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Sigafoos

Well-Known Member
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Location
Buffalo, NY
THIS GUY, BABY.

Community Beer Works. Buffalo, NY, nanobrewery.

Currently in all sorts of planning, as you might imagine. I'm one of 6-7 people. We're close to a location, close to a logo and aren't worrying about the specifics of beer yet (though we know it'll be 1bbl to start, and hopefully 3-5 in a year) because we're elbow deep in all the paperwork required to get such a thing going.

So, yeah. In addition to having a baby, that's where I've been. :ban:
 
olllllo, it did just go out so I forgive you. This time.

I've known all this was happening for a while now, but haven't wanted to get everyone excited about it because the conversation would go 'What will your beers be?' 'Uh...' 'Where are you going to brew?' 'Well...' 'When do you think you'll be starting? What's your membership structure going to be like?*' and a whole bunch of other things we haven't worked out yet. But now we have the blog up and running (even if it is still the WP 3 default theme), and have a bit more settled down, I figure let's do this.

The location: we're working our asses off. We know where we want and I will knife fight anyone who gets in our way.

Equipment: I'll get the link in a bit but there's a guy who builds computerized 1bbl single tier stands, and I think we're looking into that. I know plenty of people here have done similar things themselves but none of us are that insane (but really, I'm jealous).

And chumprock, me? LTS has been planning something for a while too! (I'm not outing him; I found out when he posted comments on another nano blog). This area seems to be a hotbed right now... there's another Buffalo nano working on getting started, as well as another brewery of an unknown scale and a bigger one in the WNY area (all about as nebulous as we are, I gather)
 
Congratulations! Smaller Brewhouses are going up all over. It's not just the larger microbrew people anymore. Lots of people are providing services for the smaller cities. It's a great thing!
 
Congratulations! Smaller Brewhouses are going up all over. It's not just the larger microbrew people anymore. Lots of people are providing services for the smaller cities. It's a great thing!

Yup. I only wish that we could do away with all the laws that keep nanobreweries from flourishing. I hate how politicians claim to want to help small businesses, when in reality they are in the pockets of big businesses who are the natural enemies of small businesses. I know that aside from Hong Kong, America is the easiest place to start a small business, but it could always be easier.

Good luck man. I'll be reading your blog. Planning on U.C. Davis and doing the same thing in ten years.
 
Good Luck. I am in the same boat at the moment. We have a place lined up we just need to pull the trigger. Our cash on hand and our Risk Adversity are colliding at the moment. As you know you need a place lined up before submitting the brewers notice. It SUCKS.

I will be following your blog. If you have any questions on structure or membership PM me. My partner is very good at that stuff and might be able to give you some pointers.
 
YGood luck man. I'll be reading your blog. Planning on U.C. Davis and doing the same thing in ten years.

About a year ago I was standing in the brewery at Half Acre in Chicago saying the same thing. Never say never.

Brewmoor, I'll let you know.
 
Congrats! Of course the beer scene starts blowing up AFTER I move out of Buffalo. I wish you the best.
 
I drive through buffalo all the time driving between West Michigan and Central NY. Let us all know when your up and running and Ill swing by.
 
Congrats and good luck man. Going up to Rochester next summer, so keep us informed and I'll stop by!

Also, I'd like the link to the 1bb system when you get a chance.
 
That's so awesome. What I'm kinda interested in is: for profit? 'Tasting room' or distribution? Bottling? And finally, grocery stores or pubs/restaurants?

Good luck, the world needs more nanobreweries!
 
Everybody wanting to stop by: hell yeah. I'll let you know when it's ready. I know at a certain point in the process you can't brew in your building until you get the final permit, and I think we're planning to not even try homebrewing there to avoid any hassle. I'm not dealing with that headache thankfully, so I don't know the specifics (having seven people working on things has shown me I'd never have been able to do this myself)

Our plan right now is to distribute to a few bars and beer stores, then also have a growler club and tasting room. Our original plan was to be a coop, like Black Star, but NYS has different ideas of what a coop is, apparently. So we're going to try to incorporate coop-like elements into our business plans, though exactly how is still up in the air.

Nobody's going to be quitting their day job for at least a year, and then not all (or even most, probably) of us. So it'll be for profit, but at least in the near future won't be a career for me. I just get to make beer!
 
Yeah, I knew about LTS's planning, but dont know where he is at this point. I think he's focusing on his real job for now.

There's also another bunch of guys in the Roch. area that are starting up as well. Though they are going to start with contract batches for a lower up-front investment and see how things fly from there...

Good luck! :mug:
 
Make sure you provide us with plenty of updates! It always helps people who are looking to do the same thing get the ball rolling I'm sure.
 
Update: our logo is finalized. I really love this damn thing. The unevenness of the font gets lost when it's compressed a bit, alas, but I'm really pleased with it. I'll miss Ray Stantz as my avatar, but there are sacrifices which need to be made!

A bit more on the logo is here. No real news beyond that, though we're meeting Saturday to pin down some of the businessy stuff. It seems like we can't really get moving until we have our location finalized, and so we have a legion of winged monkeys working Foxconn-style hours trying to make that happen.
 
Nothing we can talk about yet. We're working on something, but don't want to blog our chickens til they hatch, y'know?

Who do you know on FB? I s'pose that makes sense us being in the same town n'all.
 
I hope you will be distributing to Orleans county, I am ready to support a fellow HBTer!

Edit: You should make a No Goal or Wide Right Pale Ale. Most of western NY is still bitter about those. Pun intended.
 
Well, at least at first we're only going to be distributing to a small handful of bars (and maybe a store or two) within the city itself -- not even outside of Buffalo proper and into Amherst, etc. But it's not that far... certainly, once we're up and running, we'll be road trip friendly :)

Re: No Goal: ha! Yeah, like Great Lakes is doing with their bitter now that Lebron left.
 
Nothing we can talk about yet. We're working on something, but don't want to blog our chickens til they hatch, y'know?
n'all.

It is really a pain in the arse that you are required to have a location before you can submit your application to the TTB. You effectively need to pay rent for a minimum of 3 months before you can sell anything. We got lucky our landlord is giving us 1 month free 2nd month differed payment and if we need it 3rd 4th and 5th month reduced and differed over the life of the lease.

The state will not let us apply for a wholesalers license without a label approval but we can not apply for that without a license. Catch 22's every step of the way. So we are going to start with the Manufacturers license first so we can at least open the taproom and hope the label does not take too long.
 
i'll be pretty honest. i always experience (as any homebrewer experiences) the "you should open a microbrewery" conversation whenever we enjoy my beer.

i always respond with "i really enjoy brewing beer, i really don't want to ruin my hobby by doing it as a job"

either way, i wish you guys the best of luck...

i drive through buffalo when i drive to michigan from connecticut. if this operation gets off the floor, i'll be sure to support a HBTer.
 
So, some updates:

The location is coming along. We're optimistic that we're going to get the place we want, but I can't say exactly where yet. We've started talking to the neighbors though, letting them know our plans, so we're serious about it.

We're also coming up with equipment lists and so on, trying to balance out the held-together-with-duct-tape aspect vs reproducibility, quality, etc. We have some good ideas.

Ethan and I will be at the Buffalo Brewfest tonight, but not at the Brewfest in that we'll have a table. We're going as the media precursor to CBW, Beer-O-Vision, though we'll also be happy to talk CBW if you can find us. We'll be the dudes with the big camera.

I made a bunch of iron on shirts for the owners, though we have some pretty awesome plans for things you can actually buy soon. I'll let you know details when we know more. Til then, check out the sexxy:

Mobile Photo Aug 5, 2010 12 54 22 PM.jpg
 
We'll be in town for a wedding in October, I believe. I'm assuming that you're still so early in the process that you won't be up and brewing, but if you've got a location and some gear we'd love to swing by for a beer.
 
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