It's official starting my own brewing business!

[bwomp313]

so I will take photos of everything.

definitely keep us updated with plenty of pics!!!

 

[ajwillys]

Very awesome! Congrats and good luck. I've been working on the same for awhile now. We are not that far along, but it has already been A TON of work.

 

[BeantownR6]

awsome good luck!

 

[Joe C]

Bad ass! Congrats on starting up and good luck! I'll be watching this one.

 

[Chuginator]

Don't want to be a pessimist party-pooper, but you have a long way to go. There is a huge gap between announcing something and making it happen.

I've subscribed, because I have high hopes that you can pull it off - and I'm rooting for you. If nothing else, it will be one hell of an adventure for you, hopefully creating [good] memories that you'll never forget.

Cheers!

 

[EarthBound]

Good news today! My buddy in Portland hooked me up with his employer who is selling me 12 ball lock corny's for $240! I am going down Sunday to get them. That will give me 20 so far. I will probably need more but it's a good start.

Also have an electric motor I got on Ebay on its way to me I hope to make a motorized grain mill with it.

Nice deal on the cornies.

A mill is certainly required! Are you gonna have grain shipped to your house, or do you plan on group buying?

Sounds like you will have lots of different beers, considering the size of your batches. How many taps do you plan to start with? Are you planning on selling bottled beer?

 

[Bilc16]

Subscribed. Good luck. I drive up to ME a couple times a year. I'll have to stop in when you get going.

 

[goingmad]

Subscribed!

I am your official European Fan # 1!

you rock! :rockin:

 

[RelentlessJ]

Me too

 

[akthor]

Was down there painting saturday and took a bunch of pictures I will post them tomorrow. I drove down to Portland today and picked up 15 pin lock corny kegs and 1 ten gallon ball lock keg for ...... $15 bux a keg

Also finished the final polish on keggle #1 and installed the fittings, valve, thermometer and sight glass.

Pics tomorrow.

 

[Conan]

That sounds like a place I'd frequent, constantly! Didn't read the whole thread, but from your first post and a few here and there! Mmmmm, BBQ and beer-- can't wait for the pics! Good luck! Kyle

 

[Stankonia]

Was down there painting saturday and took a bunch of pictures I will post them tomorrow. I drove down to Portland today and picked up 15 pin lock corny kegs and 1 ten gallon ball lock keg for ...... $15 bux a keg

Also finished the final polish on keggle #1 and installed the fittings, valve, thermometer and sight glass.

Pics tomorrow.

So you're just going to use a .5bbl setup??

Looking forward to the pics!

 

[oconnor1981]

Congratulations guy...I love the business plan...unless your leasing the land you can't really fail in this venture. No business is a guarantee but worse case scenario is you have more beer to drink with your friends, a bar to drink it in, and a a sweet 10 gallon system. I really like the 2-3 days a week idea. I've never heard of it but it makes sense, and I think it is awesome you are taking the affordable and conservative approach of doing as much (if not all of it) yourself. Its a dream of mine to open up a brewpub eventually. I'm looking at about 12 years down the road before that happens. In the meantime I'm taking notes, perfecting recipes (food and beer), and figuring out what I want it to be.

It's too bad there are people that have to try and tell you you are "a long ways away" from making this happen. Yeah it's not tomorrow but you really got nothing but your pride on the line right now, and a lot of people these days have had to give up a lot more than that. Good luck and I will definitely monitor this thread.

 

[Chuginator]

Congratulations guy...I love the business plan...unless your leasing the land you can't really fail in this venture.

That's actually a very cool way to look at it. I like your attitude! More than mine!

It's too bad there are people that have to try and tell you you are "a long ways away" from making this happen.

No offense.

 

[jd3]

So you're going to work 7 days a week for how long? And when are you going to brew? Cause if you are open and serving by yourself(and cooking, it seems) you won't be brewing during those times. Seems you might be stretching yourself thinner than you think....

 

[TheCatman]

If I lived near you, I'd be camping there every weekend during the summer. Sounds like a great time!

 

[SuperNintendoChalmers]

This is fantastic. I might use it as an excuse to vacation in Maine this summer. I'd love to set up a small system and sell only on-site without the hassles of distributing - sounds idyllic. There's even a vacant little corner storefront two blocks from my house I've been eyeing as a future brewery. Still, I'm having enough trouble with my 5 gallon brews and don't see upgrading to 3bbl or whatever anytime soon. Maybe if I could get kal's electric setup going...

 

[akthor]

Well the fact that I have spent about 3K on equipment and that I am moving out of my lakeside house (beautiful with awesome fishing btw) to this property means it will be happening. Otherwise I would have not spent the money and stayed put

Don't want to be a pessimist party-pooper, but you have a long way to go. There is a huge gap between announcing something and making it happen.

I've subscribed, because I have high hopes that you can pull it off - and I'm rooting for you. If nothing else, it will be one hell of an adventure for you, hopefully creating [good] memories that you'll never forget.

Cheers!

 

[akthor]

As many as I end up needing. As you will see in the pics since I will be putting the taps from the walk in I build thru the wall into the taproom there really isn't a limit I could fit 8 or 20. Probably around 8 tho at least at first.

There are two homebrew stores in town (not the town I will be in but the major city in my area, not really a city but you get my drift) I know they will order grain for you with their own orders, not sure of pricing, I hope eventuall to be able to be brewing enough to have grain shipped directly to me. Maybe work with local homebrewers to do a group buy deal like I read about on here.

Nice deal on the cornies.

A mill is certainly required! Are you gonna have grain shipped to your house, or do you plan on group buying?

Sounds like you will have lots of different beers, considering the size of your batches. How many taps do you plan to start with? Are you planning on selling bottled beer?

 

[akthor]

I work overnights 4 nights a week. I could easily brew 3 batches on a brew day before work. I am only going to be open fri, sat, and sun during the nfl. When not the NFL season I would be closed Sunday so that would be my day off. So I could make 120 gallons of beer a week pretty easily and I am sure more if I had to. If I am selling that much being open 2 or 3 days I will be stoked!

Cooking wise all I plan on serving is Smoked Pork, what they call a picnic pork or pork shoulder, served in a trencher (a trencher is a hollowed out loaf of bread similiar to a bread bowl which = no dishes) w/ a side of coleslaw (gotta have veggies) and pulled pork nachos, that's it.

I will fill the smoker up thursday night before I go to work. Check everything when I get home at 7am Friday morning. Go to bed. Wake up at 2 or 3pm open for business at 4pm. Reload the smoker when I sell whats in it or after closing and open at Noon on Saturday. Same deal if I am opening on Sunday. The plan is to load the smoker up and if I sell out that's it for that day.

Trying to keep things simple and not try doing too much.

As far as working 7 days a week ( working? I thought it wasn't like work when you do what you love? )honestly my job is very easy, more a matter of staying awake if anything. So I have lots of spare energy not taken up by my FT job. Once I am open for a while I can have scheduled days off and vacations. I also have a son and some really good friends that will be willing to help me out for beer and bbq

So you're going to work 7 days a week for how long? And when are you going to brew? Cause if you are open and serving by yourself(and cooking, it seems) you won't be brewing during those times. Seems you might be stretching yourself thinner than you think....

 

[akthor]

I was actually looking at commercial properties trying to find one that I could sleep in the back room sorta deal to get started then the oppurtunity came up for this place and I have to admit I am pretty happy I don't have to give up my queen size bed and my 8' x 4' HD home theater and surround sound

This is fantastic. I might use it as an excuse to vacation in Maine this summer. I'd love to set up a small system and sell only on-site without the hassles of distributing - sounds idyllic. There's even a vacant little corner storefront two blocks from my house I've been eyeing as a future brewery. Still, I'm having enough trouble with my 5 gallon brews and don't see upgrading to 3bbl or whatever anytime soon. Maybe if I could get kal's electric setup going...

 

[akthor]

Ok here are the pictures. The last tenant still has a lot of their crap there so excuse the clutter. I will be working the next few weekends painting the living areas and the kitchen cabinets. And moving all the crap left behind down into what will be the tap room in the future but for now will be the best place to get stuff out of the way. Only the washer dryer and the chest freezer (future keezer) are mine. Then I will be moving all my own crap in the last week of March.

Probably take me all of April to get unpacked and set up. All the while finishing up my brewing setup, and reconditioning all the kegs I bought.

Then the hard work begins. Construction wise my plans are to replace the laundry sink with a double sink and commercial pre-rinse sprayer 1st. Then work on the walk in cooler and the fermentation room. Next would moving the washer/dryer hookups and building a wall separating the laundry/utilty room from the brewing room. Then a drop ceiling and tiling the floor of the brewing room. There are many other small projects that will need to be done as well but those are the biggies.

So first pics are of the outside. You can see the covered area where the smoker will go. I also attached a pic of the smoker (it's at my other house right now). The stairs go up to the apt and there is a nice covered porch area. There is also a shot of down the driveway to give you an idea of how far away from the main road I am.

 

[akthor]

Thinking of maybe screening off under the porch to make an outside screened in eating/drinking area. We do have blackflies and skeeters in Maine.

 

[akthor]

You can also see the cement pad the sawmill used to occupy so I could build something there as well. And you can see the fire pit area. This place is near a quarry where there is lots of free cobble stones if you know the right people to ask (I do) so I plan on building a really nice firepit.

 

[akthor]

These are pics of the apt above the brewery/tap room that I plan on living in.

The large room will have my current bar and the freezer in one of the following pics will become a keezer under it. Allowing me to put my current fullsize kegerator (refidgerator) downstairs to serve as a lagering fridge til the walk in is built. I am also keeping my eyes out for a pool table.

The green room will be my HT room. The blue one is the bedroom and the other doorway is the bathroom. Painting all these rooms right and the kitchen cabinets. We moved the fridge and put the current island where the fridge was, moved some cabinets to put the fridge by the stove to make room for my bar.

 

[akthor]

This is the downstairs where the brewery, taproom, walk in fridge and fermentation room will go.

1st one is what you see when you enter:

 

[akthor]

To the left of the entrance is where the current laundry sink and washer dryer hookups are. That big pipe is the main drain pipe so building a bathroom with a sink and a toilet for customers will be easy. So it will go bathroom, double sink and brew system along this wall.

 

[akthor]

To the right when you enter is a big closet coat hanging place then there is the room that will become the tap room.

The 2nd pic is the wall that on the other side of the walk in cooler will be so the taps will go here with a small corner bar. Seating and a few tv's on the walls are part of the plan.

The 3rd pic shows the entrance to the large walk in closet that is in this room. This is where I plan on building the fermentation room. The shelving will come out and go into the brewing room for storage needs. I will build racks so that I can put at least 6 15 gallon plastic conicals in there plus lots of room for buckets as well. The 4th pic is the wall of the closet that on the other side of will be the walk in cooler. Plan is to have some sort of vent system that would open and close during the warm months to keep the room at fermenting temps. A small heater hooked to a thermostat would keep temps in colder months. The 5th pic is the other end of the closet.

 

[akthor]

Not a very good picture but this is the area inside the utility room where I plan on building the walk in cooler.

Excuse the bad pics I took all these quickly after 3 hrs of sleep. And again excuse the clutter. The folks that moved out only moved a short distance away so they were in no hurry to grab everything. Since she is now my landlord as well as a good friend I am not being too pushy about them getting everything out of there right away since I won't be able to start on the downstairs for a couple of months.

 

[jd3]

So this is zoned residential? You should look into what it is going to rezone it so that you can live upstairs and have a bar downstairs. You're going to be surprised how much pushback you get on some of this stuff.