The year ahead... In terms of brewing

The new year is just around the corner and we will have to hit the ground running... From a stock on hand position we are screwed and from a production capacity point of view it is not looking much better.

At least all the pieces are coming together to put a significant upgrade project in motion. In effect we will replace all our brewing infrastructure, except for a couple of items. It promises to be a challenging year ahead.

It is actually quite crazy when you realize how many things have to be planned, synchronized and decided upon when planning a brewery expansion. All the pieces of the puzzle representing a brewing operation is intricately intertwined. If you change one thing it effects a myriad of things, from financial prediction models; amounts to be financed to the various parts of the practical operations of the brewing process itself. Just deciding the actual brewhouse size and fermentation cellar capacity is a process of note.

Thanks to a lot of research, reading and listening to podcasts it is clear that it is not necessary to have the biggest possible brewhouse. Instead it is more important to have a flexibly piece of equipment and one that can be run multiple times in a day or shift. Even when planning to run a relatively small brewing operation one can learn from big breweries. Large breweries always use fermenters a couple of times the volume of their kettles. This results in always blending a couple of batches together, evening out small batch variations, resulting in more consistent and repeatable beers. It is also more effective in terms of space, cost and other resources. In order to push the number of brews per day / shift, some large breweries run two kettles for the same mash / lauter tun. If correctly planned the output capacity of a relatively small brewhouse can be doubled from a 2/3/4 batches per shift rate to a 4/6/8 batches per shift capacity with the simple upgrade of adding a second kettle.

If all goes to plan the increased production capacity will allow us to grow the business and increase our market footprint. We should also have enough inventory on hand to make sure all beer gets enough time to condition properly and that we have a reasonable stock buffer to deal with spikes in demand and unexpected large orders.

The bigger capacity will also provide the opportunity to play with some new ideas to push the boundaries in the Cape Town beer market. Beer for us is about experimenting. Given the large wine & distilled spirits industry in the Western Cape the base material, i.e. barrels, for a barrel aging and sour beer production setup should be available.

A barrel program requires three basic areas to be covered: Time & patience; space to keep barrels; and the willingness & capability to experiment + learn from mistakes and others. I am confident we can cover all these with some dedication, hard work and the space we have.

Despite all the side projects like barrel aging, sour beers and other one-off beers we plan to refine our production of flavorful and hop-forward beers. Our passion and core dedication will remain with these beers as they are aimed at showing beer consumers that there is no reason why beer should be bland or dumbed down. We all deserve to drink beer with more character than fizzy yellow dishwater with trace amounts of hops and real malted barley.

May 2015 be a memorable beer year...

It is almost the end of the year...

We are in the last stretch of the year... Finally !! I am honestly running on fumes at the moment. This has been a long-ass year. I am tired, need to break away and drink beer for days on end while gazing at the ocean to clear my mind.

As always there are way too many things I planned to get done in the year that never got done. Luckily a few things got done and a few unexpected issues were handled along the way.

Achievement number one is actually just making it to the end of the year - we've managed to sort out some form of balance between raising a toddler, starting a small business and dealing with the aftermath of a huge company merger. Number two is that we are getting the hang of our brewery and it looks like we are building a good base to grow from. Number three is sorting out my responsibilities in my day job... Well, sort of, I think... in order to do what I am good at and love (designing structures) and less of what I hate (tedious admin and holding other people's hands because they do not have the balls to try things for themselves).

As always about this time of year I go into some form of reflective mode. Sometimes it is really a bit depressing. This time round a couple of things are weighing on me...

I am 35 and pretty sure there is no fucking way I will carry on with my current job until I reach retirement age. Somehow I need to figure out some kind of balance between work, hobbies, play, what I want to do and income. Seems like an impossible task!

Our country is in a mess! Our government is well on their way to run everything into the ground. The president is a thieving, uneducated, thug and an idiot. He has so much dirt on the other idiots in his party that they simply keeping protecting him. In addition to this there are too many people in our country doing jack-shit, living off welfare grants paid for by the dwindling number of taxpayers. Looking to start a life elsewhere is increasingly in the back of my mind.

The private sector in SA is taking strain. It increasingly looks like even our yearly salary adjustments are in jeopardy and any chance of bonuses being paid are looking seriously slim.... Despite the fact that our department was super profitable and made 3.7x our targets. All thanks to other fuckers who cocked up. Too top it all workers in the public sector are demanding increases in the order of double the inflation rate! Ridiculous! 

It may sound like I feel like giving up, but giving up is not an option... We'll just have to keep our heads down and grind on. Adversity is always the breeding ground for new things. Often quite rewarding too... To do this some sort of plan or goals are required. Not having a plan or some goals is the most effective way of failing.

Even though it is probably a little early for jotting down New Year's Resolutions the following things I need to get sorted:

I need to get fit again... Mountain biking, trail running, jogging, whatever. No more time for excuses!

We need to expand our brewery seriously. We either do it properly or call it quits now. Half-assing anything never works.

I need to figure out my day job. Either I am where I want to be when I reach 40 or the brewery needs to become my day job.

I need to spend more time on my personal life and less time on my office life.

My bike will be customized and ridden more...

We need to find another old car to restore or turn into a bad-ass hotrod.

Taking Ownership....

This will be the first time that a post is not beer related... Well, at least not directly.

This week I've come to some sort of realisation.

There are some basic principles that apply in life and to some extent they determine how you progress in your career and life in general.

In my normal day job I am part of the construction industry. Projects are complex, stop-start, subject to crazy deadlines and in general quite tricky. Projects take forever to get off the ground... To finish them takes even longer. Some people work quite sucessfully on projects and complete them acceptably. The difference comes in the following: There are people who "own" their projects while others just take care of them. The former ensures that everything is done correct and as good as humanly possible no matter what happens... Even if they are tied up with other work, out of the office / country, on leave or start their second shift at 10pm after putting the kids to bed. The latter just makes sure things run smoothly and they do their job while they are there and within normal working hours... And maybe a bit more than normal working hours... But just a little bit. When they cannot be there the project simply becomes somebody else's responsibility to handle.

Some people never take initiative to figure things out for themselves. The moment they feel unsure or find themselves in unfamiliar territory they freeze and others have to assist. I am not like that... Sometimes you just have to say "Fuck it !! What is the worst than can happen...!?!" And just figure it out by trial and error.

People who get somewhere in life see the opportunity in any situation, no matter how dire. Others just bitch and get grumpy because "other people get all the opportunities".

Guess what... To some extent getting ahead in life is thanks to a fair amount of luck, but mostly it is because of seeing things differently and creating opportunities for yourself.

Craft Beer in Cans - Looking GOOD in the UK

In May of last year, Camden Town Brewery became the first “microcanner” in England. The brewery cans its own Hells Lager and two beers it brews for the Byron Hamburgers eateries. This autumn it will can two more beers. The beers are canned on Cask’s automatic five-head filler & seamer machine.

This summer two more London craft brewers -- Fourpure Brewing and Beavertown Brewery -- each purchased Cask equipment and joined the UK microcanning movement. Fourpure is the first UK craft brewer to shift from bottles to cans for its core beers, while Beavertown and Camden Town include cans among their bottled offerings.

Fourpure’s can sales have far surpassed its 2013 bottled sales. “In our first month,” brewery co-founder Daniel Lowe says, “our cans doubled our historic bottle sales. The second month they quadrupled them.”

Logan Plant, founder of Beavertown, says his bottle use is waning. “I’m looking to push bottles out but for a few specialty beers,” Plant says. “The acceptance of our cans has been amazing. We started up our Cask canning line in May and cans have already become 65% of our sales, while bottles are just 7%.” 

Current sales data (from IRI) shows that US sixpack and twelve pack sales of canned craft beers for 2014 are up 89% and 79% respectively, compared to 16% growth of bottled sixpacks and twelve packs.

Canned craft beer is the hottest craft beer package in North America.  This segment is just beginning in England, but it’s starting out much faster than it did in the US.

Craft canned beer makers and consumers appreciate the benefits of cans. Cans provide complete protection from light and oxygen, a fresh beer’s biggest enemies. Cans are also highly portable, welcome in places bottles are not, and easily and infinitely recyclable. 

Plant says his richly flavored canned craft beers benefit from the freshness-keeping power of aluminum cans. “We use a lot of US hops in our beers,” he says, “with those big resiny and tropical flavors. The only way to look after them is to shove them in a can. I don’t think a bottle is up to the task.”

Those can benefits and others (including reduced shipping & fuel costs due to their light weight) have fueled the massive rise of American canned craft beer.

According to the Brewers Association (the US trade group for craft brewers), over 10% of the US’s nearly 3000 small and independent craft brewers are canning all or some of their beers. A US website, CraftCans.com, lists about 1500 canned craft beers from 418 US craft breweries, in a wide array of different beer styles. 

UK beer lovers seem open to the idea of small-batch canned beer. “We meet naysayers,” says Camden Town founder Jasper Cuppiadge, “who prefer the bottle. But once they find out that small breweries are canning, it totally changes the way they think about canned beer.” 

Plant says there’s a stigma in the UK that “cheap, mass-produced beer comes in cans. So we need to educate people. We’re all on a mission,” Plant adds, “to make great beer and push it forward. Cans are the package for doing that. They are the best for keeping beer fresh and full of all of its flavor and life.”

(Post text from Cask Canning Newsletter)

Not quite sure about this one from SABMiller

About two year ago we attended a beer dinner hosted by SAB. The CEO at the time was Norman Adami. He was actually on stage promising that they will never compete with small brewers and that they would like to assist the small guys and grow the beer segment of the market for all.

I do not quite think this is in line with his promise. This smacks of pay-to-play, undercutting the small guys, etc.

At least people who appreciate proper beer are not really brand loyal. If SAB converts fizzy yellow water drinkers to beers with a bit more character we all may end up winning a bit. Unfortunately their tactics will create a barrier to entry for many of the smaller breweries.