One Year Ago

Well, it has been one year and I can't help but dabble a bit in retrospect. The amazingly sunny weather everywhere but at the brewery has been a great trigger of nostalgia.

Last year at this time, in the typical West Side Fog, we worked ferociously trying to navigate the maze of licenses, certifications, bonds and permits, each one dependent on another in a strange catch22 that threatened our ability to open.

Beer was flowing, but the virgin batches needed lots of fine tuning. I remember standing in a web of hoses, pumps, and tanks, water leaking everywhere, wondering if this seemingly primitive method of brewing would ever produce the results we desired. We invited friends, family, homebrew clubs and beer judges to give us feedback and though their positivity may have been to spare our feelings, it would be months until Chad was really satisfied with any of the beers.

Everything was a mystery and everything cost money.

It was Thursday of Memorial Day Weekend when the last and most important license from the ABC finally came in. They called us to let us know that we could start selling before the actual certificate arrived. We opened with a bang during the WestSide Friday Farmer's Market and in our excitement and ignorance started selling plain brown bottles of our virgin ales. Our labeling system was a sharpee pen which we used to mark the bottle cap with either an, 'A,' an 'I,' or a 'P.' It would be weeks before we realized that we weren't supposed to be selling unlabeled bottles.

Tasting was free and the beer flowed like water. We wanted everyone to try our beer but we learned that whenever you offer something for free, there will be people to take advantage. We spent no money on marketing and word of mouth would be our best sales tool.

A few handpainted signs on Mission Street, stating 'Beer Tasting' and an arrow was all people had to guide them to our brewery. Still, they came. And not just the locals, though WestSiders have been loyal. They came from all over; tourists, students, locals, you name it. We had folks driving over from Los Gatos and Saratoga every Saturday to buy our plain brown bottles.

We made lots of mistakes. Tons of mistakes. But we learned.

Two things happened to cause the GREAT BEER DROUGHT of week three.

One, we were selling way more than we had anticipated and even serving 'green' beer, a batch took 2-3 weeks to get from grain to bottle. We should have been brewing three days a week. We had no idea.

Two, we messed up. In an effort to reduce a huge cost (YEAST) we tried to re-pitch our own yeast. Big disaster.

When you are a small brewery, with a big warehouse door, in the middle of a bakery and two wineries, fermenting in open tanks, wild yeast are everywhere. Keeping them out of the beer is one thing. Trying to cultivate clean yeast to re-pitch. Impossible. In our third week, when demand was way beyond our expectations, we had to dump 800 gallons of beer. Flush it.

We would attempt re-pitching later that first year, each time without success before finally conceding that no matter what the conditions, it was too risky for us to brew without the silky, perfect yeast that comes from White Labs in sterile half gallon jugs.

We made other mistakes. We flooded the brewery which was no joke since we don't have floor drains. We gave away WAY too much beer for FREE. We never had enough taps for keg sales. The mistakes go on, but it was our first year. We could get away with it. We survived it.

Nick, Chad and I believed in the business, believed in the beer, but never had any idea how much sacrifice it would take to make it successful. Our family and friends believed in us too. We learned that when you are working with dreams, it helps to have people believe in you. Idealism is contagious.

The community of Santa Cruz, customers and vendors have nurtured us like the infants that we are. We are thankful.

As we embark on our second year with events lined up for the entire Summer and Fall, our beer in distribution all over the west coast, everyday at the brewery is exhilarating and exhausting.

The bottom line for year two of our business is clear. We have to make more beer. Keep on brewing!