NC Beer Month recap & Growth: New tanks!
Well, we made it through another successful NC Beer Month and we have you to thank! Your support of Nickelpoint Brewing and the local and regional NC Beer family is critical to us every single day. We can’t thank you, our loyal supporters and new fans alike, enough! Without you, living out our dream and passion wouldn’t be possible; so thank you for the bottom of our hearts!
We had an amazing month filled with tap takeovers, tasting events, small batch releases, and an incredible beer dinner. We are so honored and couldn’t be more proud to be a part of the incredible NC Craft Beer Industry, partners and friends with all of the amazing bars, restaurants, bottle shops, and stores that carry Nickelpoint. Lastly, we are humbled and overjoyed that YOU choose to drink our beer. We would be no where without you! Thank you for your continued support and loyalty to our brewery!
If you have been following along on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and our website, you know we just received our new fermenters! If not, well, its time to move out from under that rock and come on down and check out the new tanks!
We are growing and that is amazing! You are all speaking with your taste buds and requesting us at your favorite (other than at Nickelpoint) watering holes! Our distributor (Mutual) has been a massive help in getting our beer to your hands, we are grateful to them for many reasons!
The new tanks arrived early on Tuesday the 10th of May. Bruce and Dave drove out onto 440 and met the truck driver who was hauling our tanks. They led him into Raleigh and to the brewery. We hired a crane company to come help us off-load the new tanks and get them upright. Once we had them up and free of their shipping racks, we lifted them on our forklift and SLOWLY moved them into their new home in the brewery.
For those of you who have visited, you might know that our current fermenters are 20 bbl tanks. These 2 new 40 bbls tanks effectively double out capacity! The new tanks also make our original tanks look tiny! This is an incredibly exciting time for us at Nickelpoint. The demand on our beer has been steadily growing and that creates the need for more capacity!
After we calmed our nerves from moving the tanks into place we began the cleaning process. We gave the outsides a quick little wash to clean the dirt from their long journey from California off and then ran a cleaning cycle on the inside to prep them. Next we will passivate the tanks with a nitric acid wash. John Palmer included this in his book “How to Brew” and makes it easy to understand. Check it out here!
Once the new tanks are passivated and the glycol lines are dropped and hooked up, we will be ready to brew. These two new tanks will be dedicated (for now) to our Vienna Lager. As soon as we brew it, it is heading out the door to our accounts in the central part of NC. This is a great problem, but, it is still a problem. J We will have plenty of Vienna once we get brewing into these bad boys! Eventually we will order some more tanks and continue the expansion. Which, by the way, this is our first “expansion”!
When you come for a visit to Nickelpoint, be sure to stick your head into the brewery production area and check out the new tanks, can’t miss them!
Check out our Facebook page for some pictures and video of the process.
As always keep an eye on our website and social media outlets to get the latest info on happenings at and away from the brewery including a food truck schedule so you can come pair some great food with great beer!
The next big off-site event we will be at will be the Raleigh Food & Wine festival on May 22. Click here to get your tickets and more info!
We have a few others events planned and we will be out on the OBX the first weekend in June (5th) for the OBX Beer Fest!
We look forward to seeing you soon at the brewery and thanks again for your amazing support!