millstreambrewing.com

Today we bottled 60 cases of Wheat, 60 cases of Schild Brau, 90 cases of Cream Soda, and 180 Cases of Root Beer. We haven’t bottled in two weeks, and last time we bottled off lots of Stout and the last of the Bock. Yep its pretty slow! I spent a few quality hours scrubbing the ceiling in the lager room last week… but otherwise I have concentrating on sales.

I did a product demo at the New Pioneer in Coralville on Friday. It was pretty slow in the store, probably because it was so cold and windy out. The previous week I was at the Hi-vee on First Ave in Iowa City and it was slow because it was so WARM out. Well you just never can tell.

Anyway, I sold three cases of beer, and everyone who tried a sample bought a six pack. The Schokolade Bock and Wheat seem to sell the best. The people who go to the Coop are quite different than those at Hi-Vee. It seemed that people who bought the bock, had already bought our Schild Brau in the past. People who bought wheat were typically people who had never had our beer before.

At Hi-vee’s people always want to try the wheat, because it is light, but they usually buy the Schild Brau because it has ‘more flavor’. About one out of every three people buy a sixpack if they try it. Many people will not try our beer though.. many say its “too early” even in the late afternoon. Well I guess that is why we make root beer.

I heard that at a demo in Dubuque this week we sold something like 7 cases of beer. Now that is something I’d like to be able to do! People in Dubuque are more accepting of alcohol in general, so maybe that is why. They are practically in Wisconsin!

This week is the week that our World Beer Cup samples go out. It look like I will be hand bottling the John’s Generations White Ale We still don’t have labels… We rejected having them quick printed from a small printer, because they wanted an arm and a leg to do, because it is a 4 color process. So we are waiting for the big printer to do a “run”, as they call it, and that could be a few more weeks. We can’t wait, people are just screaming for it!

Finally, the virtual tour of the brewery is finished. So you may want to check it out.

My next project will be to add a FAQ section to the page, for like those questions like “what is the difference between an ale and a lager”.

Cheers
Aaron