Wild Weekend

I better post about the weekend before I forget... things at the brewery are busy as ever!

Friday -

The Farmer's Market and Lisa behind the Tasting Bar seem to compliment each other nicely and business at the brewery on Friday was great! I guess it only makes sense that while you are picking up your bread, pastries, fresh fish, organic vegetables and strawberries, that a couple bottles of ice cold organic beers are the perfect finish to the market experience. The only thing missing - Cheese! The market needs a great cheese vendor!

Saturday -

Monterey Beer Festival... Well, being the new kids on the block we excitedly set up our booth a couple of hours early and then sat in the Monterey fog, trembling with anticipation and cold. We were nervous as many of our favorite breweries set up - Seabright, Anderson, Sierra Nevada, Marin, etc... we were in a whole new world. Chad met and made friends with the booth next to ours - The Reaper. We were initially intimidated by, "The humble village brewer, his voluptuos daughter, and the 'Mortality Stout'" and thought it humorous that our "Organic Whale" and our white tent and banners were placed next to the haunting black Reaper booth, but it turned out great. They guys of Reaper were cool and gave us pointers about festival life.

The festival started off with a bang - and the numbers seemed to blow even the organizers' expectations. As word started to go around the festival that we had organic beer, cute 5 oz taster glasses and souvenir pint glasses for sale, our line grew many people deep. We were pouring as fast as we could, and selling glasses, t-shirts and sweatshirts. By 2pm we were sold out of all glasses, and poured out of beer. We had even sold the t-shirts and sweatshirts off our backs. After an emergency call back to the brewery, we put up a small handwritten sign letting people know that we would have more beer in 30 minutes. My parents dashed down to the festival with 20 more gallons of beer and attendees chased Chad and Tom through the festival as they carried the kegs to our booth. The sun finally came out towards the end of the event and by 5pm we were packed up and driving away.

We had the pleasure of meeting a bunch of cool people at the festival... Janning Kennedy from the CCOF, a reporter from the Celebrator, the distributor from Monterey Beverage Company, liquor store owners, brewers, beer lovers, and the like! We saw many familiar faces as well... It was a great event and great way for us to jump into the market. It was interesting to see the types of beers and the popularity of certain varieties. We were out of our Amber first... as it seems to be our best seller both at the brewery and at the festival. The flavor and drinkability make a good combination.

Back at the brewery, my parents and Scotty rocked the brewery. Business was crazy all day and we arrived to see a stack of empty cases and walk-in depleted of beer. Word seems to be spreading and sales are more than we had expected. Thanks Santa Cruz!

Sunday -

The article in the Santa Cruz Sentinel about Swift Street Courtyard came out and Chad had his picture in the paper with a little write-up about the brewery. We hustled down to the brewery for an emergency bottling as we were almost out of Amber. Chad, Tom and Nick were slammed with bottling and kegging so we called Scott back in to work the tasting bar. He and Lisa seem to have the midas touch behind the bar! The article and the 'beer tasting' signs made for more sales... and after the day was over we realized that we better step up production. We are likely going to run out of beer! Who would have guessed?

So that is it for the wild weekend. Back to work. We have invitations to a few more beer festivals this Summer and we can't wait!