Digging our new home in Richmond
So we thought that after we opened, we’d have more time for posting on the blog...but nope! It’s been six months since the last post, and we are most definitely busier than ever. The thing about a startup is, you have to wear so darn many hats; Chris our co-founder has on more than one occasion pointed out that one definition of entrepreneurialism is “trying to accomplish something beyond one’s present means.” And if that doesn’t describe our daily endeavors here, I don’t know what does. We’re still square in the startup phase, looking ahead to where we want to be 6, 12, 24 months from now, and realizing that we’re going to need more of everything – people, equipment, money...and beer! – in order to get there.
And yeah the money part can be challenging, but we had our eyes open going into this, and the reality is that very few new businesses are without some level of financial stress. But all things considered, we’re very happy with the way things are going. We love being part of the Richmond community, we’re enjoying steady growth in the taproom and in our retail accounts, and most importantly, the beers are turning out the way we intended: easy-drinking, clean-finishing, balanced – and in fact we’ve been struggling to keep up with demand.
So – here we are seven months after opening, back to cutting concrete, building more infrastructure, and purchasing equipment...in the form of four large vessels – fermenters and conditioning tanks – that will more than double our current capacity. The couple of lagers we brew – Red Lager (Vienna style) and Bo Pils (Czech style) have proven more popular than we initially estimated, and since lagers take much longer than ales to make, we needed to kick off this expansion project sooner than planned. Should be cranking out a lot more beer by end of summer!
Oh and on a sort of but not totally unrelated topic, our lack of sophistication with regard to the SEO black box – and frankly, our lack of interest in “playing the Google game” as one blogger put it – compels us to mention the following phrases: Bay Area breweries, brewery near me, taproom near me, beer near me. There, we’re done for now.