What a great Year for YOUR Brewery!

photo credit: Will Foster

2016 marks the first complete calendar year of operation for Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery and we got a whole lot done! You have MUCH to be proud of in your brewery!

Among our proudest accomplishments in 2016, we:

Brewed 66 batches of beer (over 460 Barrels!) Added an Assistant Brewer to the payroll - Scott Jensen. Hosted or sponsored/supported numerous community events(Member Driven Beer, ArtUp!, Friday Cask releases, Bikecitement!, Seattle Beer Week, Brew at the Zoo, etc…) Produced 4 unique and highly sought-after bottle releases (Razyradka, Elmer, Annie-versary, Mriya) Sold a record 49,000 pints of beer in your Tasting Room (plus 7,000 Schooners, 2,800 half pints and 6,000 tasters!) Grew our great FBCB community around the Brewer’s Table, Geeks who Drink, Run Club, and every other day sipping pints with your friends and neighbors (our Run Club Meetup is over 450 members strong!) Installed a new 8 BBL serving Tank in the cooler (“Fugly”) for your IPA serving pleasure. Hosted a record 4 member homebrew competitions in one year for our new FBCB Member Driven Beers (Porter, Red Ale, Summer Ale, and Scotch Ale) Donated nearly $4,200 to 20+ Member-selected charities, as well as 528 lbs of Food to local food banks, and 20 kegs for charitable causes & festivals.

2 Brewers: Will Foster Photography

Wort Line of Friendship: Erinn Hale Photography

Installed a new Co2 system for our brewers’ convenience, and to save money on gas. We introduced Member Corny Fills, and Base Malt sales (for homebrewers) Installed Investor plaques and the Founding Member Wall to acknowledge our members contributions! Brewed 3 collaboration beers (Naked City, Lucky Envelope, Lantern Brewing) Garnered much great press about our Co-op and Brewery. Powered the brewery with EPA Certified 100% renewable wind power from Arcadia Energy. Participated in 9 notable Brewfests, including the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado! Engineered & Installed a new larger, outdoor chiller (quieter, more efficient and adds more capacity!) Completed our first full year as a profitable Brewery & Tasting Room!

As you can see, we all got a “Mash-Tun” worth of stuff done this year! 🙂

Most importantly, we successfully made (and sustained) the transition from a “building” Co-operative organization, to an operating business - with all that entails.  For this we have to thank our staff, all of the board members & volunteers for their tireless support to make all of this come together!

2017 is going to be a big year for Flying Bike, and we have many plans to finalize and execute. Your board is meeting mid January to finalize these plans, which include:

• Sharpening our pencils and making the brewery and operations more profitable,
• Organizing our Marketing plan (which has been a heroic effort to now!),
• Budgeting for our Build plans (to manage our working capital),
• Engaging the membership more for input, support, and direction,
• Expanding our distribution of kegs to the surrounding area.

As always, we welcome your input to info@flyingbike.coop with any ideas, suggestions, criticisms or praise that you would like to convey!

We could not do any of this of course, without you, our membership.

A Co-operative depends on its members input, contribution, and above all Participation, in order to succeed for all.

We sincerely thank you from the “bottom of our Pint Glass” for your continued support and faith in this model, and look forward to seeing you and your friends in your brewery much more in 2017!  And if you have a specific skill set you'd like to donate to your Brewery's success, please reach out to us at the email above (or in person at the Brewery) - we'd love your help in 2017!

- dw