Those who have packed 12-packs manually, do you prefer cartons that glue shut or with folding locking tabs?
Glueing is quicker to close but can occasionally fail in distro. Tabs seem challenging to secure and keep up with the canning line, but solid once in place.
One side will be "auto-fold", no glue. TIA
Hi everyone,
My name is Christian, and I’ve spent a number of years working in the brewing industry in Canada.
Through conversations with brewery owners and taproom managers, I’ve realized many of us are juggling multiple systems, spreadsheets, and manual processes just to run day-to-day operations.
I’m conducting independent industry research to better understand the biggest operational challenges facing breweries today. The results will help identify trends across the industry and inform future tools designed specifically for breweries.
The survey takes about 5 minutes, and I’d really appreciate your input if you work in a brewery, brewpub, or taproom.
Survey: Link to Google Survey
I’m not selling anything—I’m genuinely trying to understand what’s working, what’s frustrating, and where the biggest opportunities for improvement exist.
I’d also love to hear your thoughts in the comments:
What’s one operational task you wish took half the time it currently does?
Thanks in advance for helping out!
American Light Lager. Rahr North Star Pils, Torrified Rice, a splash of Light Munich and Dextrin. Bittered with German Magnum and a WP addition of Saaz.
Had an interesting discussion today between production and front of house about who's responsibility stocking the bar cooler is. At our brewery it's always been brewers who made sure the bar walk-in was stocked with beer and cleaned lines. But a couple of our new brewers said this is not industry standard, and that all front of house aspects are to be handled by the front of house manager or staff. I've only worked at two breweries in 17 years of experience and I've not heard this. But the two brewers that brought this up have each worked at multiple other breweries and they say they've never heard of production staff being responsible for the taproom cooler.
I don't want to be the manager that just says "well this is the way it's always been" so I'm hoping for so.e industry input.
Who's responsibility should it be?
Edit: Wow thanks for all the great input everybody! Sounds like it's a mixed bag with maybe a slight edge to the FoH taking care of it. At my first brewery the owner/head brewer didn't want FoH employees anywhere near his inventory or equipment. And my current brewery has some connective tissue to the first one, so that's probably why I've always had production take care of it. There's some great notes in here for me to work with. The goal is always to make the best beer possible and to do that you need a happy cohesive team. Happy to implement changes with that in mind. Prost!
I'm going to be using lalbrew hybrid farmhouse in a 15bbl saison. I'm planning on the following fermentation schedule
Knockout around 75-77F
Ferment at 77F for 2 days
Free rise to 81F for the remainder.
How does this sound and do you know how this yeast responds to this schedule?
Already planning a step mash and maybe some amylo enzyme to help get it to a fuller attenuation so I'm just asking about what flavors will yield from this. I keep reading contradictory info about this yeast.
We've used it before but around 72F and didn't get much out of it
I’m sure some here are probably already lagering.
Our Irish Red has been a surprise hit. Extra malty and only 4.7% makes it a crowd pleaser. I made it to try out the Gambrinus Mars malt and it is a keeper.
What hose are you guys using for your product lines when canning? I have a 30ft run from brite tank to can line (WildGoose 250) and the beer is getting to the fill heads at 36f and up and is proving a BITCH to can. It’s pretty hot in the brewery and there’s fuck all I can do about that, so hoping to find a hose that is gonna pick up less heat in the run.
The beer is at 33 in the tank which isn’t ideal but again, in this heat I can’t hope for much better.
Bonus points if you happen to be running those new Wild Goose Multiflow heads and have some opinions to share there!
We're going to be using all Weyermann with Munich 1 and Carahell in the mix.
I'm not too familiar with their wide array of bases (Eraclea, Floor, Barke etc) and would love to know what you prefer and what they bring!
UK
I'm in the market for new boots. Leaning towards the Bullfrogs, but really curious if anyone has ever worn vegan/synthetic leather boots for work? I'm in the cellar so I need waterproofing and chemical resistance, but it would be nice to find a boot that fits like a regular leather work boot. Seems like some brands *might* be able to deliver that, but they're too expensive to take a flyer on, so just fishing for anyone who's had experiences with them.
Hi all,
I know there's been a few posts like this recently but I'm looking for help testing my brewery management platform.
I'm not a home brewer or software developer having a go at making brewery software; I've worked in the brewing industry for over 8 years now in roles from shift brewer to quality manager to head brewer, and I have an MSc in Brewing Science, so I understand this industry in a way most of the brewery software creators don't.
I've spent the last year building my platform 'Frothy' because I was frustrated with the current tools available to breweries. So many brewers I know pay for a brewery management software while relying on beersmith to build recipes, Bru'n'water for water chemistry, home brewing tools for calculations, and hundreds of spreadsheets for everything else. I wanted to eliminate the need for this by providing an all in one platform and I'm pretty proud of what I built- I hope it helps some of you out! It will also be a lot more affordable than current tools on the market.
The software is fully functional, and I need 3 active commercial breweries to run real production data through it immediately so I can catch bugs before official launch.
In exchange, you get 6 months free and a 50% lifetime discount if it works for your team. I will personally handle migrating your data into the system so there's zero setup friction for your staff.
Please get in touch if you're interested and we can schedule a call to get you set up, or let me know also if you want to be notified when it launches.
I made this video explaining a bit about the platform (again, I'm a brewer not a video editor so excuse the amateur-ness 😅)
I worked at a local brewery for a few years on the canning line and front of house about 5 years ago. I left to move to a distributor and have been there since then. I really love this brewery and some of the best times of my life were there. I feel like I've lost all my passion for beer living in this middle man world. I picked up their new NEIPA and it was one of the best beers I've had in years. I happened to run into the head brewer at a pool this past week and plan on going to meet up with him to talk about a sales role. I have a good relationship with a lot of the staff already because of my past employment but I have learned so much working as a distributor.
I want to have a casual beer and talk about potential roles but I want to bring some hard data to back up what I've done the past 5 years.
My plan is to make a quick 1 sheet of my top 5 accounts. I can show their past 5 years gross sales and explain what I did to grow their business. Are there any other things sales managers would look for that would impress them? Fortunately my personality and vibe are all good to go. I just want to bring some hard data, insights, projections, etc about what I could provide.
SM, headbrewers, canning line, or FOH employees I'm all ears for any advice.
What would you want to see from someone applying for a sales role?
Thanks yall
Hi all. Having continued issues with "Tram line" damage on cans. I'm not at the machine at present so don't have exact model numbers. Seamer is a ferrum three can set up. Checked all the guides, starwheel timing and position, timing on indeed looks good. At a loss for the time being. Damage gets worse the fast you run the machine
Three years ago, I started a tiny brewery thinking it might eventually become my main source of income. I also wanted to become a better brewer and learn what it meant to run a small craft brewery.
Today it’s still essentially a one-man operation. I design recipes, brew, serve customers through my mobile beer truck at local events, manage the business, and do everything else myself.
Financially, it has never been particularly profitable. But I also realized I have other sources of income, which gave me the freedom to rethink what I actually wanted from this project.
Ironically, once I stopped chasing growth, I became a much better brewer. I started experimenting more, using local ingredients, even growing my own hops, and simply enjoying the process.
Looking back, I don’t think my scale was ever going to become a highly profitable business. Instead, especially over the last few months, I’ve found real value in staying small, meeting people directly at events, and brewing the beers I genuinely want to make.
I’m beginning to think that success, at least for me, on this project, isn’t (and couldn’t) be about building a bigger brewery. I’ve learned that investing more and trying to scale isn’t the path I want to follow, and I was naive before (learned my lessons).
Instead, it may be about building something I still enjoy running ten years from now.
Curiously, walking away from the project doesn’t feel like the right answer either. I’m starting to think there’s room for a small, local brewery that focuses on local ingredients and sells directly to the local community through markets and events. A simpler, lower-stress approach. Not quite a hobby, but not a high-growth business either. If it brings me some extra income while allowing me to keep learning, brewing, and enjoying the craft, I’d consider that a success.
Has anyone else intentionally chosen to stay small vs. closing as an option?
Are there breweries, or even other craft businesses, that have successfully embraced this approach? I’d love to hear your experiences.
Recently for us Citra has been rough and bitter in the dry hop. 1.1-3.3 lb/bbl usage.
All other dry-hopped beers have been fine, just Citra.
Perhaps we're too small to get the good stuff. Maybe we don't know how to read lot analysis reports with enough insight. Maybe Citra is becoming Galaxy, over-farmed and lower quality.
Any ideas? Any help? We would love to produce smooth and juicy Citra beers again.
Hey y’all. I’ve been working at the same brewery for 7 years now and have never paid for a draft beer (or bottle consumed on site) but we just went through a big expansion and they told us today that from now on we’re entitled to one free pint per day at the bar and after that we get a 30% discount. I think their real motivation isn’t financial but rather to limit our alcohol consumption but that’s neither here nor there. I just really want to hear what other people experience. I’m guessing for some of you there are no hard rules in place but I’m sure for many of you there are. We also only get a 20% discount on takeaway beer (bottles/cans) but that’s an increase from the 10% we were getting. Please let me know what it’s like where you work! Cheers.
Edit: Wow it’s really interesting to see the variety of responses. Thanks everyone