Happy Fridays (an update from Swannay)
Happy Friday - that’s what we used to say at the brewery as Friday generally was a happy day. If memory serves we may have touched on this in a previous blog - trawl the archives!
Fridays of old usually meant that all the beer was brewed (sometimes FIVE brews per week!); all the deliveries were done (in Orkney and all over Scotland/the north of England/wherever our driver Kev had been) and that everyone was looking forward to a couple of days off (apart from tending to the tireless yeast, of course). Maybe we’d even celebrate with a beer in the evening.
Fridays of now are quite different - we’ve not brewed since November and deliveries are few and far between. Though we did manage our first deliveries outside of Orkney this week (to Cork & Cask and Beer Zoo [both Edinburgh] and Valhalla’s Goat [Glasgow]). Hit them up for a Swannay top up!
Or order on our website! The online orders are still fairly constant but nowhere near their lockdown or Christmas peaks. In fact, this month is shaping up to be our quietest since easily accessible records began. So there’s not much doing at Swannay, but what’s our plan?
First, our plan is to plan. Plan for what we’ll do for when things start to open up again (but who knows when?!) and plan for now.
Two fermenting vessels suited for cask beer being moved
The plan for now - new beers, process improvements, moving tanks so we can package (can) more of our beer on site in a more efficient way, implementing a behind the scenes computer system, and the building project.
Yes, we still need to finish the much protracted building project. Despite everything, we are hoping to be able to start work on that again soon. It does feel very daunting - even more daunting than first time around - to be contemplating this in the current circumstances.
But we have to complete, so we’re ready for when things open up again. And yes some aspects may have changed to suit a post-Covid (or living with Covid!) world. We know that we’ll have an excellent offering for everyone when the time comes.
In summary there is no summary, but hopefully this is some insight into where we are. I did end 2020 thinking that 2021 would start on a positive footing with only upward prospects but that hasn’t been realised yet. I feel we’re in dark times. But onwards we must go!
Now more than ever (even more than when we said “more than ever" in March 2020) all orders really do help and make a difference to the brewery. It’s January so we’re not pushing you to break any alcohol reduction or health improvement targets but maybe February will be more of a time to celebrate.
Dark days now but we’re looking forward to the end to the current situation which surely must come. Hopefully the planning will have paid off, our beers will be better than ever and the building will be finished and world class for everyone to visit. And Fridays will be all round happy again.