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