Sunday, December 29, 2013

The Busy Christmas Season of 2013: What are we doing here?!

This Christmas season felt different than normal. We have been more busy than normal, as you can imagine! We have been working on final layout plans and build-out quotes. We have been filling out the federal and state microbrewery license applications. We have been getting final equipment quotes and preparing orders.

We just updated our website with the new location information since we just signed our lease! We also added some functionality to the website to have this blog imbedded directly. We are not PHP code masters, so we have been figuring out this website coding on the fly. Check out the new look and new information on our website!

It is fun to have the opportunity to work on so many things all at once. This is the kind of work we thrive on. However, we did enjoy a break during our family Christmas celebrations. Family is important and having family close is such a blessing. We shared some beer test batches with the family again this year and watched Christmas movie classics like Die Hard and It’s a Wonderful Life. ;-)

Cheers to 2014! May it be a wonderful year!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

The Christmas Shopping Idea

We have been busy! Not only are we both still working day jobs, but we are trying to start this business (we signed for our commercial space last week!), and for the past month we moved our lives from one apartment to another.

So Christmas rolls around and it is the busiest season of all and we have yet to figure out if we will even be settled in our new apartment by the time it is time to put up a Christmas tree. I got thinking about what I am going to do for Mike’s Christmas present and of course I think of beer… again… Then I get thinking about what he will get me in return. My favorite gift that he ever gave me was a shipping box full of every kind of imperial stout he could find at the local liquor stores.

Then it hit me – the idea to top all other Christmas shopping ideas. What if we went to a store together, set ourselves a budget, and then just picked out all kinds of random craft beer?! I asked Mike what he thought of the idea and he was game. This meant we didn’t have to hide a shopping spree, hide a gift, wrap a gift, and we got to go on a mini date while picking out the gifts! I felt like a kid in a candy store. It was a wonderful trip!

Check out the picture of our loot! The worst part is deciding what to try first! Oh, and the store we went to? 8 Degrees Plato in Ferndale. It was quite the drive, and totally worth it. The place is small, but has so many corners full of fun surprises!