Thursday March 3rd saw the Dublin launch for Metalman Pale Ale in the Bull & Castle in Christchurch, and goodness, did we launch. Little did we realise that as well as launching the beer, we would also be seeing it off, as the tap ran dry before 10:30pm – a bit of a shock to us, as well as the bar-staff. They did such a great job of selling it that at one point, barman Dave spent a continuous 45 minutes doing nothing else but pouring pints of Metalman Pale Ale, then passing them to his colleagues to serve to customers. 
On a few occasions, he was heard muttering “I’ve never seen anything like it” whilst shaking his head, bless him. We were overwhelmed with positive comments on our beer, and the general reception was good.
The turn-out was excellent, better than we had anticipated, to our joy and then subsequent horror when the beer ran out. It’s hard to know how these things will fly, especially for rookies like us, but all we can do is try to learn from it and move on. While it was a clear message to us that people were really enjoying our beer to the point where they drank everything available, our elation was tempered by complaints about the beer running out early – feedback that we can only hold our hands up and apologise for. We will do our level best not to let it happen ever again, and have supplied the Bull & Castle and L Mulligan Grocer with some more beer. We have also accelerated our planned brewing schedule to start building up stocks, and will defer stocking new pubs until we know for sure that we can supply them with twice what they think they will need – just in case.
Oh the whole, it was a lot of fun. We got to meet a lot of people, tell them about our beer, drink some of our own beer, and then sample other people’s beer without repercussions because ours was all gone! Despite all the activity and the late night, sleep did not come easily as my mind tried to process everything that had just happened.
At this point, we’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who turned up and tried our beer – if you liked it, we’re delighted, and we hope you will choose to drink it again at some point. If you’ve got anything that you’d like to say to us about it, we’re all ears. If you didn’t like it, we’d love to hear your feedback as to what it was you didn’t like, and how you feel it could be improved. We’d also like to send a big thank you our friend Doug, who came along armed with his camera to take some pictures of the night – unfortunately he was also armed with his car-keys, so couldn’t benefit from all the beer we had promised him as payment, but maybe next time!
A very exciting night for us indeed, it has all become very, very real. Onwards and upwards!
