Something's Brewing in Mid-City

It’s back to the business plan…  Hi Y’all, we’re still making progress on the brewery.  We’re actually pretty close.  We applied for our permit with the TTB and they responded quickly.  They need several more questions answered and then we should be good to go.  We’re hopeful that we’ll get our permit soon.

We’re also close to taking possession of our building.  Once we take possession, we’ll begin the brewery build out and I’ll start posting some photographs as we make progress.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, our building is roughly 12,000 square feet and it has access from two streets with  North Bernadotte being the main entrance, this is also where the power, water and sewer tie into the building so we’re planning putting the brewery on that end.  Our engineering firm has given us a great idea on how to manage water without having to cut trench drains in the slab; it will be interesting to see how this works…  we’ll share more information soon.

I say it’s back to the business plan because we’re at the point in our startup where we’re going to be spending a lot of money.  It will be interesting to see how accurate we were when we put our rough estimation together.  For me, this will be one of the most important phases of the startup.  All of our numbers are based on a several important financial consdierations which are:

1. Salaries and wages


2. Insurance costs


3. Legal and accounting fees


4. Lease and utility deposits


5. Supplies (office and such)


6. Licenses


7. Advertising and promotions


8. Equipment freight and installation costs


9. Equipment costs


10. Raw materials


11. Utilities


12. Lease expense


13. Contingency

The closer we’re able to get to the numbers we put together in our pro forma, the more likely we’ll be financially successful and sustainable.  It’s pretty easy to get distracted on the fun stuff, like brewing beer, drinking beer, marketing beer and dreaming big but ultimately, it’s the business plan that will guide us.  This is what our investors have bought into as well as our banking partner and the SBA.

Some of our plans have changed since we originally put together the business plan and we need to update it accordingly.  In addition, Mark has been diligent about getting multiple bids for equipment and for the most part, that has worked really well.  There are a lot of suppliers out there and there are even more sales people and depending upon who you talk to an how specific you are with your specifications and requirements, the pricing can vary by as much as 100%.

And, finally, if you’re wondering about our website, we hope to have it up and running soon.  While we may be beer aficionados, we are not website builders.  This has taken more time than we expected.  That said, we’re going to keep our website to the K-I-S-S model.

Cheers for now y’all and thanks for following us.  I hope you’ll be drinking one of our tasty beers in the near future…  If I haven’t mentioned this in the past, we plan to kick off our production with two styles of beer:  a pale ale and an IPA.

Hi Y'all

I’ve been thinking about this blog and when we started we were focused on the business plan and financing and brewing great tasting beer. We’re at a totally different stage today which has caused me to reflect on the process as a whole for starting a craft brewery. No doubt, in a year, my thoughts will be extremely different again…

For those of you out there thinking about starting a craft brewery, now that we’re almost two years in planning, you need to think of the big picture and move beyond the business plan and financing but never go beyond brewing great tasting beer! The business plan was a huge tool for us and we’ll keep using it… and as far as financing goes, if you have a dream and you do your homework, the financing will fall into place. It did for us.. I hope this doesn’t sound shallow because we really worked our asses off to get where we are so perhaps it wasn’t all that easy. What really happened was people realized a few things, we’re hugely dedicated, we’re taking a big risk and Mark is a great brewer with a vision of perfection.

Here are some additional hurdles for you to consider when planning your brewery…

Finding the right location… local zoning ordinances can be a challenge. We were fortunate that Mark did an extensive amount of homework before we found our pristine location. In New Orleans there are certain areas of the City that actually exclude breweries from existing and in other areas, depending on the zoning, a conditional use permit may be required. If you need a conditional use permit, you have to have a public hearing with the City Council. The current zoning ordinances for the City of New Orleans can be found here: http://www.nola.gov/city-planning/current-comprehensive-zoning-ordinance/.

So, you’ve done your homework on zoning ordinances and now you’re on the hunt for the perfect building. Are you going to rent or buy? For us, we opted to rent based on not wanting to tie up cash in the purchase of a property. Bank financed commercial property requires a 20% down payment. We did find a 5,000 square foot warehouse that we considered but making a substantial down payment with negative cash flow was not for us.

Gross lease of triple net lease – you should do your homework and determine what you can afford. With the triple net lease, you are on the hook for all of the maintenance, insurance and property taxes for the building. A commercial realtor will also have a hefty fees associated with your service and then of course, you’ll need your legal team to review any lease agreement before you sign on the dotted line.

Ok, so like us, you’ve found the perfect spot… what’s next. Well, what’s next is bringing the building up to snuff for opening a craft brewery. That is no simple task… will the concrete support the weight of the tanks, does the building a have a sprinkler system (required), does your space have enough parking spots? Are you planning on a tap room? I certainly hope so and if that is the case, is the property ADA compliant? Where are you going to place your boiler and CO2 tank?? Do you need an RO water filter and what about storage for all of your cooperage? How are trucks going to make deliveries and pick up your product? The list goes on and on… for us, we’ve decided to use an engineering firm to help us with these requirements. In addition, the folks who we bought our brewhouse from have also made some recommendations based on the footprint of our building. All the while, all of these folks answering your questions providing you with an invaluable service are expensive. You need to ensure you have enough cash and have budgeted enough to help you get your building up to code requirements. Oh, and in the meantime, don’t forget you have to continue to work on your beer recipes!

That said, we’re hoping to get our ducks in a row in the next month or two with production prior to December 31st! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Cheers to that y’all,

Karen

PS - Steve Edwards, come for a visit!

What's Happening Now!

It’s been awhile since our last post… we’ve been busy! We’re over a year into the Second Line project and we have learned a hell-of-a-lot! We first got the idea of opening a production brewery in New Orleans in May 2013. Since that fateful evening, we’ve had quite the journey and we are getting close to opening the brewery.

Since our last post, we have finalized our LLC Operating Agreement, received loan approval for our brewhouse from a local bank, ordered our brewhouse and have submitted our TTB paperwork. On top of the paper chase, Mark has had time to brew some test batches that have turned out to be quite tasty and we’ve applied for our trademark for one of our flagship beers.

If you are wondering what’s next, well we have some work to do on our building, we need to hire a couple of people and we need to get our website up and running. In the meantime, we’re still having fun, drinking great beer, and looking forward to selling our first beer.

More to come.

Cheers,

Karen

Summer fun!

Bienvenue Hopfools,

It’s been a busy and fun three weeks since we last posted. The big news is that we’re just a hair’s breadth from finalizing all of our financials and ultimately the purchase of our new brewhouse, fermenters, bright tanks, pilot system, walk-in, etc.

The basic elements of our taproom and brewery are starting to come to life on paper and we’re beginning to vet contractors in anticipation of starting construction.

Along the way I also managed to visit Ontario and spend some time with our friends Peter and Andrea Chiodo of the award winning Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery in Barrie, just outside of Toronto.

It was a great first visit to Barrie and I really enjoyed hanging out in the brewhouse with his brewer, Paul Buttery and the rest of the “monkeys”. This also gave me an invaluable opportunity to bounce around ideas about brewery layout, process workflow, standard operating procedures and equipment selection.

It wasn’t all just work and technical talk mind you. I also managed to take in a Blue Jays game (sorry Boston but your kung fu was just not strong enough) and the Toronto’s Festival of Beers as a VIP guest of The Flying Monkeys. The three-day festival was located close to Lake Ontario and this year over 60 breweries were represented. There was also a number of musical guests and I was lucky enough to be a backstage guest of the Flying Monkeys for k-os, a Canadian born rapper/singer.

There were some really great beer offerings and lots of intriguing taste profiles (I actually took notes). It’s really fantastic to see and experience such a vibrant local craft beer community and for me underscored the enormous potential for craft beer in NOLA, Louisiana and the South.

I also ran into Ginger Johnson of Women Enjoying Beer, at the festival. It was good to finally meet her in person and I was able to collect on the beer she “owed” me for helping with some questions she had last year regarding the health benefits of beer.

Overall it was a great week of beer geek fellowship, beer tasting and incredible hospitality, many thanks to Peter, Andrea and the rest of the flying monkeys!

Lastly, Karen and I recently went to dinner at MoPho only to run into the crew from Yalobusha Brewing Company. It was really great talking with Andy O’Bryan, Tony Balzola and Amos Harvey, comparing notes, talking beer and finding out that the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train.  Yalobusha's offerings that evening included their Miss-iss-IPA and River Ale. The latter is billed as a pale pilsner owing to the predominant role of pilsner malt in the grain bill and it really worked great with my pho.

Well that’s all for now. Expect more news soon as we move along with making equipment purchases, renovating our space (located at 433 N. Bernodotte) and refining recipes.

Till next time thank you for all of your support, inquiries and patience as we continue our progress.  And of course, please continue to drink craft, drink local and drink responsibly.

Cheers,

Mark

We're Making a List and Checking it Twice!

Hi Y’all,



We’ve got our final list together on the tasks that need to be completed to get the brewery up and operating. We’re hoping to have all of the boxes checked within the next three to five weeks. It feels like traction…



We’ve done a huge amount of work with the Louisiana Small Business Development Center (https://www.lsbdc.org) in Metairie and they have really helped us streamline our business plan. In addition, they love craft beer; we think is a win-win for our business and for other up and coming craft breweries in the State. We plan to give our advisor from the LSBDC a tour of our brewery this week.



We’re just about ready to submit our TTB paperwork, our website is coming along and we’re trademarking our beer names.   We’re working on some of our label art and language so we can get COLA approval and order our labels, cans, etc.



On the beer brewing front, we are working on some additional prototypes and plan to share some of these brews with our friends, family and fools network. Mark is heading to Flying Monkeys (http://www.theflyingmonkeys.ca) in Barrie, Ontario for a week to work on a production brewing system and the rest of the team is working on the task list. We’ve been pretty fortunate and have added several additional key investors; this has been a godsend.
Well y’all, cheers for now. As we get closer we’ll try and keep the blog a little more up to date.



Karen

Time Flies When You’re Planning a Craft Brewery

Hi Y’all,

 

Almost a month has past since my last entry.   You may wonder what we’ve been up to… First, we’ve been visiting as many craft breweries as possible and are of course return customers to our favorites. In the past two weeks, we’ve been to King Street, Midnight Sun and Seward Brewing Company. We’ve had some great tips from the owners and have had the pleasure of sharing some really good beer. While not drinking good beer, we’ve been working fulltime day jobs and working the brewery plans at night.

 

Here’s where we are… our business plan is being modified again for submission to the SBA. Our banker put us in touch with a great service through the LSBDC Greater New Orleans and Bayou Region. This non-profit helps small businesses and banks alike get their ducks in a row for paperwork submission to the SBA free of charge. There are some pay for service programs out there that do the same; I recommend starting with your local organization. Of interest, we only found out about this service through our bank, the SBA people failed to mention this to us when we spoke with them.

 

Outside of the business plan and financing, Mark has put together a rather extensive list of permits that we need to obtain and we’re working our way through them one at a time. Our first win was with the Louisiana Department of Revenue approval so now we’re waiting on the TTB and working with the City of New Orleans to get our occupancy approval.

 

Our architect is working on the engineering design for the taproom and brewhouse layout and associated mechanical work. We has originally thought we were going to have to tunnel through the building’s existing slab but we’ve talked with several brewery owners and have decided to build our brewing platform / sump area on top of the existing slab. We believe that this will save us some big dollars without impacting our operations.

 

There are some hurdles ahead but we think we’ve got a pretty good plan in place to work through them or work around them. All in all, we’re making progress but it’s slower than we expected. It will be great when we’ve finally resolved all of our design and engineer work and begin construction.
That’s all for now y’all and cheers to that,
Karen

 

The Friendly Skies Need Craft Beer!

Hi Y’all,

I’m writing a quick update at 30,000 feet and am wondering why do the airlines (with the exception of Alaska Airlines) not sell craft beer?  The US airlines needs to embrace craft beer!  Enough on my flying rant…  Here’s an update on Second Line Brewing…  we’re working with an engineering firm to ensure that the building is up to snuff – what does this include?  First, is the fire suppression system in good working order?  Is the slab of the building strong enough to support our tanks?  Is the electrical system adequate or do we need to upgrade it?  Where are we going to put our backup generator?  Are we in compliance with all of the various building codes?  Where is the most cost effective place to put our tap room, etc.

We’re hoping to have those questions answered soon.  We’re also working with our very smart and beer savvy lawyer on updating our operating agreement.  We’ve had several people approach us who want to invest in Second Line.  While we are excited by the interest,  we need to ensure we’re following the SEC rules and have our operating agreement up to snuff from a legal standpoint.  A startup is risky business but in the words of friends down at King Street Brewing, "if you brew it, they will drink it"!

We had a great time at Jazz Fest and did a bit of gorilla marketing by handing out Second Line t-shirts.  That was a lot of fun and the weather was the best – both weekends were beautiful.  I can’t remember a Jazz Fest when it didn’t rain at least one weekend.

We’re still working on our business plan and have been updating it as needed.  We think our pro forma is fairly reasonable and accurate based on benchmarking data from the Brewer’s Association and other industry sources.

Since so many people were in town for Jazz Fest, we also held several tastings and we were able to share a few Second Line brews with Jeremy Labadie (aka "the Beer Buddha") and Nora Mcgunnigle.  Great people and huge craft beer enthusiasts – you’ve got to love that…

We’re still targeting a soft opening in November so I hope my next blog posts states that brewhouse is being built.

Cheers for now y’all.

Karen

Quick Update

Hi Y’all,

We met with our banker yesterday and we should have a good idea on financing in the next couple of weeks. We’re hoping the bank is willing to take the risk with us so we don’t have to go out and seek investors. We’re applying for an SBA loan and we used Score.org’s financial spreadsheet template which has proved invaluable. We highly recommend Score.org for individuals looking to start their own business. We’re also glad to announce that our dear friend and financial wizard Donnavan Swaby has decided to join the Second Line team as CFO.

We’ve received our approval from the Louisiana Department of Revenue which is great news and our t-shirts and pint glasses have arrived. We’re going to do a bit of gorilla marketing with them and hand out some t-shirts at Jazz Fest. If you see one of us at the Fest, be sure to ask us for one!

We are hoping to do a walk through next week with our engineer and the Fire Marshall. Once that is complete, we’ll be able to submit our drawings to the TTB and start the process on construction design. The building needs a bit of work but we love the location.

We’ve been waffling on buying a 20 barrel system vs. a 15 barrel system. The guys at JV Northwest have been extremely helpful and they recommend the 20 barrel system. I personally think we should go with their recommendation.

Our business plan continues to be modified. When we started it was around 200 pages and we’ve gotten some great feedback from multiple people on what is important for financing verses our strategy. We’ve been constantly refining the plan and it’s really been a great tool for what we need to do to be successful.

Cheers for now and happy Jazz Fest.

Karen

"Cheers to that" Senator Lisa Murkowski

Hi Hop Lovers,



Here is some food for thought that I borrowed from Alaska's Senator Lisa Murkowski on the craft beer industry in Alaska:



"Happy National Beer Day! Here are some fun beer facts:
Alaska’s 24 breweries produce 323 different beers.
Alaska ranks 4th among the states in terms of breweries per capita and 17th nationally in terms of beer production.
Our beer industry employs over 1,000 Alaskans and generates $150 million.
From Healy to Homer, from Fox to Skagway, Alaska’s brewing companies are a key component of our economies, communities and culture. They’re also a point of local pride. Cheers to that!"



Now, who do I call first?  David Vitter or Mary Landrieu?



Cheers y'all and happy Tuesday.
Karen

Where Y'at?

Hi Y’all, sorry for the delay in posting.  We’ve been busy.   Mark has been working with an engineering firm on the property build out as well as with the brewhouse supplier – JV Northwest.  We haven’t ordered the brewhouse yet but are hoping to this week.  Our original plan was to order a 15 barrel system BUT…  we’ll as you all may know, size matters so we are not thinking about a 20 barrel brewhouse.

Last weekend, Mark and I had the chance to get meet the owners of King Street Brewing Company.  Proprietors Shane and Dana gave us a private tour and were extremely generous with their knowledge on what they did well and what they wished they had done differently.  They brew great beer so if you get the chance you should check out their beer – Mark and I both like their IPA and their Pilsner.  They currently sell their products in draft and in cans and they have grown so much they are moving from a manual canning system to an automated canning line.

While Mark is busy working on the brewing and building, I’ve been working on our website design.  If all goes well, we should have our website launched in a few weeks.  I had no idea designing a website was…  let’s say… challenging.  I guess I was under the impression whoever designed it would manage it, write the copy, etc.  I was wrong!  I've also updated our business plan.  We received some good feedback from our fool network that our plan was too long so we've shortened it.  Our friend and finance expert Donnavan Swaby told us that we were giving away our strategic plan in our business plan but also said it was great that we did so much research; that's news well received.  We went from approximately 190 pages down to around 80.  It's an evergreen document so perhaps it will expand again one day.

Suzanne has been working the permitting with the City of New Orleans.  And, thus far, she has found the people at the permitting office to be quite easy to work with.  What a pleasant surprise.  In addition, she’s working on our marketing materials, as in pint glasses and t-shirts and stickers and such.  We're hoping to have our marketing materials together in time for Jazz Fest!

We’ve also been following the craft beer scene and want to congratulate the Cajun Fire team for their win of the Big Idea business pitch.  We wish them great success and perhaps one day we’ll do a collaboration together.

Cheers for now y’all.

Karen

Progress!

Greetings Hopfools,

It’s been a busy month for us here.  We’ve been working hard on recipes and have about nine new beers ready for a first tap with friends later this month.

In the meantime we’re pouring over contracts with engineering firms, working with our project coordinator, finalizing our logo, getting our website ready and in general, making steady progress towards our goal.

Speaking of progress, it appears that the craft beer community of New Orleans continues to develop and grow.  A recent post from Nora McGunnigle’s blog reports that The Courtyard Brewery recently enjoyed a significant victory with the local City Planning Commission; three cheers!

It’s great to see that the city is open to the prospect of a vibrant craft beer community.  And why shouldn’t they be?  Not long ago I did some research regarding the economic impact of craft beer on the state economies and it was pretty enlightening.

A 2013 economic impact study, commissioned by the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee of Pennsylvania found that in 2011, craft breweries in Pennsylvania paid over $4 million in taxes, employed over 2500 people and paid $49 million in payroll.  All told, the study estimated that beer produced and sold in Pennsylvania resulted in over 10,000 jobs, $296 million in wages, and $1.1 billion (yes with a “b”) in output.  That’s not chump change!

Similar studies have been commissioned and performed by the brewer’s guilds of Texas and California and while these entities may be biased, the economic evidence of the benefits of the craft beer industry on state economies is truly undeniable.  It’s great to see evidence that the city of New Orleans appreciates the positive economic impact that craft beer can have on the local economy.

Well that’s all for now.  Till next time don’t forget to support your local craft brewery. Oh, and only 43 days till Jazz Fest!!

Salud,

Mark

And We're Waiting

We submitted our loan application for an SBA loan.  We’re hoping the loan comes back with a big ole APPROVED written across it.  While we’re waiting on the bank’s thumbs up or thumbs down you may wonder what we’re up to…  so here it is.  We’ve visited our friends at the City of New Orleans to try and figure out that process.  Apparently, the building will almost have to be ready for occupancy prior to receiving an Occupational License which means the business owner has to take a lot of financial risk before being approved to do business in the City that Care Forgot.  And, New Orleans does have a progressive One Stop Shop for permitting and everyone was extremely friendly (what a nice surprise) but the process on the City’s website isn’t accurate (shocking, right?).



So we’ve had our architect draw the building’s footprint.  It’s 12,000 square feet of multiple possibilities.  So how do you design a brewery layout with thinking about future expansion and without spending a ton of money on plumbing upgrades?  We’re working with our team trying to figure this out.  The great news is that the Lafitte Corridor Rails to Trails construction is set to begin in 2014.  Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could open in conjunction with the opening of the bike path (assuming the bike path does actually happen in 2014).  We really like the look of Great Raft’s brewery in Shreveport which means a road trip is in the near future.



We’re also updating our business plan.  Our finance genius has advised that we’re giving away too much of our long term strategy and that potential investors may yawn at its length.  That said, every hour we put into the plan was worth it and we love that we really dove down into the details.



Outside of the business plan updates, the actual footprint of the building and working with the TTB, we’re also ordering some swag to give away at Jazz Fest.  If you’re interested in a t-shirt and you are one of the first 15 people to email within the next thirty days with your address and let me know you read this blog and I’ll mail you a t-shirt in a few weeks.

Cheers for now,

Karen

Where Y'at?

We’ve been busy cranking out some great tasting beers over the past few weeks.  We’re waiting on the roll out of our session IPA, IPA and pale ale.  What’s next you might wonder?  It’s a secret (wink wink).

Outside of brewing great beer, we’re working some promo materials including t-shirts, glasses and bottle openers.  We should have that out on the street soon.  We are still working on the brewery layout now that we’ve signed the lease and have hired Peter Waring to help with our design.  We’ve also applied for our SBA loan and have handed our business plan over to several of our peers for review and input.  Right now, we have so many moving pieces…

We’re thinking our first two beers to production beers will be a pale ale and ???  do we go IPA or ….  What do you think?

Anyway, happy Mardi Gras y’all.  We hope you are enjoying the king cakes with some tasty craft beer.

Cheers,

Karen

Funding and Logo

Hi Y'all,
It's been a while since I've posted...  so I thought I'd share what's happening with Second Line...  We are collaborating on recipes with our brewmaster and several other brewers who have been helping us on this journey...  We've trade marked Second Line Brewing...  we've submitted our paperwork for a loan with our banker (it's so nice to actually have a banker that you actually know, trust and can call), and have funded our checking account with the funds we've received from several of our partners....  and we've landed on one of several logos.
We're in the process of working on our Second Line Brewing website and we hope to have that launched soon.
We're busy and hope y'all are drinking good beers.
Cheers for now,

Karen

 

We Signed the Lease

Hi Ya'll,

We signed the lease yesterday for a 12,000 square foot warehouse located in the Mid City neighborhood of New Orleans. We're super excited to have such a great location and a fun space to work with. The property backs up to the Lafitte Corridor which is in the process of being converted to a Rails to Trails. We will welcome the bike riders if the trail ever comes to be...

Now, the hard work starts. We have an enormous amount of work ahead of us including relocating from Anchorage to NOLA, getting all of the permits in place, designing the innards of a 12,000 square foot warehouse, improving the exterior of the space to provide curb appeal, all while brewing the great beer and having fun.

We're starting Chapter 2 today. Join us on the ride and be sure to drink good beer.

Cheers y'all,

Karen

Keeping Up With the List

Oh, so close!  We should wrap the lease any day now.  We're just waiting to ensure our parking needs will be met.  Here is an update from the list I posted several weeks ago:

 

What’s next?  Well, Mark and I have been thinking the same thing.  Here’s our list of must dos over the next few weeks:

 

1. CHECK!  Get the US Patent and Trademark Office off of their rears and review the trademark for our namesake, Second Line Brewing.


2. Wrap up our logo.


3. WORKING ON IT!  Brew some tasty beer – Mark and Jason are going to have a tasting panel for their delicious home brew.


4. STARTED!!  Start the TTB paperwork.


5. CHECK!   Engage with an architect and get our new building up to par to hold our brewhouse and associated equipment.


6. Finish our private placement offering documents and term sheet.


7. Raise capital.


8. Order our brewhouse.


9. Get our name and logo out there.


10. Hire some people.


11. WORKING ON IT!!!   Move to New Orleans.


12. TRIPLE CHECK!!!!   Brew great beer!

 

CHEERS Y'ALL!

Brew Day Updates

Greetings Hopfools,

Mark here,  it’s a brew day, so in between steps I thought I would take a few minutes to catch you up on what we’ve been doing.

So I just returned from an Intensive Brewing Science class at UC Davis.  Can’t endorse the course strongly enough.  Drs. Michael Lewis and Charles (Charlie) Bamforth conducted the majority of the lectures and they did great job of walking us through the scientific aspects of beer brewing.  It was exciting to be talking about enzymatic pathways, isomerization, hydrophobic interactions and red-ox chemistry….I really do like being a geek.

Here is a great video of Charlie Bamforth, courtesy of the Brookston Beer Bulletin, talking about beer.

The attendees of this course came from a very diverse background ranging from professional brewers, breweries-in-planning and hardcore homebrewers.  Met a lot of really wonderful, open and helpful people.  It was great to hear what other people are thinking and doing as it relates to running or starting a brewery.

As part of the course we were treated to a VIP tour of the Sierra Nevada brewery in Chico.  Fantastic facility that is clearly paving the way and raising the bar for the rest of us when it comes to making great beer, creating a positive work environment and minimizing the environmental impact of their operations.



One of the boil kettles at Sierra Nevada.

As for our progress, it looks like we will be signing a lease shortly.  We were lucky to find a very reasonable landlord who was sympathetic to many of the challenges that we are facing given that we must first have a lease in place before we can really get the ball rolling with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (aka TTB).

We’ve also engaged the services of Peter Waring of Waring Architects in New Orleans.  Our friends Erich and Jennifer Weishaupt put us on to Peter and his team after Waring Architects helped them with the opening of their latest Ruby Slipper location.  Before we even sent them a retainer, Peter and his team identified how we can minimize our zoning headaches by declaring ourselves a “local brewery” for the purposes of filing our paperwork with Orleans parish.  Very excited to be working with Peter and look forward to seeing how they can help us realize our “vision” for our tap room and brewery.

Well that’s all for now.  Hopefully in our next post we will have signed our lease and we can reveal the our location in Mid-City!

Cheers,

Mark

And We Found a Building

We found a space in the Mid City neighborhood of New Orleans.  The spot is perfect for us now the rush is on.  We have a year to raise the capital we’ll need and to get our TTB permit and all of the Louisiana and City of New Orleans permits.  I wonder which agency will be the hardest to work with….   I have a good idea but I’ll hold my opinion for now.

 

What’s next?  Well, Mark and I have been thinking the same thing.  Here’s our list of must dos over the next few weeks:

 

1. Get the US Patent and Trademark Office off of their rears and review the trademark for our namesake, Second Line Brewing.


2. Wrap up our logo.


3. Brew some tasty beer – Mark and Jason are going to have a tasting panel for their delicious home brew.


4. Start the TTB paperwork.


5. Engage with an architect and get our new building up to par to hold our brewhouse and associated equipment.


6. Finish our private placement offering documents and term sheet.


7. Raise capital.


8. Order our brewhouse.


9. Get our name and logo out there.


10. 10. Hire some people.


11. 11. Move to New Orleans.


12. 12. Brew great beer!

 

Thus far, we’ve learned a ton.  We attended the course at the Oregon State on opening a craft brewery and as I type, Mark is headed back to Anchorage from UC Davis where he took a course on brewing science.   He’s met some great people and several that own smaller craft breweries and a few that work for some of the majors (i.e., Sierra Nevada).

 

Our business plan, for the most part is finished for now, although we’ll constantly be updating it as things change.  Writing the plan was worth all of the effort.  It took us about 6 months to get where we are today.  We had our accountant take a look at our pro forma and he gave us some pretty good suggestions on how to approach investors.   Mark handled that language pretty quickly.  We’ll see what our lawyer has to say when we hand the plan over to him.

That’s all for now y’all, but the dream is approaching reality.  The ride is just starting.  We hope you’ll continue to watch as we progress, and of course, we’d like for you to support our brand when we open.

Cheers,
Karen

Hello from St. Pete Beach, Florida

Hi y’all, Mark and I had the chance to visit Green Bench Brewing in St. Petersburg, Florida yesterday.  They are a brand new production brewery.  They opened approximately 3 months ago and have a great brewery, tasting room and outdoor seating / yard area.  When we arrived at the brewery yesterday, they were sponsoring a yoga class.  There were about 100 people out in the yard getting their bodies in shape so they’d be nice and thirsty for a cold brew when they finished their workout.

Green Bench has 18,000 square feet.  Of that their brewery is located in about 4,500 square feet their tasting room is 1,500 square feet and the remainder is nicely organized outside space.  They are brewing on a 15 barrel JV Northwest brewing system.  They have several fermenters including an oak barrel fermenter called an oak foundres– that was a first for me; I’ve seen lots of oak barrels but this is actually an oak barrel fermenter.  Pretty cool.

Their tap room was really well designed and is an open and airy space.  They have a great bar for people who want to either grab their beer to go or get it to go in a cup to sit outside.

I had their Green Bench IPA which was a very hoppy and nice IPA.  While Mark and I were enjoying their tasting room, Khris, the brewer invited everyone in the tasting room for a tour.  Mark and I quickly joined the group of about 20 and were invited into the brewery side of the property.  Khris is really enthusiastic and quite knowledgeable.  He gave a detailed explanation of their name and the brewing process as a whole.  We were all offered a free beer so I chose the Saison de Blanc Vert which is a light farm ale.  It may be the best farm ale I’ve had to date.  It certainly was the freshest.  This is the first brewery I’ve toured where they’ve had the farm ale on tap.



Where can you buy some Green Bench brew?  Well for now, it’s only available in St. Petersburg and in Tampa.  I guess that means you’ll need to hit the beach and take a brewery tour while you are here.  In the past year, 5 or so breweries have opened in the area.  Most offer tours.  I’m hoping we make it to 3 Daughters, I hear that their tasting room is in the middle of the brewery.

Cheers for now y’all.  Enjoy the photos.

 

Karen  

Happy New Year from NOLA!

Hi Y’all,
Happy New Year and Cheers from New Orleans.  Mark and I made the trip to NOLA for an end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 visit.  We’ve been busy since our arrival…  We’ve looked at three potential brewery properties, have met with our lawyer and banker and best of all got to meet our brewer Jason Weissberg in person.

 

Before we head back to the almost North Pole, we’re hoping to decide on a property and we have two on our shortlist.  If all goes as planned, we’ll have a lease agreed to in short order and we’ll be forced to order the brewhouse.  We’ve decided on a manufacturer and now just need to ink the paperwork.  We’re waiting to ensure we have a place to install it so we’re not putting the horse before the cart although it’s quite exciting to think about.

 

The business plan is just about wrapped up.  We hope to hand over a draft copy to our banker tomorrow and then get our Private Placement Memorandum completed in a couple of weeks.  Mark and I have done a lot of research on the Securities and Exchange Commission requirements and Blue Sky Laws.  Legalize is complicated to say the least but I think we’re in a great spot.

 

Tomorrow we take Jason by a few of the properties.  It will be interesting to get his take and then hopefully we can reach an agreement with a great landlord and start the brewery build out process.

 

More to come in the next few days!

 

Cheers,

Karen