Pretty monumental week for us. We finished kegging our first run and sold about 25 kegs each to Pine State and Nappi. We then went into Mainely Brews to have our first cider on tap. I can safely say we were all really nervous. We didn't expect any problems, but never having kegged anything before, we were hoping the keg didn't have just foam, or explode or anything. No explosions, and the cider came out great. We'll update our website with all the places you can get Downeast on tap. We have a bunch of verbal commitments, but they have to finish the barrels that are in place before they put us on, so you should see a much more complete list in the next couple of weeks. If you want to put us on tap at your bar/restaurant just give any of us a call, email, or just comment on the blog.
As for the behind the scenes kind of stuff, our roles are starting to change slightly. The name of the game is selling. Tyler is our head of sales, so he does most of the selling, but with this being a pretty crucial time to sell, both Ben and I are also out on the road. Selling is a wild beast. It's exciting, depressing, scary, fun, but never boring. I never thought of myself being a salesman, but here I am going door to door cold-selling cider. It's kind of weird because you know that a lot of people are annoyed with you, but it's your job to ignore that. You have to have thick skin because not only can you go through really long bouts of rejection, but some of the owners can be less than welcoming.
Funny story about my first sales trip. I went to a town which I'll call town X, so as not to offend anyone who might be from there. Ben told me town X was really nice (there was a company with the same name that made really nice water vessels, so he assumed the town was nice as well). As you could guess, town X was not the kind of place that a premium local hard cider was going to gain traction. Imagine the reception you might get trying sell Ferrari's door to door in rural Mississippi. Not quite as extreme, but you get the idea. I established a principal about bars during the day though. As opposed to the traditional theory that the nicer the bar, the more crowded it'll be, the opposite applies to bars in the morning. The seedier the joint, the more crowded it will be. Maybe a tip for those of you with nice bars that are having trouble grabbing onto that mid-morning crew: hang up a false-front with peeling paint, busted windows, and burnt out lights and you could become a day-night powerhouse.
Finally, fun facts this week to learn about Ben and Tyler. Ben doesn't like onion rings. He says it's because he doesn't like when you bite into the ring and the onion comes out without the fried part, but I don't know why he doesn't either eat the whole thing in one bite, or just bite down with a sense of purpose to make sure there's a clean separation, like a normal person. As for Tyler, I don't know if I'm making too big a deal of this, but I used the word "tom-foolery" the other day and he had no idea what I was talking about. How do you make it 23 years without coming across tom-foolery? Both very bizarre to me.
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