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