LLBeanJ
Well-Known Member
Hey Charlie, congrats on getting this venture off the ground! Looking forward to stopping in real soon.
Gilded Goat Brewing Co. - Building a Brewery
- Thread starter ColoHox
- Start date
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thunderwagn
Well-Known Member
They've got a kolsch on tap right now that I really want to partake of. I hope it holds out for another week and I'll be off call.
I can't believe how that area has transformed. Charlie has a great spot for sure. So many hot businesses in the old Square/Foothill Mall area. Sounds like the Hop Grenade is going to open a tap room over in that general area as well.
I can't believe how that area has transformed. Charlie has a great spot for sure. So many hot businesses in the old Square/Foothill Mall area. Sounds like the Hop Grenade is going to open a tap room over in that general area as well.
Biscuits
Well-Known Member
Might have to make my way up there soon.
thunderwagn
Well-Known Member
OP
OP
ColoHox
Compulsive Hand Washer
Hey all, finally made my way back here while taking a much needed, mid-day breather, and I just have to say thank you to everyone for all the kind words. It has been an incredibly challenging and rewarding few months (my wife also opened a yoga studio in December 
). Your support is invaluable and I am sorry I went MIA. Now that I have slightly more free time, I am happy to answer any questions or chat back here on HBT.
We've now been open for 5 weeks, but it feels like it's been year.
Life was great before we had customers and employees...
I kid, of course, because without all you fine patrons, we wouldn't be where we are today. The support we have had from the community of beer drinkers, homebrewers, and craftbrewers, has been amazing and humbling.
How about a general overview of challenges over the last month:
Our point of sale has gone down 3x in 5 weeks. This is incredibly frustrating. We have square as a backup, which works great, but 3x is just unacceptable. Queue the long hold times with support and some nasty emails.
Our front of house staff has been working their butts off learning about our beers, learning how to describe different beers, and learning how to sell them. It amazing how a little encouragement in what you "should" be tasting in a beer can make you taste something. The encouragement is mostly about learning about what things taste like. We do weekly tasting meetings where we evaluate what is on tap, work on identifying flavors, and taste/describe new beers coming out. We recently had a bit of a sulfur aroma on our blonde. It was difficult for most people to pick out blindly, but as soon as we started saying things like yellowstone, farts, or match heads, they got it, and now they know what to look for.
We have had 2 ID sting operations. An obviously underage person comes in and either shows you a real, underage ID or says they forgot theirs. You know if you pass or fail right then. Good so far, but always on the lookout.
Traffic patterns are starting to be a bit more reliable. Monday is slow (reduced hours at that), Tuesday better, Wednesday slower, then a steady climb into a crazy Fri/Sat/Sun. We are having our Grand Opening (a great excuse for another crazy party) over St. Patty's weekend. Should be great! Coffee Stout and Bourbon-barrel aged bock coming out, as well as a Kentucky common and re-releasing our American Rye ale.
Back in the brewhouse, we weren't able to keep up with sales, as I bemoaned earlier in this thread. We went through beer so fast that we had to pull 2 or our 6 beers temporarily off the menu. We should have remade the batches 2 weeks before we did, but we are also trying to balance our production schedule with getting new things out. Fine line on that one.
As we have learned the system, our efficiency went from ~72% on the first batch or 2, up to 90-92%. We are currently working on reducing our losses (10'+ of 2" ID hoses hold A LOT of beer!) and being more efficient with our water and CO2 usage. We are also doing a lot of our own yeast culturing/upscaling/management in house, so that creates another production bottleneck until we have a more developed routine.
5 weeks in and we desperately need 2 more fermenters. Cold storage (kegs and serving tanks) is not the bottleneck we thought it would be, as we are selling beer so fast. We need more fermentation space instead, which is an unexpected $16k expense after a few weeks. Still working on how to make that one happen quickly, mostly because oak barrels are expensive too and I want as many as I can get. I think a 7 or 15bbl foeder would be spectacular. We already have some really interesting/funky/sour mixed cultures doing fun and weird things to our Flanders Red, a blend between our blonde and flanders, an experimental sour batch made from undermodified pils malt (made locally especially for us), and a bunch of non-sour spirit barrel aged stuff. Really excited about those.
I can't upload any pics right now, but we have a really nice website for your viewing pleasure. Also, our Instagram and Facebook have nice collections of pictures...because we hired a gregarious and overly-enthusiastic marketing person who is knocking things out of the park. Don't forget to like and follow our pages
As always, for those of you that have been in already, and those that are still trying to come by, I am happy to show you guys/gals around the brewhouse and lab any day...because I live on a cot in the basement. Just ask for Charlie and I'll get you some samples out of the fermenters.
Cheers to you guys.
). Your support is invaluable and I am sorry I went MIA. Now that I have slightly more free time, I am happy to answer any questions or chat back here on HBT. We've now been open for 5 weeks, but it feels like it's been year.
Life was great before we had customers and employees...
I kid, of course, because without all you fine patrons, we wouldn't be where we are today. The support we have had from the community of beer drinkers, homebrewers, and craftbrewers, has been amazing and humbling.
How about a general overview of challenges over the last month:
Our point of sale has gone down 3x in 5 weeks. This is incredibly frustrating. We have square as a backup, which works great, but 3x is just unacceptable. Queue the long hold times with support and some nasty emails.
Our front of house staff has been working their butts off learning about our beers, learning how to describe different beers, and learning how to sell them. It amazing how a little encouragement in what you "should" be tasting in a beer can make you taste something. The encouragement is mostly about learning about what things taste like. We do weekly tasting meetings where we evaluate what is on tap, work on identifying flavors, and taste/describe new beers coming out. We recently had a bit of a sulfur aroma on our blonde. It was difficult for most people to pick out blindly, but as soon as we started saying things like yellowstone, farts, or match heads, they got it, and now they know what to look for.
We have had 2 ID sting operations. An obviously underage person comes in and either shows you a real, underage ID or says they forgot theirs. You know if you pass or fail right then. Good so far, but always on the lookout.
Traffic patterns are starting to be a bit more reliable. Monday is slow (reduced hours at that), Tuesday better, Wednesday slower, then a steady climb into a crazy Fri/Sat/Sun. We are having our Grand Opening (a great excuse for another crazy party) over St. Patty's weekend. Should be great! Coffee Stout and Bourbon-barrel aged bock coming out, as well as a Kentucky common and re-releasing our American Rye ale.
Back in the brewhouse, we weren't able to keep up with sales, as I bemoaned earlier in this thread. We went through beer so fast that we had to pull 2 or our 6 beers temporarily off the menu. We should have remade the batches 2 weeks before we did, but we are also trying to balance our production schedule with getting new things out. Fine line on that one.
As we have learned the system, our efficiency went from ~72% on the first batch or 2, up to 90-92%. We are currently working on reducing our losses (10'+ of 2" ID hoses hold A LOT of beer!) and being more efficient with our water and CO2 usage. We are also doing a lot of our own yeast culturing/upscaling/management in house, so that creates another production bottleneck until we have a more developed routine.
5 weeks in and we desperately need 2 more fermenters. Cold storage (kegs and serving tanks) is not the bottleneck we thought it would be, as we are selling beer so fast. We need more fermentation space instead, which is an unexpected $16k expense after a few weeks. Still working on how to make that one happen quickly, mostly because oak barrels are expensive too and I want as many as I can get. I think a 7 or 15bbl foeder would be spectacular. We already have some really interesting/funky/sour mixed cultures doing fun and weird things to our Flanders Red, a blend between our blonde and flanders, an experimental sour batch made from undermodified pils malt (made locally especially for us), and a bunch of non-sour spirit barrel aged stuff. Really excited about those.
I can't upload any pics right now, but we have a really nice website for your viewing pleasure. Also, our Instagram and Facebook have nice collections of pictures...because we hired a gregarious and overly-enthusiastic marketing person who is knocking things out of the park. Don't forget to like and follow our pages
As always, for those of you that have been in already, and those that are still trying to come by, I am happy to show you guys/gals around the brewhouse and lab any day...because I live on a cot in the basement. Just ask for Charlie and I'll get you some samples out of the fermenters.
Cheers to you guys.
Murphys_Law
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the post! I should be back up in month or so and will ask for the guy on the cot!
You should be proud. It's a nice place you have there.
You should be proud. It's a nice place you have there.
coypoo
Well-Known Member
Great post, thanks for all that inside information! Love hearing the behind the scenes stuff
Next time we walk over I'll see if you're there, thanks for offering to show us around!
Next time we walk over I'll see if you're there, thanks for offering to show us around!
FrankAbagnale
Member
I'll be up there in July and will definitely come try your beer!
LLBeanJ
Well-Known Member
I finally made it over to Gilded Goat over the weekend. My daughter and I stopped in and we each had a brew and said a quick hello to Charlie before we left. We were both very impressed with how nice the place is, as well as the awesome tap list. Congrats to Charlie and crew for what must have been a lot of hard work getting the business off the ground. Oh, and the brews were great!
That's awesome, I have to tell my brother and sister in law (they live there) to stop in and say hello and sample the brews! Congrats on getting the business off to a great start!
John
John
02RedWS6TA
Well-Known Member
I follow them on Facebook and it's one of the nicest breweries I follow. The inside is just incredible, I wish I could get there for some beers.
OP
OP
ColoHox
Compulsive Hand Washer
Currently in Napa picking up 21 freshly emptied cabernet barrels. :rockin:
Currently in Napa picking up 21 freshly emptied cabernet barrels. :rockin:
Should be able to stack another row on top of there.. and of course a goat on top of that for the ride back.
thunderwagn
Well-Known Member
Look forward to sampling!
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1502050378.160018.jpg
My wife and I are here now. Toats Ma'Goats oatmeal stout for her and the Nokhu IPA for me. Mighty fine, indeed!
My wife and I are here now. Toats Ma'Goats oatmeal stout for her and the Nokhu IPA for me. Mighty fine, indeed!
