Twin Elephant: The hometown brewery that feels like home

I've always been a fan of the environments, the people, and the stories behind microbreweries. Each one has a different story, each one is unique, and each one wants to create amazing beer for the masses. Till recently my hometown didn't have a brewery to call its own. That changed in May of this year when Twin Elephant Brewing opened its doors to the locals of Chatham Borough. For the first time in our towns history we had a brewery.

On May 7th, Twin Elephant opened for the first time and I'll admit I was nervous to try their beer. This was a brewery in my hometown. You hope it will be good because then you have a sense of pride but if it isn't what happens? Do you fake your love for it since its local or do you just let it fade away without a care? I was the 4th person in line that day to try their beer for the first time and I will tell you from that first sip I was in love. The beer was amazing I'll admit I cried a little because for the first time ever their was a place in my backyard that made something I love. I've been to breweries all over and have tried hundreds of amazing beers but this was the first time I was enjoying a beer made at home.

In college I wrote a paper on the microbrew industry in America, and one area I focused on was the impact of craft breweries on the communities they are in. One thing that stood out in all the articles I read was the sense of pride locals had for their brewery. I felt pride when I had Twin Elephants beer for the first time and every time I've been there since.

Tim, Scott, and Cindy have created a place to be proud of. Not only for themselves, but for the community of Chatham Borough. They all take pride in every beer they make and you can tell their passion is genuine. Each week brings with it new beers for the masses that are made with the passion for experimenting as well as creating something to be proud of.

It's that passion that makes me feel proud to say we have a brewery in my hometown (conveniently less then 5 minutes car ride from my house I might add!). Stop by on a Friday or Saturday and you'll see people there from all different backgrounds enjoying the local beers. From blue collar workers, to business people, to beer geeks, and families no one ever feels out of place here. Which makes it a real communal place. A place where you can enjoy a pint with your friends, maybe see people you haven't seen in a while, or even catch up on whats going on in town.

Twin Elephant is now a part of our town and I myself am glad it's here. So cheers to the future of Twin Elephant. (When you stop by tell them Christian sent you.)

(PS Tim, Scott, and Cindy consider this my application. I'd love to help Twin Elephant grow and become the best brewery it can be.)

Long time no see

Hello all! I'm back from the dead of the internet to give the world an update on my job situation. Back in April when I last posted things were dark, I wasn't sure about my future and I was still far away from finding a job.

Fast forward to now and things have changed big time. I've been working since late June for a music company that focuses on teaching children, as well as renting them instruments for their schools music programs. I was brought on to help with the assigning and shipment of rental instruments to children all over Northern New Jersey. It was a busy, crazy, and intense summer but, one that saw many success for myself and the company. I was able to help improv shipments of rentals to kids and reduce the failure rate big time. Overall our success rate was 98% which was a huge improvement from the previous summer.

I was only supposed to stay till the end of the summer/fall busy season when the rentals for the new school year are at there highest. But, I have stayed on and have been working there ever since. Currently my role fluctuates a lot depending on the day of the week from managing the warehouse to helping with improving the companies online presence. It seems like I'm going to be staying here for a while if the money is right.

This job is the first one I have ever had where I've felt an extreme sense of personal satisfaction with my own work. Everyone here works well together and we all work towards the common goal of helping the company provided an excellent level of service to our customers. There were many days where I would come home exhausted but I never felt like I didn't want to be there. The exhaustion I felt was good it made me feel like I had accomplished something everyday I went to work.

The future is looking bright for the first time in a long time. Hopefully this will continue into the new year and hopefully I will be writing more for this blog.

Till then stay positive my friends, you never know what will fall into your lap when you least expect it.

Did I make a mistake?

I wanted to say to everyone I know including my family that I'm sorry. I'm sorry I haven't been able to succeed like you expected. It was my hope by now that I'd be working again and actually doing something with my life. Instead I find myself in massive debt barely holding on and on the verge of a total financial collapse. 

Did I make the right choices? No looking back now I didn't. Should I have gotten a degree that would be worth something? Yeah I should have. I didn't do what was in the best investment for the long term. It was my mistake and now I'm paying the price for it. 

It's my hope that by saying this out loud others will learn from my mistakes and do better then I did. 

Once again I'm sorry to my family, friends, and my girlfriend Marlee. I know you all expected more from me and I have failed you. 

I need to now step back and evaluate my life and see what to do next. 

 

Welcome to 2015!

Hello everyone it's me Christian! I know I haven't said much recently what with the holidays and all but now I figured it was time to check in. Since the last time I blogged a lot has changed at my home. For starters I'm moving to another room in the house, unfortunately it's due to the recent passing of my uncle. He passed away on Christmas morning, from complications related to a stroke and an infection in his heart. For the last year and a half he had been fighting cancer which at this point was in his bones. Doctors never thought he'd live as long as he did and for that we are grateful. In the end the infection is what killed him due his weakened immune system from all the cancer treatments. He passed away peacefully on Christmas morning.

I got laid...off

This a post I didn't think I would have to write but here it is. Since October 10th I have been unemployed. The contracting firm I worked for was contacted by IBM and told that they had to cut contracts by 50% immediately so IBM could save money. It was a sudden announcement and one that took me aback the minute I heard it. For the first time I have no job at all, I'm currently waiting to see if I can get some work at my old job even temporarily and I just started doing a little freelance writing for someone too. The fact I'm unemployed doesn't scare me as much as the prospect of having no income to keep myself afloat. As I've mentioned in the past my loans, bills, and a car payment are always taking a huge chunk of my earning each month. Now there is no paycheck and I don't know how long I can skirt by on just unemployment.

It's a scary time for me, usually I have a plan to keep myself going and to keep the money coming in. This time I don't. There is no plan and for once in my life everything is up in the air. Hopefully that will change sooner rather then later. I can't imagine being out of work for a long time. We shall see what happens next. Till then I'm asking my readers for support or even suggestions for work. It would be greatly appreciated by me. 

Thank you very much,

Christian G. Geisler