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bwiens

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2009
Messages
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Location
Murrieta, CA
We are finally under way on our road to being pro. We have been working on this for a long time and now things are finally moving along and we are able to talk about it publicly. Our Facebook page(Wiens Brewing Company | Facebook) is up and we have filed our TTB paperwork. Demolition has started and we have most of our equipment. There are still many months ahead of us before we will be able to brew our first batch, let alone have the tasting room open. I will be doing the brewing and hopefully I will need help soon after opening(already have a line of people for this position). We are finalizing our beer lineup and trying to be patient as we get closer. I hope to see some HBT members in the tasting room once it is open!
 
Living the dream. Congrats, that's a nice looking space!! What size brewhouse are you going with?
 
We have a 7bbl brewhouse, 4 7bbl fermenters, and 2 7bbl brite tanks. We will probably need to upgrade within a year if things go as planned.
 
Awesome Congrats! We have several start ups here in Seattle that have grown and expanded greatly over the last two years. Especially the giant plate chiller they now have and to see the tiny 30 plate I just got I mail. Wamp. Just to walk through the initial brewery and to see where they have come is amazing. I buy a lotto ticket each week with your dream. All the best of luck to you!

~Diz
 
Watching the video I got really nervous watching that forklift take the brewhouse in. Looked like it was about to fall the whole time. Good luck and hopefully in a few years I'll give you a run for your money.
 
bwiens said:
We are finally under way on our road to being pro. We have been working on this for a long time and now things are finally moving along and we are able to talk about it publicly. Our Facebook page(Wiens Brewing Company | Facebook) is up and we have filed our TTB paperwork. Demolition has started and we have most of our equipment. There are still many months ahead of us before we will be able to brew our first batch, let alone have the tasting room open. I will be doing the brewing and hopefully I will need help soon after opening(already have a line of people for this position). We are finalizing our beer lineup and trying to be patient as we get closer. I hope to see some HBT members in the tasting room once it is open!
Click to expand...

hey (if you have time), can you share your story? Where you have been working, and what brought you to becoming a pro brewer. Did you raise money, or did you have it already. A lot of us on here ponder the thought of starting a brewery and would love to hear your story some more. Or just point me to the thread! Thanks
 
optimatored said:
hey (if you have time), can you share your story? Where you have been working, and what brought you to becoming a pro brewer. Did you raise money, or did you have it already. A lot of us on here ponder the thought of starting a brewery and would love to hear your story some more. Or just point me to the thread! Thanks
Click to expand...

Have a minute for a quick reply, can expand later though.

I started homebrewing about 1994 and immediately loved it. Brewing continued for a few years and then got put on the back burner when I bought my first house. I should have pursued it then and went to school for it like my uncle did(he is the same age as me). It was always the two of our dreams to have a brewery for us to own and operate.

By 2001 my father and uncles had started a winery and that has grown to be very successful. Shortly after we started kicking around the idea of a brewery. This would be a natural progression for us as a family, A few years ago I got back into brewing(had the time and money to do it again) and things started getting serious.

I wish I had a more 'hard-knocks' story for being able to fund the brewery, but it is an extension of the winery and that has provided the money and knowledge that we needed. We are keeping costs down by keeping the labor costs down. I will be keeping my 'day job' until the brewery can afford to hire me on full time. Going to make for long hours, but I am ready for that. As for being a pro brewer, I have no real experience. I will be learning as I go. The experience and knowledge from the winery business will carry over quite a bit and having that infrastructure in place will be great.
 
bwiens said:
We are finally under way on our road to being pro. We have been working on this for a long time and now things are finally moving along and we are able to talk about it publicly. Our Facebook page(Wiens Brewing Company | Facebook) is up and we have filed our TTB paperwork. Demolition has started and we have most of our equipment. There are still many months ahead of us before we will be able to brew our first batch, let alone have the tasting room open. I will be doing the brewing and hopefully I will need help soon after opening(already have a line of people for this position). We are finalizing our beer lineup and trying to be patient as we get closer. I hope to see some HBT members in the tasting room once it is open!
Click to expand...

Good Luck and having a German sir-name can't be bad for a brewer.. Brost. :ban:
 
bwiens said:
Have a minute for a quick reply, can expand later though.

I started homebrewing about 1994 and immediately loved it. Brewing continued for a few years and then got put on the back burner when I bought my first house. I should have pursued it then and went to school for it like my uncle did(he is the same age as me). It was always the two of our dreams to have a brewery for us to own and operate.

By 2001 my father and uncles had started a winery and that has grown to be very successful. Shortly after we started kicking around the idea of a brewery. This would be a natural progression for us as a family, A few years ago I got back into brewing(had the time and money to do it again) and things started getting serious.

I wish I had a more 'hard-knocks' story for being able to fund the brewery, but it is an extension of the winery and that has provided the money and knowledge that we needed. We are keeping costs down by keeping the labor costs down. I will be keeping my 'day job' until the brewery can afford to hire me on full time. Going to make for long hours, but I am ready for that. As for being a pro brewer, I have no real experience. I will be learning as I go. The experience and knowledge from the winery business will carry over quite a bit and having that infrastructure in place will be great.
Click to expand...

Good luck. Hard-knocks me f all, just make good beer.
 
bwiens said:
Have a minute for a quick reply, can expand later though.

I started homebrewing about 1994 and immediately loved it. Brewing continued for a few years and then got put on the back burner when I bought my first house. I should have pursued it then and went to school for it like my uncle did(he is the same age as me). It was always the two of our dreams to have a brewery for us to own and operate.

By 2001 my father and uncles had started a winery and that has grown to be very successful. Shortly after we started kicking around the idea of a brewery. This would be a natural progression for us as a family, A few years ago I got back into brewing(had the time and money to do it again) and things started getting serious.

I wish I had a more 'hard-knocks' story for being able to fund the brewery, but it is an extension of the winery and that has provided the money and knowledge that we needed. We are keeping costs down by keeping the labor costs down. I will be keeping my 'day job' until the brewery can afford to hire me on full time. Going to make for long hours, but I am ready for that. As for being a pro brewer, I have no real experience. I will be learning as I go. The experience and knowledge from the winery business will carry over quite a bit and having that infrastructure in place will be great.
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing...the long hours will be worth it in my opinion! Good luck to you. :mug:
 
Good luck! I love these threads. It keeps me inspired to pursue my dream when I hear about others doing it.
 
[Bo][Rn][Ez];3653732 said:
Good luck! I love these threads. It keeps me inspired to pursue my dream when I hear about others doing it.
Click to expand...

I will keep this updated as things progress. I too really have enjoyed reading others threads like this.
 
Is there any relation to the winery?? If so I will have you know that our wedding was there and it was an amazing time.
 
jdjtexas said:
Is there any relation to the winery?? If so I will have you know that our wedding was there and it was an amazing time.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is our family Winery. Great to hear that you had great time. Much of my family works there and I am sure you spoke with some of them. The facility is fantastic.

Once we are making beer, it will be part of the Weddings and other events. We are going to be having Brewing Bachelor Parties at the brewery. You would get to come in and brew the beer for your wedding on our pilot system. This could also be done for other occasions I think. We are working on a 1bbl system for the pilot/small batch. Any thoughts on this type of thing?
 
C-Rider said:
Good Luck and having a German sir-name can't be bad for a brewer.. Brost. :ban:
Click to expand...

It is a good thing! Not sure we had any brewers back through the family tree, but my grnadfather work at a hop farm for a while. You can also rearrange the letters and spell 'wines', but that is not nearly as cool as if it could spell beer or ale...
 
Got the demo just about wrapped up this week. Next week we go to the State and hopefully soon we get our building permit so we can start construction. First up is floor drains.
 
A quick update:

Got our Federal and State licensing all done, so we are legal and official! Building and CUP permits are in the works and we hope to get our pilot system operating this weekend. The 7bbl system is still a few months from being installed though.

Our pilot system is a 1bbl Blichmann system, full electric with Blichmann conicals. It is going to be sweet brewing on it. I will get some pictures up when it starts coming together, probably on our Facebook sooner though(http://www.facebook.com/WiensBrewingCompany).

Will be brewing up our first two beers next weekend on the pilot system. Will be interesting seeing how they come out.
 
Congrats on expanding the biz and living the dream. I'll be sure to check it out when you open the tasting room.
 
We are going with 2 5500w element in the kettle and the HLT. My uncle is building the controls so Im not exactly sure. I should see it today and will post back.
 
First brew day done. 1bbl of our Plateau XPA and Descent Black IPA. Tomorrow more Plateau XPA and our Avocado Honey Wheat.
 
We are getting closer. We received approval for our Tasting Room from the city and just got our floors in. The framing has started for the new walls and all the plumbing, electrical and HVAC is about to start up again. Boiler, chiller and glycol should be going in soon too.

We also added 4 15bbl fermenters and a 15bbl brite. After calculating our demand, we needed to get up to 2000+ bbl a year capacity, now we are there. Just have to follow through with sales and production.

After doing our first two pouring events, we are feeling good about the first two beers. They were well received and very tasty, can't wait to get construction done so we can get back to brewing.
 
Awesome, man. Murrieta is a little far, but I will definitely make a trip down once your tasting room is opened.
 
Be year's end there will be 5 or 6 breweries within a couple of miles from us in Temecula. Should be great!
 
Congratulations from a nearby soon-to-be-pro brewer. Let us know if you'd like a hand or feel like giving a tour! Super exciting stuff. Just liked you guys on facebook- keep us updated!
 

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