance. Here’s what we had to do to get ready in order to have room to install the 60 bbl fermenter: disconnect the plumbing and electrical to our hot liquor tank and mash tun; disconnect and take down our auger; tear out the walkway and all the glycol piping; make sure the brite tank and one 30 bbl fermenter were empty so they could be moved; plus a multitude of other smaller projects. All of this meant we couldn’t brew during this time and only could have beer fermenting in two 30 bbl fermenters and one 15 bbl fermenter. Nor could we package that beer until we had use of our brite tank again.
Of course, since this was now a problemaject, the truck that was supposed to pick up the tank didn’t show up when it was supposed to. It wasn’t until June 24 that the fermenter finally arrived. Since we had planned for a Tuesday, June 22 arrival, we had scheduled the crane company for that day. When we told them we had a delay, they informed us they wouldn’t be able to come again for at least a week. To our pleasant surprise, they had a cancellation on that Thursday and would come and unloaded the tank that morning at 8:30 am. They were also able to come back and install it that afternoon. Finally!
To get the tank into its new spot in the brewery, the hot liquor tank, mash tun, one 30 bbl fermenter and the brite tank had to be moved out of the way. After placing the tank in its new spot, all that equipment had to be moved back. Matt put a post of Facebook with a time lapse video of the installation. Amazing!
Now we had to put everything back together. That meant reconnecting the plumbing and electrical to the hot liquor tank and mash tun; reinstalling and rerouting the glycol piping, plus adding new piping for the tanks we had moved – we had decided to put the 60 bbl tank, the brite tank and one 35 bbl fermenter on the south wall so that, if and when we get another 60 bbl fermenter, we can make the installation relatively easily and still have room for another 15 or 30 bbl fermenter (planning for the future); then hooking up the tanks to glycol, controllers and the control panel. Once those things were accomplished, we were able to begin production again. Note that, to fill all our fermenters now, amounts to eleven brews with our 15 bbl brewhouse,
The result, as you have probably noticed, is that we were down to being able to only offer three beers on tap along with bottle pour beers from our limited bottle release series. We’re now – may up to five on tap and will gradually get back up to a full contingent – hopefully in less than a week or two. This also meant we couldn’t get the garage taps going because we simply didn’t have enough beer. I’m going to make every effort to get that open soon and shade sails over the driveway portion of the beer garden install. Watch our social media for an announcement – maybe even this next weekend.
Whew! I know that was long, but it was much longer for us! Briefly, here’s the good news: We filled the 60 bbl tank with Blood Orange (it takes us 4 batches over two days to fill it). That beer is now packaged and ready and soon we’ll be filling it again (yes, with Blood Orange). In the meantime, we’re working hard to fill the other tanks and package the beer that is currently ready. Needless today say the brewery is busy place these days. We’ve added two new people to our crew – Weston and Kyle. Kyle is working the brewery and the taproom and soon Weston will be with us full-time in the brewery. We also will be releasing Lulu’s Lager in cans in a few weeks (check social media for up-to-date news) and we’re getting ready for the fall re-release of our Oktoberfest Ale. We’ll also be offering some exciting new flavors of seltzer and brewing some new beers for upcoming Thirsty Thursdays.
Long newsletter, but we felt you would like to know why we’ve been having problems with being able to offer enough beer. We’re very happy to see the rain but looking forward to the sunshine in between. Kristy and I thank you so very much for your patience and continued support during these past few weeks. We’re looking forward to being able to offer more beer, without interruptions, for a long, long time. Look forward to seeing you soon!
Cheers, Tom
