This and That Again
Howdy, Chris here.
July just finished, and what a July it was! The weather turned from cool and rainy to hot hot hot, and what does hot hot hot mean? Sweat, sweatier, sweatiest! July was also a record-setting month — we fired up the brew systems 35 times during the month! And for good measure, we threw in our 12th Anniversary Party down here in Numazu, shipped out a couple of export orders, made huge progress on our new brewery, and added a summer helper on the shipping side. All of which means that I didn’t have time — or energy — to write blogs. Until this morning. So here goes nothing.
I don’t know how many times people have told me, Man you have such a cool job. Well, anyone who says that has either never been in a brewery or is totally wacko! Here’s proof.
Brewing is a Cool . . . I Mean a HOT Job
And that wasn’t even the hottest day so far this year — it got up to 38C a few days later. But that’s nothing compared to last summer’s best record — 43C! Now, for you Celsius-challenged Americans, that’s merely a steamy 109F.
But on the other hand, it is so cool when friends bring you special beers from overseas, especially collaborations between one of your favorite breweries in the world (Founders, in case you haven’t been paying attention).
Friends Bearing Gifts of Beer = Joy
Thank you, Michiko and Ichiri, for thinking of me during your travels!
Back to the brewery, we are currently in our 13th brewing year. I joined at the beginning of our 10th year. Well this week, a keg appeared at our doorstep (actually, returned kegs are dropped off in our parking lot) with a sticker identifying it as a Teikoku IPA brewed in year 9!
Back Before I Joined, this Beer was Brewed
Someone saved this keg (and the beer inside?) for four years. Why? The answer to that is lost to history.
And finally, I may have mentioned that we installed a new kegging machine back in June. Since then we’ve been working out the bugs (in our setup, not the machine) and doing test runs. Last week, we had our first successful full test run. Yay!
Filling our Newest Product: Baird Clear Free
And when a test run is successful, can a real filling with actual beer be far behind? Stay tuned! In the meantime, enjoy the hot sweaty summer.
Cheers,
Chris
Posted: August 1, 2012 under Blog.