Last year, if you wandered into the far corner of Beerology, past the German documentary and the homebrew club, you would have found a table with two men sitting behind it. “We don’t have any beer,” they would have said apologetically. “We’re starting a brewery, though!” They would have been more than happy to explain to you what a nanobrewery was or what it was like to have to fill out government forms, but inevitably the conversation would come to when they expected to be open. A resigned shrug of the shoulders, if not explicit, would have been evident in their voices as they said they didn’t know exactly.

Ethan, Nicole, Rachel and Dan. Ethan is oddly excited about water.

This year? Community Beer Works’ two taps were the first you saw as you walked into the upper beer area of Beerology. That is, unless you tried to get beer from the stuffed bear across the room.

This was the first time we got to share our beer with people who otherwise didn’t know who we were. Chances are, if you came to Cole’s or Mister Goodbar on our launch day you had been following along with us for at least a month or two. The Blue Monk dinner was similarly inside baseball. At Beerology, my night was spent explaining Frank and the Whale, shaking hands, enumerating the places our beer was on tap.

An aside! That list has grown since we last spoke. You can now get growlers filled at the Village Beer Merchant and will soon be able to enjoy pints of Community Beer Works at Black Rock Kitchen and Bar!

The night went by in a blur, and don’t let me talk like I did all the work: while I chatted we had two wonderful volunteers, Nicole and Rachel, doing the actual job of pouring beer for everyone. Every brewery had volunteers pouring but we were lucky enough to have people who knew us and were excited about our offerings.

Get beached!

What else have we been up to? A few things we’re not quite ready to talk about, but we did brew an IPA this week, for no real reason other than Rudy felt like it. This is why it’s nice being a nanobrewery! We’ll have more information about when and where you can find it in the future, but this is a one time deal: we may be making IPAs in the future, but none will ever be this IPA. Consider it a commentary on the ephemeral nature of existence.

We also have some new tap handles coming. The ones you’ve seen in bars are great, but they were made when we realized, oh crap, we’re producing beer and need some way for bartenders to give it to people. They were always intended to be the Articles of Confederation of tap handles. (Listen, I spent three and a half years getting that history degree, I will use it for something.) This week our friend Eric started working on handles for the Whale, and, well, they’re fantastic. Look for them soon!

Before we go, here’s Ethan talking to BuffaloEats’ Donnie!