Thirsty Musing: March

Hey people,

I hope you had a fun time in March; we certainly gave it our best shot!

The ‘meet the team’ trading card style posts were rolled out over the course of each week, which were a lot of fun to write up. They look a bit goofy, but we don’t mind; they show the world a bit about who we are and about we do to keep beer moving out of the door. 

I actually took the idea from Ray Dalio, who assigns each of his staff one of these, using the results of the personality tests they do upon being hired. This is so they can be best partnered with staff of complimentary personalities, and to give people some expectations of what their colleagues going to be like to work with. With 2 full time employees and 5 people in total - who are all family members - Thirsty Moose isn’t at that stage yet, but it’s a start.

Max and Kate did us proud at the very first Wylam Beer Festival - it did not disappoint! It was fantastic to get back into the swing of festivals this year and meet loads of new lovely people.

And it was even better to put a smile on their faces with our North by North East, Belta Blonde, and the new Peer Assessment, which all looked to go down a treat!

Luke did an excellent job at running his first festival. Given the beautiful location and the appetite for real ale that was plain to see that Saturday, we get the sense there’ll be plenty more festivals to come there.

A different type of event that we’re supporting, but equally looking forward to, is the (also) very first TwistedTrails run in Chopwell Woods. This 10k race is happening in May, but I was down there a couple weekends ago for some promo material filming. The organiser - Rich - reached out to buy some cans of Belta Blonde for the goody bags, which is awesome in and of itself. But after learning about the race’s new format and it being held at the gorgeous, Canada-like scenery of Chopwell Woods, we thought we’d get more involved. So we’re helping promote it, and we’ll be contributing to the prizes for each winner.

We documented the process pretty thoroughly on Instagram, but for those who didn’t see, we had an order lined up for the Blue Blazer pub, Edinbugh, which was threatened to be derailed by a courier who didn’t know about the order (raised on our online trade platform). It wouldn’t have been acceptable regardless of the circumstances, but after hearing from the bar manager that the beer was bought specifically for a wedding (with the groom being Canadian), we knew we had to get the beer to them by hook or by crook. I set off at 7pm, arrived just after 9, chatted to the bar manager John for half an hour or so, then hit the road and returned for half 12. Best delivery run to date.

On the production front, our 100th gyle - Belta Blonde - was brewed last week. This is a pretty sweet accomplishment, given the constant headwinds of running a microbrewery. We’ll celebrate accordingly once we’ve packaged it. We’ve decided what our spring beer release is going to be. Brewing should start around the 12th, and our human graphic designer Eve is busy with the making the pump clip look pretty :)

We’re still awaiting a decision on a potential new venue for us, which is due anytime now. We’ll certainly let you know if there’s anything of note to share!

The clocks have sprung forward. It feels like just a few weeks ago when it was getting dark before 5; now it gets dark at eight! What a time to be alive!

Thanks for reading.

Stay Loose, Drink Moose.