We nearly didn’t get to brew out a second batch of beer.

We needed to brew our Evil Twin right away to have it ready for pro night at the homebrewer’s conference in San Diego. We knew if we didn’t brew it right away, there was no way it would be ready in time. We had all of our ingredients on hand, except for a pitch of yeast. Our plans to have yeast on hand fell through at the last minute and here we were, ready to brew, but no yeast. I was in a panic and started contacting friends. Friends started contacting friends. As usual, luck and the kindness of the craft brewing industry came to our rescue once again. Derek Smith, head brewer at Black Diamond Brewing, offered us a pitch. I loaded our yeast brink into the van and ran to get the vital pitch of yeast. Derek quickly helped us get the best pitch he had available and in doing so saved our brew day. Most people in the craft beer industry are like that, ready to help another brewer in need, no questions asked.

Of course, that brew day was still a bit rough, dealing with the poorly running floor drains and other small issues. (We spent an additional four hours cleaning up just because of the drains.) Oh well, it could have been a lot worse and now the drain issue is fully resolved. We did get the mill dialed-in better and got other stuff fixed. The beer turned out fine, which is the important part. We don’t mind hard work, so a few long, hard days until we get all of the little issues resolved is not a deal breaker for us.

So the beers are finished fermenting. We got them kegged and we drove them down to the homebrewer’s conference in San Diego. Tomorrow we are going to serve two of our beers (Tafelbully and Evil Twin) at the Brewing Network anniversary party and Thursday at pro brewer’s night. People keep asking me if I’m excited or anxious about serving that first beer. The answer is yes and no. It took a lot of effort to get to this point, with a lot of help from loved ones, friends, and peers. It seems that there are a lot of people I owe for their kindness, and I don’t want to disappoint them, but I am confident that the beer is good. I believe that many people will enjoy drinking it. Like all new breweries we have a long road ahead, but Heretic Brewing Company isn’t going to succeed or fail on these first two batches of beer. It is more important to improve what we do, to strive for perfection. If we don’t put at least as much care and effort into batch 2000 as we did into batch 2, then we will fail. If we continue with passion and commitment, then maybe we have a chance of building something to be proud of.