Last Friday we got our new canning line up and running for the first time. The feeling of seeing that thing go was pretty cool. It was up there as one of the best moments we've had. I was watching it, wondering how we'd gotten to this point where we have this monstrosity (relative to us) of a canning line running hard cider in our fermentation/production facility.
That lasted for about 30 seconds, at which point I realized how far we were from smooth sailing. It was a total disaster. We started tinkering at 7AM, and got her running at about noon. Around 2 or 3, Tyler had to go to the Drink Craft Beer Summerfest*, leaving just me and Matt. Cut to 930, we were canning at the same rate as our manual line because we had to hit the emergency stop button every 10 seconds or so. I won't go through the list of issues, but it was a disaster. We were covered in cider, tired, angry, and probably wasted 400 cans of cider with bad fills, seams, gaping holes, and a gaggle of other problems.
We've been tinkering again all day today, and I'm optimistic that this afternoon we'll crank out a decent number of cans. It's more of a prayer than an expectation, but our fingers are crossed.
Also, if people don't know who Matt is, he's the third owner now. He also went to Bates College, he's my brother (Ross), he's an old-timer, 27, and in danger of screwing up our health insurance situation, and he likes to drink tepid water, which I find bizarre, and quite disturbing.
*side note: attend a DCB festival, next one's in the fall. Absolutely worth the price of admission, you won't regret it.
Monday, July 15, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
No Cans? The Reason Why
No, we're not done with cans, or packaging, or anything like that. But if you've gone to your favorite liquor store, convenience store, restauraunt, or you're the proproetor at the aforementioned establishment, you might have recently come accross the three dreaded letters: OOS. Out of stock.
As many of you know, we've been canning up to this point in time with our manual canning system. Without going into more detail than people care to know, we got a new canning line, it didn't work, and we now have a NEW, new canning line. This one is good, although we've been struggling to get every last detail correct. There's a lot of moving parts, and the slightest imperfection can cause the whole thing to fail.
At least 5 times today we've be "all set, run it" thinking it's definitely going to run, only to hit some minor snag. Currently, we're so close I can taste it (I can also literally taste it because I'm drenched in cider). Tyler is on our millionth Home Depot run of the week getting what is hopefully the final nuts, bolts, and washers to get our fill height sensors in so you don't crack a can and get snubbed with a partial fill.
So if you go to the store, and you're looking for some of the good stuff, and they don't have it, or you're ordering for the store, and our distributor is giving you that dreaded OOS, we're sorry, but this was necessary if we want to fill all of our normal orders going forward. At some point we had to bite the bullet, get rid of the manual, and step up to a big boy machine. As the business savants we are, it seemed that dead-middle of summer, peak booze season, was a good time to make the change. Was is the best move? No. Was is utterly necessary? No. Couldn't we have kept going on the manual a little longer. YES, stop nagging me, that thing sucked.
So to all of those effected by this Downeast OOS of '13, I'd like to defer to former BP CEO Tony Hayward: We're Sorry
(seriously though, this is eating at all of us, it's torture)
PS - double sorry to LD. I don't have a clue as to the validity of that satire, the weirdness just makes me laugh.
As many of you know, we've been canning up to this point in time with our manual canning system. Without going into more detail than people care to know, we got a new canning line, it didn't work, and we now have a NEW, new canning line. This one is good, although we've been struggling to get every last detail correct. There's a lot of moving parts, and the slightest imperfection can cause the whole thing to fail.
At least 5 times today we've be "all set, run it" thinking it's definitely going to run, only to hit some minor snag. Currently, we're so close I can taste it (I can also literally taste it because I'm drenched in cider). Tyler is on our millionth Home Depot run of the week getting what is hopefully the final nuts, bolts, and washers to get our fill height sensors in so you don't crack a can and get snubbed with a partial fill.
So if you go to the store, and you're looking for some of the good stuff, and they don't have it, or you're ordering for the store, and our distributor is giving you that dreaded OOS, we're sorry, but this was necessary if we want to fill all of our normal orders going forward. At some point we had to bite the bullet, get rid of the manual, and step up to a big boy machine. As the business savants we are, it seemed that dead-middle of summer, peak booze season, was a good time to make the change. Was is the best move? No. Was is utterly necessary? No. Couldn't we have kept going on the manual a little longer. YES, stop nagging me, that thing sucked.
So to all of those effected by this Downeast OOS of '13, I'd like to defer to former BP CEO Tony Hayward: We're Sorry
(seriously though, this is eating at all of us, it's torture)
PS - double sorry to LD. I don't have a clue as to the validity of that satire, the weirdness just makes me laugh.
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