First Day

I arrived at the brewery at 6:40am yesterday and met up with head brewer Gary. We went through the opening rounds, checking the cellar to make sure there was enough beer to serve for the day.

Gary and I then man-handled a pallet of 50 lb grain sacks up a ladder to the milling room above the brewery. The mill room was a good 90°+ and I sweated like a pig.

Next, I learned to fill up a keg the right way and then we prepped for bottling day.

The portable bottling machine arrived at 9 am and once it was set up, all hell broke loose (in a fast-paced, productive kind of way). Until 3pm, there we 3-6 people on the bottling line pushing cases and cases of bottles into the truck. We labeled, bottled, packaged and stamped for hours.

It was the inaugural bottling of Silver City's Deluxe Malt Liquor. Sooo tasty and smooth. At a moderate 6.2% alcohol, it's a nice balance of session and sip, and extremely refreshing.

We then bottled Whoop Pass Double IPA (epically hoppy and incredibly delicious; one of the best double IPA’s available) and Indianola Pale Ale. Overall we bottled a few hundred cases. It was pretty epic to see how many cases we actually put together and to know that those will sell.

At the end of the day after cleaning up, my old Timberland leather shoes were completely soaked and so were my feet. My shoes and socks were saturated with beer and with water.

I was sore as I drove home from my thighs to my toes. My shoes were incredibly inadequate for standing and hauling all day and even a day later my feet are hurting.

Even with all the hard work and the pain, it's still great to be part of a team that wants to help me learn and develop. I'm confident that I'll catch on pretty quickly and feel a bit more autonomous in my position.

Today, Sara and I went looking for work boots. I finally got a pair that’ll keep my feet dry and comfortable. Now I feel even a little more like a real brewer!

I think I’m still in shock. I’m actually living my dream!

Cheers!

Greg