killian
Well-Known Member
Hey, I haven't been lurking HBT as much as I once had but thought I'd post as I've recently received word that my zoning has finally been approved! my building permit application was just submitted last week so please send some good karma my way.
This has been quite the uphill battle, incase anyone is interested I'll give you a bit of the story.
I started volunteering at a local brewery back in 2004 thinking that I'd try to learn as much as I could and try to get a job as a brewer. Well, after cleaning mountains of kegs and hand washing growlers for hours on end, the head brewer finally offered me a part time cellar position. After working my full-time job overnights and working at the brewery in the mornings for a few years I started really looking for a full-time brewer position. Judging from the starting rate for brewers at the brewer I was working for I knew I would have to take a pay cut (and maybe relocate) to make it happen. Shortly after making the decision to make the jump my wife told me that she was pregnant! So I decided that it probably wasn't the best time to take a pay cut or to relocate and I put that plan on the back burner. A short time later the brewery started an expansion project and decided to eliminate my part time position to hire another full-time brewer position and I left the brewery.
I continued to brew at home as often as I could and a couple of years later a friend of mine decided that he wanted to start a brewery and asked if I would be interested in partnering with him on the project. With my kids getting near school age I figured I could try to keep my day job and work on the brewery part-time. We started working with the town planning board and after a few meetings (and a few months) they told us that we would need to plant 150 trees on the ~3 acre lot and get approval from the DEC for our waste water system then when would be able to move forward with the permitting process. 150 trees! So I started researching waste water and found that the system were pretty expensive. I put the numbers together and for the buildout, building finish, tanks etc. and then my business partner decided to move on from the project.
So I decided I would try to make this happen on my own. I started to really work on a business plan and then one night after having some beers with an old friend he said that he was interested in going in on the project. So we look at a few properties and found a spot that looked promising, a standalone building in an area with a bunch of shops and restaurants. We setup a meeting with the Mayor, he said he loved the idea but the village was in the middle of rewriting the village codes and that it should be completed in a few months this is when things started getting interesting.....
This has been quite the uphill battle, incase anyone is interested I'll give you a bit of the story.
I started volunteering at a local brewery back in 2004 thinking that I'd try to learn as much as I could and try to get a job as a brewer. Well, after cleaning mountains of kegs and hand washing growlers for hours on end, the head brewer finally offered me a part time cellar position. After working my full-time job overnights and working at the brewery in the mornings for a few years I started really looking for a full-time brewer position. Judging from the starting rate for brewers at the brewer I was working for I knew I would have to take a pay cut (and maybe relocate) to make it happen. Shortly after making the decision to make the jump my wife told me that she was pregnant! So I decided that it probably wasn't the best time to take a pay cut or to relocate and I put that plan on the back burner. A short time later the brewery started an expansion project and decided to eliminate my part time position to hire another full-time brewer position and I left the brewery.
I continued to brew at home as often as I could and a couple of years later a friend of mine decided that he wanted to start a brewery and asked if I would be interested in partnering with him on the project. With my kids getting near school age I figured I could try to keep my day job and work on the brewery part-time. We started working with the town planning board and after a few meetings (and a few months) they told us that we would need to plant 150 trees on the ~3 acre lot and get approval from the DEC for our waste water system then when would be able to move forward with the permitting process. 150 trees! So I started researching waste water and found that the system were pretty expensive. I put the numbers together and for the buildout, building finish, tanks etc. and then my business partner decided to move on from the project.
So I decided I would try to make this happen on my own. I started to really work on a business plan and then one night after having some beers with an old friend he said that he was interested in going in on the project. So we look at a few properties and found a spot that looked promising, a standalone building in an area with a bunch of shops and restaurants. We setup a meeting with the Mayor, he said he loved the idea but the village was in the middle of rewriting the village codes and that it should be completed in a few months this is when things started getting interesting.....
