Selling Beer and Being Reviewed
When Tyler and I brewed our first batch, he asked me with excitement something along these lines: “You gotta be so excited right now! We’re finally brewing!” He hadn’t brewed anything in a few months after leaving BJ’s West Covina to become a glorified handyman at The Bruery, so he was feeling great about getting back to his normal routine. I quickly agreed, it was a great feeling after the previous ten months, when so many days I felt like The Bruery wasn’t going to happen. I told Tyler, “I can’t wait until I sell my first beer. That’s when I’ll know this is really happening.”
I’m very happy to finally have my beer out on store shelves. Cash flow is great, but I’m most excited about sharing my beer and hearing what people have to say. So far, the reviews (to my face) have been glowing. That’s to be expected– not too many people are going to tell me directly that my beer sucks. It still feels good. There’s also reviews that are not for my purposes, but for those interested in tracking their beers and sharing with others whether a beer is good or not. I’ve been told by many brewers to ignore reviews of my beers on beer rating sites such as BeerAdvocate and Rate Beer. Most brewers do look at the reviews from time to time, and it can lead to frustration and anger.
Of course, I check my reviews several times a week. I can’t resist. So far, they’ve been very good. The positive reviews reaffirm my own taste in beer and validate I’m achieving what I set out to do. The negative ones are not easy to read. Reviews that are less than glowing often show me where things are going wrong, so it gives me information to improve the way we make our beer. So far, they have largely been a result of poor servings (yeasty dregs from kegs of Saison Rue being a big one), so we’re changing our approach to avoid this in the future. Don’t expect to see much in the way of “keg conditioned” beers from us anymore.
I appreciate that someone would take the time out of their day to write about my beer. It’s invaluable information and I plan on continuing to read the reviews.
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