2021 recap

Here’s a quick recap of the unusual year that was 2021. In a lot of ways 2021 was a more challenging and stressful year than the one before it.

In 2020 we had hope - hope for a normal summer; hope for business as normal by Christmas - whereas 2021 was more a feeling of increasing hopelessness.

In 2021 the end did not seem in sight; we delayed countless things and suffered incalculable losses as we waited nearly every day of the year for the builders to come back. Restrictions and lockdowns damaged business and hampered meaningful planning.

In 2020 we put our heads down and positively forged forward - to raise more funds to complete the building project & to keep the lights on (literally).

In 2021 we still put our heads down and did our best but we felt a whole lot more like our future was not in our own hands.

January

A dark month at the best of times but this one was a deeper shade of black. Lockdown meant no need for beer so staff were furloughed. We were very happy to have secured the extra funding we needed to complete the already protracted building project and were expecting progress again from March.

 

We used the small window of time we had - and reallocated budget from capacity to quality - and signed off on the install of a hygienic resin floor. The prospect of a fully empty room and no production loss was an opportunity not to be missed.

 

January 2021 was our quietest sales month since it was just Rob at the brewery.

February

Planning the new brew house install and decommissioning the old set up. All of our brewing kit is the same as it was but we tried to install it as efficiently and future-proofed as possible, which took a lot of thinking.

 

It snowed a bit. We got the new floor finish - we love it.

March

Lots of thinking and planning. Lots of install work - steam, electric, hard piping, etc.  We sent our first pallet of beer of the year off Orkney. No builders.

 

April