Pride and Porters by Charlotte Greene

Author:Charlotte Greene [Greene, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635551594
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2018-03-18T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

Things at the brewery had gone from bad to downright terrible in the last few days. Three weeks ago, just after Jen left with their Aunt Eddie, Erin had actually fooled herself into thinking she could handle her sister’s absence. The first day, she’d managed to pay the bills, order ingredients, and settle a scheduling conflict between two of their servers. Due to the season and other extenuating circumstances, however, things had quickly fallen apart.

First, several staff members came down with the same cold. This happened every year and was especially common in restaurants and breweries, where people worked in close contact. Erin saw it coming from the first sneeze and sent her newest server home almost the moment she recognized that she was actually sick. It was too late. By the next day, three of her servers were home sick, and a few days later, almost all of them were. Again, this would have been inconvenient but fine almost any other time. Technically, Jen, Erin, and the other brewers could cover the tasting room, if necessary, and had done so before. But, as it was the year-end, several accounting tasks needed to be handled, several beers were due to be kegged and bottled, and Erin needed to get her Valentine’s seasonal ale ready for their city’s biggest holiday.

A week before Jen was due home, the brewery was essentially falling apart. Since the Brewing Festival, they’d stayed busy nearly every day. While this was, of course, a good thing, the new business couldn’t have come at a worse time. While most of the staff members were back after their illness, Lydia had caught the cold early and was still “at home” recovering, though Erin suspected she was fine now. Still, Erin was almost at full staff without Lydia, but everyone’s cumulative absences had set back several crucial tasks.

The Valentine’s seasonal was brewing and would be ready at the end of January as scheduled, but this evening they’d run out of kegs for three of their most popular beers. New batches were ready to be kegged and bottled, but those were all-day tasks. Unless Erin stayed up all night and made the other brewers and one of the general staffers or servers stay up most of it too, the tasting room would be short several beers tomorrow, as well. Most of the regulars knew the situation and had been extremely forgiving today when their favorite beer wasn’t available. Still, they had new customers every day, especially since their festival win, and the people who had never been in or didn’t come in often weren’t so tolerant. Being low or out of stock was the best way to lose customers—new or old—in any business, so getting all their lines on by tomorrow was Erin’s number-one priority.

It was just after closing, and everyone at the brewery was worn and tired. Erin hadn’t slept more than a few hours a night since Jen left, and while she’d managed to avoid the cold everyone else got, she was starting to feel run-down.

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