Volunteers bottle beer, drink the wares

 

 

By Terry McCoy

News correspondent

AMANA – Under normal circumstances, operating heavy machinery while swilling a lager isn’t a great idea. Fun? Sure. But safe? Not so much.

But these weren’t ordinary circumstances at the Millstream Brewing Co. in Amana on Saturday afternoon as dozens of people staggered into the brewery to bottle beer, beer and more beer. And, oh yeah, maybe drink a couple if that wouldn’t be too much to ask.

Up and down an assembly line, people worked to the din of clanks and whistles, all the while trying – mostly unsuccessfully – to dodge lager leaks and pilsner perspiration.

“This is probably not something we should do,” said Millstream owner and event planner Tom Albert. “But the people just love it so much.”

How much is that?

Well, there was that snowstorm to account for, the work was unpaid and the benefits included blisters and sopping shoes from beer runoff. But without hesitation, all answered that, yes, it was worth it. What a dumb question.

“This is extreme male bonding,” asserted Justin Vorwald, 24, a UI law student. “What can be more manly than a brewery? Maybe a shooting range. But then only if we were drunk AND shooting would it be.”

On the line, Albert showed them how it’s done. Using a clamp of sorts, he picked up groups of bottles, placing them on the conveyor belt before they were whisked away, a new home for 12 ounces of beer. His work seemed simple, but wasn’t. This reporter can attest to it, having broken and tipped over many a bottle.

Albert wore waterproof hunting boots and a shirt that bore one of Benjamin Franklin’s more inspiring pronouncements: Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

“Smart man, that Benjamin Franklin,” Albert said.

Saturday’s bottling was the third-annual, said Albert’s wife, Teresa, and was begun to mark Millstream’s 3 millionth bottle of beer. With a brats cookout and live music after the heavy lifting, the party has become a well-loved tradition.

It shows in the output. Teresa Albert estimated that between 6,000 and 8,000 bottles were bottled during the three hours of work. That’s nearly 45 bottles per minute.

But that’s nothing, Millstream owner Chris Priebe said. Normally when Millstream bottles beer every Tuesday, it doubles that number, moving with dazzling speed.

From the Amana brewery – one of 19 microbreweries statewide – the beer is shipped to all corners of the state and into parts of Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin. It’s a small operation, but the owners are content with it staying that way.

“Budweiser is good at what they do,” Teresa Albert said, “and we’re good at what we do.”

The Alberts and have owned Millstream with other partners since 2000 – an endeavor that began as so many do, with an offhand comment.

Driving back from Cedar Rapids, the Alberts heard that Millstream was up for sale. It was always Teresa Albert’s hope that she could one day own a business – but no ubiquitous restaurant or knickknack shop. She wanted something distinguished.

So they thought: Let’s buy it.

Back at the brewery, Solon resident Amy Tygart taped up boxes, but mostly clutched her beer, watching others and laughing – or as she called it, “supervising.” She had only one assessment of her duties:

“This is my dream job.”

©Gazette Communications 2009