Hey there; guest poster here!
A few weeks ago, John and Spike spent a few days in sunny Florida as the Special Guest Brewers of Honor for the 22nd annual Sunshine Challenge 2012. Sunshine Challenge is a two-day homebrew festival and competition organized by the Central Florida Home Brewers. As the Guest Brewers of Honor, John and Spike not only got to enjoy the festival but got to lead a seminar for the homebrewers in attendance. As part of their talk, they reminisced on their days as homebrewers before running a production brewery was even an idea.
And look how far they’ve come! Now John and Spike are at the helm here at Terrapin Beer Co., recognized as a regional craft brewery, and they’re working hard to produce enough of our beers to supply a nine-state distribution network (Note: 18K BBLs aren’t enough! Que our current production expansion project). Yes, the batches they work with now are measured in barrels and not gallons, but they remember their days of stock pots and gas burners. They got their start in homebrewing, just as many other commercial brewers found their life’s passion. And while they’ve loved the ride, I’m sure that, every now and then, they long for those days past of the carefree homebrew day and the pleasure of making beer for no other reason but to enjoy with friends.
Terrapin gets tons of requests for our beer recipes, scaled down to homebrew volumes. John wanted to provide recipes to the attendees of Sunshine Challenge. But wait a minute… if everyone started making exact clones of our beers, who would need us anymore?!? So, we compromised and provided a full list of ingredients, along with some key values, for those interested in trying their hand at brewing a Terrapin creation. And for those not at Sunshine Challenge, we’ve uploaded what John and Spike handed out in Word document form. Click this Brew Like Spike! link to download!
Guidance counselors everywhere encourage people to make their career out of something they love. John and Spike are some of the lucky ones that have been able to do just that. But no matter how much Terrapin grows, how big we get or how far we go, John and Spike will always know where they came from and where they got started. Cheers to all who continue the homebrewing tradition!
