Gifts can come from the strangest places. In this season of gift giving, we wanted to share a little story with you about that.

Back in 2013, we took delivery of four 200 BBL fermentation tanks. The tanks came all the way from British Columbia on the back of a semi, and arrived in Winston-Salem without a scratch.

Unfortunately the driver tried to deliver them to our downtown brewpub, not our main production facility, and in doing so made the grievous error of driving under the Broad Street bridge with our shiny new tanks.

Tank met bridge, with predictable results. Long story short, the tank company flew in a couple of metal fabricators, who made the tanks good as new on site. The twisted metal carnage of the bridge debacle was tossed in a corner and quickly forgotten.

Fast forward to earlier this year, when our new maintenance supervisor casually inquired about the scrap sheet metal gathering dust in the corner. With some encouragement and assistance from our marketing department, that conversation became a project, and the resulting handiwork is now proudly displayed on the wall of our tasting room. Look closely and you can see the scrapes where the tank went under the bridge.

You just never know where a gift might come from. Bear that in my mind as you enjoy what we hope is your happiest holiday season ever.