millstreambrewing.com

Yea, its been a grueling week of bottling. The low point was when the first truck didn’t show, and then when it arrived the next day, the trucker somehow got the truck stuck near the airport trying to turn around. We were all just shaking our heads thinking.. what else could go wrong? Finally he got the truck free by putting some chains underneath his tires to get traction (he was in a dip on the gravel and his wheels were sort of off the ground).

Now that we are done, we have another busy week ahead so that we have some beer for us! The first thing on the list is to get the Maifest made. I know May seems a long way off, but for lager beers its like just around the corner!

I spent that “waiting for the truck day” doing a project. I fixed our fax machine. For years we have had an old fax machine here with a cracked LCD. Since we recieve all of our faxes on the computer, I couldn’t really use that one as a back up because I could not set it to pick up after the computer picks up (in case the computer is shut down). I’m sure I could have in theory, but its really hard when you can’t see anything on the LCD screen. I bought another identical machine that was broken off ebay for 20$, and took it entirely apart. I removed the LCD and, then managed to hook it back up to our old machine by only half taking it apart. It really helped that I had the dissassembled machine to reference. To my joy, it works great! Here it at Millstream, old machines don’t get tossed out, we just keep fixing them. Apparently this philosophy goes beyond the beer making ones. I’m sure that this old HP fax 700 (circa 1985) will probably outlive most of the crappy combo machines being made today.

Our beer was featured last night at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City. A little late I know, but next time, ask for a Millstream!

We also have new long sleeve t-shirts in the sales room. They are all currently XL’s, but i’m sure we’ll have more sizes in soon. I think they are really snazzy!

And finally, after many, many requests, here are some cute cat pictures:

Here she is sleeping in her bed, which is an old coat I used to wear in the cellar:

As soon as the flash went off, she yawned at me:

She then rolled over and went back to sleep:

Nice to see ya Millie Millstream!

Good news. If you check our front page you will see the press release about this. I’m amazed that the Craft sector grew that much in 2004. People must finally be getting tired of drinking beer in green bottles!

My quote that it is “no surprise” is also true though, because lately we have been getting a surprising number of people calling us, asking how they can get our products. Just last week, we had the Mcbride Station in Solon call us, and we also had calls from both the Java House and Super-Target. Its great to be on the recieving end, I know that we have done plenty of cold calling ourselves in the last five years. If we keep up the consistency of our product, perhaps we soon be getting calls from those great restaurants that I dream of someday soon.

I think the growth is coming from a consisent message from Craft brewers. We are saying, we love beer, beer is good and natural, and you should enjoy it too. I don’t know about you, but when I think about going out to dinner, I consciously consider which places I can go that have a decent beer selection. I’m sure most people don’t make their eating and grocery shopping decisions based on beer (though they should!), but i’m sure some do on a unconscious level. People are ‘trading up’ from a ‘regular’ beer to a tasty Craft brewed one. Too bad for the “King and Queen” of beer. The ‘big three’ plus imports have done nothing but shoot themselves in the foot with their negative advertising slamming each other. Meanwhile craft beer is growing by a silent word of mouth, which is the kind of buzz that the big marketing campaigns only wish they could simulate.

While i’m on the subject, I hearby nominate the “tastes great-less filling” as the worst long-term advertising campaign ever concieved. It succeed in the short term at selling light beer, but in the long term it made beer look cheap, like something to be drank while wearing a filthy white t-shirt. The industry may never recover from the damage of light beer. If it does, the ‘big three’ will have to thank us and the imports for making beer a respectable beverage again. Something you would want to be seen consuming while at a five star restaurant. I know people are drinking our beer there, because nearly every good restaurant around here has Millstream on tap or in bottles! Heck the last time I went to the Taste on Melrose I finished off the keg of Schokolade Bock… Poor me, I only got a half glass!

Oh, and going with the five star theme, here is an excellent article showing off how well beer goes with high end cheeses!

Thats what we have right now. We have 33 pallets of beer shoved into our little warehouse, and the main brewery. We are in the middle of botting Warsh Pail Ale and Colony Oatmeal Stout for the Beers Across America beer club. They were supposed to have a truck here today to take away 22 of the pallets of beer, but somehow there was a snafu and it won’t be here until tommorrow. And we still have 20 more pallets of beer to bottle before we are done with this order. That will be 53 pallets of beer (60 cases to a pallet) and it will fill three semi trucks. Wow!

So we really can’t do anything at this point, there is just enough room to manuever from the office to the sales room. We are in the process of planning a new warehouse for the brewery, and this only makes us want to get that done all the more! We need more room!

It is good to do these beer clubs, because they are a great opportunity to try a few things with our recipes to see what works best. With the Pail Ale I have realized that we are using the wrong type of yeast. The strain I have been using pretty much stops fermenting at 65 degrees, which is a difficult temperature to maintain in a cold cellar in the winter. A friend has provide me with a bit of American Ale II yeast from Wyeast labs. I’m going to try using that on the next batch of pail ale, it supposedly keeps on going all the way down to 60 degrees. Thankfully I was able to get our beers to finish out by sending hot water through the heating jackets every day for four days, but its not something I would like to repeat.

Millie the brewery cat, has been getting quite active lately. She is completely afraid of the air compressor that runs upstairs for the bottling line. Since we have been bottling continously lately, she pretty much spends her days hiding out in the office. This weekend, she got revenge, but beating the heck out of a bag full of bagels that I left on my desk. She must have wrestled with the bag quite a bit, because it was completely preforated. My bagels (my lunch!) were quite crunchy and stale when I came into work on Sunday!

She also plays ‘catch’ now. We throw a ball from the office down towards the pallets, and she brings it back every time. Its pretty amusing. She still has not caught a mouse yet though. I have caught three, so i know they are there for her to catch. I am using these nifty “live-catch” traps. I highly recommend them if you have pets, just don’t let the mice out to close to your home, or they will probably just come right back in. More cute cat pictures coming soon, by popular demand, I promise.

Ratebeer.com has a featured article on John’s Grocery. It is very well written and has some interesting discussion on Iowa’s infamous three tier system.

I’m not entirely sure if I agree with him that the Three Tier System should stay. Its true that A-B did outcompete and destroy many of the former regional breweries.. but it did that AFTER prohibition and under the Three Tier laws that we currently have.

The system does protect us from having A-B outright own bars, but in practice, they do anyway. The main difference between us and them is that if we break the three tiers we’ll get caught, and if they slink around it, they have plenty of lawyers, lobbyists and free give away’s to back them up.

I expect the supreme court will rule on Costco VS the state of washington sometime next year. It will be interesting.

Well cruising my email this afternoon I see that we have two seperate Keg Registration bills being floated in the 2005 Iowa Legislature. It disturbs me that we have one from a Democrat, and one from a Republican. With the Legislature being equally divided this year, we could only hope that they get nothing accomplished. But perhaps this is one thing they could agree on.

Its time to contact your representative and send them off a quick email letting them know that you do not agree with the idea of keg registration. You can find out who to write at http://www.vote-smart.org.

Here are the bills being considered:

HF 67 BEER KEG IDS
Requires that beer kegs have ID tags supplied by the Alcoholic Beverages Division. Makes it criminal mischief to deface such a tag and requires that if the tag is defaced, then any deposit shall be forfeited. Prohibits cities from adopting additional requirements or penalties. Rep. Mike Reasoner (D) is the lead sponsor. The bill is in the House State Government Committee.

HF 124 BEER KEG ID
Requires beer kegs larger than 2 gallons to have a permanent and durable identification tag. Requires record of purchaser’s name and address, sales clerk name, and other information retained for six months. Sets a $1,500 scheduled simple misdemeanor for violation and civil license suspension. Rep. Jim Van Engelenhoven (R) is the sponsor. The bill is in the House State Government Committee.

I have had many discussion’s with brewers from other states about these types of laws. All agree that they are a complete waste of time and resources, with no upside. The stickers don’t stick, or they stick so well you have spend ten minutes removing them for every sale. The forms are long and rarely filled out in a legible manner. The information collected is useless. Its asks for things like ‘where and when’ you will be consuming the keg. I don’t get it. It’s the customer’s beer to consume legally and responsibly at the time and place of his choosing.

What this is supposed to do is stop underage drinkers from having ‘keg parties’. The result, in all 23 states with keg laws, is that they are not discouraged from drinking, instead they go and buy 30 packs and make up “Jungle Juice” from everclear. Heck thats is what they are doing right now anyway. The ones who do have ‘keg’ parties are more responsible, since they have to come up with deposits for both the keg and the tapper, which usually amounts 100$ or more. Grocery stores will cease to carry kegs, the sale of kegs that do not go to a bar will drop off dramatically. This law will simply make it a pain in the ass for regular people like you and me to buy a keg.

Ok that was rant. For more ranting and raving, check out this web page about Keg Registration.