Page 93 of Love Is Brewing

The bigger secret was the fact he was doing it at home for Fierce but not letting anyone at the brewery know. He’d be bringing the dry ingredients to Fierce and staying while they got it ready for fermentation. He’d return again to make sure it was as it should be with constant reports from Ben.

His girlfriend’s brother who he trusted.

When he went over a month ago to meet at their brewery, it was dry ingredients only. Again, nothing any of his employees knew. He stayed until it was set the way he wanted and then Ben and Mason were testing it on several of their batches.

Maybe it was smart on his part to do this so privately.

He wasn’t sure why Mason suggested it but was glad it worked out the way it had.

Especially now. Kind of like a trap in his eyes, as Phoebe had said prior.

“The temperature gauge was off.”

“What the hell does that mean?” he asked.

Temperature was the most important process of the mash. It went through stages at different temperatures. Anything off could ruin it.

Which meant this whole batch was toast.

“It means I went to check on it just now and it was moving faster than it should have at a boil. It boiled faster and then was almost volatile. I grabbed a thermometer and checked. The gauge was almost five degrees lower.”

“How does that happen?” he asked, running his hands through his hair. “Wasn’t Skip watching it?”

He had men he trusted doing certain tasks. People he trained specifically.

Kyle’s job was to watch everything when he was gone. They were brewing multiple steps of beer daily since they pumped so much out.

He had operations personnel too.

“He should have been,” Kyle said. “The same with me, but one vat was leaking during the fermentation somewhere else. I called him over to help me. I had Bryan watching all the mashes going at once figuring things were fine. I checked myself.”

“Shit!” he asked. “How much did we lose in the vat and how much damage?”

“Not a lot,” Kyle said. “I caught it right away. Just a slow leak, but still have to dump the whole thing.”

It was a contamination issue. Shit like this could happen. Not often because he had regular maintenance and inspections done for this very reason.

But the fact it all started today made little sense to him.

Or maybe it did.

Double Fuck!

“What did the leak look like?” he asked.

“I can’t see it yet,” Kyle said. “We are emptying the vat. I didn’t want to bother you, but...”

“This is big,” he said. “I’ll get started on the mash the minute I get back. It doesn’t put us that far behind.”

He had to play it up as if it was a major deal and could affect his collaboration.

That wasn’t the case.

They’d planned this well with him being out of town for Laken’s wedding. He said he wasn’t returning until Tuesday to work.

No, he’d be flying home on Sunday, driving to Charlotte and then on Monday he, Ben, and Mason would get started for their collaboration.

Fierce Fifth Kid.

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