A Killer day for a Killer three weeks

Joe and Taylor standing behind our killer tap box

Sold out crowd at Iowa Craft brew fest.

After three weeks of working at Peace Tree learning and gaining a better understanding of the industry, I didnt think anything could be any more fun than what I had already done. Then came the Craft Brew Fest, what a day. After finding a parking spot I walked to the small section of street in fron Racoon River Brewing Co. where the Iowa Craft Brew Fest would be held. I found Megan and Scott and soon after are crew of sunglass wearing rock star look alikes came bouncing out of the Peace Tree truck. We unloaded our newly built tap box made from an old cooler and a spare bumper and got the kegs ready for the day. at this point everything was pretty chill me and Megan folded programs and waited for people to show up. Little did we know that the people would come in mobs. Megan was taking money and I was trying to put wrist bands on everyone. Wearing my mohawk beer helmet we kept shuffling the 100s upon 100s of people through the lines. Eventually we ran out of  programs and glasses closed the lines and the real fun began.

Me serving up some Peace Tree

Next I took over for Paul at the tap-box and started handing out samples of beer, which became exciting fast. Never having a down time I constantly gave out samples of the Blonde Fatale, Rye Porter, Hefeweizen, IPA,Red Rambler and the Rye Barleywine. Making fun of everyone that asked for a "light " beer which Peace Tree does not have and commending those that knew what they wanted, made everything fly on by. I eventually adorned a blonde wig, along with my friends Keith Mccarthy, Ethan Logsdon and Rory Hennessy. At this point I filled up a pint glass  for myself and a growler and walked around and handed out samples to everyone in the crowd. I looked for two things empty glasses and hot chicks both of which I found in the abundance, this had to be my favorite part of the day. When I walked around not only did I achieve as Taylor says "Rock Star Status" but I actually got to talk to people and ask them what they thought about our beer, the festival in general, them it was awesome I met tons of amazing people most of which I will probably never see again.
As the day wound down I actually got to sample some of the other breweries beers, which were awesome. We finished off a keg of Hefeweizen and partied the night away (we'll keep where a secret). This was the perfect event to finish an amazing three weeks with Peace Tree. Megan, Scott, Joe, Dani, Taylor and Paul have all been awesome and I've learned a lot from all of them and thank them for this opportunity. But...I'm not gone yet. I must be doing soemthing right because Megan and the crew have decided to let me stay on for the summer working in the Tap Room and helping wherever else I can. I'm excited to keep this all going and  for any of you that have been reading about what I've been doing with Peace Tree follow my blog or follow me on Twitter @kaleblivingston just in case I post something that doesn't have to do with Peace Tree. Check in later on "My Brewing Adventure".

Ethan and Keith with the Blonde Fatale wigs

CRAFT BREW FEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this is one of the last blog post I will be putting up for my internship here at Peace Tree Brewing Co. Everything has been awesome so far the past couple of days I've done everything from filing, to inventory, to cleaning kegs. I did do a tasting Wednesday night at the Knoxville Hy-Vee Wine and Spirits, which went pretty well. I was amazed at how many people walked out of the store carrying busch light and other light beers, I guess we stell have some educating to do. Tonight Joe and Megan are doing a tasting with our distributor Fleck. Friday Peace Tree will be taking over the Hideaway in Iowa City and serving only Peace Tree products, it should be an awesome event.
Then Saturday is the grand finale of Craft Beer Week here in IA the IOWA CRAFT BREW FESTIVAL!!!!!! Which I am super excited for. I highly reccomend coming down and take part in the unlimitted sampling of 80 different Iowa beers, it's going to be epic. You can get tickets on iowabeer.org for an awesome price of $15, come check it out. I will be around look for the dashing blonde with the Blonde Fatale shirt and come over and sample some beer. I'll let everyone know next week how everything went, check it later on "My Brewing Adventure"

CRAFT BEER WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Well not much has happened that was too overly exciting since my last post. Last thursday I did a little bit of everything did some filing, cleaning etc. My good friend Devin Linn did come over Thursday afternoon and I gave him a quick tour and we had a few pints and talked with Joe for awhile. Friday I had a meeting for my senior class president duties.
Monday started off the AMERICAN CRAFT BEER WEEK with Joe and I believe Scott going down to El Bait Shop for an event with the Iowa Bewers Union. This week will have many events that Peace Tree will be doing in conglomeration with American Craft Beer Week ending in the first anual Iowa Craft Brew Festival at Racoon River brewery, which you can purchase at  Iowabeer.org The next event will be a beer tasting Wednesday at the Knoxville Wine and Spirits, that I will be working. For more information on Craft Beer week go to www.craftbeer.com Stay tuned to "My Brewing Adventure" to find out more events going on this week!!

Pure Awesomeness.....I dont know May 11

 Today we did quite a bit of bottling, three whole pallets  right around 3,500 bottles if I'm not mistaken. It was crazy crazy hot in the brewery with the temps reaching the high 80's and Joe brewing I was drenched with sweat the whole day, but even with the heat it was a good day free of any set backs. I did finally find a place to have an awesome tenderloin , which is hard to do. Hometown Meats in Knoxville amazing, loved it. As I was finishing up the day I did start thinking about some things that happened during the day.
 The first, was a gentleman that came in during our lunch. He wanted to try one of our beers and he wanted one that was like a beer that he had 50 years ago while in Germany. He didn't know what kind of beer it would be, what style, or what it even tasted like.  As Taylor poured him a sample of Blonde our strongest beer in alcohol content but our lightest beer, after a quick taste he said well that one is weak. So Taylor poured him a Rye Porter one of our darker beers and he immediately before even tasting it said he'd buy a six pack. I kind of stood there taken back, he hadn't even tasted it and he thought it was going to be the beer he wanted. The next thing that happened is my good friend Jim, who is in amsterdamm right now wrote on my Facebook wall and I quote "first beer post for Kaleb...Jupiler beer tastes like busch light and keystone mixed....pure awesomeness". As soon as I saw this I was so confused how a mixture of Busch light and Keystone could be anything close to awesome. 
So as I drove home from Knoxville back to Indianola these two incidents kept my mind preoccupied. I finally came to a conclusion, that they just don't know any better. The gentleman that came in has become conditioned to the idea that any beer light in color, is most likely weak and junk and anything thats dark has to be a good beer. Jim has become acustomed to light lagers being the best tasting high quality beer.  In the end I realized that I'm around people that understand ,a lot better than me, what good beer is. The average Joe off the street most likely doesn't know the difference between a Budweiser and the Blonde Fatale , even though the latter is a lot better. I realized somtimes I need to take myself out of this bubble and think about how other people percieve beer, not me and the people I'm around. It makes me think about barrier that needs to broken to really push craft beer into a larger market. Thats all for today Check in later on "My Brewing Adventure"

Chelaxed--- May 9-10

So another few days at the brewery and things were a little different. Last week was pretty busy, I constantly had something to do. The past few days were definitely a little more chelaxed.Yes I just combined the words relax and chill. together, but that's what it was. Monday Paul and I cleaned and filled some kegs and Joe brewed that was pretty much the extent of my day. Tuesday we did some cleaning, inventory and I helped mill in some grains.Both days were pretty uneventful. Overall it made me realize that even though some days you will have to bust your but and go crazy there is some days where things are going to be less stressful and a little more chelaxed. So that's all I have to say about my past couple days check in later in "My Brewing Adventure"

Renaissance Man---- May 6-7

Plumber, electrician, sanitation specialist, scientist, artist that's just a few of the words to describe the renaissance man that is a brewer. After being with the brewery for a week now and helping Joe brew a batch of Red Rambler, I realized that it takes more than just knowing a little bit about beer to run a successful brewery. Sanitation is key, something that I already understood from my home brewing experience , but when you actually brew a large batch you realize how much cleaning you actually have to do. Everything is cleaned, rinsed and sanitized out of the 8 hours it took to brew the majority of that time we were cleaning something. Once you see everything in action you come to find out how much plumbing had to be done before the brewery was even operational along with the all the electric work that has to be done to run the the pumps augers, cooling systems you really have to be a jack of all trades to do the job successfully.The whole process of brewing was really fun and I did enjoy it I hope I can keep learning more as these weeks go on with the internship

Saturday----On Saturday I was working the tap room serving beer to the many people coming into the brewery to hear the two different bands that played. It was definitely a fun experience I loved being able to meet and talk with different people, not to mention the music was awesome. My family even came in and I limped through my first tour. I attempted to get my grandma and my step-mom to try one of the awesome beers that we have on tap but failed in that attempt. I did make my grandpa and dad Peace Tree drinkers for life. My grandfather LOVED the Blonde which who doesn't its awesome, and was already asking me where he could get it. My dad on the other hand fell for the Rye Porter. The night was pretty fun talked to a lot of people and served a lot of good beer. Well check in later  at "My Brewing Adventure"

A Day In the Office

So today was the first day that I've seen the business side of things since I started working at the brewery and it was definitely exciting."said with sarcasm btw" All joking aside the stuff I did today was actually pretty interesting, but it was very long and tedius work. Working out of my cozy little office,(a small back conference room) I entered  information into the computer on the brewery production schedule. It was pretty nuts making sure that the right fermenters were getting used and that the brite tanks were open at the times they needed to be for packaging. It was not an easy task and I commend them for doing it all thus far. It was also nuts trying to figure out what amount of beer needed to go to the distributor,self distribution and the tap room. It was a lot of looking at a calendar and making estimates on what would be needed by using what had been used in the past. It was a lot of work today but Megan got me a good meal and I survived. Tomorrow I will be following Joe (the master brewer)and hopefully help as much as I can and try to stay out of his was the rest of the time. Check it out tommorow on My Brewing Adventure. And just to let everyone know I am writing this a day behind so even though you'll read this on Friday its talking about my Thursday :)

Cute Little Stubs

So after the second day of bottling and my third day overall at the brewery I was at a loss of what to write about. Then I remembered a conversation that we had yesterday at the brewery, talking about the bottles. Peace Tree's bottles have a unique shape and look that make them stand out from every other beer bottle on the shelf. They became the "Puple Cow" in the craft beer market because they, as far as I know from the different breweries available around here, they are the only ones who use these short stubby bottles. I was amazed to find out that the recyclable, reuseable bottles cost the companya fair share more than the others that are availaible. They also are hard get, which lead to there bottling being delayed as some of you might already know. Now you would never think that a company would go through all this hassle just for something like a bottle, but they do.  The bottles are what make Peace Tree stand out on the shelves the battlefront of the beer industry. So even though it might cost them more and by switching to the standard 12 oz bottles they would cut their variable cost down tremendously. This shows me that sometimes the cheapest way isn't always the best, something that alot of other companies should think about more often. Check in tomorrow on "My Brewing Adventure"

A Tank of Gas and a Burrito

Day two working with Peace Tree Brewing Co. and I didn't even go to Knoxville. On the second day on this grand adventure I rode along with Peace Tree original Taylor Evans on his distribution route through the Des Moines area. I met him in Indianola at the first of many Hy-vees that we delivered to throughout the day. We went to Hy-vee after Hy-vee, restaurant after restaurant stocking the recently brewed Red Rambler along with the Hop Wrangler, Rye Porter , some root beer , and of course the ever famous Blonde Fatale. It seemed every stop we made someone made some comment about "the blonde". It was soon evident that these stops although time consuming were filled full of instant marketing research, viable information that wouldn’t be available if Peace Tree didn’t self-distribute. You could tell the majority of the people knew Taylor and were excited to be getting more of Peace Tree’s beer. There was definitely a lot of windshield time, which lead to me asking a lot of questions which I learned a lot about Taylor and Peace Tree. Besides the amount of time it took to make the twenty-five different stops in Des Moines and the surrounding communities a small portion of Peace Tree’s 170 some different locations, I realized how much more man power and fuel this part of the process took. Taylor said they estimated that by the time the beer is placed on the shelves, it has been picked up and set down at least six times. That’s a lot of picking up beer, probably explains why we had to stop for a Taco Johns burrito a common love both Taylor and I found we shared. Along with that we probably used almost a tank of gas during the trip, which completely blew my mind. Overall it was another fun and eye-opening day working with Peace Tree, check in again tomorrow to see what happens next in “My Brewing Adventure”

An Aspirin A Beer

So after an awesome 6 o'clock  lifting session I hopped in my 1990 Nissan Sentra, that I am now driving to save some cash, and headed over for my first day at Peace Tree Brewing Co.  I had a quick introduction with the brewery staff and  I jumped right in. We started bottling  Peace Trees IPA the Hop Wrangler, and I soon realized that an enormous amount of man power goes into each bottle. I  was picking up bottles off of a pallet placing them on a conveyor belt which were then labeled, picked up by another person sanitized, filled, capped, picked up by another person placed into boxes and stacked onto another pallet. Three different people had to handle each bottle of beer that was bottled that day, not to mention all the hours that went into brewing, the people that had to deliver all the materials to the brewery.  We then bottled a few pallets of the Red Rambler and that pretty much took up the majority of the day. The guys were jokingly taking bets on how long I would last and I had to agree that the job was definitely labor intensive. I'm glad that I am a fairly active person or I would not have faired as well. I'm sorry guys I'm going to be back, so hopefully you bet on me being around awhile. While on my half hour drive home I started thinking about how much actually goes into getting that six pack of beer onto a shelf and it's amazing. It made me think about everything we use and how much actually goes into each product. Check into tomorrow on "My Brewing Adventure" to see how my day helping distribute the many Peace Tree brews throughout the Des Moines area goes.