What Happened Last Year

Food. We added it to [ the pub ]. Thankfully we have a much larger enterprise to float massive losses because that’s what we did at the pub. I knew it was going to be humbling and by god it was. I have always appreciated the hard work that restauranteurs have to put in, but I have a new perspective now which leads me to the wonder, how is it that we have restaurants at all? I’m not even the one bearing the brunt of the work and I can tell you, it ain’t easy, in any way. With food came new cousins; Taylor, Sabrina, McKenzie, Hailey, KC, James, Chris, Christian.  

Brewhouse. We got one from Germany.  It’s pretty big, for us. It spent months at sea, got caught up in Cartagena, what is this, Carmen San Diego? The scope of this project was so long and massive the only distinct time I remember was trying to get the mash tun/lauter tun skid in the building. It was a tricky maneuver. I think the total weight of it was 13,000 pounds but one vessel was 7,000+ and the other was about 5,000 pounds. What we had was a rectangle who’s center of gravity was known only to the engineer who must have been sworn to secrecy, or we forgot to ask, which is a pain when your supplier is in Germany on Greenwich mean time +whatever. If there is one skill Tyson now has it is the smarts to get a vessel or a skid in a building and stood upright. In the event that he lacks total confidence is where I step in with a well-placed “you’ve got to risk it for the biscuit” and “i’m on the line for this one Tyson, let’s go for it” and so-far so-good. Thanks for going against your better judgment and applying your thorough and circumspect approach, I think we make a decent team Tybro.

Production. Some neat additions.

• New canner, equals frustration but also a lot faster canning.
• Verifiable shit ton of really awesome new employees.  Tyler, Paul, Carson, Josh W, Karina, Rob.  
• Last brew on the falcon.
• New cooler
• October record 2741 bbls produced
• Centrifuge broke it’s shit- twice.  Once for manufacturer error, once for operator stupidity.  We were able to ride out both times due to our inventory buffer and some perseverance on our outstanding employees.  GEA bills are expensive.

St. Paddy Day. I liked it. I ran my mouth over microphone for about an hour and amused myself and at least two other people.

Dirtbag. It was a little weak. Somehow we managed to align with the weekend in August that every single person in America had another plan. Including me. That was obviously a bad sign; I wasn’t forward thinking enough to pick a different weekend for stabbing myself in the face with a handlebar. 2017 Dirtbag will be good. How do I know? I’ll be there so that’s good for me.

Sales. Added QID 6/12 cans to the mix in March. In turn, Quilter’s Irish Death went from 66% of the overall volume mix to 77% and drove 92% of the overall growth in 2016.  We added two new sales cousins. Billy and Molly.

Marketing. They did some stuff but probably the most important thing they did was add Nicole to the cousinhood as the curator of fun.

Theft. Our van was stolen…and then found. Someone also stole Brooke’s cheese stick.

Extra stuff. A real highlight of the year was hashbrown bar. Sometime in my late adolescence I ventured down south and experienced a waffle house. Wow. So you are telling me I get hash browns and then put a whole bunch of other stuff on top? And why are you giving me options? Put them all on. Ever since that day (thanks cousin Ray for taking me there) I have yearned for loaded hash browns. Apparently I was paralyzed by indecision on this one since it has taken me over 20 years to execute on the plan. Better late than never. It was so good and naturally it was made substantially better by the marketing team and kitchen teams additional suggestions for topping. Waffle house, you ain’t got shit on IHB hashbrown bar. Come ’round after Winterhop this weekend and you can see what I’m talking about.