October 22, 2009 was the first evening we opened our taproom to the public.  It seems unbelievable that we have gone from Joe churning out very small batches of beer to whet the appetite of local craft beer drinkers to producing over 3600 gallons a month  with distribution covering large parts of Iowa just a year later.  It has been more fun than should be allowed but it has also been a lot of hard work. 

If you are interested in reading more about the crazy happenings during our start up, you can review our archived blog posts.  But just to give you some perspective, here are some of the big changes from last year this time.

1.  Joe was our only full time employee and Betsy was the only part timer with a little help from Todd here and there.  Joe, Scott, Dan, and I invariably could be found working the taproom on Thursday evenings.  Now we have 4 full time employees and 4 part timers, and the original group of us get to enjoy a beer now and then.

2.  Paul spent every Thursday night sipping a stout and laughing at us running our tails off behind the bar.  Now, every Thursday he hustles a truck full of beer to Eastern Iowa hoping to make it back in time for a pint.

3.  Joe brewed 10 gallons at a time and brewed more than 30 varieties in the first 6 months.  Now he brews 620 gallons at a time but has only brewed 7 different varieties in the last 6 months. 

4.  The taproom was only open on Thursday evenings and we were often out of beer by 8:00pm.  Now we open 3 nights a week and it takes about a month to go through a brew.

5.  Last year we rarely saw Dani as she was home with the boys.  Now she is organizing the taproom and making sure our customers have beer.

6.  Our beer was only available in our taproom and now we have distribution in over 120 accounts across Iowa.

7.  We saw a lot of unfamiliar locals who surprisingly kept showing up to drink craft beer.  Now we have a lot of new friends.

8.  We planned to have a mug club of sorts.  We still don’t have a mug club of sorts.

9. The back of the brewery had no tanks and was still under construction.  Now we are ready to add more tanks.

10.  Joe was clean shaven and typically wore khakis and a button up shirt.  Now he can hide lunch, dinner and small pets in his beard.

While the next 12 months likely won’t bring as much change as we have had in the last 12, you can bet we will continue to keep it interesting.  Cheers!