Post CBC

We (Nikki and I) got back from the Craft Brewers Conference in San Diego last week. It was an amazing trip! I say that because it was as much a vacation as it was a great learning experience. Because of that, I think I’ll break it down from both perspectives…

Vacation: The best part of the whole trip was amazing beer available at all times…literally all the time. We would start the day at 10 or 11 o’clock and there would be beer available that would be so awesome that it would make the average beer geek blush. Even the events away from the conference were amazing. We got personal tours that very few people of the general public would ever get to see. For example, we got to check out the brand new White Labs yeast facility where many craft breweries get their yeast. We also got to take a tour of the absolutely gorgeous new Stone Brewing Company “complex” that will be open near the San Diego Airport in early 2013.

Business: First of all we met a ton of great people, both from the local New York scene and in general. There were a lot of people that were very supportive of Rushing Duck, so for that a gigantic THANKS! Besides that, we actually had a ton of work to do making contacts for all of the equipment and marketing needs that we’ve been neglecting until now. Lastly, the seminars were completely invaluable. They spanned the gamut from technical to philosophical. I think the biggest thing I picked up, though, is that everyone seems to say that at our size, our biggest problem will probably be not being able to sell beer fast enough….You cannot imagine how much I hope that that’s our biggest issue!

That’s it for now, but lots of updates to come. We in the middle of upgrading our electrical service, building our tasting room, and we are getting scary close to hearing back from the government on our alcohol licenses.

-          Dan