New Equipment

The brewery just received a nice upgrade this Christmas (compliments of my wonderful fiance and her parents). FPR now has two 1/6 kegs, a kegerator, and two taps! All I need to do now is get a CO2 tank, and brew more beer of course. This new equipment has given us a big jump on 2011 considering that I wasn't going to start kegging until summer! It's going to be a big year for FPR!

Baby, It's Cold Outside! (Batch 2: Winter Warmer--Listermanns)

I just bottled my second batch this glorious Christmas Eve morning. A GOOD SIGN: this batch actually tastes like a beer I've had before! That said, I don't really like this style. There isn't much in the way of hoppiness-- it's really sweet and kind flat (which I'm hoping will change during the bottling process). It reminds me of a Wooden Shoe beer I had this fall. I gotta figure out what they called that one.

Maybe I'll try this one again and make it even better!

Ohio Products

Trying to come up with some recipes that celebrate the great state of Ohio. We have a lot to be proud of here in the midwest but it seems like we need some encouragement since the Rust Belt is largely ignored and overlooked by the snobs on the coasts. These beers are going to be loud and proud O-H-I-O.

Here is where Ohio ranks among the 50 states in terms of production of crops http://stuffaboutstates.com/ohio/agriculture.htm (numbers represent our ranking among other states):

-Wheat 13
-Corn 6
-Tomatoes 4
-Apples 6
-Cucumbers
-Potatoes 25
-Strawberries 7
-Peaches
-Oats
-Grapes 9
-Maple products

So, how about a tomato flavored beer! mmmm..... So there are a couple ideas there... I could make a pretty funky brew using some of those products. Time to vist Findlay Market and Jungle Jims.

Wheat is probably what sticks out in my mind the most from that list. Here is something research before I make a wheat beer (probably not until the summer time). Here are the wheat classes used in the United States (thanks wiki):

Durum – Very hard, translucent, light-colored grain used to make semolina flour for pasta.
Hard Red Spring – Hard, brownish, high-protein wheat used for bread and hard baked goods. Bread Flour and high-gluten flours are commonly made from hard red spring wheat. It is primarily traded at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.
Hard Red Winter – Hard, brownish, mellow high-protein wheat used for bread, hard baked goods and as an adjunct in other flours to increase protein in pastry flour for pie crusts. Some brands of unbleached all-purpose flours are commonly made from hard red winter wheat alone. It is primarily traded by the Kansas City Board of Trade. One variety is known as "turkey red wheat", and was brought to Kansas by Mennonite immigrants from Russia.[28]
Soft Red Winter – Soft, low-protein wheat used for cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, and muffins. Cake flour, pastry flour, and some self-rising flours with baking powder and salt added, for example, are made from soft red winter wheat. It is primarily traded by the Chicago Board of Trade.
Hard White – Hard, light-colored, opaque, chalky, medium-protein wheat planted in dry, temperate areas. Used for bread and brewing.
Soft White – Soft, light-colored, very low protein wheat grown in temperate moist areas. Used for pie crusts and pastry. Pastry flour, for example, is sometimes made from soft white winter wheat.

A good wheat beer would represent the region very well and celebrate Cincy's German heritage...

"Brewing Up a Business"

I think Sam Calagione is a fascinating guy. I've watched a presentation he did for Google and have been reading this book (oh, and of course, watching Brew Masters) all of which have been really entertaining. The thing about Sam that is so inspiring is that he fell in love with an idea, bought into that idea 100%, and then made it happen. It is clear that he put in a ton of hours and all his energy behind Dogfish Head from the beginning.

I'm trying to analyze how Sam and I are alike and how we are different. First, we both have an Emerson quote that we like (his is: "Who so would be a man/must be a nonconformist./He who would gather immortal palms/must not be hindered/by the name of goodness,/but must explore if it be goodness./Nothing is atlast sacred/but the integrity of your own mind." and mine is: "All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do. Adam called his house, heaven and earth, Caesar called his house, Rome; you perhaps call yours, a cobbler's trade, a hundred acres of ploughed land; or a scholar's garret. Yet line for line your dominion is as great as theirs, though without the fine names. Build therefore your own world."). He started DFH when he was 25 which is the time I'd like to start FPR (he was also engaged or newly married also). We both appreciate art and THE arts (he was an English major and I was an American Studies major, we both like to draw/paint/create). I think the other thing he have in common is that we both want to express ourselves in the work we do (that is apparent in all his "off-centered ales").

From what I have read and heard him say he was working in a bar and thinking about going to grad school when decided to open up the brewpub. Here is an area where we differ a bit... I have the security of a full time job which would be tough to give up (regardless of how much I loathe it it still pays the bills). I've come to the realization that at some point I'm going to have to burn the ships to keep me from turning back to the security of my current job and lifestyle. This is a pretty scary thought and in reality it's not something I can do until the end of 2011 at the earliest (because I'll be buying a house later this year). That's fine with me because I need 2011 to learn/network/gather info/develop and refine a business plan... oh, and raise capital (raising capital may be another area where me and Sam differ, I think his folks were well-to-do and got his venture off the ground. All this means is that I will have to focus that much harder on this aspect of my plan). I think at 24 we would have a lot in common and share similar dreams, the only difference is that he has spent the last 15 years living out his dream while my future is unwritten.

Stepping outside the box is scary as hell. I have two plans to become successful in life. One is a pretty sure thing and it is this: I have money saved for grad school, I could get my MBA before I turn 30 and be making six figures somewhere in my mid 30's. That seems like a safe bet and a pretty sure thing, but I would probably loathe that job as much as I loathe my current one. The second option is to be my own boss, work at something that I love, express myself in the products I offer, and to be able to put my name on something that I can be proud of. The latter option is the only option that gets my blood pumping.

Time to go read Emerson's "Self Reliance" one more time...

Brainstorm--Websites

I can't sleep! I have so many ideas running through my mind right now. There are so many questions and roadblocks that need to be dealt with before running a business... it's pretty intense.

Since I am bootstrapping this business I have to figure out just how to get started. Here are the options:

1. Open a brewpub
Pros
-I could focus on producing fewer batches and less quantity since I would only be supporting the brewpub. From there I could ramp up beer production and start distributing it outside of the brewpub
-Customers would come to the brewpub for the food, but mainly for the crazy good beers we offer. It would create automatic brand recognition

Cons
-I'm assuming it would cost a bit more to open a restaurant AND a brewery--probably a considerable amount more.
-This would mean that I definitely have to have a location to brew other than my garage which means I would have to rent out a building
-If I'm not bottling the beer and distributing it to Kroger then the only sales I have are from the bar--I would have to ramp up production so people could go buy a 6 pack the next day after coming to the bp.
-I'd be running two businesses--crap!


2. Nano-brewery
Pros
-I could, hypothetically (regulations?), run this from my garage--I could probably even do this part time in the beginning.
-I could begin really small and just gradually build the business up.

Cons
-How do people find out about me? I would have to really start selling to folks, bc no one is going to have heard of me before!


3. Co-op with a restaurant owner
Pros
-Form a partnership with an established business or one that needs a boost.
-This could work with the nano-brewery... once I get up and running I could find this person and we could transform his restaurant into a brewpub.

Cons
-It could be a tricky alliance to find/maintain


4. Start by growing and selling hops

5. Open up a beer store

_____________________________________________

Reference material:
http://www.picobrewery.com/index.html
Great resource! Recipes; how-to: brwe, grow hops, etc; FAQ's

Hop Books
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/review/product/list/id/1891/category/333/

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_nr_n_0?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Ahops%2Cn%3A%211000%2Cn%3A6&bbn=1000&keywords=hops&ie=UTF8&qid=1316026394&rnid=1000

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/04/10/growing-hops-in-the-garden-how-to-grow-beer-hops/

Equipment

The cost of brewing systems vary widely based on brew length (how much wort is being made at a time), how many vessels, what's included (pumps, hard piping, heat exchanger, etc.), steam or direct fire, whether the steam boiler (for a steam powered system), fermenters and a glycol chiller are included, and so on. For a 2-3 vessel 15-20 bbl system with everything you need, plus an acceptable amount of fermentation/cellar capacity (let's say 60-90 BBL's worth) will run around $150,000 - $200,000. A new system with everything you need will run around $300,000 from the value conscious suppliers. I'm sure there are better deals to be had, but this is just a general number you could expect.

The lowest amount you could expect with everything you need would be $50,000 for a bare bones 2 vessel system of 5 BBL or less. You can expect to use hose to connect your vessels during brewing, and you probably wouldn't need to spend too much on malt handling (augers, large mill, etc.) for this size of system. I wouldn't recommend a system under 15 BBL as you'll find making a profit in this industry is not easy. Having to brew 5 times a week on a 4 BBL system is a lot less efficient use of your time than brewing once on a 20 BBL system. If that's all that can be afforded, and it's just a starter system, then it might work for you. Just don't expect to make any money, and prepare to lose a bunch.

You could spend less on a single vessel malt extract kettle, but I'd stay away if your goal is to make great beer. If you're looking to spend less than $50,000 on equipment, I'd consider mead making as you'll only need a boil kettle and fermentation space. Plus, mead is increasing in popularity and there are very few commercial mead makers today.


Malt-- You'll need a way to crush the malt, unless you intend to buy pre-milled malt. A 2 roller mill is what is used for a smaller system (under 30 BBL). You want to size the mill so you can mill enough malt to dough in within 30-45 minutes. If your batches used 2000 lbs. of malt, you'd want to get a mill that could handle 3000-4000 lbs. of malt per hour, or get a grist case to receive and hold milled malt prior to mashing.

Water-- At a minimum, you'd have an activated carbon filter to remove chlorine, organic compounds, and some hardness from your water.

Mash tun / lauter tun-- The mash tun is used for mixing malt and hot water in order to aid in conversion of starch (in malt) to sugars through the use of naturally occurring enzymes contained in the malt. Brewers yeast mainly metabolizes simple sugar, so this is why the conversion of starch to sugar is critical in brewing. The lauter tun is a vessel for separating the solid malt particles from the liquid wort. Smaller systems have a combined mash tun / lauter tun, meaning the same vessel is used for starch conversion and for drawing the wort from the grain.

Boil kettle-- Once the wort is drawn off from the lauter tun, it is brought to a boil. Hops are added at different intervals in the boil for bitterness, aroma, and flavor. If you had a malt extract system, you would skip to this step. You'd add malt syrup or malt powder to filtered water, mix, bring to a boil, and add hops as usual. There are even no-boil extract systems where the extract is already hopped, but expect the beer to be pretty nasty. A typical boil is 60-90 minutes.

Whirlpool-- Some systems have a dedicated whirlpool, which is used for recirculating the hot wort in a centrifugal fashion, bringing the hop / protein solids to the middle of the vessel for easy separation of the liquid. Most systems just include a whirlpool port on the kettle to perform this function in one vessel. The advantage of having a separate vessel is when brewing multiple batches at a time, you can get the first batch out of the kettle and begin lautering / boiling your second batch. This would shave 1 to 2 hours from the total brew day if brewing two batches that day.

Heat Exchanger-- For sanitary and flavor purposes, you need to bring the wort down to 50-70 degrees fairly quickly once the boil is finished. A stainless steel plate heat exchanger is typically used. Cold water runs through one side, while the hot wort is pumped through the other side, resulting in a cooled wort once it makes its way through the heat exchanger. This is directly pumped into a fermenter.

Fermentation-- Typically cone shaped fermenters (cylindroconical) are used for fermentation, as their height takes up less of your valuable real estate, and the cone shape aids in yeast collection and trub dumping. This is where the yeast is added, and the yeast converts most of the sugars in the wort into carbon dioxide and alcohol. Fermenters should have jackets for running chilled glycol in order to control fermentation temperature. Alternatively, you could have a temperature controlled room for regulating fermentation temperatures, but it'll be less precise and result in a higher electricity bill.

Cellar-- Once fermentation has ended, typically you'd have a brite beer tank for beer maturation, cooling, and carbonation addition. Beer is packaged (into kegs / bottles / cans) from this vessel.

Bottling / Kegging / Canning-- My numbers above didn't include this part of the brewing process. Kegging is usually the least expensive option, especially at the beginning when you don't need many kegs on hand. Bottling and canning lines can be very expensive. If you're looking to make a bottle conditioned beer, you can spend a lot less because your equipment doesn't have to deal with carbonated beer and reducing oxygen pickup is less of an issue. Of course, you could also use homebrew equipment for the bottling of carbonated beer, but don't expect to pay the bills by packaging that way (it's very slow).

from http://bruery.blogspot.com/2007/12/brewing-equipment-getting-by.html

Equip Manufacturers
http://www.beerinfo.com/index.php/pages/brewingequipment.html

http://probrewer.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?forumid=26

To-Do 2011

I plan on spending most of 2011 focusing on learning more about brewing as I'm somewhat inexperienced. The plan is to homebrew 3-4 batches a month (hey, I have full time job too!) and to start kegging beers by summer. The rest of the time I am just going to learn about the industry, complete my business plan, and raise C-C-C-CAPITAL!!!!!!

If I go back to grad school the actual biz may be put on hold a few years... but that should slow down my homebrewing:)

JAN
*Brew 2-3 batches of beer (=15 hours/month)
1/7: American Brown Ale

FEB
*Brew 2-3 batches of beer

MAR
*Brew 2-3 batches of beer
**Finalize Business Plan by EOQ1

APR
*Brew 2-3 batches of beer

MAY
*Brew 2-3 batches of beer
**Invest in new equipment

JUN
*Begin kegging my beer

JUL
*Keg 2 half barrels

AUG
*Keg 2-3 half barrels

SEP
*Keg 2-3 half barrels

OCT
*Keg 2-3 half barrels

NOV
*Keg 2-3 half barrels

DEC
*Keg 2-3 half barrels
**Get ready to roll out the business