On this date three years ago, we opened the doors of Fairfield Craft Ales to the public for the first time. We were excited, but had no idea how it would go.
We were just a couple of guys who loved home brewing and came up with a dopey idea to start a business out of it. We had no professional brewing experience, and nobody had ever tasted our beer but friends, family, and some people who had gone to beer fests that had home brew tents. Sure, we had already run a successful Kickstarter campaign and had been posting updates about the brewery’s progress on our website and social media, but you just don’t know if any of that works to get people in the door.
Well, something worked. We estimate that more than 300 people came into our tiny tap room (35 max capacity) throughout that day. (We’ve since expanded and have room for 65 people with plenty of seating.) And to this day, we’re still excited that people we had no previous connection with before come in, try our beer, talk to us, and hopefully come back again. It’s now been many thousands of people, and we and our families have served them all. We’re grateful to everyone who has ever visited the brewery, and especially to those who have become our regulars, brand ambassadors, and friends. We won’t list names here, but you know who you are.
We’re grateful to anyone who has offered us their feedback or advice. When we brewed our first batches, neither of us had ever scaled a recipe beyond ten gallons. We talked to professional brewers in Connecticut who were kind enough to offer us some insights from their experience about how to adjust grains, hops, and yeast. But the truest advice anyone gave us is that you have to learn your system through trial and error. We have learned quite a bit, and continue to try to learn as much as we can to make our beer better, to make our location more inviting (and to let people even know we’re here!), and to give our customers a better experience.
So thank you all for giving us the privilege to serve you for the past three wonderful years. We look forward to many more.
Cheers,
Mike & Joe