Gallows Hill Brewing Co. Bottle Conditioned - Real Beer

Middle of the year update. 2017

It is that time of year when you get a nasty wake-up call realizing that we’ve reached the middle of the year. Not too long before the descent towards the summer holidays start and that you will probably make it through another year.

The second half of this year is going to be a bit of a challenge and probably a planned go-slow. At this point it looks as of this year is going to be more of what we went through last year. 2016 was a tough year due to our equipment upgrade combined with half of the team tied up in serious exam preparations and finishing off specializing in Orthopedics. This year work commitments and a somewhat unpredicted 6 month work stint overseas by half of the team is set to complicate things.

It may be challenging, but at this point of the business it is not necessarily a bad scenario. Being spread thin on the ground and running a very lean operation helps one figure out what works; what doesn’t; where you can improve; how to improvise when you do not have the resources and time others have and it forces you to make decisions and move on.

To some extent it also offers you an outside view. You have the opportunity to learn from what others are doing because you are not fully consumed by your own endeavors. Not depending on the business for your livelihood it allows you to take the long view, experiment, be flexible, play for time and to postpone things if not entirely comfortable with anything.

So… what have we learnt so far:

The local beer industry is becoming a bit more crowded; consumer tastes are changing and the depressed economy is squeezing the general consumer. It has an effect on sales and everyone is feeling it.

To a large extent we are seeing more of the same from new breweries.

Beer quality is steadily improving.

Too many people still see brewing as an easy way to make money. (Oh boy, are they wrong!!)

Some people are dropping HUGE amounts of money on marketing, venues and equipment. (With the slowdown in our economy it is going to be interesting to see when funders and investors would start demanding returns on their money or would like to cash out.)

Some breweries are not really in it to make beer or for the advancement of good quality independent, small batch beer. They are simply building brands and/or businesses to sell and cash out… sort of in a leveraged buy-out way.

Too many people still make and sell beer on paper only… selling all the beer you can make on a 100L system is easy; selling all the beer you make on a 500L system is a whole different story; moving into the 1000L+ range in our market will land you in a whole world of hurt if you do not have deep pockets and experienced staff.

…and on that note… where is Gallows Hill heading in the foreseeable future:

At this point we are sticking to our core business of producing unique Pale Ales and India Pale Ales, but we are going to turn it up a notch in some respects.

More and more breweries are heading towards being more local. Small breweries are set to become more ingrained in their communities… growler sales, bottle sales for home consumption and being a place to meet up for a drink, a snack and a chat while stocking up on your favorite tipple will become part of our urban fabric. With that we are getting to the point where we will finalize our tap room planning and will be opening in the not too distant future.

With our own direct point of sales our product offering is also set to change… for more on this you will simply have to wait.

What is in stall for the immediate future…

First up will be the Woodstock Winter Beer Festival on 1 July. It is set to be a cozy event to enjoy good winter beers offered by a small group of local breweries. Gallows Hill will have our Winter Seasonal on tap - Stride Wide Barrel Aged Porter - as well as a keg conditioned India Pale Ale.

For the rest of the year we will be filling barrels, planning for 2018 and steadily keep the Pale Ales & India Pale Ales ticking over while one of our team explores the beery wonders of England.

Finally it is beginning to feel like winter in Cape Town with short days, rainy and cold weather. With that we have also made it through half of the year. As always we are not exactly where we wanted to be, but looking back it actually went OK. So far it has been a good, interesting and challenging year.

From the start we knew this will be a challenging year. The main contributing factors were the following:

Dialing in a brewing system ten times bigger than our previous one is quite an interesting process.

With a much bigger system comes all sorts of complications to other tasks that used to be pretty simple. The coordination and details surrounding ingredient orders, bottle orders, screen printing, tag printing, tag assembly and bottling itself moves up a couple of orders of magnitude.

With that comes the financial implications. Each batch is quite an investment and cash flow is a bitch to say the least. (It is at this point where I have huge respect for the big boys skillfully managing this complex thing called “cash flow”; and I am VERY glad that we are pretty small and have not over-invested in our operation.)

Juggling a brewery with demanding day jobs and young families is no easy task. Adding the fact that one of the owners is busy completing final exams in orthopaedic surgery makes the juggling even more tricky.

Very similar to 2015 we had another burglary at our brewery in the last month. The brewing operation was lucky as it did not loose any items. Our distribution partner on the other hand was not so lucky and lost quite a bit of dispensing equipment. Once again we had to beef up security and fork out some unplanned cash in the process.
We know our building is in a gritty part of town, but the lack of respect for other people’s property and possessions in this area… actually it applies to our whole country… is a problem. Combine that with a strained police force and a legal system that cannot cope, then you have a mess of a situation. By the way…If you are reading this and one of those people who say our crime problem is because of poverty, the wealth gap or the previous political system, etc. I suggest you stop reading.

It is not!!

It is because of a lack of respect for others; a huge drug problem in our province; a failing education system; empty promises from politicians; a lack of consequences for offenders and in general a failing state where our taxes are not spent properly.
Anyway… Enough bitching for now. We will just get through this as all South Africans do. Guess we have all become hard-asses in this country. Make a plan and move on…

Now back to beer…

We are glad to have our new brewhouse running. The whole setup is not perfect yet and we have not quite found our rhythm on the new kit, but the beer is progressively getting back to where we want it.

To recap on beers so far brewed on the new kit.

Batch 1 was a single hop APA with Cascade. The young beer was not what it should be. Our temperatures were a bit off and it seems like the pH was not where we wanted it. Now… After a number of weeks in the bottle the beer has lost it’s green edge. It is good, but not up there with what we would like it to be.

Batch 2 was a more aggressive beer. IPA with Apollo, Columbus, Centennial & Cascade.
With this one we hit the temperatures spot on and the gravities were exactly as intended. The pH is still a bit out of whack and it had a slight affect on the hop flavour, resulting in feint phenol flavours coming through. The pH also messed with hop utilisation and the flavour combinations a bit. The beer is good, but it can do with a little tweaking. The longer it stays in the bottle the better it seems to be getting. Not perfect, but at least it does not suck.

APA Cascade + IPA Apollo, Columbus, Centennial & Cascade

Batch 3 is the latest one - a single hop Black IPA with Centennial hops. We hit the temperatures & gravities spot-on and the pH was back to normal. So far it is tasting good from the fermenter - hop character is good and the roasted grain notes are minimal, as it should be.

Black IPA - Centennial

Slowly but surely sales are also stabilising and getting back to normal. Soon we can put more momentum into expanding our footprint.

The next couple of months will be tricky with work and study commitments, but after that we can focus on summer and the usual end of year beer craze. For the last two years all the breweries with decent following and good beers could not keep up. Two weeks into December many beers were out of stock. This year is set to be no different…

For now we would like to say thanks to everyone for their support and patience so far. It is great to hear when people enjoy our beers. We take our beer personal. Hopefully we will bring you many more beers to enjoy.