CHEERS!
We expected some bumps in the road, and the road has not disappointed.
What good news!
Our bottling line, Piper, arrived!
| And the engineer (Nicola) who understands it also arrived and spent the week with us to get it up and running! |  |
What bad news!
They didn't send the proper fittings to get beer in there!
What good news!
Josh & Nicola are inventive, resourceful souls. They wangled a fix and we managed to get some beer in there!
What bad news!
The labeler (that date stamps and applies labels to bottles) hates our labels. It thinks the label stops before the label actually does. This causes all manner of havoc.
What good news!
#CRAFTBEERFOLKISGOODFOLK!!!!!
Proving yet again that craft beer folk is good folk, at about 4pm on Friday (of a 3-day weekend, no less), we gave up on the labeler for the moment but still wanted to test the filler for a full batch of beer before Nicola flew out if we could. We texted a few folks. On a moment's notice, a dozen of them showed up to hand-label bottles so that we could run the filler. This is where all the fun comes in, so here's a basic pictorial view of the haps:
These fine folk hand-labeled 2 full pallets of bottles (>2500 bottles total). ROCKIN'!
[There's a joke in there about how many people it takes to do the job of one labeler --]
[There's a joke in there about how many people it takes to do the job of one labeler --]
Here's how it went. Only a lot slower. [Thanks Liz of 363 Photography for the time-lapse videos!]
First full bottle off the line!
Attitude makes all the difference.
"But how will I know if I buy one of these first-run, TLC-infused-hand-applied-label Sad Pandas?" you ask.
None of these bottles have a date stamp on them. The "BOTTLED JUST FOR YOU ON:" box is sadly devoid of all print. Y'all just have to know that if you find a bottle like this out in the wild (or more likely, in the tasting room), it was bottled on 1/12/18. Also, unless you get one labeled by Trina, you'll find a bubble or two in that there hand-applied label. [See the video above to see why Trina's have zero bubbles.] Next round should have the date stamp.
We're all about fresh beer, so when we get up and running, please let us know if you ever find an H&D out there that doesn't merit the #freshtastycraftbeer hashtag.
None of these bottles have a date stamp on them. The "BOTTLED JUST FOR YOU ON:" box is sadly devoid of all print. Y'all just have to know that if you find a bottle like this out in the wild (or more likely, in the tasting room), it was bottled on 1/12/18. Also, unless you get one labeled by Trina, you'll find a bubble or two in that there hand-applied label. [See the video above to see why Trina's have zero bubbles.] Next round should have the date stamp.
We're all about fresh beer, so when we get up and running, please let us know if you ever find an H&D out there that doesn't merit the #freshtastycraftbeer hashtag.
Here we all were right before we broke for pizza.
What bad news!
The filler quit on us after about half the bottles were filled. A day-long diagnostic session on Saturday indicates that the wrong-sized motor was installed and it just plumb wore out after 3 hours (hey hey! That's what a test run is all about!). This means, sadly, that no more bottling will take place for a few weeks.
What good news!
There's a new motor on the way! It'll be installed, we hope, within a month (along with a labeler that senses our fun and colorful labels better, all of us who spent Friday evening here fervently hope). In the meantime, we will continue to serve up #freshtastycraftbeer to a bar or restaurant near you and continue raising our glasses to small, independent craft!
Thank you mucho for hanging with us through this next step of our
Horse & Dragon adventure.
Hopefully by sometime in 2018 you'll be able to enjoy a bottle of H&D from your local bottle shop
in addition to a great fresh pint at your local pub!
Stay tuned....
RSS Feed