33 pallets
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. 