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The great storm of Adelaide has caused Australia’s first ever state wide blackout since World War II and as a result we are sitting around in the dark wondering when the lights are going to come on. So it seems like the perfect time to catch up with a little blog to let you know what we have been up too over the last few months.
Back in July we took a trip over the Tasman to check out Beervana. New Zealand’s biggest beer festival, in one of the world’s best cities for drinking beer: Wellington. Along the way we dropped into Auckland to check out what is arguably one of the best small bar scenes in the Southern Hemisphere. As any beer fan would know New Zealand grows some of the world’s most epic hops. What many don’t realise is that NZ law stipulates that local demand for the hop crop must be satisfied before farmers can export. This means that New Zealand’s breweries have access to boundless amounts of fresh local hops and the result is some mighty fine beers.
So it was with a little trepidation that we debuted our ales into what can only be described as a buyers’ market. We were stoked to see Kiwis took to our beers immediately. Perhaps it was simply our homage to their homeland in the form of our NZ Pale? However we’d like to think it’s because they recognise good work when they see it. All in all the trip was a heap of fun and a massive success. We managed to find a few places dotted around the two islands that were keen to stock our frothies and just last week a container chock full of Pirate Life departed Aussie shores destined for our neighbours to the east.
Next on the agenda was our second tank expansion, just nine months after we saw the last lot of shiny metal fermenters roll into the cellar. The day was good fun as four 50 hL tanks went from shipping containers, to upright, to locked, loaded and ready to get filled up with wort. The expansion means that we have grown our capacity by 200% since first opening our doors last year. And we are expecting our next six fermenters within the month!
To ensure that the boys down in Packtown don’t spend their entire life packing beer we have also commissioned a second canning line meaning that the tins roll out the door twice as fast. Although the rate of productions has taken applying sixpacks and packing cases from a pretty cruisey gig to something similar to juggling chainsaws the lads have taken it in their stride and the warehouse gets packed to the gills with beer pretty quickly these days.
Lovers of beer around Australia will be glad to hear that we have a couple of pretty interesting beers in the works including a new core release over the summer and a bunch of cool experiments and collaborations on the cards. After a relatively quiet winter (in Pirate Life terms) we are gearing up for a season packed full of beer festivals, tap takeovers and good times. So make sure you keep an eye on the Facebook page to see if we are making our way towards a bar near you.
As always thanks for all the love. We are stoked that so many people are loving the beer and we hope that like us this weekend you will be watching the G-randy with a Pirate Life in hand.
Cheers – PLB Crew
