10-28-2018, 12:27 PM
For those were once following my adventure growing hops here in Montana, it took a bit of a wild turn this past week as I traveled to Southern Brazil for the week, where I was one of the presenters at a Technical Brewers Workshop in Curitiba, a town of 2.5 million that I had never heard of. First, who woulda thunk that my adventure would have taken me south of the equator, and second, who woulda ever thought that I would be considered an international expert in anything related to hops.
We have developed a new product related to hops as an ingredient, an essential oil that has numerous aromatic/flavor advantages, but more importantly, many impressive economic/efficiency advantages for brewers, large and small. That wasn't the original intent of course, but like so many things, I've just listened to my customers as they continue to tell us that it checks off this box and that box.
My Distributor took me to four breweries on Monday, hosted the Workshop on Tuesday, drove me to near Sao Paulo (Campinas, 100 km to the NW) on Thursday (6 1/2 hours), and then to three more breweries on Thursday before flying home Thursday night. It was as much training the sales force as anything. And I learned a bit of useful Portugese when I was there, such as "obrigado" (thank you) and "um mas cervesa por favor", (another beer, please), and the very important "sanitorios masculina?" (Where's the men's restroom?).
I had never seen slums before, and it was an eye-opener. With 214 million people, Brazil is the #3 beer market in the world, and has over 800 Craft breweries (vs. nearly 7,000 for the U.S. currently). The breweries we visited...they made really good beer. The people were cordial, friendly and warm. The road systems really, truly sucked. I thought they put the "smooth side down" on most of them.
The Sao Paulo region has 25 million people. Mind-blowing. I'd heard of the population in Mexico City (I was there on business probably a dozen years ago), and just like that crazy traffic city, there is no way that I would drive in Sao Paulo or any city in Brasil. Of course, my old ranch pickup would have been totally out of place.
Next month, I travel to Germany for the largest beer/beverage trade show in the world, where we are exhibiting. The good news? With WIFI, I can still follow you guys here, follow Vikings news, and not be totally out of touch.
At a time when many of my old high school classmates are taking early retirement or contemplating retirement soon, I'm embarking on building a new business. Crazy. Did I mention that I love my job?
We have developed a new product related to hops as an ingredient, an essential oil that has numerous aromatic/flavor advantages, but more importantly, many impressive economic/efficiency advantages for brewers, large and small. That wasn't the original intent of course, but like so many things, I've just listened to my customers as they continue to tell us that it checks off this box and that box.
My Distributor took me to four breweries on Monday, hosted the Workshop on Tuesday, drove me to near Sao Paulo (Campinas, 100 km to the NW) on Thursday (6 1/2 hours), and then to three more breweries on Thursday before flying home Thursday night. It was as much training the sales force as anything. And I learned a bit of useful Portugese when I was there, such as "obrigado" (thank you) and "um mas cervesa por favor", (another beer, please), and the very important "sanitorios masculina?" (Where's the men's restroom?).
I had never seen slums before, and it was an eye-opener. With 214 million people, Brazil is the #3 beer market in the world, and has over 800 Craft breweries (vs. nearly 7,000 for the U.S. currently). The breweries we visited...they made really good beer. The people were cordial, friendly and warm. The road systems really, truly sucked. I thought they put the "smooth side down" on most of them.
The Sao Paulo region has 25 million people. Mind-blowing. I'd heard of the population in Mexico City (I was there on business probably a dozen years ago), and just like that crazy traffic city, there is no way that I would drive in Sao Paulo or any city in Brasil. Of course, my old ranch pickup would have been totally out of place.
Next month, I travel to Germany for the largest beer/beverage trade show in the world, where we are exhibiting. The good news? With WIFI, I can still follow you guys here, follow Vikings news, and not be totally out of touch.
At a time when many of my old high school classmates are taking early retirement or contemplating retirement soon, I'm embarking on building a new business. Crazy. Did I mention that I love my job?
