Critics

Well, all the critics and cynics out there who have doubted that we would ever get this brewery off the ground, much less brew our first batch of beer, YOU WERE RIGHT! (not that you would be reading this blog though). At least so far.

On Thursday of last week, we finally got our long awaited burner so on Friday all the wheels were in motion to get it installed. The brewery was live with action as electricians, plumbers, refrigeration, sheet metal, welders, etc all clammered away to get the final piece installed. And after fiddling with it into the night on Saturday, it was decided that the pilot on the brand new, very expensive burner, was no good. Major let down.

All plans of brewing - even our test runs with water, were postponed, again. Morale was low yesterday as we put away all of the clean hoses, fittings and even lower at the thought of having to disassmble everything to send the burner back. Money is tight, and growing tighter as each day passes and there isn't beer fermenting in the brewhouse. And over and over, I keep hearing the voices of those critics and cynics who whisper, 'they'll never get it off the ground.' Chad, Nick and I were once again, sadly disappointed.

But by 4pm yesterday afternoon, we were making lasagne, and looking at our setbacks the way we have to come to look at each pitfall we have encountered along the way. It's a chance to work out the kinks. It gave us a night to diagram the brewhouse operations, to work out more of the calculations, to look at the recipes and finetone everything. We will get there... simmer down you critics!

On a high note, we have passed the initial phase of organic certification, making our brewery the first in Certified Organic Brewery, in Santa Cruz County. We have our inspection still, but we are on our way. Our Organic System Plan is altogether and we feel great about it. Boy is it expensive! I was thinking about $500/year for organic, NO! Try more like $1500/year. Yikes. And $250/label. Ouch. But like Amelia from SevenBridges says, better to start off on the right foot. If you have conscience about being organic, make it right. I always hoped that we would be able to be competitive with other microbrewed beers and I still think we can. But organic definitely is more expensive.