Sunday, May 26, 2013

Creating a Business Plan

I’m glad to be home from The Netherlands.  Heineken is definitely king in The Netherlands and served everywhere in The Hague.  While I was there, I noticed the second most available beer was Palm which is brewed in Belgium and is a pale ale.  Hmmm….  Perhaps the Dutch can use an introduction to an North American style IPA.

We are plugging along on our business plan.  The beverage industry is quite larger than I thought and beer is a huge player in the market.  Louisiana ranks 11th in beer consumption but 47th in breweries per capita.  I think it’s time for a change.

 

While I was gone, we received a quote for our brewery from Allied Beverage Tanks, Inc.  While Mark and his nephew are brewing a batch of IPA, I’m in the office trying to understand the ins and outs of this very detailed quote.

 

More to come.

Cheer for now,

Karen

 

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Fermenter Build

So while Karen is away I thought I'd add a "gear" post. In the past I've had issues with controlling fermentation temperatures using only ambient conditions.  It's also a bit of a pain to be lugging 6.5 gallon glass carboys filled with fermenting beer around the house trying to find a room that's 68F.  To remedy this situation I've acquired a used refrigerator, for free, via Craigslist.

The side-by-side arrangement is very amenable to being converted to a fermentation chamber. Until recently, I've been able to use it as a fermenter with any significant modification.  All the wiring for the electrics/thermistor were passed easily through the existing drain after enlarging it with a 1.5" drill bit.

With the arrival of our Braumeister 50L, our brewing capacity has increased substantially.  Naturally, the next bottle neck will be the fermentation process. So last weekend I finally set about the task of further modifying my used fridge as a fermenter.

After surveying the interior to determine whether or not any necessary parts were in the way, I let loose with the sawzall.  Once the partition wall was removed, the exposed sheet metal edges and insulation were covered with some aluminum duct tape.  The shelving, with a removable top shelve was built in place.

I'm using a dual-stage Johnson Controls temperature controller to keep the fermenter at the appropriate temperature.  For the heating component a 75 watt incandescent light bulb, from a inexpensive drop light placed in a paint, acts as my heat source.  To keep the air circulating, two USB computer fans attached to the legs to the shelve were used.

fermenter

While using a thermowell immersed in the carboy will provide the best representation of the actual fermentation temperatures, I find that the stopper used for a thermowell set-up isn't always sufficient for an airlock/blow-off.  A majority of the time I use a 2-3L yeast starter and the fermentations tend to be quite vigorous; so much so that they generally require a 1" blow-off tube/bucket arrangement.  For lack of a better solution, I normally attach the thermistor to the side of the carboy encased in insulation.

So now that the fermenter is finished it's time to brew.  Unfortunately, the short malt stack adapter that allows you to brew 20L batches in the 50L Braumeister was on backorder from Morebeer.com.  While I was able to find one on another website (and at a savings of $75 including shipping), we have to decide whether or not the first batch on the Braumeister should be a big one or not.

There's still some time before the weekend to decide and besides I need to check out the availability of supplies at the local brew store before pulling the trigger.  In the meantime I'll start familiarizing myself with the Braumeister's controls and post some photos of the test run shortly.

In the meantime, please raise your glass, of homebrew or craft beer preferably, to the state of Alabama.  As of May 9th, it is now legal to homebrew in Alabama making it the 50th state to adopt such legislation.

Cheers,

Mark

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Education is the Key to Success!

Mark and I have signed up to take a course at Oregon State University; the course is focused on brewery startups.  The class is being held in Bend (another huge benefit of taking the class)!

The person who arrives with the best business plan wins a two week paid internship at the Ninkasi  Brewing Company.  That’s all I need to hear, competition.  We’ve been plugging away on our business plan.  Thus far, we’ve completed the Executive Summary,  written a ton of information on the US beer market and now we’re working the financials.

 

There are some brewery friendly states out there and turns out, Louisiana is not so friendly.  I need to call the two Senators and complain.  While I’m ok with the three tier distribution, I want to be able to sell my kegs, growlers, cans and bottles retail out of our very own tap room.  I hear a rumor that change was in the works; however, I haven’t seen this in writing.  I was in Houston a few weeks ago and there are craft breweries popping up all over in the state.  One thing I love about Texas is how pro-business the state is…

 

I’m heading to The Netherlands tomorrow.  I think a tour of Heineken is in order…  Perhaps their beer is a bit more tasty and fresher when consumed on their property.

 

More to come,

Karen

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Saturday, May 11, 2013

A Visit to Florida

IMG_2067We’re on vacation in Florida and took this opportunity to drink some beer that isn’t distributed in Alaska.  Today, I had Shipyard’s XXXX IPA.  The beer’s drink before date was before today…  I still thought it was tasty because, well it was.  I have fond memories of visiting Shipyard’s brewery in Maine when I was in graduate school in the early 1990s.  Shipyard was an early pioneer into the craft brewing scene.  Cheers to them.
Yesterday we paid a visit to Cigar City Brewing in Ybor City (Tampa).  We had had the Jai Alia IPA in cans before our visit to the brewery and the IPA was impressive… hoppy and fresh.  When we arrived at the brewery for our tour (you can book online) we had to wait about 15 minutes so I asked for a Jai Alia in a pint.  Mark decided to try the Tocobaga Red Ale.  Was he sorry he didn’t get the IPA for his first draw.  The Jai Alia right out of their keg was super fresh and even better out of their keg.

 

We took a tour of their startup brewery.  It’s a 15 barrel two vessel system…  all but one of the fermentors were empty.  In the one that was “cooking” they were making a horchata beer.  It’s a bit sweet for my liking but certainly inventive and tasty.

 

After the tour, we sat in their tap room and had a couple of more beers.  I struck up a conversation with an employee who was sitting next to me.  Our paths crossed over his broken IPhone glass.  I suggested he bypass the “genius bar” and fix the phone himself.  He told me about his past and coming to work at Cigar City.  His passion, like mine, is drinking good beer and he told me he found his “people” in so many words.

 

Mark joined the conversation and we were lucky enough to be shown the rest of the brewery.  If I remember correctly, Cigar City’s actual product brewery is a 30 barrel brewery that they have quickly outgrown so they are installing some additional (120 barrel ***I think) fermentors.  In fact, there demand has been so great that they only distribute in the state of Florida, Denmark and Sweden.  God bless the Scandinavians.  I like people who like good beerJ.

 

We learned a lot yesterday during the tour.  Again, the message was loud and clear.  If you start off small, you’ll soon be out of space and good, tasty, fresh beer.  Second, sanitation is key.  Third, bottling beer is a pain in the arse.

Cheers y’all and pick up some Cigar City when you have a chance.  They produce great beer and their staff is totally committed and very well informed.Cigar City

 

Karen

Hello world!

Hello World!  We are Mark and Karen Logan currently living in Anchorage, Alaska.  The purpose of this blog is to capture our journey as we go from home brewers to the opening of a production craft brewery.

Follow our blog and learn about the twists and turns of opening a craft brewery as we work the following:  business plan, finding investors, understanding state and federal regulations, finding a location, buying brewery equipment, marketing and lastly going into production.

 

Our target opening date is May 2015.

 

Cheers,
Mark and Karen