Packaging in Beer Land!

Alright, here we go again brewers. One door closes and another opens. This time to central America, Costa Rica and Nicaragua to be exact. (We will finish up Asia here in a bit....)

The breweries in Centro Americo had been started by a group of young surfer fellas. They were friends from prep school who came to the Pacific coast to surf. Loving it and also being home brewers, they decided to start making and selling beer in San Juan del Sur Nicaragua. At first, things were going well! So well that the boys had enough money for an expansion. They ordered the equipment from China and just after the ACH transfer was made, the shit hit the fan.

If you've never been to Nicaragua, it's a beautiful place! Among the most beautiful I've seen so far. The sunsets are the best I've witnessed anywhere. They're so bright and vivid, its like seeing new shades of orange and pink for the first time ever. I wouldn't call the people there friendly, but I can't really blame them for that. Because in the shadow of this beauty lies volcanoes and spiders as big as your head and lots of political turbulence. And another round of this political turbulence was occurring. So the boys, shifted gears.

They found a space in the more expensive but much less dicey country to the south, Costa Rica to set up their new equipment. This is where I came into the picture. They needed another brewer to help with the instillation and workload there so they put an ad online and I answered. After a few interviews, I put everything I owned in a storage unit in Memphis and after a quick trip up north, I headed south.

Unlike Nicaragua, Costa Rica has a booming expat population and many established craft breweries. As a result, things were much more regulated by the government and this was new for the fellas. There was trouble pretty much from the start. A consultant from China was coming to set up the equipment but the shipping containers were delayed and only half of the equipment had arrived.

When it became evident that it would be a while until a brewery was functional in Costa Rica, it was decided that I would head north and do some work at the shop in Nicaragua. (I found out later that the importer that the fellas hired to get the equipment into Costa Rica was a scam and took the boys money and ran off.)

The Nicaraguan brewery was impressive, in a terrifying sort of way. But that explains Nicaragua. Impressive, in a terrifying sort of way. The brewhouse was the three pot 5 barrel Portland Kettle Works system that they had imported years ago. It sat on a balcony that stood over the bar in a not at all safe way. A thin pane of glass was all that protected the balcony brewery from the bar down below.

One wrong move and the equipment could come crashing down.. They had a few fermenters up on that balcony too. (I found out later that this brewery already had a death toll. Apparently there was an explosion when they were installing the gas lines in the kitchen and a worker from the gas company had been killed.)

When the political turbulence had occurred a few months earlier, the boys padlocked the brewery, paid the Nicaraguan bartender to guard the property and left the country. It had only been about a month that they had been back open when I arrived. There was a lot of work to be done. A lot of dirt. A lot of old beer still in fermenters. Very little for ingredients. But if anyone was up for the challenge, it's me.