Well, that was a day.
Canning
Today was canning day at Woods Boss, a brewery owned by a friend of mine, Jordan. He dove headfirst into packaging a few months ago, kicking and screaming, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic; he had no intention of getting into packaging and having to-go offerings, but in order to survive, he did just that. Of late, I’ve been one of an ever-growing cadre of folks Jordan calls on to come down and help out now and again.
It’s an all-day affair there on canning days; Woods Boss doesn’t have their own canning line, so they contract with a local mobile service, who roll over with a box truck full of goodies; a five-head Wild Goose canning line, a depalletizer, an inkjet and labeler, and a pallet or two of cans. These guys unload, get set up, and we will can off usual
ly four or five different beers in a day for several hours, with downtime between runs as the crew cleans and sets up for the next batch.
We had quite the crew today, thanks to Jordan and his brewer Ryan both arranging for a sufficient number of volunteers, so there was a lot of work canning, and a lot of standing around chatting with new friends. A couple of regular volunteers were there, a couple of folks I hadn’t met before, an Englishman and a Scot; and another couple, which takes me to…
Kismet
Kismet being a word meaning “destiny” or “fate” – seeing as just yesterday, I got this blog set up and went on at length about my plans to build out a van, hit the road and visit craft breweries; today two of the folks helping can are basically doing just that. Ken and April have a blog and podcast called Living A Stout Life, and they spend most of the year traveling the country in their RV, mountain biking and hitting craft breweries. I find it weirdly bizarre that two folks living the life I’m considering would cross my path at this point! I’m going to be chatting them up on their experiences at length, I think.
A
fter we were all done with canning, Ken and April wanted to sit down with Jordan and do an interview for their podcast. Generally, I believe, they stick to audio, but sometimes will also film their interactions for their site. Seeing that they didn’t bring any gear with them, I offered to play cameraman, which entailed sitting in a chair a short distance from the patio picnic table that they were all sitting at, holding April’s phone while recording video.
After about twenty minutes, though, April’s phone battery died, so after a minute I pulled out my own phone and started recording video again. And about five minutes later…
Collision
I see something in the background… is that a dump truck? With the bed still raised, driving down the street…?
Power for the nearby blocks was knocked out, including at the brewery. Police were there pretty quickly, a fire engine shortly later, and as I was heading out, I saw a van labeled “civilian collision response”, if I recall correctly.
I expect the power company will get things sorted fairly quickly; the damage didn’t look too extensive. Let’s hope! (Edit: Indeed, power was restored a few hours later.)