Here is the role we’re hiring for. If you think you might be interested, please take a look at the JobBridge website to make sure you are eligible for the scheme, and send your CV with a covering email to hr@metalmanbrewing.com to tell us about yourself!

Operations Assistant
The role of operations assistant involves carrying out day-to-day activities within the brewery under the general supervision of the operations manager. This includes weekly maintenance of machinery and equipment keeping appropriate logs for same, troubleshooting mechanical issues on the brewery floor, assisting with brewing and packaging activities, and assistance with stock management.

Skills
- No industry experience necessary
- A third level education in a science/engineering discipline is preferred, but not essential
- A genuine interest in beer and the brewing industry is a must
- Good interpersonal skills, and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team
- High comfort level working in a fast-paced and diverse environment
- Working in the brewery can be strenuous and tiring – the right candidate will be able to move about easily in a manufacturing environment
- Full driving licence

Contact
Please send CVs with a covering email to hr@metalmanbrewing.com
Successful applicants will be contacted to arrange an interview at the brewery.
Start date : immediate.

We’ve been hard at work over the last couple of months pulling all the threads together that are necessary to start brewing at the Waterford brewery. As I type, the electrician is plugging away downstairs (pardon the pun) now that we have located that elusive third phase into the building, and our sexy new distribution board will be live any day now. The plumber will be back later this week to commission the gas burner for the kettle, and we’re hoping to knock out most of the refrigeration work next week.

Parallel to this we’re making savagely long lists of things we think we’ll need to buy, trying to figure out where we’re going to get it all from, and wondering how we’re going to be able to afford it all. Hurrah! We are, of course, continuing to brew at White Gypsy in the meantime, and deliver beer to our customers, although we are pretty much at capacity now and won’t be able to take on any new customers until we have moved production to Waterford – a good incentive to move things along as quickly as possible.

I am ever hopeful that the next blogpost will be about our inaugural brewday!

Several months ago, I contracted a small company to carry out some work for me. We got off to a shaky start due to some ambiguity regarding the scope of the work involved, but we sorted that out and proceeded on a basis that, while I wouldn’t say I was relaxed and happy about it, we had both agreed on. However, I ran into difficulty almost straight away when I asked for the dates that the work was being carried out on. The reasons that this info was important were twofold : firstly, I need to have visibility into the calendar of work so that in the event of a problem in a related area, I have the data I need to begin troubleshooting from ; secondly, I have a very finite amount of money and I need to carry out due diligence on where my money is being spent. Value for money is extremely important to small businesses, as well as everyone else

Unfortunately, this information (which I felt was very straightforward) was not forthcoming. I was continuously reassured that the work was being done, but it took over three months for the dates to be produced. During this time, I requested the info on various occasions, and it was always going to be emailed to me that evening, but it never arrived. Each time I was told that the work was being done, and I felt that there was an implication that I had no right or reason to be questioning it – despite the fact that I was often passing on feedback to the company from other interested parties who were telling me that they didn’t think the work was being carried out. This lack of clarity was compounded by one of the company’s team members (a third-party contractor) telling someone one day in August that this was the first time they had carried out this work, since as far as they were concerned, I had been doing it myself up to now. Now I had been paying for this work to be carried out since May., so naturally I was a little upset when this nugget of information got back to me. When I queried this with the company in question, I felt like I was simply fobbed off : “he probably meant that it was the first time that he had done it, not the first time it’s actually been done”. I reiterated that this was not what the individual had said, but the feeling I was getting is that it didn’t matter, I would get nothing back on this matter.

At this point, our communications were starting to get a little heated as I got increasingly frustrated. An adhoc piece of work was left languishing for three weeks – when I would look for an update, it was always “that will be done tomorrow”, which I would communicate back to the other interested party in the equation. When no-one would turn up to do the work, I looked like a prize idiot. Especially the second AND THIRD times it happened. And yet, the other company in question felt that it was their reputation that was being damaged by being associated with me – they were currently only contracted to carry out a portion of the work we do, but they wanted me to hand it all over to them because they felt they couldn’t trust what might be being done by other contractors, and didn’t want their names associated with it. Oh the irony.

I felt they weren’t doing a good enough job on what they were responsible for already, and that I couldn’t trust them with the full shebang. I was informed that my attitude was terrible, and that I was pissing a lot of people off. “Well good, because I’m pretty pissed off myself”, was my not-very-witty retort. Hey, I can’t be marvellously poised *all* the time They gave me an ultimatum – all or nothing – and I even surprised myself with how gladly I chose “nothing”.

Even a few weeks later, the situation still frustrates me – especially the implication that my attitude was the problem. Disgraceful of me really, looking for information about the service I was paying for. Honestly, who did I think I was?  In the end of the day, it all came down to trust. The signal I was getting was that I should have just inherently trusted the company in question. Yet I never felt like they once trusted me. I repeatedly felt like they were doing me a favour, rather than feeling like a valued customer. My requests for visibility into the process went unheard, but I was expected to cough up for the invoices that appeared without questioning them. (And there was almost always something that needed clarification/correction.) Wonderful learning experience though, sleepless nights and angry phonecalls aside.

So what have I learned?

1. Trust your instincts. I think I knew at the start that this had potential to be a difficult relationship, and that there might be a personality clash, but I ignored it and forged ahead because I needed to get the work done.
2. Trust your supplier – and if you can’t trust your supplier, then find a new one.  I left this situation drag on for longer than I should, and I’m still trying to figure out why that is. Going looking for new suppliers is certainly a pain in the ass, but so is trying to manage a supplier who doesn’t care about your business.
3. Stick to your guns. There were times when I could have been a bit more forceful and set out my terms and conditions a bit more stringently, but perhaps I was afraid of pissing people off. Since I have allegedly done this already with my terrible attitude, it seems I would have had nothing to lose and I should have let rip a lot sooner! No More Ms. Nice Girl from now on

In the early stages of September, the unthinkable happened – we *actually* managed to close a lease on premises. After three false starts, we were finally there, and couldn’t quite believe it. So much so that we chose not to shout about it just in case it all slipped through our fingertips. We picked up the keys from the landlord, shuffled some bits and pieces around, and started to plan the imminent arrival of the brewery, along with the buildout work that would need to happen in tandem and afterwards. (Turns out it’s all happening afterwards, couldn’t mobilise anyone to get anything done in advance, other than putting a desk in. Oh well.)

So armed with the keys to my new premises, I did what any sane and rational person would do -  went back to college.  I turned up on Monday the 19th of September to join some others starting out on the rocky road of being ones own boss to attend a course which promises to help me plug some of the gaping holes in my would-be entrepreneurial armoury. When I applied for the SEEPP program initially, it was billed as 1 day per week for the academic year, but when the position was offered to me, the format had changed somewhat, and the commitment was now 2 days per week until Christmas, after which time it reverts to 1 day per week. I was (and still am) very wary of this, but I decided to give it a go, and so far have been (almost!) able to keep up, although it is certainly proving to be quite a drain on brewery-time.  (I’m a student again. How did that happen? I swore at the last graduation ceremony that I wouldn’t be doing this again, and yet here I am within 12 months. Someone really needs to give me a good talking to.)

After my first week at school, I got to debunk to Dublin for a long weekend to run our stand at the All Ireland Craft Beerfest – and what fun that was! Exhausting, but we had a really great time. Simultaneously, we had to set up a tap for the Funconf folk down in Lismore Castle, where they ran what sounds like a fantastic conference which included a DeLorean, a donkey, our beer, and (from what I can see) a valiant effort to get the donkey into said DeLorean. I don’t know how, or if, our beer featured in this stunt. If it did, then I hope the donkey at least got his fair share!

So in epic-week-stylee, I deconstructed our bar at the RDS on Monday, tore back to Waterford to meet our consulting engineer, went to school on Tuesday, and then got up at 6am on Wednesday to go collect the brewery. (Given that I had also scheduled a quick birthday a couple of weeks previously, I think I can safely say I am too old for this kind of carry-on.) Quite a fun day, all in all, and I don’t think we broke anything (that wasn’t already broken at least) but it took 5 of us most of the day to unpack everything out of storage in Templemore, load it onto the articulated lorry with the groovy little forklift that attaches to the back of it(I feel quite grown up, having hired an artic and a forklift for the day – go me!), and then unload it all again at the other end. I’ve got some pics which I will post and blog about at a later date in a proper write-up about the whole thing. No doubt it will be several months down the line, and will start with an apology for its tardiness.
So since the end of September, we’ve had our brewery more-or-less in situ – the hard part done, you say? No chance. Cue the meetings with plumbers, refrigeration engineers, builders, electricians, customs & excise folk, welders, and who knows who else to ask as many questions as I can think of, but still probably not the ones I should be asking. Factor in school, regular beer deliveries, new customers, installations, and the odd hour of sleep here and there – why it’s a miracle I’m even getting to write this in 2011 at all

“Blah blah blah”, I hear you say, “quit yer whinging and tell us when will the brewery be MAKING BEER!” Fair question., I suppose. My answer? We should be brewing in about 4-6 weeks time. The Universe’s answer? Who knows, but it likely involves Jupiter rising in Virgo when Mercury is in retrograde, once the unicorns have started to fly south for the winter.

Stay tuned!

We were not to be disappointed, the rain held off (mostly) for the day, the Hilden location is lovely for a beer festival, with delightful gardens, a very cool Nordic tent set-up, main stage and tasty grub – the pork belly was absolutely lush.

There was a tantalising selection of beers and ciders before us, some which we had tried before and others that were new to us, which meant that careful planning was in order to ensure that we tasted everything we wanted to taste, but also made the train back to Dublin. The “Divide-And-Conquer-In-Halves” is yer only man for this sort of task, and we got through them all. (I won’t say how many, ahem.)

In my humble opinion, one thing that struck me was that there appeared to be considerably more variety in the styles of Irish beers available, compared to those from the UK. While the UK beers comprised exclusively of blonde or pale ales with varying degrees of hopping, the Irish beers also included dark lager, Belgian ale, smoked ale and porters. Interesting. Another thing that struck me was that this considerable range of Irish beers constituted only a fraction of what is currently on offer from Irish microbreweries. Not just interesting, but amazing and exciting too. The revolution is coming!

Thanks to Owen, Nathan et al for their hospitality on the day.

To see a few pics of the day, click here.