Would you know a beer engine if it bit you in the ass?

I'm just asking? Cause I've been toting this thing around chattanooga for almost four months now, if you count the southern brewers festival and it's a hoss. And I've done a lot of explaining. See, it's not good enough that our production is on the level of some homebrewers and our market penetration aint penetratin' ( O.K. I'm gonna avoid the obvious double entandre') I gotta go and try to introduce chattanooga to "real" cask conditioned ale pumped through a british beer engine that would make a helluva boat anchor. But damn....that beer is good! especially when that cask is first tapped and the sparkler head stirs up all that hoppy malty flavour (as the british spell it) and aroma. Ok I would write more but I gotta grab a 60 lb cask and a 50 lb beer engine. I'm gonna have to get some steel toed galoshes.........
(oh, by the way, for those with the sore butt wondering what got 'em, (unless you're in prison..or got way to drunk last night..) a beer engine is the mechanism that pumps the beer from the cask throught he sparkler head. (that's another story...)

The temptation of tours

We ran three tours last saturday and had a blast. Biggest problem for me is that I enjoy the tours to much and don't know when to end the tour turned drinking session and go home. The more I stay the more I want to stay and it has a definite effect on my productivity the next day. Oh well I could have worse problems, anyway to all those who attended last saturday, thanks for showing up! and I hope to see you again!

Free Beer Blues

Ok, don't get me wrong, I love free beer. I even enjoy my own free beer when I get to share it with others. That's the fun of beer, it's a social drink. I especially enjoy the tours when I get to share our beer with newcomers. That being said, I'm getting tired of the constant free beer requests "All we want is a few kegs, it'll be good publicity for you" is the constant refrain. Never mind the fact that kegs are a losing proposition from the git go with as much as a 60% markup by the time the retailer buys them. And never mind the fact that my volume constantly limits my inventory and I have to brew like a fiend to keep up with even low level sales. Apparently, I have a beer and money tree growing in the back of the brewery. The local non profits cry out their support for local breweries but never buy, just beg, for beer. Summer and not December is apparently the giving season, as every organization under the son rallies the faithful and requests, you got it-free beer.

Ok I'm done bitchin' about the free beer requests. And if you ever see me, I promise I'll buy you a beer. Or at least give you some of mine.

Beer Selling Bulls**** er Blues

Most of the week at the brewery has revolved around labels that won't adhere to wet bottles. Confirming delivery of sold kegs and bottles and then waiting on the actual pickup and delivery. Since we operated in a three tier state. I sell to the wholesaler, the wholesaler sells to the retailer. Three price markups, including mine before the beer gets to the customer. So since I actually do the majority of the selling, (my wholesaler also has a sales staff who do quite well collecting vacations and incentives from bigger breweries than mine-(They sell some for me too, I'm not complaining) I sell the kegs or cases , then call my wholesaler so he can pickup the keg or case from the brewery and deliver it to the retail location. The disconnect comes during the pickup phase. Most wholesalers receive the merchandise via freight. So the delivery to the warehouse is taken care of. It's a rare wholesaler (distributor) that has brewery in the same town. Especially with craft beer, a lot of the beer is shipped from colorado and california-craft beer mecca. In my case the manager, a salesman, or a delivery person picks up the beer from my brewery when they remember and if they have the time. It's very frustrating to listen to a retailer that wants my beer yesterday and is less than 1/2 a mile away but can't get it because my wholesaler hasn't picked it up.It's hard enough just to keep tap handles with the our brand avaiable, The competition is fierce and beng local does'nt mean much to some bar owners. The other day I had the owner of a local bar tell me my keg of beer had gone bad. I checked it when it was placed on tap, gave a sample to the bartender and a customer-no complaints. That was on Monday. A few days later I went to give the bar some promotional pint glasses and I noticedthey had pulled my keg and replaced it with Boulevard Ale. I call him and he tells me the beer's tainted. So I pull my keg out of the walk in, pull the bud light connector and hook my keg up. I give samples to a customer, the bar manager, and the bartender. All say it's fine. I try it and I know it's better than fine. If by bad he means rich malt background, spicy hop presence, some alcohol warming, caramel and a small amount of diacytle and aroma atttributes and a slight mint almost medicinal tinge from dry hopping Hallertau whole hops. Yea- he's right. The complexity of that beer vs the boulevard is laughable. It's almost a double ipa that shows some strong ale characteristics. I'm not being immodest, just honest. So I walk the keg down the street to a multi tap bar and offer him a deal he can't refuse. Problem is, I can't bring a keg in. Only my distributor can. So I cut the air on in the car, call my sales rep and ask him to get his ass down there pronto cause I'm pissed and I can't wait to tell that other bar owner that the beer he called tinted is pouring just fine down. So my rep meets me at my car, I give him the keg and he carries it in to the other bar -(it's a 1/6 barrell) Then just cause I'm still pissed I go and sell two other kegs to two other local venues that appreciate how hard it is to survive as a local business here

You gotta love this business

Road Trip! Gone to Atlanta.

I had every intention of getting to Atlanta earlier, but a quick visit to the brewery to pick up checks and then a visit to the bank to make a deposit to cover the payment to Crosby Baker (supplier) had to be made first. As my wife says, once I enter the brewery, I rarely leave in under 3 hours. One task leads to another which leads to another and so forth, until you've spent the whole day there. This time I got out around 10 am and out of town around 11:00. The seats were removed from the rear of the Family Honda element and it would now take on duties as a brewery delivery van. 40 gallons filled the tank and we were off. On board was my dash mounted Magellan and I brought a laptop as well. I arrived at the Crosby Baker warehouse That afternoon without incident, although without the GPS it woulda been a crap shoot. I backed up a ramp and straight into the warehouse. Although primarily a homebrew supplier, C&B also supplies commercial breweries. It's a perfect fit for us since we can purchase smaller quantities instead of only bulk items. One guy in the warehouse gave me a quick lesson on how to load bottles with bags of grain. Then it was on to Twain's to meet the brewmaster Jordan Fleetwood. Originally the idea was to meet Jordan and recover some of his yeast slurry for the larger (2 to 4 barrel) batches we were now able to brew. But I absentmindedly forgot to bring a vessel to store the yeast in, so it became more of a social vist. Once again, the GPS guided me through Little 5 Points in Atlanta in all its quirky glory towards Trinity Rd in Decatur. In less than 15 minutes with lots of traffic, I was pulling into a corner parking lot adjacent to Twain's. http://www.twains.net I pulled on the glass door but it was still chained a little after 4PM A quick rattle of the door and the manager unlocked the double glass door. I asked for Jordan and he told me to peek into the glass windows adjacent to the sidewalk outside the building. Unlike most other brewpubs I've been to, the brewery was not visible from the interior of the bar. Speaking of the interior of the bar, looked like lots of brick, interesting chandeliers (complete with tap handles-wonder how the distributors felt about that ) a long sweeping bar and lots of pool table. Any homebrewer with a basement rec room and bar would have felt right at home. As I walked down the sidewalk, I could hear music emanating from the open door of the brewery. I peeked inside and there was Jordan squeeging yeasty water into a long drain. Such is the life of a brewer. He quickly invited me in and I got a got a good look at his 7 barrel Pub system. Nice copper clad kettles. He later told the system was bought lock, stock and barrel from a defunct Hops franchise. Before I knew it, I was installing a retainer ring on a 1/6 barrel sanke that he had been having difficulty with. (Just like Home). I ruefully explained to him our keg washing blues and my constant sanke valve removal and replacement excercises. Just a little work and I was offered samples of all Twain's beers. All the beers were excellent, but the cask conditioned offering was especially nice. Looking at the tap handles hanging from the chandliers I thought the laborious process I went through purchasing used tap handles and re labeling them for our brands! I also thought about how nice it would be to have your very own venue for your beers as opposed to fighting for tap handles at local bars. Oh well I guess the grass is always greener at the other brewery. Jordan introduced to a few barleywines via the brick store and I also met three other gentleman in the brewing business two georgia wholesalers Chris Dotson and Dean Palmer with the Global Brewer's Guild and Steve Kuftinec, president of Uinta brewery in Salt Lake City. Steve was introducing several of his brands to the Atlanta including a very, very nice barley wine. A great time was had by all, but it was definitly tiem for me to head home before the alcohol overcame the large Krystal lunch I had earlier, so I regretfully found myself heading back during the early evening hours.

A long day at the brewery and a trip to Atlanta

Sunday was a day of projects at the brewery. 2 barrels of ESB (brewed in conjunction with the local homebrewer's club "The Barley Mob" had to be transferred to a secondary tank. The conical fermenter had to be cleaned. And 1/6 barrel of the centennial needed to be packaged for hair of the dog. Then the primary tank for the ESB had to be cleaned and five gallons of the esb transferred to a cask to naturally carbonate. Also the list for Monday's trip to the Crosby Baker warehouse in Atlanta, needed to be finalzed-the primary purpose of which was to obtain more 22 oz "bombers" for the Juniper Pale Ale. The first three cases were already promised to Green Life Grocery. which left only two cases in stock. Out of those, One consisted of shortfills and the other was dedicated as samples for bars, stores, ect...It seemed apparent that at least initially the bottles were going to sell better than the kegs, although my profit margin was higher on the bottles, the initial investment is lower for the retailer per unit (case of bottles vs the price of a 1/2 barrel keg. Labels for the bottles performed well dry but the adhesive was not working as well under the wet conditions typical of the exterior of a beer bottle. Part of my goal the following week was to determine a better label source. All was accomplished with the help of several volunteer homebrewers who dropped by the brewery. Finally I was done around 10 pm, with a trip to atlanta to look forward to in the morning.

Filtering beer and Chandlers new found quest

Today saw 12/2 gallons of Pumpkin Seed Pale filtered and kegged. It also saw me repeatedly stab myself with a screwdriver as I attempted to remove two spiral retainer rings from to 5 gallon sanke kegs. The problem began when I realized ( after cleaning, sanitizing and installing the valves back on the kegs) that I had forgotten to dry hop them with roasted pumpkin seeds. I then had to turn around, remove the valves and place the little mesh bag of seeds in each keg and reinstall the valves. Along for the ride today was my oldest son Chandler, who would not normally be anywhere near the brewery, but who is now earning money so he can purchase cards for a pre paid cell phone. Hopefully this will be the last small batch of the PSP which has gotten pretty popular at Pisa Pizza, a local pizza eatery with really good pizza and a kind of friendly neighborhood garage ambiance. Pisa Piza is owned by a former classmate of mine at Notre Dame and is our first consistent tap location. The kegs now sit in the walk in carbonating and should be ready in three days. New neighbors to the brewery visited and tried some of the u-brew beer. Unfortunately, I was wrestling with kegs and didn't get to visit. Herein lies the only problem with unannounced vists and that is that sometimes I may seem preoccupied or just not real talkative. I promise I'm a friendly guy but it does get hectic down there some time. Tommorow Tony, president of the local homebrew club will come down and we will transfer 55 gallons of an english brewed with our new mash tun for the homebrew club to serve at the southern brewers festival here in chattanooga. 5 gallons of it will go straight to cask, the rest will go to secondary conditioning tanks. should be interesting. Mon sees an equipment trip to atlanta for more 22 oz bottles and some kegs.