It's a Brewer Thing

We Help Each Other

I’ve got to clear the air a bit. I write a newsletter every week, because I enjoy it and also I feel it is a debt I owe to an industry in which brewers have helped me so much. If you subscribe to this newsletter, you already know a bit about me and my tendency to do brewery operations while trying to save money.

However I also post this newsletter to the Facebook group, Breweries in Planning. If I cover a topic that goes into the Frankenbrew side of things, I sometimes get a lot of flak, usually along the lines of “that won’t work” or “that’s too small” and so on.

I want to remind brewers who read what I write, that the newsletter is called, The Affordable Brewery, for a reason. I could very well say, “start with at least one million, good engineers, architects and designers, and of course get a turn-key JV Northwest brewing system (excellent by the way).” But that wouldn’t be The Affordable Brewery, now would it?

You see, we have a very unique industry. Name another business where competitors gladly give advice to each other. You can’t. Brewers are always sharing ideas, ingredients, lending equipment in an emergency, and generally having a good time with each other. I don’t know where this started, but it certainly was alive and well when I began my professional career.

I was at some brewers party up in Fort Collins, Colorado some years ago, and the place was packed with brewers from all over. I could overhear them talking process with each other. Everyone was wanting to improve their game, but also freely giving information to the brewer standing next to them. How cool is that?

In 1995, my wife Sandy and two other friends went trekking in Sikkim, in northern India. There was a brewery tucked up in the Himalaya called Yuksom Brewing. We stopped by just to check it out. It was a large industrial complex with barb wire fences all around and a guard station at the entrance.

We were told that we were not allowed to enter. Then I mentioned that I had a brewery in the United States (albeit a much smaller one in Colorado) and the guard immediately got on the phone to call up to the office to tell someone about us. In no time the head brewer and a couple lab guys showed up at the gate and escorted us in. We got a complete tour and wound up in the lab drinking their beer out of Erlenmeyer flasks and - of course - talking shop.

This is what we do. We share information freely with our fellow brewers, and for me, especially new brewers who are wanting to get into the business, but don’t have a million bucks.

So when you read an idea I propose, don’t get upset if it’s not for you: It might be for the next person. I don’t put anything out there unless I know it works. I encourage however your ideas even if they are different than mine. I’m still learning new tricks, thanks to all you brewers who are still sharing with me.