Cans, Cans...everywhere there are cans!

One of those good weeks.  I tried to do this in fewer words but was unsuccessful.  Reading time 8 minutes.  Fast readers should finish in 5 minutes.  Make sure to read the caption below the picture! 
 
But first of all since I have your attention, we are open the Sunday (Sept. 4th) of Labor Day weekend from 12 to 7 pm!!!  Tell your friends.  Meanwhile…back at the brewery…
 
We didn’t quite know what to expect on Tuesday when we opened our doors.  Our first canning excursion with our Flagship American Brown was sure to be good but how good and how many people would show up was the big question.  We put quite a lofty Gold medal goal out there and if we sold out the first day we promised to discount our already incredibly fairly priced $5.00 imperial pints to $4.00 for the remainder of the week and even vowed to do my best to find our tv for the closing Olympics ceremony.   
 
We didn’t sell all the beer and have about 125 cases left (8.99 to go. 9.75 inc. tax), which means you can head down soon to pick up a 6 pack or more.  It still is hard to guarantee when we will sell it out but it is our hope to try and have 6 packs available here going forward.  We will at times sell out and some of the times we even hope to have 2 beers here.
 
We did however that day experience something that really made me proud to know that so many people out there really believe in the beers we make.  People from far away lands called Bloomsdale, Wentzville and O’Fallon believe in our beers enough to drive the distance to be here to support us on our first canning day.  (Side note: none of these places are really that far especially in an inter-galactic sense and all offer great craft beer choices now.) People left work early to get 6 packs (or cases!) for their significant others who love our beer.  We received a massive amount of support from all the local breweries as they popped in to buy a 6 packs and cases.  The kind brewers from UCBC brought over their Dissolved Oxygen meter as ours hadn’t arrived yet and confirmed we were hitting great numbers for our cans.  By great we mean low in this case.  
 
All of this was followed by seeing the American Brown released into the wild as photo’s from fridge’s (Thanks Anne!...not sure if you wanted me to re-tweet the inside of your healthy and well-balanced fridge with Civil Life American Brown now prominently displayed to thousands of people but cheers on good food choices), homes and gatherings came in through our twitter feed.  One picture had 4 paparazzi snapping photos of the can. I “can” assure you there has been no better day for the Civil Life.  My cousin, Nick, Bloomsdale, Missouri's top bee-keeper sent in a picture showing that it was a proper beer to consume while beekeeping.  Who would have thought? 
 
When the first can came off the line and I handed it to Dylan for the first ceremonial opening.  Our team here was super happy to be part of this long awaited milestone. No doubt as the day rolled on our happiness shot through the roof when the line formed and suddenly cases seemed to jump out of the cold room while long lines formed in our pub.  Sorry about that, it’s hard to staff for something like this and unfortunately 2 of our hardest workers here are our esteemed kitchen employees Dave and Tony and as mighty as they are only one of them can fit in the kitchen at a time.
 
The outpouring of support will always be remembered.  For a guy like me that loves the never-ending marathon of running a business this was definitely a day for our Civil history.  To our regulars, our fans and the many local breweries that stopped by to get a 6 pack or more we say thanks from the bottom of our over worked hearts. 
 
ONE MORE REMINDER:  OPEN SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th of LABOR DAY WEEKEND AND ALL SUNDAYS IN CASE YOU DIDN’T KNOW.
 
IMPORTANT CAN DETAILS:  WE STILL HAVE 125 CASES!
 

1. The beer should remain cold.  At this time, we do not own a filter or a centri-fuge so there is a small amount of  live yeast in the can.  This is draft beer in a can.  As the can suggests, keep cold and close at hand.  Best when consumed!  The can says that too!
2. As soon as this batch sells out we will can the brown again!
3. On October 2, (Sunday) we will be releasing a brand new canned beer at our Anniversary Party.
4. We hope to always have 1 beer in cans available at the Civil Life.  We hope at times to have 2 options down the road but sometimes we will have 0 as we get used to the number of cans sold per month. 
5. These cans sure are tasty.  Store prominently in your fridge and consume at will.  We can and will make more.
6. Due to the cost to bring in a mobile canner we are unable to sell our cans in grocery, retail and restaurants at this time.   In order for us to make any money and maintain profit margins for our wholesaler and retailer on our beer (I heard once that accountants think this is essential to running a business) we would have to be at $11.99 in the market and quite frankly I feel that is way to high for a sessionable brown beer.  We have always had fair prices and will always continue that philosophy. It is our sincere hope to someday grow our business enough to add onto our building and own our own canning line.  We are working hard now to see how soon that "can" be a possibility.  har dee. har. har.

Thanks for being our customer!  (don't forget warm fuzzy caption below the picture)

Meet Brian, Lindsay and that's me!  Brian (far left) is our can designer (now local celebrity) and no doubt we are eternally thankful for his tremendous skill in crafting the perfect can.  Brian and I go back to the days when I owned 33 as he was a great regular there as well. We've got more cans in the future so you will be seeing more of his excellent work. The guy in the middle is the kindest of chaps, Lindsay (Celebrating his 75th Birthday Saturday, August 20th), a Civil gentleman who can be found in our pub a couple times a week.  He had Brian sign one of the Civil Life cans!  Chat him up sometime, you'll be glad you did.  And as for me, I am just glad to be in the picture and to have the support of so many people that make this place the best of places.