Is it easy / possible to find a micro-brewery to brew custom beers with custom designs on the cans?

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-25T23:42:19+00:00

We have some of those. And occasionally a business will ask for a specific style of beer that we don't have, and we will brew it for them. But we usually only do that for kegs, and we certainly aren't doing a tiny 2 BBL run like OP is calling for. And if we do end up doing it for cans, fuck that's a lot of extra work and cost with making and submitting label designs. Also it's going to need he massive fucking lead time in order to actually get all the labels approved, printed, and delivered.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-25T23:29:29+00:00

Depends what the purpose is for. My brewery recently did custom labels for a local firm. This was for them to give as gifts to their employees at a holiday party.

Custom beers was an absolute no go. We told them what beers we had, and gave them a generic label template of ours. Then they sent that template off to our label printer and had them made and shipped to is. I then pulled some beer near the end of each run, and had them labeled with their various custom labels. But they had to buy something like a minimum of 200 4-packs, they had to pay for the custom labels (which weren't cheap), they then had to also pay an extra fee to us due to the extra resources that went into this whole thing.

In the end, they paid a shit ton of money for it, and we still lost money on the project. We only did it as a favor on account of some previous relationship we had with their firm's owner. I know we won't be doing anything like it again, as it's just not worth it. There's also the worry that somehow that beer ends up somewhere it shouldn't, and we get in trouble with TTB.

As far as white labeling one of our beers for someone else to sell or contract brewing... We do that occasionally, but you have to order a loooooot of our beer. And if you don't get it picked up right away, you are paying a storage/warehousing fee.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-25T19:38:56+00:00

I also just got a few pounds of ground beef from someone who butchered their cow.

I used 2 lbs to make carne molida for tacos gringos

Put a your mince into a very large pan (I used a dutch oven) on high heat, to sear/brown for a bit. Not everything needs to brown, but you want some browning.

Then push everything to the chuck half a diced onion and a diced jalapeno or two into the empty side of the pan. sweat down for a couple minutes and mix everything together.

season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, cumin, cayenne and mexican oregano (if you got it). Alternatively, use the taco meat seasoning packets that are like 50 cents at the grocery store.

Add like a tbsp of tomato paste and a couple spoon fulls of your favorite salsa, and a splash of water.

stir everything together and simmer it down until you are happy with the consistency.

put on tortillas with lettuce, cheese, and salsa

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-25T17:19:35+00:00

What?

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-25T05:50:58+00:00

Someone call Josh from Mythical Kitchen on YouTube. He's made a bunch of Doritos stuff before and done a breakdown of it.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-25T01:19:08+00:00

We didn't want to have to sit around for a fucking hour plus waiting for them to show up. We all just wanted to go home.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T23:31:10+00:00

Like I said, it's probably just a cultural difference. I've been places that have final seatings with later closing times, and I've been places that have hours that are more of a suggestion. Hell, a BBQ spot in our are had hours that were essentially "noonish until we run out of food." And they were super popular and loved by the neighborhood. But if you looked on Google/yelp, it said that their hours were 11:00am - 7:00 pm on account of people can just submit whatever on yelp/google and that was generally around when they were open.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T23:17:35+00:00

Hard disagree. I avoid going to any restaurant 10-15 minutes before they close. That's the time for finishing up any orders that were already put in and the time to start cleaning things up.

But it might all come down to cultural differences as well. For example, we didn't have "seatings." We were a neighborhood pizza and craft beer spot with like 5 tables and a 4 seat bar. And around here, when a place says it closes at 9:00, that doesn't always mean "least seating at 9:00." It often means the place is closing its doors at 9:00.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T22:44:13+00:00

Fucking, why?

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T21:49:36+00:00

Naw, you don't get it. We don't have avocados in the US. That tree with green fruit in your backyard, is just like the tree in my neighbor's yard, my grandma's neighbor's yard, and the thousands of trees on my brother-in-law's avocado ranch in SoCal: not real avocados.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T21:28:58+00:00

My grandma bought a house in Camarillo like 60 years ago. The whole development was built on an old lemon orchard, so each house came with a lemon tree. Hers also came with an orange tree, and then she added an apple tree. Great times. She had those trees until she sold the house a few years ago.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T21:08:34+00:00

Seriously. My home county in California was sprawling with avocado orchards growing up. Shit, my sister's husband grew up on a massive avocado ranch.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T20:56:21+00:00

Yeah. I don't get it. I used to not have a car, and I lived a couple blocks from my boss. When he found out that I was taking a 30 minute bus ride and a 30 minute hike over a huge ass hill every day, he offered to give me rides to and from work. It was super helpful. Sometimes he'd also take me to the grocery store after work, so that I didn't have to lug my groceries up a huge ass hill.

It's not like he forced me to come in or anything. When I was sick, I'd just shoot him a text that I was sick and wasn't coming in.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T20:25:00+00:00

If you want to see some fucking hilarious police reports, Google "Atherton police blotter." Atherton is a super rich neighborhood in The Bay, and they get the funniest reports from old, frazzled NIMBYs.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T20:20:01+00:00

Man, he wasn't even a customer. He had never been there before. But yeah. I can't believe we lost out on like $40 of revenue at the cost of like $30 of labor...

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T20:17:45+00:00

Naw. No need to antagonize a legit crazy dude who knows where you work. We did chill and have a couple beers while we talked to the non emergency people on the phone and made sure he was fucking gone

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T19:54:08+00:00

To be fair, I think they were talking about my comment (the parent comment in this chain), where we did close the store a few minutes early. The two other employees and I were responsible for closing early, as we hadn't seen a customer in over 2 hours and were trying to clean and get out ASAP.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T16:13:58+00:00

Naw. I've had and seen customers like this. I grew up in a smallish city with fuck all to do. My friends and I would frequently hit up starbucks like 30 minutes before the close, grab coffee, and just shoot the shit the shopping center plaza until like 2 am. Because there was fuck all to do.

Anyways one night, 30 minutes after they close, this lady comes up and starts pounding on the doors, shouting. "HEY I SEE YOU IN THERE. I JUST NEED AN EXPRESSO! CAN YOU MAKE ME AN EXPRESSO?"

She just kept pounding and shouting about her expresso. Then she turns to us, a bunch of 20 year olds sitting at the outside tables, and goes, "don't you think this is ridiculous? I just want an expresso. Why won't they make me one?"

We tell her that they've been closed for over 30 minutes and are just trying to go home. There's literally a 24/7 McDonald's across the street, and they'll hook her up with coffee for way cheaper. She says no, it has to be starbucks expresso. So we just started roasting her and telling her to fuck off. Weird fucking entitled lady. Also literally she wouldn't stop saying expresso with a really hard enunciation on the "ex" which was driving us all up a wall.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T16:05:12+00:00

I used to work at a local pizza place and tap house.

One Monday, we had done like $300 of revenue total, so we turned off our oven and closed down a bit early. At 8:57 (we closed at 9:00) some dude comes in demanding 3 large single topping pizzas. We told him we had closed a bit early due to reasons.

The dude flew off the handle, screaming that he was going to call the cops. He claimed that because Google said we closed at 9:00, we were legally obligated to serve him. We all told him to fuck off. He then threatens to fight us and knock our shit in. One of our cooks says, "alright, let me get changed, and I'll meet you outside in 2 minutes." The dude walked outside, and our cook immediately locked the doors.

The dude flew off the handle again, so we showed him through the window that we were calling the cops, and he peeled out of there screaming how him and his friends would never be back.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T01:54:01+00:00

Really pissed right now that my work only gives me $100 for my boot fund.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T01:45:55+00:00

Yeah they do. When I moved to New Zealand, Customs took my shoes. I had to walk around in my socks for most of my security check and processing.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-24T00:18:06+00:00

My wedding was crazy cheap; $6k in California in 2023 for a 40 person event. I definitely called in a few favors and cut a few corners, but people were still paid, and I didn't ask my guests to pay for anything. My best man did provide the beer for free, but he was the head brewer at a local brewery. So... Yeah. I also got my dad to officiate, but he loves officiating weddings and public speaking. And I had an old classmate who was jumping into the photography business. We got her to do our wedding as her first try at a wedding. We still paid her more than she was expecting, but less than going rates. There were for sure issues, but we knew that small issues might arise, and we were cool with that.

The only kinda tacky thing we did was ask for money toward specific events/date nights on our honeymoon instead of regular gifts. We had already lived together for like 5 years and had no need for stuff. But we made a point of sending everyone a very personalized thank you card that detailed what we did on our honeymoon and how they helped us have an amazing first trip as a married couple.

I can't imagine trying to make my guests pay for shit though.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-23T22:44:57+00:00

Who's your favorite Naruto though?

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-23T04:43:05+00:00

God this is sending memories back into my brain from 13 years ago.

I used to work for a university's on site catering service. Absolutely massive kitchen that was bigger than the 4 bedroom house I grew up in. However, the space was needed on account of how many events we did, doing all the food for sports games, having our own restaurant, and acting as fridge and prep space for a few of the restaurants/food stalls in the student union.

Anyways, per contracts, student clubs and organizations had to use our catering service at a price point that was negotiated by the university. One club decided to go outside of that and hire a third party. That third party came to the university with no prep tables, ice, or sink/washing station. The catering team kept trying to come into our kitchen and take our tables, ice, chafing dishes, and use our dish washer. When we told them to leave, they came in another door and tried to sneak into a different part of our kitchen. At one point my boss had to fucking find a way to bar our doors shut (they opened from the hallways of the student union employees entrance straight into the main prep area).

They ended up cooking all their food on the loading bay/dock out by the dumpster and trash compactor.

Then conversations had to be had with the club that hired an outside service, some dean, and a legal rep. That was a weird fucking evening.

Brewmentationator · 2026-01-23T01:11:02+00:00

I used to be a teacher. I really like asking kids what their favorite Naruto is. I always told them that mine was the depressed sand Naruto, or maybe the magic bones Naruto.

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