123 replies to this topic

[ChicagoWaterGuy]

Congrats! Awesome news! 

[SchwanzBrewer]

I'm keeping my job as long as they'll have me up until we are near opening. That means more work, but it also means less lost income.

 

The ribs are combination texas/st louis style with the mopping sauce. Texas style brisket. I wouldn't do this unless I truly believed in my FIL's ability to BBQ. Also, even though it's tougher to do (more work), I believe the way to make a living doing this is to have food profits as well as beer profits. Why let a food truck profit off your brewery when you could be making those profits?

[neddles]

Why let a food truck profit off your brewery when you could be making those profits?

If they are lower margin profits that could be a good reason. May not be worth the PIA.

[SchwanzBrewer]

If they are lower margin profits that could be a good reason. May not be worth the PIA.

 

Well, we'll see. It's easier to get people to drink when they can get food.

[SchwanzBrewer]

https://tbo.com/sout...0150319/?page=1

[SchwanzBrewer]

The lady embellished a bit. We're only serving 2 bbls of beer. I didn't stop the TPW from getting shot with a BB gun either. I tried to but Jimmy shot her anyway.

[Big Nake]

Yeah, I guess the point is that marketing is what makes you truly successful.  Beer geeks hate to admit it, but it seems to be true.

Corona is a good example. Rich... best of luck to you and your FIL. Sounds very exciting! You'll have to keep us up to date on how things go.

Edited by Village Taphouse, 19 March 2015 - 02:02 PM.

[neddles]

https://tbo.com/sout...0150319/?page=1

That Alafia IPA sounds awfully familiar.

[SchwanzBrewer]

That Alafia IPA sounds awfully familiar.

 

It is! It's not exactly Denny's recipe. It's modded a bit over the years for my tastes. I do credit Denny on the website though.

Guess what The Ribâ„¢ is based off of?

[neddles]

MLPA.

 

Did you say how big your brewhouse will be?

[SchwanzBrewer]

MLPA.

 

Did you say how big your brewhouse will be?

 

Yup. it was my first brew. It's one of the best beers I make. Also a white whale of sorts to get just right. But when it's right, it's ####ing awesome.

 

Brewhouse - we have a 1bbl pilot system already. Been brewing on that now for a while. It's a big homebrew set up. No automation, just a simple single tier with pumps. Ideally we'd like to get a 10bbl system, 3 10bbl ferms, 1 20 bbl ferm, 1 20 bbl brite. Lots O money though. When we finish raising funds we'll see where we end up. Bare minimum we'll put together a 2.5bbl, make three temp chambers, and do plastic fermenters like Rapp does in the top beer video. We can easily get to 500bbl/yr with that set up. We're going to be food and beer, and we shouldn't have any trouble selling all the beer through the taps. There's a lot of buzz around my town right now, people want us to open up NOW. So long as we don't #### up and suck at what we do, we should succeed. The demand is there. The location we're looking at would give us a 14-15 month timeline to open if we make the deal. We've gone through 6 locations so far (seriously) and they haven't been right. So I wouldn't be surprised if this one fell through for some reason either. I don't hold my breath about it anymore.

[HVB]

How is the permitting and what not in FLA?  Do you expect that to give you a slowdown once you find a place?

[SchwanzBrewer]

How is the permitting and what not in FLA?  Do you expect that to give you a slowdown once you find a place?

 

Wet zoning takes about 4-6 months depending who you piss off. Build out and permits take another 4 months likely, but they can run concurrent with the zoning somewhat. Most of the timeline is because we lost a bid on the place we're looking at, but the owner is still interested in selling, but doing owner financing. There would be a tenant there until next February (they out bid us for a 1 year lease). In the meantime, we'd take the time to get the trailer running and selling Q, get all the zoning done, build out plans done, and permits applied for. So when the tenant leaves, we hit the ground running, apply for all our brewing permits and get to work. All in all it would be 16-17 months from today to sell the first beer.

 

The spot we're looking at is 9000 sq feet, 1.3 acres, room for parking/beer garden, 20 ft ceilings, 3 phase power. Already is on city water/sewer, already has floor drains, has extra thick pad in places near the drains, has a well that we can use that is deep and it's not sulphury, basically the perfect set up for growing into a med-small micro brewery. We ought to be able to grow at our own pace and not have to do much other than get bigger equipment and more fermenters. 

[zymot]

Yeah, I guess the point is that marketing is what makes you truly successful. Beer geeks hate to admit it, but it seems to be true.

Are there enough beer geeks to keep a pub open? Seems to me you have to figure Out a way to attract the 90% of the non beer geek population. Like it or not lite beers out sell craft beer. Ignoring them in the name of beer snobbery is scaring away money.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Are there enough beer geeks to keep a pub open? Seems to me you have to figure Out a way to attract the 90% of the non beer geek population. Like it or not lite beers out sell craft beer. Ignoring them in the name of beer snobbery is scaring away money.

 

Tell that to world of beer, the brass tap, and the stein and vine in my town. They are all raking it in. Macro accounts for <3% of their business. I've asked.

 

The demand is there. It's how to get the product to the customer at this point.

 

Also, if you didn't notice, I brew some tasty lighter beers that tend to win medals.

[zymot]

Tell that to world of beer, the brass tap, and the stein and vine in my town. They are all raking it in. Macro accounts for <3% of their business. I've asked. The demand is there. It's how to get the product to the customer at this point.

All they sell is craft beer? That is the only thing to purchase at those places? Would a lite beer drinker avoid these places?

Also, if you didn't notice, I brew some tasty lighter beers that tend to win medals.

Lighter beer or lite beer?Look, all I am saying is you can brew and serve great ales and lagers. But if that is all you serve, you are ignoring a big chunk of potential customers. You can try to attract customers based on "nothing but great/traditional/craft/quality beer." If it were me, I would also have stuff on the menu to be acceptable to the non dedicated beer lover.I am not a sushi eater. My friends that love sushi may want to go to the place with the greatest sushi this side of Japan. If Fantastic Sushi has only sushi on the menu, I am not going. Maybe my friends and I will go to a sushi place that has chicken teriyaki on the menu too. If Fantasic Sushi put teriyaki on the menu as well, we will all go,

[SchwanzBrewer]

All they sell is craft beer? That is the only thing to purchase at those places? Would a lite beer drinker avoid these places?Lighter beer or lite beer?Look, all I am saying is you can brew and serve great ales and lagers. But if that is all you serve, you are ignoring a big chunk of potential customers. You can try to attract customers based on "nothing but great/traditional/craft/quality beer." If it were me, I would also have stuff on the menu to be acceptable to the non dedicated beer lover.I am not a sushi eater. My friends that love sushi may want to go to the place with the greatest sushi this side of Japan. If Fantastic Sushi has only sushi on the menu, I am not going. Maybe my friends and I will go to a sushi place that has chicken teriyaki on the menu too. If Fantasic Sushi put teriyaki on the menu as well, we will all go,

 

You can't be everything to everyone. I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you. We will have BBQ as well as beer, so we're not going to be a one trick pony. Don't worry, if the business model didn't work the market wouldn't be growing.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Last night at the Brandon Rotary Wild Game Dinner. Served Rye IPA, Rib (version of MLPA), Hefeweizen, and Robust Porter. Having done this event for 4 years now I can say honestly that beer tastes are changing. 3-4 years ago people (these are all pretty much hard core BMC drinkers) would say "what do you have that's light?" Heard it a hundred times. Last night I only heard that about a dozen times. The taps poured evenly too. We didn't run out of any one beer. Previous years we'd run out of Kolsch and Hefe in about 3 hours. The porter was hit as much as everything else. I heard several people say that my beer was the reason they came back to the event. It's a good feeling. People really want us to succeed and I think that's awesome. These are the people that will fill out the core audience of the pub when we open.

 

The set up...httpss://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-WdzyGjGCNt0/VQ2HFH44fuI/AAAAAAAACS8/ViKHDAKdbi8/w767-h575-no/20150320_174707.jpg

 

About 4 hours later... (I'm not drunk... I don't like to get drunk when I pour anymore)

 

L to R, Larry (FIL's neighbor that helps us out), my FIL and business partner Dave, and me

 

httpss://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5Y3QFPBBSfM/VQ2HKBuN9-I/AAAAAAAACTI/Z8HqD8RDWSg/w767-h575-no/20150320_202712.jpg

[positiveContact]

maybe I missed it but how do you get the permit to serve out of the trailer at events?

[SchwanzBrewer]

maybe I missed it but how do you get the permit to serve out of the trailer at events?

 

The event gets temporary permits for $25 so we fall under their license. You can see it taped to the trailer.