Another Saturday, another brewery tour

[Kealia]

Maybe the problem with bottling line is the boom box is playing the wrong music.

Nice call out!

[ScrewyBrewer]

I love taking brewery tours, the smaller the better. I visited Cape May Brewing Co. in Cape May NJ last summer and loved their 500 gallon setup. It was so new that they still had pieces of their original 1 barrel system lying around. Like any new start up their distribution was still a bottleneck, meaning they weren't quite able to keep up with the demand. From bartenders who mislabeled the taps handles to menus that included the wrong beer they were serving, the one thing they had going for them is their taps were visible in a lot of local restaurants and bars.

Fast forward to a brewery tour of Naples Beach Brewery in Naples FL 2 months ago and they're still brewing on a 1 barrel system and trying to keep up with demand. The same thing, their tap handles are in very upscale bars and restaurants but after tapping a new keg at one of these places the beer glasses were filled with trub. Not the best way to promote a nice beer. Their brewery tour cost $15.00 and we got to sample half a dozen 3 ounce beers, all of which were tasty but kind of flat.

Where I'm going with this post is I learned a lot from these new breweries and their growing pains hit home. To me it's better than taking a tour of a perfectly functioning brewery where all the pain points to expect for yourself aren't even discussed.

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

Where I'm going with this post is I learned a lot from these new breweries and their growing pains hit home. To me it's better than taking a tour of a perfectly functioning brewery where all the pain points to expect for yourself aren't even discussed.

I know what you mean there and couldn't agree more. Big brewery tours are fun, though I have learned more of what could go wrong, right and what to avoid on "tours" of smaller breweries any day. They go through growing pains, trial by fire and error to reach their best operating procedures to yield the best beer. Always a learning process even if you have been doing for 20 years.

I also find the smaller guys more relatable to myself even at times on a personal level. Talking balancing personal bills/life with the brewery life. Banging on spreadsheets and QuickBooks to make the money/budget work. Stretching everything to the last penny to make it work. I have to assume no matter the size of the brewery, all go through these growing pains as any business does.

[DaYooper]

The wife must have been reading this telepathicly as the other day she told me I WILL go to Frankenmuth to visit the Frankenmuth Brewery this weekend to help her get rid of cabin fever. As we supply some of their hops, I can even write a portion of it off. To top it off, I even picked up a Groupon for food and a case of beer. Both the brewery, the winery, and the distillary outlet are all within walking distance of where we are staying. Sometime the stars actually do align in my favour!

[Funky Skunk Brewing]

The wife must have been reading this telepathicly as the other day she told me I WILL go to Frankenmuth to visit the Frankenmuth Brewery this weekend to help her get rid of cabin fever. As we supply some of their hops, I can even write a portion of it off. To top it off, I even picked up a Groupon for food and a case of beer. Both the brewery, the winery, and the distillary outlet are all within walking distance of where we are staying. Sometime the stars actually do align in my favour!

The Perfect Storm

Have to love it when it all falls into alignment.