January Update

No, we haven't taken the month off. I just haven't had access to the computron as mine up and died on Boxing Day. I got it back today and everything was wiped off. Let this be your reminder to back up your work often!!!

It’s looking like into mid-Feb now for the LCBO (boo). We've received something called a “commitment letter” from the LCBO that says they'll take on LugTread for a trial period at some LCBO stores in Eastern Ontario. (Yay!) Now we need to send in (yet) another sample indicating that this is from our first run and will be exarctly what we send for our first batch. (boo, less for us and you to drink). The good news is that a number of LCBO locations have been calling to find out when it’s going to be ready. (yay, they like us!) The bad is that we had a three-week delay (totally our fault) trying to get the UPC code to read on the LCBO system. (boo-you, technology).

In other exciting news, we will be releasing our first-ever seasonal soon. It’s been brewed, after two test brews on a pilot system. It’s tasting fantastic and I really can't wait to get this out.

If I wanted to be topical, I could tell you all about the global hop shortage and the increase in malt prices, but I'm sure you already have heard all about it. Personally, the whole thing smacks of piracy and collusion to me. I'm sure John Grisham could write a compelling novel about a naive brewer who stumbles into an evil plot perpetrated by Temperests and Destro under supervision by the Rand corporation.

And, we're gearing up to start selling into Kingston. The Iron Duke has some of our jugs already and on Thursday we'll be making our first delivery to the Queen's Grad bar, the ANAF bar (that's Army, Navy and Air Force), Sizzle (at the 4 points Sheraton) and any others who come on line before Thursday. This is exciting for us, as we started off with a goal of being an Eastern Ontario brewery and this is kind-of like the Western border. It’s also a town I used to spend a lot of time in and have many fond (read: blurry) memories of.

Last week was a new record for “beer out the door” for us. I'm guessing this is not very typical for breweries in mid- to-late January, so we're quite happy about it. And I was elected President of the Vankleek Hill Business and Merchant Association...like I don't already have enough to get done! Speaking of that, there's a lot of other stuff that I would love to get into, but I should really get back to work now.

Cheers, Steve