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