Resurrecting Creativity - 2024 in Review

It was about this time last that co-founder Ben wrote an article reflecting on 2023. I, co-founder Paul, then followed up with an article to kick off 2024 on where my head space at that time was as we looked towards the upcoming year.

This year, we’re flipping the script. I’ll be reflecting on what transpired and Ben will be set on telling you what is to come (stay tune for his article over the next few days).

If I had an image to sum-up the year, this would be it:

'Burning the candle at both ends' is an English idiom that means “to work too hard or take on too many responsibilities in a short amount of time, resulting in sleep deprivation and an unbalanced lifestyle”. The phrase is a metaphor that compares the act of lighting both ends of a candle to working so hard that you burn out quickly.

The only thing is that in this case, the hard work, while brutal, has been rewarding as it has lead to tangible results that have helped extend the ever-shortening candle a little bit each time. And as strange as it sounds, this has been a cathartic experience for both myself and, I feel, for KBC.

A push for creativity

In the initial days of getting off the ground, aside from our year-round beers, our brew “schedule” consisted of us getting into a room and saying, “we got a tank available tomorrow - what are we going to brew?“(fact: this was actually the genesis of the Kimagure series)

The downside to that style of planning was that you were at the mercy of the materials you had on-hand to make a beer. The upside to that style of planning was that it required creativity to try and make something with limited items at your fingertips.

As we progressed through the years, it obviously made sense to plan a little further ahead than tomorrow. Tomorrow turned into next week. Next week turned into next month. Eventually, we got to the point where our whole schedule was largely planned out 10-12 months ahead of time.

From a planning perspective, it was a dream. Everything was well thought out. We could tell everyone (some of our customers as we got bigger wanted to know what we were going to brew 3 months ahead of time) what was going to be available when. We could better plan out our ingredient sourcing with vendors and know how much to purchase ahead of time so we could try to organise cheaper prices as we bought in bulk. Despite all the positive elements associated with lots of planning, unbeknownst to us at the time, from a creativity perspective, it was suffocating.

Prior to James, our new head brewer, arriving in Japan, Ben and I sat down and talked about what we wanted to do differently with our beer program. This opinion of mine about how we used to operate was strongly expressed. Ben provided leeway and so when James arrived, we pulled the trigger and blew up half our planned beer releases for the year. boom!

What this void immediately provided was a chance to start anew. We now had a quite a big sandbox in which we could play in. However, before we jumped in, we knew we needed a few guardrails so that there was some method to the madness.

• Avoid your comfort zone: Over the years, we have made a wide variety of styles that originate from a wide variety of countries; however, we have encountered lots of people who think we only make Belgian or Belgian-hybrid beers.
  • Steer clear of Belgium beers; go traditional and modern; go light and burly; have some fun along the way, but avoid Belgium beers (we do enough of that already - truth be told, we brewed 1 Belgium beer under our KBC2.0 monicker)

• Not just wide, go deep: There are so many flavours/aromas out there that can be found in beer. Thanks to new products being introduced to brewers, it’s possible to express even more flavours/aromas than ever before. It’s also possible to express different intensities of those flavours/aromas. Depending on your mood, time of day, situation you find yourself in, the type of music you want to listen to might change. Sometimes, you might want some soft lofi background music to help with your concentration. Other times, you might want to blow the roof off and tear loose to aggressive hard rock. Beer is very similar. With that in mind, not only did we feel it important to continue offering a diversity of flavours/aromas in our beers, we wanted to up the level of intensity of experiencing those flavours/aromas. Indeed, a large swathe of the customers out there who are actively seeking out your product since they pay a premium for it compared to your typical lager.
  • For styles that are defined around it, apply a deft hand. For other styles that can accommodate it, err on brash.
  • After berating someone’s tastes buds with a mini-series on a hop, switch tact and showcase something else.

With these guardrails set, we started to play in the sandbox and the first new set of beers started getting released in May.

(one of many whiteboard sessions [aka sandbox])

What were some of the takeaways?

• First off, the release pace was a little too fast as we were putting out 2 new beers almost every week for 7 months straight. It was a lot to ask people to try out all the new beers and it was especially hard to ask all the bars who wanted to try their best to keep up and put all our beers on. We’ll immediately throttle down the pace from Jan 2025

• We’ve brewed some beers I’ve been proud of. We’ve also brewed some that could’ve been executed better. It’s been great to see the brew team “get uncomfortable” and have a lot of things thrown their way. Overall, the internal takeaway amongst all of this has been to fail forward and take what lessons we can and apply them to our next round of beers coming down the pipeline

• The interesting thing to this is that on the external side, to the drinker, a beer I viewed as a dud was actually one of their favourite beers and another I thought was really good was actually one they considered to be a low point

• The whole thing has, again, reminded me of people and their individual taste in music is somewhat unique to them and that we’re now putting out more beers that are polarising, and as a result they’re generating conversation. This is especially true given half of our original portfolio is still being brewed alongside the new KBC2.0 creations and so it is easier to compare and contrast (that is - until Jan 2025 - stay tuned for details!)”

• The original goal of trying to win back some creative freedom has been partially achieved. This is especially true in the context of all the crazy collabs we did. However, as we are of a certain size, some of our timelines to get access to great ingredients has taken longer than originally expected as we’re still trying to balance burning through our old inventory plus waiting on some of our new ingredients to come across the Pacific Ocean. Once we get into May 2025 (coincidentally that month marks our 10th anniversary), we’ll be really excited on the beers we can bring your way.

(Ben and I with the KBC brew team down in Nara for a collab)

In closing, this year has certainly presented its share of challenges but we’re extremely appreciative of the people inside who have rolled up their sleeves ready to lend a helping hand. We’re also grateful to the people/companies we’ve collaborated with this year and the fans who continue to encourage us with words of support.

Much love. Looking forward to 2025.

- Paul