Right now, with summer drawing to a close, down at CMBC, we’re looking forward to 2020: deciding which beers will be on the schedule when, which ones will be coming back for an encore, which beers have taken their final bow, and which ones will be making their debut on the Cape May Brewing Company stage.

We will lay our plans as best we can, but you know what they say about best-laid plans: they will surely go awry.

(Don’t call me Shirley.)

Beer trends happen and they happen fast. 

Governmental regulations happen and they can happen completely without warning.

The federal government could conceivably shut down once again.

Because of these things, we have to be able to be nimble. We need to find ways to respond and change with the market, with trends, and within guidelines.

Kinda like what we had to do with our newest release, Captain May IPA. We designed this beer as a response to trends in the marketplace and were all geared up to release it back in March. We were ridiculously excited — the liquid was planned, the artwork decided upon…

Then, our plans surely went awry.