Near the end of a very busy April filled with busy weekends as a vendor at festivals, it occurred to us that we had passed the end of our forty-fifth month brewing and selling some of the best craft beer in the state of North Carolina. Forty-five months is a long time when you’re a kid, but not so long as an adult, especially when you’re doing something that you love.
Who would have thought that a job in the pharmaceutical industry doing large-scale fermentation would lead to owning a brewery? And who would have thought that project management skills would come in very handy for said brewery? Who would have thought that taking a class called essentially “how to start a brewery” would have led to actually starting a brewery? Well, one of us had an inkling. 😉
We brew almost every week, sometimes twice a week, so we’ve probably brewed 180 (give or take) batches of beer, some 1 BBL, some 7 BBL. That’s a lot of beer! Sometimes we use our smaller pilot system to make carbonated hop water or a hard seltzer, but our hearts and imaginations are still always with the beer. Ales…. Lagers…. Stouts… Wheats…. Sours…. Oh My!
We sell an average of 7 cookies a day. Cookies? Yep. You know that grain that we use to make all that delicious, award-winning beer? We turn some of it into the most fabulous cookies and sometimes, like this past weekend, we actually run out. Do you have a favorite? Chocolate Chip? Oatmeal Cranberry? Macarons? Shortbread? Snickerdoodle? Chocolate Fudge?
For the past 45-plus months, we’ve been hustling to build, brew, promote, and sell. It’s been a wild ride, and we’re so grateful to everyone who’s worked with us along the way… our partners in crime! Without Rain, Emily, Wyatt, Beth, Vanessa, Alli, Maddie, Ben, Todd, Alicia, Mark, Connor, Erin, Chris, Amanda, Kaitie, Emery, Gayle, and Alex, this would have been a lot harder and a lot less fun.
Along the way, we’ve acquired a core group of regulars. We know their names and what beers they prefer or don’t prefer! We have some of the best singer-songwriters at our open mics (Thank you for hosting, Michael). We have a super group of Euchre players who spend their Monday evenings, rain or shine, in our tap room. For the past couple years on Thursdays, when the Pittsboro Farmers Market descends on The Plant, we have had the privilege of watching the farmers’ kids grow taller and the daughters (gaggle of girls) of three couples grow taller and less shy.
We embraced the quirky space that we fell in love with and have tried to add things that might catch your eye on your first or fifth or twenty-sixth visit. Check out the floor and the walls and the nooks and crannies for hidden surprises!
We’re nearing that 4-year milestone on July 23, and looking forward to that fifth anniversary. We celebrated our first birthday with a party, but just quietly acknowledged the second and third. The fourth will be another quiet one, but we’re thinking about how to mark the big FIVE! Sixty months!
If you haven’t been to the tap room lately, change that!
You belong here. Yes, you!
john & carmen
Bravo for all you have accomplished! And it is some of the best beer brewed in the state!