Today we launched Buy Your Beau’s Online, our project with Operation Come Home to deliver beer to people’s homes in Ottawa, and promptly had the service effectively shut down by the AGCO.
That’s right, after less than a day of operation, BYBO has been closed, after another brewery (we weren’t told which one) complained. The complaint has nothing to do with the service or the fact that at-risk youth were involved, but over a technicality involving what I believe to be a typo in the regulations around home beer delivery services.
Our retail store operates as an authorized beer store by the LCBO, but the regulation around home delivery uses the wording ‘operated' instead of ‘authorized’, which is how it is worded to allow us to sell to special occasion permit holders, and retail customers. It is interesting to note that the Beer Store, which is not operated by the LCBO or government is somehow allowed to sell to home delivery services.
So...
No specialty beer delivered to our Ottawa customers.
No employment for homeless youth, to get them off the street.
No additional revenue for Operation Come Home.
What’s really got me irked about this situation is the complete arbitrariness of the regulation that is being used to kill a social enterprise designed to do good for the community and the malicious behaviour by another brewery in this province.
The Beer Store is a retail outlet owned by three breweries. Why would they be allowed to sell to a home delivery service and Beau’s (or any other brewery) not be? It doesn’t make any sense, it’s anti-competitive and it restricts choice to the residents of this province.
I know that there are a lot of cut-throat competitive tactics used by some of the less honourable members of the brewing community, but taking a job from a homeless youth to thwart us is beyond reprehensible.
I’m disappointed that the AGCO has decided to act this way, using the letter and not the spirit of the law to guide their decision-making, but ultimately I understand that they may not have had a choice once the complaint was lodged. I would have rathered more consultation from them or that they refused the delivery license application when they were informed how the service would work. If that had happened, at least Corey and Kyle, the two youths who had been hired to start this service, wouldn’t have had their hopes lifted and then let down in such a dramatic way.
I’m simply aghast, though that another brewery instigated this.
I’m really disappointed that this service is unfortunately going to be shut down.
I’m sorry to the youth who have been dealt yet another misfortune, to our customers who were looking forward to gaining better access to our beer and to other breweries who probably would have been able to use similar models to compete better in this Province.
Don't worry, though. We will find another way to get beer to our customers and we won't stop trying to help our community. Vive la Beau's!
Showing posts with label Beau's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beau's. Show all posts
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
5 Years Old!!!
I’m somewhat dumbfounded to say we’re about to hit a pretty significant milestone, 5 years in business as of July. In some ways it seems like its been five weeks and in others it seems I’ve been doing this my whole life. In past years I’ve done blog posts on where we’ve gone, so I’m reluctant to repeat the same stories, but wow, five years feels really special.
What makes this anniversary so very special is that from almost every angle, the next five years are shaping up to be even more amazing. The whole team has put in so many hours and made so many sacrifices that it seems most appropriate at this time to say thanks to all them, instead of another “We’ve Come A Long Way Baby” kind of post. So here goes...
Dad, I couldn’t have chosen a better partner, you’re my mentor, my idol and my rock
Mom, I know this has been hard on you, you’ve sacrificed so much and the stress on you has been immense. Thanks for standing by me and Dad and believing in us. I love the fact that its my mom on the phone every week calling up the LCBO stores.
Nicola, thanks for letting me follow my dreams and being there for our kids when I didn’t have the time. Packing up and moving away from Toronto was hard on you and I appreciate it.
Matt, what can I say, Matt? If everyone else at the brewery worked twice as hard as they already do, it would mean a thing if our beer wasn’t so gosh darn tasty. Over the years, I’ve come to think of you as a brother, a friend and both a willing co-conspirator and a voice of reason.
Johanne R, your positive attitude and hard work have been invaluable. You are a pleasure to be around and you are calm under pressure. It has been a lot of learning to grow into our office manager, but I think you are doing great.
Alex, one day you are going to make a great accountant! Thanks for all the hard work you’ve put in.
Jen James, if it were possible to be too passionate about what we do, I think you might be guilty. Your smarts, your willingness to learn new skills and your investment into our brewery is wicked cool, sis. It’ll be cool having you in the comptroller position soon.
Anick, I’m always happy to see you, both because I think you are a great person and it always means we’re really busy here.
Anne, thanks for all your help in getting us certified organic and for dealing with our bottling line for as long as you did.
Alex, Anne, Alice, Megan, Robert, Ryan M, Nik, I’m glad you have come on board to help us out for this busy summer on the bottling line, i look forward to getting to know all of you.
Korina, I dig your sense of humour, your grace under fire and your eye to detail. I was pretty reluctant to hire a retail manager, but you’ve proven both that we needed the position and that you are the best person for it.
Audrey, you are quickly making yourself a great part of the team whether its been on the bottling line or in the office.
Laura, when the brewery was young, you put in a lot of hours, doing all sorts of crazy things and I’m very glad we can still count on you to come out and wave the flag for events and still give it all you’ve got.
Jerry, ever since we went to see Gwar in ’93, I’ve counted you as one of my closest, bestest friends. Bringing you on board last year was such a happy moment for me, and through the year and a bit you’ve been with us, as much as I love how amazing you are doing selling in Toronto and to the West of the city, I love that I get to hang out with you even more.
Jamie, it has been so fulfilling to have you by my side these 5 years. You built up Ottawa, by caring about your customers and about the brewery and about me. I couldn’t ask for a better friend, I know you are there for me personally, and professionally and that means so much.
Nikki, we’ve shared so many laughs and tears, its hard to put into words how much I care for you. I’m so glad you’ve been with us these last few years, you are awesome. You’ve been a great brand ambassador, tour guide and the retail store will miss you.
Frank, from our first meeting at a Maximum RnR show, you’ve shown yourself to be incredibly passionate about all things beer. Our customers love you and your tours, and so do I.
Cuggy, you are destined for greatness. Your passion, your thirst for knowledge and your awesome personality are going to take you to amazing places. I’m looking forward to the day I’ll be able to brag to my friends about how I knew you before you were famous.
Karen C, you’ve kept the team together, you’ve given us the HR structure and policies we’ve needed and you’ve always pitched in, on everything. When you walk in the brewery, everyone’s mood lifts so MUch. I’m your biggest fan!
Amanda, I’ve enjoyed getting to know you, bit by bit as I walk behind you to pour myself a beer. You’ve got a great sense of humour, mixed with a no-nonsense work ethic; its pretty cool.
Jordan Bamforth, when we first started out, you took my ideas and made them better than I had imagined. Now you are coming to me with ideas I couldn’t have come up with. You are the look and feel of Beau’s, and there isn’t anyone else in the World that could do it better.
Jen Brock, I miss your great sense of humour, your motormouth, and your insane, non-stop work. I still hope we’ll get you back at the brewery one day.
Jordan aka Jo Po, the lady killer. Man, I wish I had your mojo when I was your age. For that matter, I wish I had it now! The fact you actually have some smarts and make a difference at the brewery is cool, too.
Keith, it’s only been a few weeks, but I’ve already come to think of you as our production Messiah! I believe very much in serendipity, and you are proof that some things were meant to happen; you are exactly the person we needed. I’m enjoying getting to know you, too.
Kevin, you have been such a good friend for such a long time. From the days before the brewery when we’d skip class to drink beer and play Sega Hockey ‘95 (or was it ‘94?) to the late nights when you’d come in and help me bottle through the night, to delivering beer to brewing, you’ve been such a supporter and amazing part of my life.
Rob, Wild Rose’s loss is our gain. I’m glad you decided to move out this way and hope you’ll stay a few more years before starting your own brewery. That said, I can’t wait to try your beer.
Brad, you are my favourite crasshole! I’m glad you made the decision to move out to Vankleek Hill, you are a great brewer and a loyal, stand-up guy.
Chris, nobody can MacGyver broken stuff better than you. Just stop breaking yourself, ok? We need you in piece! Your Happy Pils last year was amazing, you make good beer, and you add a lot of character to the brewing team.
Mark Smith, you came through for us in such a big way, when we needed you most. When Matt was out for several weeks due to a car accident, you stepped up, and totally came through. You were our Obi Won Kenobi. I wish you had been able to stay with us, but have so much respect for the decisions you made and the way you got us through a really scary time.
Michaela, you are so cool. Its great having you with us, and our Eastern Ontario restaurants have such a great vibe, because of how you look after them.
David B, I looked up to you so much when I was a kid. Whether it was teaching me how to play Risk or D&D or just hanging out, you were the older cousin I admired. Nothing has changed in that respect (and I’d totally go for a game of D&D sometime soon). Keep kickin’ ass selling beer in central Ontario, dude.
Rob P, I’m really glad things have worked out with you, you really seem to have hit your stride and I’m thrilled to have you with us, drivin’ and deliverin’ with the best of ‘em.
Rob Morra, you have proven yourself so thoroughly to be a great friend, a great salesman, a great eater, a questionable driver, and one of the hardest working men I know. You care so much about our customers and our brewery, it is truly inspiring. I work harder, because of how hard you work and how much you believe in me. Toronto restaurants are so lucky to have you as their salerep.
Phil, although I believe you are missing your true calling in life as a stand-up comedian, I’m very glad I get to work with you day in and day out and hear your material. You have come in early, you have stayed late, you have put a lot of yourself into making our brewery a success. Thanks, little brother! Getting the beer out the door hasn’t been an easy task and you’ve stuck with it.
Todd, you are such a great guy. You are great with our customers, you work hard, you are a great driver and you are one of the funniest guys to share a beer with.
Thaila, uhhhhhh, what can I say? You’re a great guy, a great delivery person and a very thoughtful human...wow, that was really hard not to repeat the word guy in that sentence!
Darren, I know things didn’t end well between us and I’m sorry it didn’t work out. We did have some good times together though, and I still hope that someday we’ll be able to have some Barbeque and a beer again.
Judd, You’ve been a solid addition to the delivery team, and I can’t wait to see your zombie death metal band.
Keith Carmen, you are seriously the nicest man on the planet! It’s been so cool bringing you on to deliver in Toronto after witness you deliver rock and roll so hard for so long.
Davey D, from the first time I met you in the Heatskores to today, you’ve impressed me with your larger-than-life personality, your fun attitude and your take on life. You are doing great and I think its so cool we get to work together.
Matt M, you’ve been there when we needed you on weekends, overnight, whenever. Thanks for sticking with us and I’m excited to have you start as assistant brewer very soon.
Bruce, best hire story ever...I walk by Bruce’s place on my home every day and I’d usually stop and say hi for a bit. Over a couple years, I got to know Bruce pretty well. One day, as I stop by, Bruce says “I just got laid off, are you guys hiring?” I say “Well, no, but stop by the brewery on Monday, we’ll find something for you”. Since then Bruce has been such a great employee, its been amazing. Always sporting a smile and a kind word, too.
Johanne C, from the old Spectrum days, I’ve always admired your work ethic and enjoyed your company. I’m so glad we’ve had you with us.
Karen A, I know how important a job well done is for you and I appreciate the amount of care you put into the work you do.
Shane, you’ve been a great addition to our team. Everyone can learn a few lessons about focus and steady hard work from you.
Colin, you’ve been a great co-op student and I’m glad you have been able to help us get through the summer, too.
Andrew, good luck in brewing school next year and thanks for choosing to work with us over the summer
Dave Wade, I hope you are able to find work in your field one day, and I’m happy that we’ve had you while you are looking.
Little Jeff, thanks for pitching in over Christmases and busy times for us. You are a good friend and a hard worker
Lyndell, you’ve very quickly made yourself such an important part of our brewery. You’ve grown so well into the role of special events coordinator and I can see you learning more every day.
Stephane, Jason, Nina, Sylvie, Veronic, Yalitsa, Stacy, Jen P, Amy S, Brett, Beasley, Shari, Alex N, Marc B, Mike S and Neil E, I’m sorry you couldn’t stick around, but I appreciate your time here and hope you remember us with fondness.
To everyone else who has helped out, pitched in, gone the extra mile and supported us throughout these last 5 years, thanks to you, too. I could spend a month listing off all the people that have done so much for us. Your belief in Beau’s gives all of us the energy to keep pushing the boundaries, striving to do better and feeling good about our accomplishments.
Here's to another 5 years of fun and beer and more fun!
What makes this anniversary so very special is that from almost every angle, the next five years are shaping up to be even more amazing. The whole team has put in so many hours and made so many sacrifices that it seems most appropriate at this time to say thanks to all them, instead of another “We’ve Come A Long Way Baby” kind of post. So here goes...
Dad, I couldn’t have chosen a better partner, you’re my mentor, my idol and my rock
Mom, I know this has been hard on you, you’ve sacrificed so much and the stress on you has been immense. Thanks for standing by me and Dad and believing in us. I love the fact that its my mom on the phone every week calling up the LCBO stores.
Nicola, thanks for letting me follow my dreams and being there for our kids when I didn’t have the time. Packing up and moving away from Toronto was hard on you and I appreciate it.
Matt, what can I say, Matt? If everyone else at the brewery worked twice as hard as they already do, it would mean a thing if our beer wasn’t so gosh darn tasty. Over the years, I’ve come to think of you as a brother, a friend and both a willing co-conspirator and a voice of reason.
Johanne R, your positive attitude and hard work have been invaluable. You are a pleasure to be around and you are calm under pressure. It has been a lot of learning to grow into our office manager, but I think you are doing great.
Alex, one day you are going to make a great accountant! Thanks for all the hard work you’ve put in.
Jen James, if it were possible to be too passionate about what we do, I think you might be guilty. Your smarts, your willingness to learn new skills and your investment into our brewery is wicked cool, sis. It’ll be cool having you in the comptroller position soon.
Anick, I’m always happy to see you, both because I think you are a great person and it always means we’re really busy here.
Anne, thanks for all your help in getting us certified organic and for dealing with our bottling line for as long as you did.
Alex, Anne, Alice, Megan, Robert, Ryan M, Nik, I’m glad you have come on board to help us out for this busy summer on the bottling line, i look forward to getting to know all of you.
Korina, I dig your sense of humour, your grace under fire and your eye to detail. I was pretty reluctant to hire a retail manager, but you’ve proven both that we needed the position and that you are the best person for it.
Audrey, you are quickly making yourself a great part of the team whether its been on the bottling line or in the office.
Laura, when the brewery was young, you put in a lot of hours, doing all sorts of crazy things and I’m very glad we can still count on you to come out and wave the flag for events and still give it all you’ve got.
Jerry, ever since we went to see Gwar in ’93, I’ve counted you as one of my closest, bestest friends. Bringing you on board last year was such a happy moment for me, and through the year and a bit you’ve been with us, as much as I love how amazing you are doing selling in Toronto and to the West of the city, I love that I get to hang out with you even more.
Jamie, it has been so fulfilling to have you by my side these 5 years. You built up Ottawa, by caring about your customers and about the brewery and about me. I couldn’t ask for a better friend, I know you are there for me personally, and professionally and that means so much.
Nikki, we’ve shared so many laughs and tears, its hard to put into words how much I care for you. I’m so glad you’ve been with us these last few years, you are awesome. You’ve been a great brand ambassador, tour guide and the retail store will miss you.
Frank, from our first meeting at a Maximum RnR show, you’ve shown yourself to be incredibly passionate about all things beer. Our customers love you and your tours, and so do I.
Cuggy, you are destined for greatness. Your passion, your thirst for knowledge and your awesome personality are going to take you to amazing places. I’m looking forward to the day I’ll be able to brag to my friends about how I knew you before you were famous.
Karen C, you’ve kept the team together, you’ve given us the HR structure and policies we’ve needed and you’ve always pitched in, on everything. When you walk in the brewery, everyone’s mood lifts so MUch. I’m your biggest fan!
Amanda, I’ve enjoyed getting to know you, bit by bit as I walk behind you to pour myself a beer. You’ve got a great sense of humour, mixed with a no-nonsense work ethic; its pretty cool.
Jordan Bamforth, when we first started out, you took my ideas and made them better than I had imagined. Now you are coming to me with ideas I couldn’t have come up with. You are the look and feel of Beau’s, and there isn’t anyone else in the World that could do it better.
Jen Brock, I miss your great sense of humour, your motormouth, and your insane, non-stop work. I still hope we’ll get you back at the brewery one day.
Jordan aka Jo Po, the lady killer. Man, I wish I had your mojo when I was your age. For that matter, I wish I had it now! The fact you actually have some smarts and make a difference at the brewery is cool, too.
Keith, it’s only been a few weeks, but I’ve already come to think of you as our production Messiah! I believe very much in serendipity, and you are proof that some things were meant to happen; you are exactly the person we needed. I’m enjoying getting to know you, too.
Kevin, you have been such a good friend for such a long time. From the days before the brewery when we’d skip class to drink beer and play Sega Hockey ‘95 (or was it ‘94?) to the late nights when you’d come in and help me bottle through the night, to delivering beer to brewing, you’ve been such a supporter and amazing part of my life.
Rob, Wild Rose’s loss is our gain. I’m glad you decided to move out this way and hope you’ll stay a few more years before starting your own brewery. That said, I can’t wait to try your beer.
Brad, you are my favourite crasshole! I’m glad you made the decision to move out to Vankleek Hill, you are a great brewer and a loyal, stand-up guy.
Chris, nobody can MacGyver broken stuff better than you. Just stop breaking yourself, ok? We need you in piece! Your Happy Pils last year was amazing, you make good beer, and you add a lot of character to the brewing team.
Mark Smith, you came through for us in such a big way, when we needed you most. When Matt was out for several weeks due to a car accident, you stepped up, and totally came through. You were our Obi Won Kenobi. I wish you had been able to stay with us, but have so much respect for the decisions you made and the way you got us through a really scary time.
Michaela, you are so cool. Its great having you with us, and our Eastern Ontario restaurants have such a great vibe, because of how you look after them.
David B, I looked up to you so much when I was a kid. Whether it was teaching me how to play Risk or D&D or just hanging out, you were the older cousin I admired. Nothing has changed in that respect (and I’d totally go for a game of D&D sometime soon). Keep kickin’ ass selling beer in central Ontario, dude.
Rob P, I’m really glad things have worked out with you, you really seem to have hit your stride and I’m thrilled to have you with us, drivin’ and deliverin’ with the best of ‘em.
Rob Morra, you have proven yourself so thoroughly to be a great friend, a great salesman, a great eater, a questionable driver, and one of the hardest working men I know. You care so much about our customers and our brewery, it is truly inspiring. I work harder, because of how hard you work and how much you believe in me. Toronto restaurants are so lucky to have you as their salerep.
Phil, although I believe you are missing your true calling in life as a stand-up comedian, I’m very glad I get to work with you day in and day out and hear your material. You have come in early, you have stayed late, you have put a lot of yourself into making our brewery a success. Thanks, little brother! Getting the beer out the door hasn’t been an easy task and you’ve stuck with it.
Todd, you are such a great guy. You are great with our customers, you work hard, you are a great driver and you are one of the funniest guys to share a beer with.
Thaila, uhhhhhh, what can I say? You’re a great guy, a great delivery person and a very thoughtful human...wow, that was really hard not to repeat the word guy in that sentence!
Darren, I know things didn’t end well between us and I’m sorry it didn’t work out. We did have some good times together though, and I still hope that someday we’ll be able to have some Barbeque and a beer again.
Judd, You’ve been a solid addition to the delivery team, and I can’t wait to see your zombie death metal band.
Keith Carmen, you are seriously the nicest man on the planet! It’s been so cool bringing you on to deliver in Toronto after witness you deliver rock and roll so hard for so long.
Davey D, from the first time I met you in the Heatskores to today, you’ve impressed me with your larger-than-life personality, your fun attitude and your take on life. You are doing great and I think its so cool we get to work together.
Matt M, you’ve been there when we needed you on weekends, overnight, whenever. Thanks for sticking with us and I’m excited to have you start as assistant brewer very soon.
Bruce, best hire story ever...I walk by Bruce’s place on my home every day and I’d usually stop and say hi for a bit. Over a couple years, I got to know Bruce pretty well. One day, as I stop by, Bruce says “I just got laid off, are you guys hiring?” I say “Well, no, but stop by the brewery on Monday, we’ll find something for you”. Since then Bruce has been such a great employee, its been amazing. Always sporting a smile and a kind word, too.
Johanne C, from the old Spectrum days, I’ve always admired your work ethic and enjoyed your company. I’m so glad we’ve had you with us.
Karen A, I know how important a job well done is for you and I appreciate the amount of care you put into the work you do.
Shane, you’ve been a great addition to our team. Everyone can learn a few lessons about focus and steady hard work from you.
Colin, you’ve been a great co-op student and I’m glad you have been able to help us get through the summer, too.
Andrew, good luck in brewing school next year and thanks for choosing to work with us over the summer
Dave Wade, I hope you are able to find work in your field one day, and I’m happy that we’ve had you while you are looking.
Little Jeff, thanks for pitching in over Christmases and busy times for us. You are a good friend and a hard worker
Lyndell, you’ve very quickly made yourself such an important part of our brewery. You’ve grown so well into the role of special events coordinator and I can see you learning more every day.
Stephane, Jason, Nina, Sylvie, Veronic, Yalitsa, Stacy, Jen P, Amy S, Brett, Beasley, Shari, Alex N, Marc B, Mike S and Neil E, I’m sorry you couldn’t stick around, but I appreciate your time here and hope you remember us with fondness.
To everyone else who has helped out, pitched in, gone the extra mile and supported us throughout these last 5 years, thanks to you, too. I could spend a month listing off all the people that have done so much for us. Your belief in Beau’s gives all of us the energy to keep pushing the boundaries, striving to do better and feeling good about our accomplishments.
Here's to another 5 years of fun and beer and more fun!
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
BogWater is Coming!!!
The first batch of BogWater has been brewed and it is now fermenting away like a trooper. Its actually a little later than I would have hoped to go in, but it took a bit longer to get the bogmyrtle this year...although the wait was definitely worth it, it is simply wonderful this year. Super aromatic, the whole brewery smelled of myrtle when we opened the first package.
About 5 weeks from now, I'm going to be a very happy man. Not that I'm not happy now, but in 5 weeks I'll be a happy man enjoying a pint of BogWater!
Cheers,
Steve
About 5 weeks from now, I'm going to be a very happy man. Not that I'm not happy now, but in 5 weeks I'll be a happy man enjoying a pint of BogWater!
Cheers,
Steve
Monday, August 23, 2010
Big Win (...and big bust!)
I was happy to attend the 8th edition of the BarTowel's Golden Tap Awards this weekend. This year it was expanded to a 2-day event, with a beer dinner on Friday and the awards and tasting festival on the Saturday, all at the impressive Beer Bistro in downtown Toronto.
The beer dinner was phenomenal. The pairings were thoughtful, the beer was wonderful and the crowd was enthusiastic. The awards were great, too, and I'm very proud and humbled to say that we took home the awards for best year-round beer and best microbrewery in Ontario again as well as picking up the award for winning last year's best beer of the festival.
I had a particularly interesting conversation at the awards with a fellow named Trevor. It was his bachelor party and he successfully convinced his whole crew of fellows to spend an hour sampling Ontario craft beer before heading off for the rest of their festivities.
I have recently been talking about the possibility of creating a beer revolution in Ontario where Ontarians would drink independent, Ontario-made beer half of the time. Most of my critics insist that the so-called "regular" customer will only ever purchase the cheapest blandest beer available. Here was my counter-position in the flesh - one guy who had been turned on to the awesomeness of Ontario beer, doing missionary work with his buddies, introducing them to what we have to offer.
On my way back from the festivities in Toronto, I got a call from the home front to let me know of some very bizarre and rather bad news. We were very excited to be sponsoring the Ottawa Reggae Festival for the first time this year (I'm a huge ska and roots reggae fan), but apparently this will also be the last year. The headliners all backed out and the police stormed the gates and seized all the money on hand and effectively shut down the festival. We had to send guys down to protect the rest of our beer until we could get it out.
We're still scratching our heads and wondering what our lesson to learn from this is. We've pretty much been a hand-shake type of company and events like this make you question whether we need to be less trusting of new festivals, or just understand that risk is inherent in business and deal with it. Oh well, interesting conversations, at least.
The beer dinner was phenomenal. The pairings were thoughtful, the beer was wonderful and the crowd was enthusiastic. The awards were great, too, and I'm very proud and humbled to say that we took home the awards for best year-round beer and best microbrewery in Ontario again as well as picking up the award for winning last year's best beer of the festival.
I had a particularly interesting conversation at the awards with a fellow named Trevor. It was his bachelor party and he successfully convinced his whole crew of fellows to spend an hour sampling Ontario craft beer before heading off for the rest of their festivities.
I have recently been talking about the possibility of creating a beer revolution in Ontario where Ontarians would drink independent, Ontario-made beer half of the time. Most of my critics insist that the so-called "regular" customer will only ever purchase the cheapest blandest beer available. Here was my counter-position in the flesh - one guy who had been turned on to the awesomeness of Ontario beer, doing missionary work with his buddies, introducing them to what we have to offer.
On my way back from the festivities in Toronto, I got a call from the home front to let me know of some very bizarre and rather bad news. We were very excited to be sponsoring the Ottawa Reggae Festival for the first time this year (I'm a huge ska and roots reggae fan), but apparently this will also be the last year. The headliners all backed out and the police stormed the gates and seized all the money on hand and effectively shut down the festival. We had to send guys down to protect the rest of our beer until we could get it out.
We're still scratching our heads and wondering what our lesson to learn from this is. We've pretty much been a hand-shake type of company and events like this make you question whether we need to be less trusting of new festivals, or just understand that risk is inherent in business and deal with it. Oh well, interesting conversations, at least.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Certification Audit, Jazzfest fun, Oktoberfest planning, SAQ conversations, Canada Day, VCI Grad
We had our annual organic certification audit today. There is an annual audit and then random unnanounced inspections throughout the year. Today went pretty smoothly, we'd had a delegation from the EU and CFIA do a mock inspection a month earlier, so we were pretty prepared. Still makes for a stressful morning, but its a great feeling once the inspection is complete.
Last night we took our staff out to see the final night of Jazzfest as a group. It was a lot of fun and a really nice way to say thanks to everybody for putting in the extra hours over the summer. This is our 3rd time doing Jazzfest, and it was the first time we could get out as a group and take it in. And Sharon Jones was phenomenal.
We had a townhall meeting on Monday night to offer up opportunities for our town to benefit from our Oktoberfest celebration. We're encouraging the whole town to get in on the fun and make it really special for our guests, while letting them receive some benefit from all these tourists coming in. It was a good meeting with lots of interest, and I'm hoping we can get a number of satellite events happening this year.
We had a really interesting conversation on Tuesday with a Quebec beer importer. They had tried our beer at Mondail and would like to represent us in La Belle Province (mmm...steamies). It is a difficult process, so don't expect anything happening overnight, but I would really love to be able to sell into the Quebec area.
Canada Day was great. I spent the day with my family, took the girls to the L'orignal park for fun stuff there and then over to the Vankleek Hill celebration where my daughters danced up a storm and then watched the fireworks. (they had Beau's on tap there, too, so life was good).
On Saturday, Vankleek Hill's highschool had its final reunion before the old school is torn down. It made for a memorable night of visiting old friends - although, truth be told, I've kept in touch with many of my highschool friends, so there were only a few of those "Holy crap, I didn't recognize you, its been wayyyy too long" moments.
All in all, another busy, awesome week.
Last night we took our staff out to see the final night of Jazzfest as a group. It was a lot of fun and a really nice way to say thanks to everybody for putting in the extra hours over the summer. This is our 3rd time doing Jazzfest, and it was the first time we could get out as a group and take it in. And Sharon Jones was phenomenal.
We had a townhall meeting on Monday night to offer up opportunities for our town to benefit from our Oktoberfest celebration. We're encouraging the whole town to get in on the fun and make it really special for our guests, while letting them receive some benefit from all these tourists coming in. It was a good meeting with lots of interest, and I'm hoping we can get a number of satellite events happening this year.
We had a really interesting conversation on Tuesday with a Quebec beer importer. They had tried our beer at Mondail and would like to represent us in La Belle Province (mmm...steamies). It is a difficult process, so don't expect anything happening overnight, but I would really love to be able to sell into the Quebec area.
Canada Day was great. I spent the day with my family, took the girls to the L'orignal park for fun stuff there and then over to the Vankleek Hill celebration where my daughters danced up a storm and then watched the fireworks. (they had Beau's on tap there, too, so life was good).
On Saturday, Vankleek Hill's highschool had its final reunion before the old school is torn down. It made for a memorable night of visiting old friends - although, truth be told, I've kept in touch with many of my highschool friends, so there were only a few of those "Holy crap, I didn't recognize you, its been wayyyy too long" moments.
All in all, another busy, awesome week.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Operation Come Home Grad, Cool Invite, Looking forward to OCB Week
Another busy week at the brewery. Anne was able to get the bottling line back in business with Morris from Metec. Its great to have skilled folks so close by. Anne is learning a lot about how the line really works, so silver linings are definitely there. Here's hoping we get some good bottling runs this week!
Two very cool things to report from last week. The first came in the form of an invitation...to Rideau Hall to dine with Michaelle Jean, Canada's Governor General. I think I've written before about how humbling and "Forest Gump-ish" it is to be allowed in a small way to be involved in things that are truly Canadian. Our visits to 24 Sussex, our collaborative beer to commemorate 65th annniversary of Dutch liberation, visits from Ontario's Premiere. Having a personal invitation to dine with the Queen's representative of Canada, is one of those moments. Dad and I will be there this Wednesday.
Dad and I took a few hours off work on Thursday to attend the graduation ceremony for Operation Come Home. Operation Come Home is a homeless youth centre, aimed at getting homeless kids critical support and hopefully off the streets. Beau's has been working with Operation Come Home, through the Bottleworks project for some time.
One of the many impressive things Operation Come Home does is run an achievement centre, where homeless youth can continue their education on their own terms. Regular highschool is virtually impossible for street youth to manage for lots of reasons, but lack of education is a major obstacle for youth trying to find employment in order to get off the street. The achievement centre lets the youth work away at credits as they can, provides nutritious food, allows them to bring their pets to class and offers lots of other services to make it possible to attend.
The net result was at the end of the year there were 9 youths graduating high school and a score of others celebrating progress toward that goal. Of the 9 youths, 5 had full time employment and 2 had participated in the Bottleworks program. There is nothing better than watching the underdog win against the odds, and attending this ceremony had all the drama as watching the end of a good Rocky movie; but better dialogue.
Sunday was the start of Ontario Craft Beer Week. This week looks like its going to be a great one for me...I'm heading to Toronto tonight to play Thirsty Hippos at Magpie, hopefully catch a belgian-style beer at Volo. Tomorrow I'll be at Burger Bar for a beer dinner, Wednesday the Governor General's (plus hopefully a stop at Arrow and Loon), Thursday a beer dinner at the Cheshire Cat in Carp and a cask event at the Black Tomato, Friday I'm going to try to get to the Stinking Rose in Campbellford and Saturday back in Toronto for Session! And that's just me! The whole brewery is getting involved in well over , including 14 in the Ottawa/Kingtson area, 5 in Toronto and 6 in the west or north of Toronto. There are well over 100 events listed for the week and hopefully lots of at-home tastings, too.
Two very cool things to report from last week. The first came in the form of an invitation...to Rideau Hall to dine with Michaelle Jean, Canada's Governor General. I think I've written before about how humbling and "Forest Gump-ish" it is to be allowed in a small way to be involved in things that are truly Canadian. Our visits to 24 Sussex, our collaborative beer to commemorate 65th annniversary of Dutch liberation, visits from Ontario's Premiere. Having a personal invitation to dine with the Queen's representative of Canada, is one of those moments. Dad and I will be there this Wednesday.
Dad and I took a few hours off work on Thursday to attend the graduation ceremony for Operation Come Home. Operation Come Home is a homeless youth centre, aimed at getting homeless kids critical support and hopefully off the streets. Beau's has been working with Operation Come Home, through the Bottleworks project for some time.
One of the many impressive things Operation Come Home does is run an achievement centre, where homeless youth can continue their education on their own terms. Regular highschool is virtually impossible for street youth to manage for lots of reasons, but lack of education is a major obstacle for youth trying to find employment in order to get off the street. The achievement centre lets the youth work away at credits as they can, provides nutritious food, allows them to bring their pets to class and offers lots of other services to make it possible to attend.
The net result was at the end of the year there were 9 youths graduating high school and a score of others celebrating progress toward that goal. Of the 9 youths, 5 had full time employment and 2 had participated in the Bottleworks program. There is nothing better than watching the underdog win against the odds, and attending this ceremony had all the drama as watching the end of a good Rocky movie; but better dialogue.
Sunday was the start of Ontario Craft Beer Week. This week looks like its going to be a great one for me...I'm heading to Toronto tonight to play Thirsty Hippos at Magpie, hopefully catch a belgian-style beer at Volo. Tomorrow I'll be at Burger Bar for a beer dinner, Wednesday the Governor General's (plus hopefully a stop at Arrow and Loon), Thursday a beer dinner at the Cheshire Cat in Carp and a cask event at the Black Tomato, Friday I'm going to try to get to the Stinking Rose in Campbellford and Saturday back in Toronto for Session! And that's just me! The whole brewery is getting involved in well over , including 14 in the Ottawa/Kingtson area, 5 in Toronto and 6 in the west or north of Toronto. There are well over 100 events listed for the week and hopefully lots of at-home tastings, too.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Canadian Family Enterprise of the Year!
Dad and I flew out to Regina last Wednesday. We had been nominated for the Canadian Family Enterprise of the Year, an annual award handed out by CAFE (Canadian Association of Family Enterprises).
We had first become aware of the organization last Fall, when they asked us if we'd like to come talk to the Ottawa chapter on our experiences as a family-run business. After our talk, they asked us if we'd like to submit our name for the award. We were humbled by winning the Ottawa-chapter award in February and at that time, we found out there was a national competition as well.
Turns out we were in the top 3, and as part of that honour, CAFE would fly us out to Regina, where the bi-annual symposium was taking place to hear if we were the winner.
I'd never been to Regina, and the symposium seemed pretty cool - guest speakers included Frank O'Dea (founder of Second Cup, former homeless person, order of Canada member), the guy who traded a red paper clip for a house, and a bunch of other cool folks. A bit drier, but no less important were tax issues for family businesses and succession planning for families.
On Wednesday we flew out and our flight was 2 hours late, so we missed the social stuff going on, which was probably a good thing, because Thursday morning we were to present our story to the symposium along with the two other finalists.
We did our presentation first and it went quite well. Then we got to learn about the other two finalists through their presentation.
First up, another Ontario-based company, Flanagan Food Service, from Kitchener. Flanagan was started up 33 years ago by Joe Flanagan and is now run by his four sons, Dan, Rick, Jeff and Murray. Their company has grown every single year for 33 years. They do eco-cool stuff like capturing rainwater to use for cleaning trucks, and installing a reflective roof to reduce energy requirements. They remain privately owned and, on a personal level, these guys were really nice and I'm glad I got to meet them - real class acts.
Next was Veriperm, and I'm still not exactly sure what they do, but it must be important, because they are doing really well in an industry that has had its challenges over the last few years. They were founded in 1969 by Bill Nurcombe. Bill is still around and actually presented on Thursday, but the company is now run mostly by his sons James and Kelly. It was nice to hear Bill talk with pride about his sons accomplishments since the passing of the torch.
So then more speakers, Dad and I snuck out for a quick trip to Bushwakkers Brewpub (great beer!) and dinner at the RCMP museum ended Thrusday. Friday involved more speakers, breakout sessions, sneaking out to Beer Bros. (enjoyed beer from Half Pint, Tree and Wild Rose) then out for dinner and the announcement of the winner.
I guess the title of the post gave this away, but we won! It was great to win and I'm so proud of my whole family and friends on the team for putting us in this winning position. It was a real honour and an unbelievable feeling. I'd like to point out that one of the first people to shake my hand afterwards was Murray Flanagan, proving once again how cool he was. On the way back my Dad and I had at least three conversations about Murray and Flanagan Foodservice as an example of true sportsmanship and class - they were quite inspirational.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Waiting lists, Princess, Website, OCB Week, South African Microbrewery
Some weeks seem to take a month.
Monday was the start of the House of Orange so a pile of us went down to enjoy the very first taste of of Vrienden (our collaborative beer with de Koningshoeven to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Dutch liberation by Canadian troops) with Lodewijk and Gijs Swinkels from Koningshoeven, Remco Volmer from the Dutch embassy and a bunch of other folks. It was a great time.
Not so much fun on Monday was calling up 30 LCBO stores to let them know that we can't send them beer for the next 14 weeks or so. Let me explain...
Trying to predict what sales would do with our new 4-pack was kind of like trying to glue egg-yolks to a wall (not that I can guess why you would want to do that). We ran scenarios where people who bought one ceramic bottle before would buy one 4-pack now and scenarios where total volume stayed the same and lots of different versions of other scenarios too...but in the end, we kinda guessed total volume might double from 1,500 litres/week to around 3,000 litres/week.
Our orders for the last month have gone from 5,000 litres/week to 9,000 litres/week, with individual stores ordering as much as 600 litres (250 4-packs). While we are tickled pink that it is taking off - we totally can't keep up with that level of demand. We simply don't have enough brewers or tank space to bottle that much every week. So we've ordered new tanks and we've hired someone to run our bottling line, but it will take about 3 months for this to help us.
It is a horrible decision to have to make, deciding which stores to cut off, and even worse calling them to let them know they won't be getting our beer for a while. Jerry and Philip got the honour of letting them know.
On Tuesday Dad and I were invited to the Dutch Ambassadors residence for a private gathering with Princess Margriet and her husband, Professor van Vollenhoven. It was quite an honour to attend, although I have to admit I felt rather awkward in the company of royalty. Its not like I get to hang out with princesses all too often, and I really worried about doing or saying something inappropriate.
Also on Tuesday we met with an architect. We are going to outgrow our original brewhouse pretty soon if our sales keep growing at the rate they have been and so we've started looking at different options. Our options got a lot cooler last year, when an architect student asked if she could develop a new brewery for us as her final thesis. Obviuosly we said yes and when she came back 8 months later, she amazed us. She has since started working with an architecture firm in the area and they have put together a starting document to see if we can't get this into reality.
Wednesday was the ceremony at the Governor General's residence and this was a real treat. The ceremony was quite elegant and helped me remember the real reason this was such a cool project. We were also allowed to bring a much larger group that included my wife and daughters and my Grandfather Max, who fought in World War II. And getting a picture of my two girls with the princess was a real bonus thrill.
this week we also relaunched our website. Jordan has spent months getting this baby ready, and she is totally kick-ass. There is lots of real content, lots of interactive, live feed stuff and it is one heck of a pretty site. We constantly got compliments on our last site and this one makes the old one look like a pile of puke.
With summer almost here it was also time for an Oh Yeah's practice. The Oh Yeah's is our brewery band. We hadn't been practicing for a long time though, so Friday night after the hockey game, we dusted off the instruments and played through the old set list. Not a bad run through considering how much rust we had to shake off. We're playing a gig on the 29th for Veg Stock in Kemptville, so we gotta get it together, yo.
As if the week wasn't already action-packed enough, on Saturday we met with Ntsiki Biyela, the wine maker from Stellekaya a winery from Stellenbosch, South Africa. She was visiting Canada and wanted to stop by the brewery as she is conducting research to start a craft brewery in her country. How cool is that?
When that is the highlight reel from your week, it can be kind of hard to manage all of the rest of life, so I saw a lot of 4ams and a couple 2ams, too. But in amoungst all that I managed to mow the lawn, watch Ruby's kindergarten play, saw the end of the Habs game 7, played a couple games of UNO with the fam, made it out to the House of Orange, The Works in Orleans, Lavoie's in town and I only missed two nights of bedtime stories - one 'cause I wan't home and the other 'cause I couldn't stay awake until the kids bedtime.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
New Award!
I just received an email letting me know that Beau's won at the Ontario Legislature tasting event. This was our first year being part of the event, because the winners have to be able to supply the leg with beer for the year and we weren't in Toronto before.
Here is the release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ONTARIO MPPS CELEBRATE ONTARIO CRAFT BREWERS
Seven new Ontario craft beers to be highlighted at Ontario’s Legislative Assembly
TORONTO, ON – (May 6, 2010) – Ontario MPPs cast their votes for the most popular representatives of Ontario’s Craft Brewing industry during an annual tasting and selection event hosted by Hon. Steve Peters, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at Queen’s Park last evening.
MPPs and Queen’s Park staffers tasted a selection of 48 craft beers from 15 of Ontario ’s popular craft breweries and cast their votes in favour of the craft beers to be highlighted at the Legislative Assembly for 2010-2011. The event included a delicious menu to accompany the beer featuring Ontario ingredients and a beer and cheese pairing table.
The new beers, to be highlighted in the Legislative Dining Room and at other Queen’s Park venues, are brewed in local communities throughout the province, including: Barrie, Burlington, Cambridge, Etobicoke, Guelph, Port Credit, Muskoka, Neustadt, Oakville, Prince Edward County, St. Thomas, Toronto and Van Kleek Hill.
“An initiative of mine as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is to ensure that our Legislature is a showcase of everything Ontario – from the gifts in our gift shop, to the food, beer, wine, and fruit wine we serve at events and in our dining room” Speaker Peters said. “Events such as this one are a great way for the Members to learn more about the world-class beer made and produced right here in Ontario .”
This is the third year the Speaker has hosted the exclusive tasting event, part of his ongoing initiative to showcase Ontario products in the Legislature. The tasting event consisted of 48 beers from 15 Ontario Craft Breweries. Tasters cast ballots to choose their favourite varieties in six categories, a seventh category the “Speaker’s Selection” was t chosen by the Speaker himself. (See below for full results).
“Demand for Ontario Craft Beer has exploded in the past few years, even despite the economic slowdown,” says Gary McMullen, Chair of Ontario Craft Brewers and President of Muskoka Cottage Brewery. “Ontario Craft Brewers have been working hard to build this industry and create jobs in Ontario and we are very grateful to the Province of Ontario for its ongoing support.”
The winning Ontario Craft Beer brands were selected in the following categories:
Golden Lagers & Pilsners
Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company: Beau’s Lug Tread Lagered Ale
Refreshing Ales
Cameron’s Brewing Company: Cameron’s Cream Ale
Amber Lagers, Ales & Honey Beers
Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery: Flying Monkeys Hoptical Illusion Almost Pale Ale
Malty Dark Lager or Ale
Muskoka Cottage Brewery: Muskoka Dark Ale
Bold Flavoured Ale, Stout or Porter
Grand River Brewery:Plowman’s Ale
Wheat Beer & Specialty
Mill Street Brewery: Mill Street Lemon Tea Beer
Speaker’s Selection
Railway City Brewing: Railway City Dead Elephant Ale*
*To honour the 125th anniversary of the fate of Jumbo, Speaker Peters has chosen Dead Elephant Ale from Railway City Brewing – a perfect combination of the Speaker’s two great interests – Ontario Product and Jumbo the elephant.
About the Ontario Craft Brewers
The Ontario Craft Brewers is an association of more than 25 small brewers dedicated to making great tasting, high quality beer in Ontario. The 25 members of the Ontario Craft Brewers brew their beers locally using fresh, all natural ingredients in communities throughout Ontario – from the Ottawa Valley to Waterloo and Niagara to Muskoka. Handcrafting over 150 premium beers, Ontario Craft Brewers employ about 600 people in Ontario , accounting for over 20 per cent of the overall brewing employment in the province. Ontario ’s Craft brewers’ share has more than doubled since 2002, going from slightly less than two per cent to approximately five per cent of the beer volume sold in Ontario and continues to be the fastest growing segment within the LCBO’s beer category. For more information about the Ontario Craft Brewers visit www.ontariocraftbrewers.com.
Here is the release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ONTARIO MPPS CELEBRATE ONTARIO CRAFT BREWERS
Seven new Ontario craft beers to be highlighted at Ontario’s Legislative Assembly
TORONTO, ON – (May 6, 2010) – Ontario MPPs cast their votes for the most popular representatives of Ontario’s Craft Brewing industry during an annual tasting and selection event hosted by Hon. Steve Peters, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario at Queen’s Park last evening.
MPPs and Queen’s Park staffers tasted a selection of 48 craft beers from 15 of Ontario ’s popular craft breweries and cast their votes in favour of the craft beers to be highlighted at the Legislative Assembly for 2010-2011. The event included a delicious menu to accompany the beer featuring Ontario ingredients and a beer and cheese pairing table.
The new beers, to be highlighted in the Legislative Dining Room and at other Queen’s Park venues, are brewed in local communities throughout the province, including: Barrie, Burlington, Cambridge, Etobicoke, Guelph, Port Credit, Muskoka, Neustadt, Oakville, Prince Edward County, St. Thomas, Toronto and Van Kleek Hill.
“An initiative of mine as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is to ensure that our Legislature is a showcase of everything Ontario – from the gifts in our gift shop, to the food, beer, wine, and fruit wine we serve at events and in our dining room” Speaker Peters said. “Events such as this one are a great way for the Members to learn more about the world-class beer made and produced right here in Ontario .”
This is the third year the Speaker has hosted the exclusive tasting event, part of his ongoing initiative to showcase Ontario products in the Legislature. The tasting event consisted of 48 beers from 15 Ontario Craft Breweries. Tasters cast ballots to choose their favourite varieties in six categories, a seventh category the “Speaker’s Selection” was t chosen by the Speaker himself. (See below for full results).
“Demand for Ontario Craft Beer has exploded in the past few years, even despite the economic slowdown,” says Gary McMullen, Chair of Ontario Craft Brewers and President of Muskoka Cottage Brewery. “Ontario Craft Brewers have been working hard to build this industry and create jobs in Ontario and we are very grateful to the Province of Ontario for its ongoing support.”
The winning Ontario Craft Beer brands were selected in the following categories:
Golden Lagers & Pilsners
Beau’s All Natural Brewing Company: Beau’s Lug Tread Lagered Ale
Refreshing Ales
Cameron’s Brewing Company: Cameron’s Cream Ale
Amber Lagers, Ales & Honey Beers
Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery: Flying Monkeys Hoptical Illusion Almost Pale Ale
Malty Dark Lager or Ale
Muskoka Cottage Brewery: Muskoka Dark Ale
Bold Flavoured Ale, Stout or Porter
Grand River Brewery:Plowman’s Ale
Wheat Beer & Specialty
Mill Street Brewery: Mill Street Lemon Tea Beer
Speaker’s Selection
Railway City Brewing: Railway City Dead Elephant Ale*
*To honour the 125th anniversary of the fate of Jumbo, Speaker Peters has chosen Dead Elephant Ale from Railway City Brewing – a perfect combination of the Speaker’s two great interests – Ontario Product and Jumbo the elephant.
About the Ontario Craft Brewers
The Ontario Craft Brewers is an association of more than 25 small brewers dedicated to making great tasting, high quality beer in Ontario. The 25 members of the Ontario Craft Brewers brew their beers locally using fresh, all natural ingredients in communities throughout Ontario – from the Ottawa Valley to Waterloo and Niagara to Muskoka. Handcrafting over 150 premium beers, Ontario Craft Brewers employ about 600 people in Ontario , accounting for over 20 per cent of the overall brewing employment in the province. Ontario ’s Craft brewers’ share has more than doubled since 2002, going from slightly less than two per cent to approximately five per cent of the beer volume sold in Ontario and continues to be the fastest growing segment within the LCBO’s beer category. For more information about the Ontario Craft Brewers visit www.ontariocraftbrewers.com.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Stupid Volcano, Energy audacity and EcoHumane
So when I heard about the volcano going off in Iceland, I initially had a 'wow, the world is mad at us moment - glad it doesn't impact me though' moment and then showed Ruby, who a few days earlier had told me that volcanos only existed during the time of the dinosaurs, that I wasn't pulling her leg when I said they can still erupt these days.
It wasn't until a few days later that I realized that it would impact me. Beau's has been commissioned by the Dutch government to create a special collaboration beer with the De Koningshoeven Brewery to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Canadian troups liberating Holland. Brew master Lodewijk Swinkels was supposed to fly in to be on hand for the brewing...
Stupid volcano.
Matt spent a good amount of time on the phone with Lodewijk and the brew still went well and we're hoping Lodewijk will be on hand to taste the beer when it is presented in May, but we were really excited to have him here during the brew day. Oh well - the volcano has caused a lot of other people a lot more grief than it did for us, but its not like you can plan for that sort of thing.
On a more upbeat note, we had our consultant in for our Energy audit. We are apparently the first compnay in Eastern Ontario to engage the services of the Guelph Food and Technology Institute's Sustainability Division for their services.
This will be a significant step for us in reducing our carbon footprint. We've been doing small projects over the last couple years, but this represents a big investment and we're hoping it will dramatically reduce our consumption of fossil fuels. It will take about another month to get our results and we'll keep you posted.
And finally, as we work towards our goal of raising $100,000 for worthwhile charities, community building and indie arts, we did a pile of events including a fundraiser for the Brockville Hospital, the Elmwood school in Ottawa, the Ecofair and the Humane Society.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
CABA CABA Hey!
Last Fall we did a fun project with the Canadian Amateur Brewers Association (CABA). They did a better write up than I possibly could, so here's the link:
http://www.homebrewers.ca/Newsletters/CABA%20Times%20-%20December%202009%20-%20FINAL.pdf
http://www.homebrewers.ca/Newsletters/CABA%20Times%20-%20December%202009%20-%20FINAL.pdf
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Happy New Year!
Well, its New Year's Eve...so much for an awesome 2009. In the last year we won 3 Golden Tap awards, a Gold Medal at Mondiale in France (1 of 10) and two medals (out of three) at the National Organic Championship. We were named the #1 thing to try before you die by Ottawa Magazine, best local beer by Metro newspaper and one of 10 unique entries in the Ottawa food scene in the past decade by the Ottawa Citizen.
Mr. and Mrs. Harper poured a couple pints at 24 Sussex for us, and George Wendt visited our Oktoberfest, along with 5,000 of our closest friends!
We just started selling into Toronto LCBO stores, we've added a bunch of new fermenting tanks - 42,840 litres worth to be exact, our new bottling line has arrived (but still isnt actually working).
We rounded out our seasonal line-up with Beaver River in the Spring and we did a special one-off project with the Canadian Amateur Brewer's Association.
We've been lucky enough to try Piggy Market's and Elk Ranch's sausages made with our beer, Art-is-in Bakeries Beau's Bread, Pascal's Awesome beer ice-cream, as well as sauces, chutnies and steak-and-mushroom pies with our beer.
We've grown from 13 employees to 24 in the year. We received a very welcomed grant from the Ontario government to help us keep expanding.
We sponsored or donated well over $50,000 to worthwhile causes like Prostate Cancer research, Amnesty International, Ottawa Jazz Fest, Kelp Records, FrancoOntarien festival, Operation Come Home, Yes Women Can!, Brockville Memorial Hospital, Therapeutic Riding, Bon Apetit, Tulip festival, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, Military Families Fund, Capital Pride, the Ontario Provincial Police Association, Rideau Valley Roller Girls, Canadian Diabetes Association, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Feast of Fields, the United Way, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Canadian Breast Cancer research, the Vankleek Hill Agricultural Society, The Ontario Federation of Agriculture and more.
I made a New Year's resolution that I would post weekly and by my count, including this one I hit 26 - or about half way to my goal. My resolution for next year is to keep this momentum going, to make sure our beer stays as tasty as ever, to grow only when growing helps make us cooler than we are, to dramatically increase our support for charities and indie music and arts and to get to 52 blog entries for next year.
Thanks again to everyone who bought one of our beers this year.
Thanks to everyone who signed up to our Facebook Group, the Beau's Army.
Thanks to everyone who voted for us for a Golden Tap, or a best local beer competition.
Thanks to everyone who visited the brewery for a tour and brought a friend or a relative or a bus load of people.
Thanks to everyone who asked a restaurant to start carrying our beer.
Thanks to everyone who gave us a tip about a new restuarant, or a good one to approach.
Thanks to all the wonderful restaurateurs who made the choice to buy fresh, local, organic beer instead of a beer that came with a big advertising budget.
Thanks to all the bartenders, waitresses and waiters and sommaliers and chefs who willingly took on the role of Beau's salesrep and talked passionately about our beer to your customers.
Thank you to the bloggers, editors, and journalists who felt that what we were doing was newsworthy.
All of our success in 2009 is really your success. Everything we are is possible because of everything you do for us. We have been truly blessed this year with kindness and support from so many people.
I'm looking forward to 2010 with unbridled enthusiasm. I hope you'll join me at midnight to ring in the New Year with a LugTread or a BogWater (actually I'm planning on mixing Bogwater with champagne for a twist on a Black Velvet, but you get my drift)
Oh Yeah!
Mr. and Mrs. Harper poured a couple pints at 24 Sussex for us, and George Wendt visited our Oktoberfest, along with 5,000 of our closest friends!
We just started selling into Toronto LCBO stores, we've added a bunch of new fermenting tanks - 42,840 litres worth to be exact, our new bottling line has arrived (but still isnt actually working).
We rounded out our seasonal line-up with Beaver River in the Spring and we did a special one-off project with the Canadian Amateur Brewer's Association.
We've been lucky enough to try Piggy Market's and Elk Ranch's sausages made with our beer, Art-is-in Bakeries Beau's Bread, Pascal's Awesome beer ice-cream, as well as sauces, chutnies and steak-and-mushroom pies with our beer.
We've grown from 13 employees to 24 in the year. We received a very welcomed grant from the Ontario government to help us keep expanding.
We sponsored or donated well over $50,000 to worthwhile causes like Prostate Cancer research, Amnesty International, Ottawa Jazz Fest, Kelp Records, FrancoOntarien festival, Operation Come Home, Yes Women Can!, Brockville Memorial Hospital, Therapeutic Riding, Bon Apetit, Tulip festival, Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, Military Families Fund, Capital Pride, the Ontario Provincial Police Association, Rideau Valley Roller Girls, Canadian Diabetes Association, the Heart & Stroke Foundation, Feast of Fields, the United Way, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Canadian Breast Cancer research, the Vankleek Hill Agricultural Society, The Ontario Federation of Agriculture and more.
I made a New Year's resolution that I would post weekly and by my count, including this one I hit 26 - or about half way to my goal. My resolution for next year is to keep this momentum going, to make sure our beer stays as tasty as ever, to grow only when growing helps make us cooler than we are, to dramatically increase our support for charities and indie music and arts and to get to 52 blog entries for next year.
Thanks again to everyone who bought one of our beers this year.
Thanks to everyone who signed up to our Facebook Group, the Beau's Army.
Thanks to everyone who voted for us for a Golden Tap, or a best local beer competition.
Thanks to everyone who visited the brewery for a tour and brought a friend or a relative or a bus load of people.
Thanks to everyone who asked a restaurant to start carrying our beer.
Thanks to everyone who gave us a tip about a new restuarant, or a good one to approach.
Thanks to all the wonderful restaurateurs who made the choice to buy fresh, local, organic beer instead of a beer that came with a big advertising budget.
Thanks to all the bartenders, waitresses and waiters and sommaliers and chefs who willingly took on the role of Beau's salesrep and talked passionately about our beer to your customers.
Thank you to the bloggers, editors, and journalists who felt that what we were doing was newsworthy.
All of our success in 2009 is really your success. Everything we are is possible because of everything you do for us. We have been truly blessed this year with kindness and support from so many people.
I'm looking forward to 2010 with unbridled enthusiasm. I hope you'll join me at midnight to ring in the New Year with a LugTread or a BogWater (actually I'm planning on mixing Bogwater with champagne for a twist on a Black Velvet, but you get my drift)
Oh Yeah!
Thursday, November 05, 2009
George-A-Palooza (a.k.a. Oktoberfest 2009)
So this blog entry is a bit late, but worthwhile nonetheless. We had our first ever Oktoberfest on October 3rd of this year. Technically, last year we had a little shin-dig at the brewery, very low key, but still fun. All year afterwards we had this ongoing debate…are we ready to do a bigger version, or should we wait a year. With 6 weeks to go, on a trip to Toronto with Rob, we had a moment of intense optimism and decided the time was right.
In retrospect, it probably wasn’t, but once you commit, you have to deliver. 6 weeks is not a lot of time to put together a large scale event; but on the other hand, we work a lot harder than average folk, so maybe it was just right. At any rate, we had to find a location, food, entertainment, costumes, work out transportation logistics, print tickets, signs, posters and figure out how to get the word out.
Food wasn’t too hard. We’ve got great relationships with amazing restaurants and chefs, so we started calling them up. Entertainment was kindof tough, but we got lucky that some of the better oompah music wasn’t booked that night, and through other personal relationships we worked out a really cool homebrewing demonstration, kids activities, a keg tapping ceremony and obviously brewery tours and haywagon rides.
Then came the stoke of great luck. My friend George Eaglesmith said he would be coming. George is about the most enthusiastic brewer in the planet and if he was coming then certainly the stars and the moons had aligned and things would be good. Next I heard from Alan McKay of the Members of Barleyment that the other George (Wendt, that is) was doing a promo tour of his upcoming book Drinking With George. Better yet, Alan had been in contact with George’s PR firm about an interview for his Bodensatz website and had actual contact info.
This is where I came in. After about 300 emails and a dozen phone calls, I convinced George and his manager and his PR firm that he should attend our Oktoberfest. His schedule was pretty tight – Cincinnati Oktoberfest with ½ million people, Great American Beer Festival (awesome event if you are lucky enough to get tix before it sells out), and then the Colbert Report. The next morning a flight into Ottawa and boom – this is really happening, George Wendt came to Vankleek Hill.
Oktoberfest itself is a non-stop blur of work and excitement. We were pretty overwhelmed by the numbers of people that came out – we had expected 1,000, hoped for 1,500 and publicly said as many as 2,000 might show up. When 5,000 people arrived we couldn’t believe it.
While the food lasted it was fantastic. The bands were great. George Wendt stayed for an extra 2 hours to make sure everyone got an autograph. And all the homebrewers were excited that a professional brewer named George was so enthusiastic about their set up.
Perfect.
Well, in truth, the beer line ups got out of control for a couple hours and we did run out of food (until the pizza shops in town could start delivering), but 99% of the people who came told me afterwards they had the time of their lives. 1% of the people were very clear that they did not (see comments of long lineups and running out of food).
In retrospect, it probably wasn’t, but once you commit, you have to deliver. 6 weeks is not a lot of time to put together a large scale event; but on the other hand, we work a lot harder than average folk, so maybe it was just right. At any rate, we had to find a location, food, entertainment, costumes, work out transportation logistics, print tickets, signs, posters and figure out how to get the word out.
Food wasn’t too hard. We’ve got great relationships with amazing restaurants and chefs, so we started calling them up. Entertainment was kindof tough, but we got lucky that some of the better oompah music wasn’t booked that night, and through other personal relationships we worked out a really cool homebrewing demonstration, kids activities, a keg tapping ceremony and obviously brewery tours and haywagon rides.
Then came the stoke of great luck. My friend George Eaglesmith said he would be coming. George is about the most enthusiastic brewer in the planet and if he was coming then certainly the stars and the moons had aligned and things would be good. Next I heard from Alan McKay of the Members of Barleyment that the other George (Wendt, that is) was doing a promo tour of his upcoming book Drinking With George. Better yet, Alan had been in contact with George’s PR firm about an interview for his Bodensatz website and had actual contact info.
This is where I came in. After about 300 emails and a dozen phone calls, I convinced George and his manager and his PR firm that he should attend our Oktoberfest. His schedule was pretty tight – Cincinnati Oktoberfest with ½ million people, Great American Beer Festival (awesome event if you are lucky enough to get tix before it sells out), and then the Colbert Report. The next morning a flight into Ottawa and boom – this is really happening, George Wendt came to Vankleek Hill.
Oktoberfest itself is a non-stop blur of work and excitement. We were pretty overwhelmed by the numbers of people that came out – we had expected 1,000, hoped for 1,500 and publicly said as many as 2,000 might show up. When 5,000 people arrived we couldn’t believe it.
While the food lasted it was fantastic. The bands were great. George Wendt stayed for an extra 2 hours to make sure everyone got an autograph. And all the homebrewers were excited that a professional brewer named George was so enthusiastic about their set up.
Perfect.
Well, in truth, the beer line ups got out of control for a couple hours and we did run out of food (until the pizza shops in town could start delivering), but 99% of the people who came told me afterwards they had the time of their lives. 1% of the people were very clear that they did not (see comments of long lineups and running out of food).
Monday, May 25, 2009
Application Mailed!
We’ve been working hard over the last 6 weeks or so going through the process to get certified organic and today, we mailed in the application!
The process of getting certified is quite a challenge. It involves much more than just using certified organic raw materials and requires a crazy amount of documentation. After going through the process though, there will be a couple cool things we can do. For example, we could trace back from any bottle or keg of our beer which batch of beer it was, what lot of grain and hops went into that batch, where it was malted and which farm grew it! Crazy.
We needed a tremendous amount of help to get our record keeping and process documentation ready for the certifier, and we were very fortunate to get that help from our intern, Anne Morin. Anne is graduating from University of Guelph’s Alfred College campus in quality assurance and nutrition and she was responsible for getting us up to speed. We’ve hired her for the rest of the summer to help us make sure we stay compliant and also research more enviro-cool things we can do.
The application itself is hundreds of pages long, documenting every cleaning procedure, every quality assurance program and tracking procedures for every ingredient for every brand. I weighed the thing and its 1.5lbs of paperwork!
The process of getting certified is quite a challenge. It involves much more than just using certified organic raw materials and requires a crazy amount of documentation. After going through the process though, there will be a couple cool things we can do. For example, we could trace back from any bottle or keg of our beer which batch of beer it was, what lot of grain and hops went into that batch, where it was malted and which farm grew it! Crazy.
We needed a tremendous amount of help to get our record keeping and process documentation ready for the certifier, and we were very fortunate to get that help from our intern, Anne Morin. Anne is graduating from University of Guelph’s Alfred College campus in quality assurance and nutrition and she was responsible for getting us up to speed. We’ve hired her for the rest of the summer to help us make sure we stay compliant and also research more enviro-cool things we can do.
The application itself is hundreds of pages long, documenting every cleaning procedure, every quality assurance program and tracking procedures for every ingredient for every brand. I weighed the thing and its 1.5lbs of paperwork!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Looking at another "Oh Crap" Friday
To keep our beer as fresh as possible, we’ve been running a system that works like this: We get our orders in, filter only as much as we have on order, keg it the same day as it is filtered, deliver it the next day, repeat next week.
As sales have grown, we’ve been adding new delivery routes and more vehicles, but we always try to leave Friday as our “Oh Crap” day. As in “Oh crap, our downtown orders completely fill the truck and the cargo van, we’ll need to do another trip on Friday.” Or “Oh crap, our LCBO sales are twice as big this week and there is no way we’ll have enough filled for our Wednesday deliveries..so we’ll have to send out another vehicle on Friday”. Or today's “Oh crap, the truck broke down for the third time in a row and all we have left in the parking lot is a minivan, I guess we’ll have to rent a truck and send it out on Friday.”
It’s a good fail safe, but this week will mark the 5th consecutive week we’ve been delivering on Friday, which means we need to do something about it. So we’re hiring a student to do a few shifts a week bottling for us and it looks like we’ll be buying a new truck (boo) in the next week or so as well. Because if we don't, then the "oh crap" might start to mean "Oh crap, we're going to miss a delivery" and that's just not cool.
As sales have grown, we’ve been adding new delivery routes and more vehicles, but we always try to leave Friday as our “Oh Crap” day. As in “Oh crap, our downtown orders completely fill the truck and the cargo van, we’ll need to do another trip on Friday.” Or “Oh crap, our LCBO sales are twice as big this week and there is no way we’ll have enough filled for our Wednesday deliveries..so we’ll have to send out another vehicle on Friday”. Or today's “Oh crap, the truck broke down for the third time in a row and all we have left in the parking lot is a minivan, I guess we’ll have to rent a truck and send it out on Friday.”
It’s a good fail safe, but this week will mark the 5th consecutive week we’ve been delivering on Friday, which means we need to do something about it. So we’re hiring a student to do a few shifts a week bottling for us and it looks like we’ll be buying a new truck (boo) in the next week or so as well. Because if we don't, then the "oh crap" might start to mean "Oh crap, we're going to miss a delivery" and that's just not cool.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Organic Hops (finally!)
So we just received our first shipment of organic hops [picture me jumping in the air and clicking my heels together]. It is enough to do two or three test batches before switching to full scale production. We’ve spent the last 3 + years trying to find a consistent source of certified organic hops of the variety and quality we require. If these test batches pan out our ingredients will go from 98% organic to 100% organic. I’m so excited about this…when we started off this was a really big decision for us.
There technically were organic hops on the market, but we didn’t particularly like them and we couldn’t receive assurances they would always be available. We decided that we would hold out until we could get what we wanted in terms of quality and variety, but I really didn’t expect it would take so flipping long.
The next step for us will be to go through the actual certification process, which I’m really looking forward to. At first I figured it wouldn’t be anything more than a pain-in-the-but, because I’m pretty sure they won’t find anything that we need to change (to be certified organic you only need 95% of the ingredients certified, and we don’t make any beer with less than that). But lately, I’ve been kind of hoping that they do find something we can change, to help us do better.
Either way, we’ll see what’s what when we start the process. In the meantime, I can’t wait until our tests on the hops are done.
There technically were organic hops on the market, but we didn’t particularly like them and we couldn’t receive assurances they would always be available. We decided that we would hold out until we could get what we wanted in terms of quality and variety, but I really didn’t expect it would take so flipping long.
The next step for us will be to go through the actual certification process, which I’m really looking forward to. At first I figured it wouldn’t be anything more than a pain-in-the-but, because I’m pretty sure they won’t find anything that we need to change (to be certified organic you only need 95% of the ingredients certified, and we don’t make any beer with less than that). But lately, I’ve been kind of hoping that they do find something we can change, to help us do better.
Either way, we’ll see what’s what when we start the process. In the meantime, I can’t wait until our tests on the hops are done.
Monday, January 26, 2009
All I (All I) Wanna Do is Drink, ahem, Maple Syrup For Breakfast
I have to thank Sarah Haase and family for reminding me of one of my favourite Replacement’s songs. She recently sent me this email:
“Hi,
Love, love your beer.... but once the bottle is done, best use for it after that is a maple syrup bottle!! We buy large quantities of maple syrup at a time, the tins of which are impossible to pour from. So instead we decant the maple syrup into empty Beau's bottle's which then can re-seal, put back in the fridge and you have the perfect pour! Also a great talking point when you have someone for breakfast and you put a beer bottle on the table with their pancakes. Thanks for a great product, both the beer and the bottles.
The Haase Family”
And she was kind enough to show me our bottle in action:
Tips for reusing our bottles (remember, you can’t see through it, so make sure its clean):
Most important is to make sure you very thoroughly rinse out the bottle as soon as you empty it (yum).
You are best to put in products that aren’t likely to spoil (vinegar, syrup, oil, etc).
Make sure you re-clean it between uses.
Thanks again Sarah and family, looks like a tasty breakfast.
…now I gotta go eat some Bar-b-que chips.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
John Graham is a pretty cool guy
Matt was pretty sick early on this week, and he couldn’t come in and filter on Monday or Tuesday. On Monday we didn’t really sweat it, but on Tuesday we started wondering if he’d be off all week. Our new brewer, Alex, had been training for about 3 months on our filter, but had not handled a filtration solo yet and we really didn’t want to give him a baptism by fire-beer on it.
So I called up John Graham. He’s the owner, brewer, salesrep and sometimes delivery guy for ChurchKey brewing out in Campbelford (he also owns and runs the Stinking Rose pub out that way). After 30 seconds of small talk, I got right to it: “John, Matt is sick and I’m not sure how long he might be out of commission…any chance you feel like coming up for a visit?”
Like the title of the post, John is a pretty cool guy. After explaining that he was about to leave for Toronto, had to brew the next day and had crazy amounts of stuff lined up for the rest of the week, he said “if you’re stuck and you need beer, I can make it to your place for about midnight tomorrow, but I’ll have to filter and be back in Campbellford by morning”.
Turns out we didn’t need to take John up on his generosity…Alex rocked on his first ever solo brew and Matt was good enough to make it in on Wednesday. But it’s good to know there are brewers like John out there, ready to help out if you’re in a pinch and need to borrow a few thousand cups of filtered beer. Thanks, John.
So I called up John Graham. He’s the owner, brewer, salesrep and sometimes delivery guy for ChurchKey brewing out in Campbelford (he also owns and runs the Stinking Rose pub out that way). After 30 seconds of small talk, I got right to it: “John, Matt is sick and I’m not sure how long he might be out of commission…any chance you feel like coming up for a visit?”
Like the title of the post, John is a pretty cool guy. After explaining that he was about to leave for Toronto, had to brew the next day and had crazy amounts of stuff lined up for the rest of the week, he said “if you’re stuck and you need beer, I can make it to your place for about midnight tomorrow, but I’ll have to filter and be back in Campbellford by morning”.
Turns out we didn’t need to take John up on his generosity…Alex rocked on his first ever solo brew and Matt was good enough to make it in on Wednesday. But it’s good to know there are brewers like John out there, ready to help out if you’re in a pinch and need to borrow a few thousand cups of filtered beer. Thanks, John.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Rushing the Growler
In case you missed the memo, Beau's All Natural Brewing Company recently introduced a novel beer-d
rinking concept to Eastern Ontario. When you come to the brewery (have you been yet? You're getting thirsty, very thirsty), you can buy yourself some Lug Tread Lagered Ale in a big ole hoedown jug. That's right, 1/2 US Gallons of Beau's you can take home and drink on your stoop, and then blow a tune in the top when you're done. (Thanks to Beau's enthusiast Darren Wardle for the picture!)
These jugs enjoy a fair degree of poularity in the US, where they are usually called "growlers." So whenever I'm working in Beau's new retail store, people always say, "Let me see these jugs everyone has been talking about." And so I go to our converted freezer that's older than I am, and pull out a frosty one. And when I say they're called growlers, I'm asked why they are called growlers. So finally, since I like being a trivia nerd, I looked it up. Thank you Interweb! The answer is... no one knows. But there are a number of logical guesses. According to MaltedBarley.org:
The Otto brothers, founders of Grand Teton Brewing Co., credit themselves with bringing back the idea of the growler in 1989, in its modern-day form of the glass jug you see today. Neat, huh? So I'm thinking that, if kids are so good at fetching beer, I set myself back a number of good years by buying a "freezer on the bottom" fridge. Let's hope our boys grow tall soon. Cheers! Jen "Beau" James
rinking concept to Eastern Ontario. When you come to the brewery (have you been yet? You're getting thirsty, very thirsty), you can buy yourself some Lug Tread Lagered Ale in a big ole hoedown jug. That's right, 1/2 US Gallons of Beau's you can take home and drink on your stoop, and then blow a tune in the top when you're done. (Thanks to Beau's enthusiast Darren Wardle for the picture!)These jugs enjoy a fair degree of poularity in the US, where they are usually called "growlers." So whenever I'm working in Beau's new retail store, people always say, "Let me see these jugs everyone has been talking about." And so I go to our converted freezer that's older than I am, and pull out a frosty one. And when I say they're called growlers, I'm asked why they are called growlers. So finally, since I like being a trivia nerd, I looked it up. Thank you Interweb! The answer is... no one knows. But there are a number of logical guesses. According to MaltedBarley.org:
"Back in the 19th century parents would at dinnertime send their child to a local bar or brewery to fetch beer in a pail, or covered bucket, which was referred to as a “growler.” It was also called rushing the growler, since perhaps these children were often in a hurry. Teenagers could make good money and get a free lunch if they would show up at the factories and pick up the workers’ beer pails to get them filled at the taverns. Regarding the term ‘growler' the Trenton Times for 20 June 1883 said, perhaps in jest “It is called the growler because it provokes so much trouble in the scramble after beer.”
The Otto brothers, founders of Grand Teton Brewing Co., credit themselves with bringing back the idea of the growler in 1989, in its modern-day form of the glass jug you see today. Neat, huh? So I'm thinking that, if kids are so good at fetching beer, I set myself back a number of good years by buying a "freezer on the bottom" fridge. Let's hope our boys grow tall soon. Cheers! Jen "Beau" James
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
