Monday, Feb. 23

Hey there. Howzit? Doing good here. I am back in Kauai for a few days. I got here yesterday and spent the day on the beach enjoying some good-sized waves. My true reason for being here is work. We're doing the second-phase of shut-down, so I will be here until tomorrow night. We put in a pretty good sized day today and are loading up a 20-foot shipping container to send back to Hilo. We'll load a second 20 foot container tomorrow as well and they send them off to the port for the voyage to Hilo. Although I love the Big Island, being back in Kauai is great. I really wish Jess could have come over with me. This island will always be special to me for many reasons. I feel very at home in Kauai and it was nice when people recognized me when I got back here. Alright, enough Kauai gushing. I am headed back tomorrow on the late flight and should get back to Hilo around 8:40 p.m. and then back to work early on Thursday. I will post again after I get back. Sorry for the sparse posts lately, I've been busy. Take care. Aloha.

Sunday, Feb. 14

Hi everyone. Happy Valentine's Day, if you're celebrating it. It's been raining here pretty much all day, with the exception of a few hours early this morning when I was at the gym. I also worked today, bringing my total hours for the week well above 60. I had a somewhat relaxed day though. I cleaned a few service tanks and then did a bunch of paperwork. The picture of me is up on my perch above the brewery floor, where my desk is located. It's a perfect spot to keep an eye on things that are going on. It also keeps people from slacking off if they know I'm up there. I can also see into my boss' office from here, so all in all it's a pretty stellar vantage point. This week was really busy and pretty productive. We had some equipment failures and one struggling fermentation, but things are good and everything is working as it should be. There's only so much you can control as a brewer and then you have to let science happen. My patience was tested far too many times this week. Next week looks to be pretty busy as well, but I am hopeful it will go a bit smoother than this one did. Anyhow, I get a day off tomorrow, which is cool. We were planning on going to the beach, but it looks like it's supposed to be cloudy with some scattered showers -- so, maybe not. Jess is doing good also. She hit the farmer's market today and picked up a bunch of great stuff. I think we're going to take it easy tonight. Hope everyone is well. Aloha.

Wednesday, Feb. 11

Hi there. Howzit? Doing good here. I am really tired. Had a huge start to my work week and am now just catching my breath. On Monday, I picked up our Head brewer, Dave Campbell, who flew in from Oahu. We spent the day going over procedures in the brewery and getting things ready for our brew day on Tuesday. We brewed the first batch of Hawai'i Nui beer at the Hilo facility. The brew went well and fermentation should hopefully start by tomorrow morning. Dave stayed the night with us on Monday and I took him to the airport last night at about 8 p.m. During our brew on Tuesday, we were visited by several members of the Pabst Brewing Company. They came to evaluate The facility and give us the OK to start brewing Primo, which is a beer that originated in Hawai'i. Things went really well and at one point, I had two brewmasters with more than 30 years experience apiece standing on my brewhouse complimenting me on the vigorous nature of my boil. It was an honor, to say the least. The rest of the week will be busy and unfortunatley include a full day of work on Saturday. Jess is doing good and says she'll post a blog very soon. I've heard that before :)... Aloha.

Sunday, Feb. 8

Hi everyone. Howzit? Hope everyone had a good weekend. Ours was good here. On Friday night, we hung out with some of my co-workers who were having a barbecue at the brewery. They are a cool bunch of people and we had a good time drinking beer and taking too many shots of sake with them. We spent all day on Saturday at Hapuna Beach. And as you can see from the photo on the left, the waves were really nice. We boogie boarded for hours and got some great sun. We also saw more whales breaching in the open ocean. This time they were way closer and we got an even better view. After we had our fill of waves, we got in the prius and headed to Waimea where we had a late lunch at Tako Taco, a great Mexican place that's owned by the former Brewmaster at Mauai Brewing Company. The food there is really good and was much needed after the beach. We got home around 5 p.m. and took it easy, had a few drinks and went to bed. Today we got up late and went downtown to walk Berkley and pick up a few things from the farmer's market for dinner tomorrow night. One of our brewers is coming in from Oahu tomorrow night and will be staying with us. So, we'll cook some pasta. On Tuesday, a few Brewmasters from Pabst are coming to Hilo to evaluate our brewery so that we can get the OK to start brewing Primo in Hilo. It's going to be a huge week for me that will likely include a few long days. Well, it's dinner time, so that's it from me. Aloha.

Monday, Feb. 2

Hi there. Howzit? Doing good here. We had a nice weekend that included a trip to Costco and Hapuna Beach yesterday. The Prius arrived here on Friday, so we were eager to take it for a ride to the other side of the island. We stocked up on a bunch of stuff at Costco and then hit the beach for the some sun and waves. At one point while we were boogie boarding, we saw several Humpback Whales breaching in the open ocean. It was really great to see, those whales are HUGE and make quite a splash when then hit the water. Not sure if it was the same whale or several others with it, but we saw five or six really good breaches. Jess actually screamed the first time she saw it. I wish I would have been able to get a picture or a video. After the beach, we headed back to Hilo, ate some dinner and then went to listen to some jazz at a local bar called the Emerald Orchid. The music was pretty good. Since I worked six days last week, I took today off, so we can get our car registered and take care of some errands. Work is going fine for me, staying really busy. We're going to be bottling and filtering this week, in preparation for a huge order that will go out mid-February. Alright, time to wake up Jess. Aloha.