Well, people are drinking our beer. I guess that is a tiny measure of success in the brewery business.

Of course, it is easy to have people drink your beer when you’re giving it away, like we did at the Brewing Network anniversary party and pro night at the National Homebrewer’s Conference in San Diego last week. We poured more than a barrel of each beer (Evil Twin and Tafelbully) in just a few hours. To be honest, I felt that both beers were not quite ready to be served, but the pressure of having promised people that we would have beer for their events made me give in. It was nothing to be embarrassed about, but I would have preferred to hold the beers for just a few more days.

Once we got back to the brewery, the beer was ready and the real work began. We had to prep kegs and start selling them. Our first sale was easy, to the craft beer bar across the street. Later, Charlie Essers, our Minister of Heresy, and I had lunch there and witnessed the first pints of Heretic beer sold and consumed. It was neat to see the first paying customers with smiles on their faces while they drank our beer, but almost immediately I had a feeling of dread about what we needed to do next, selling the rest of that batch. Charlie hit the phones and we both hit the road in different directions. I think we’re really lucky we are in an area where craft beer bars are open to trying new product. There were a number of great places that warmly welcomed us and took a chance on our beer, but a few weren’t so welcoming. Why tell someone to come on down and bring a sample of the beer and then refuse to taste it? I think it must be some weird power trip. If you’re not interested in someone’s beer, just say so. Even with a few wasted stops, we made quick work of getting our beer in some excellent places around the San Franciso East bay area and around Los Angeles.

I knew going into it that distributing beer is hard work, but being on the road selling and delivering quickly gave me a new appreciation for the work of beer distributors. We were lucky to sign up right away with Central Coast Distributing in the San Luis Obispo/Santa Barbara area. They came up to the brewery and picked up a bunch of kegs and began placing them in bars throughout their area. As easy as that. Certainly you make a lot more money if you distribute your beer yourself, but you would make even more if you opened a bar and sold it by the pint. I’m not interested in running a bar and I’m not interested in self-distributing beer either. I’m interested in making the best beer I can possibly make and by partnering with the right distributors, I have more time to focus on the beer itself. I think anything that lets me spend more time perfecting our beer is worth the cost.