One blog post per month…
...just one of the many things Dan has overcommitted to in the last year or so of life!I thought I would fill the space with a blog post of my own, to give you a little snapshot of what life is like for the Copper Beech Crew at the moment and how our future plans are shaping up.In a bid to remain honest, always, I have to say life has been pretty tough for the last few months. Dan is stretched so incredibly thin between maintaining a full time job, running the brewery on his days/evenings off and becoming a new father.
He is soon to be transitioning in to a 2 day per week contract in his job and taking Delilah for 2 days a week while I work, which will hopefully help to create better balance for him and allow him some much needed rest. However, with this comes a huge amount of pressure to push the brewery forwards to a point where it can generate the income he is losing from his job, whilst still not having the amount of time preferable to dedicate to it - all whilst facing the most testing of times economically. To add to that last point I was made redundant back in June, my maternity payments stopped and without going into a lot of detail I have no access to my statutory redundancy pay (12 years worth I might add, that’s not small change) and there's a chance I may never see it. This has meant us moving into a ‘double edged sword’ situation - the best solution for me, with the added consideration of childcare, is to also become self employed. This is something which will allow an incredible amount of much needed flexibility but at the same time leaves us in a position where we have no idea how much money will be in the bank each month.It’s been no secret that Dan has struggled with anxiety in his life, the brewery only exists for that fact, but unfortunately this situation has turned something which was once an escape for his mind into something which fills his every waking thought with accompanying worries of success vs failure. Paired with the imposter syndrome (see his last blog post) he experiences almost daily and a complete lack of downtime, it has had a huge impact on his mental health. This is something we will be working hard to recover over the coming months.
I hate to be all doom and gloom because we have so much light in our lives.
We have an incredible support system in our families, namely my parents John & Trish and Dans sister Shelly who all offer their help with the brewery and Delilah. We have a brilliant set of friends who are there to pick us up when we’re down or to talk through our worries with us. We have never experienced as much joy as that which comes with becoming parents. There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t feel pure gratitude for all of the things we are so fortunate to have. But life is peaks and troughs and despite all of the amazing things we are blessed with, this is one of our troughs.Regarding the brewery we have had a slow start to the year which I’m sure hasn’t gone unnoticed. We had so many delays with moving into the unit and making it a usable space that our priorities had to be events we had committed to and paid for at a time we thought that things were going to move faster than they did.
It’s a relief to be able to say that the tail chasing is finally slowing down, the rate of production has increased and we are well on the way to being able to fulfil all areas including web shops, wholesale, kegs, casks and events.
We have partnered with a local delivery company which means we can get our beers out to everyone with a ‘B’ postcode. We have plans to grow into other more niche projects early next year. We have a planned collaboration which has had to be put off time and again that WILL be completed. Things are finally moving faster than a snails pace…potentially more that of a caterpillar now but by golly, we’ll take that.
You may also have seen that I was invited to feature on each episode of Daftaboutcraft - the craft beer podcast, with my own segment aptly named 'The Brewer's Wife'. This is where I get to tell funny anecdotal tales from behind the scenes or perhaps discuss more serious matters from the darker sides of running a business.
On this month's episode I had great fun telling Dave D a couple of stories about Dan's home brewing days and how our English Pale Ale 'Metamorphosis' came to be. Give it a listen here!
As always we like to take the time to thank you, reading this, for however you’ve come across us because every interaction means the world and we are grateful.I’m thrilled to be ending this post by being able to say that the web shop will re-open on Friday 19th August and we very much look forward to being able to stock your fridges again!! If you haven’t already seen, we are running a giveaway via our Instagram @thecbbrewco to help spread the word about our new delivery areas - check it out, because who doesn’t love free beer 🙂