Chicago Education

Last week we visited Chicago to meet with Wiz, Half Acre Beer and Metropolitan Brewing. We arrived at about 2 pm and got settled at our homestay, dropped by Half Acre to watch them can some Daisy Cutter for a few minutes, then did a little sightseeing downtown and met with Wiz at Goose Island later that evening.

We started the next morning by walking to Half Acre where we met with Gabriel and Matt to discuss start up costs, canning, distribution and a ton of other brewery stuff. We are eternally grateful for them giving up some of their time for us.

We then went to Metropolitan Brewing for a little hands on production brewery experience. We spent several hours helping Doug clean a few pallets of kegs, and clean and sanitize a fermentor. Then they had a couple of 1/6 barrel kegs that they needed to empty in order to fill for another event. So, part of our job was to help "dispose" of some quite delicious Krank Shaft and Fly Wheel. I think we volunteered on the right day.

They were very helpful and answered all our questions with wisdom and insight. We ended our time with Doug and Tracy from Metro late night at the Hopleaf. We are better because of the time we've spent with them .

Hop Harvest

I was able to pick some ripe Centennial hops for the second week in a row. Since we only have two vines, we won't be supplying Budweiser any time soon, but its still exciting.

Yesterday we went to our first Murfreesboro Home Brewers club meeting at Liquid Smoke in Murfreesboro. It was a blast. They are some very interesting characters that know how to brew some very good beer. There was a broad range of beers to try from stouts and IPA's to sour beer and Saison. This of course has inspired Ozzy to brew some different things to take to next months meeting.

We met 3 guys who are also starting a brewery in Murfreesboro under the name Panther Creek Brews. We tasted some of their beer and it was quite good. Lookout Murfreesboro, you soon may be the beer capitol of Tennessee!

Which slogan do you like?

This morning Ozzy and I had to pick up Ozzy Jr. from church camp at Fall Creek Falls, which was a 2 hour drive. To pass the time, we started coming up with slogans for the beer. Tell us which you like the best, or give us one of your own!

1. An uptown beer for downtown people.
2. A steak beer on a hotdog budget.
3. A beer for all occassions.
4. A beer your not ashamed to take home to Mom.
5. A beer for the bedroom and the boardroom.
6. Strong enough for a man but made for a woman.
7. A man's beer that women enjoy
8. It's a man's world so women drink up.
9. Cause everybody likes it in the can.
10. Mayday - get it in the can.
11. For smooth sailing and stormy seas.
12. Shockinly good.
13. High voltage flavor.
14. For when the lights are on or off.
15. Mayday - stay grounded.
16. It's not just a distress call.
17. SOS Sip On Suds
18. For all lifes Maydays
19. The signal of flavor
20. The message of flavor.

Let us know what you think or give us suggestions!

Tshirt Mockup

Here's a mockup of the Mayday tshirt. Email pamela@maydaybrewery.com to pre order.

Website Splash Page

Austin Gray has gotten the splash page of our website up. Many thanks to him. http://www.maydaybrewery.com/

Order your Mayday Brewery shirts

Now that we have a beautiful logo, we are getting shirts. The shirts are a chocolate brown and come in a regular t-shirt and a woman's tee. Sizes range in men's from Small to 3X and in women's Small to 2X. The shirts, both men's and women's run a little small. The shirts are $10 and 2X & 3X are $12 + plus $3 per shirt if we have to ship. To order your shirt send an email to pamela@maydaybrewery.com. I will be placing the orders every month or so, so get your orders in.

Color My Shirt are helping us with the shirts.

Logo

Today, the Mayday Brewery has a logo. A "face" for the name. Austin Gray put this design together for us and we couldn't be more pumped about it. Now we can get shirts and business cards. We are considering putting 'Opening 2011' on the back of the shirts. That will be great incentive to get it in gear and get things done.

In other news, we continue to work on the business plan. The project that never seems to end. It is coming together pretty good. We are meeting with the accountant on 7/14. The realtor and distributor are coming for a meeting on 7/25. Also, we are planning a trip to Chicago in August to talk with fellow brewery operators.

The "Wiz" Plans a Visit to Smashville

Next week Nick Wisniewski (Wiz) will be visting Smashville to talk about opportunities with our start up brewery. Being a Chicago native and loving the Bears, Cubs and ugh Blackhawks, I thought Wiz needed to get used to his new duds.

I am photoshop illiterate, so if someone would like to help me out in that area, just email.

Beer in a Box?

I personally think this is a great idea. Check out this article about Tom Hussey and his invention of keeping beer safe in a box.

Chicago Tours

After a very informative start your own brewery class at Seibel, Frank Skwirut and I hit the road to tour a couple of breweries. First we drove down to Normal IL and met Matt Potts the founder, CEO and brewmaster at Distihl. Matt was very gracious and showed us around his place and answered all of our questions. We also ate lunch at his place and the food and beer really kicked butt.

We then drove what seemed like forever back to the city. We showed up at Metropolitan Brewing two hours after we said we would get there, but we were greeted by a jubilant Phelps their trusty Morale Officer. Doug took time out of his brewing to show us around, give us a sample, answer a ton of questions and tell a few stories. Including one about the bull made of kegs above his head. To my pleasant surprise Wiz (pic above) from my Siebel Concise course was there working as an intern.
These guys and gals are making some great beer. Pick some up if you are in the Chicago area.

Equipment Procurement

I'm staying at the same place in Chicago that I did back in November. That is in Lincoln Square off the Brown line. So far, the Siebel class has not disappointed. I was especially impressed with Doug and Tracy Hurst of Metropolitan Brewery. I hope to visit their brewery tomorrow. They are a package brewery doing only lagers.Wednesday we talked to Matt at his place - Half Acre Brewery. They are kicking total butt, projecting 3,500 barrels of in their fist full year of production.So, in planning this trip I found an equipment dealer in town and decided to try to meet with them sometime. I emailed Allied Beverage Company, and this guy named Allan S. Dikty replies and says he'd be glad to meet with me. Originally I planned to extend my trip to meet with him, but that didn't work out, so I just called on Monday and he agreed to meet Tues after class. I think, awesome, I can talk concepts, configurations used vs new equipment, quality of different brands, pricing etc. Well, I Allan was a portly fellow with black hair parted on the side that had a habit of pushing his wire framed glasses several times a minute. We sit at the bar at the Goose Island Brewery and order a beer. I briefly (maybe 2 minutes) told him what we wanted to do and what I thought we might need. This cat then commences to lecture me on the fact that I need to be getting face time with managers of bars and asking them if they would be interested in selling my beer. He went on and on about how this wasn't a beer brewing business, it was a beer selling business and that most breweries failed because the management didn't realize this or were under capitalized. He droned ON and ON with this lecture about how he knew every aspect of brewing and what he thought I needed to do to be successful. All of this was presented in what I thought was a most condescending way. He said he would be happy to get me the spec sheets on some equipment, but I shouldn't be wasting my time on that because I needed to be measuring the market by using my "shoe leather" and I had better get ready for a bunch of rejection, and there was no way I was going to be profitable in less than a 15 bbl brew house, blah, blah, blah.Needless to say, the more this fat bastard talked the hotter I got. The last straw came when he said, "ya, we could sit here and discuss equipment that you would need for step decoction mashing and hopbacks, but that isn't what you need to be thinking about."I had enough. I was thinking this guy must think I am stupid and broke because I am from Nashville and I have a moustache. I let him know that I never mentioned decoction mashing or hopbacks and I thought they were gimmics. I told him he didn't know me and had no business prejudging me and I didn't appreciate his tone or the way he talked to me. I then proceeded to tell him my qualifications in business, how much money I made, how many houses I owned etc. He back tracked and got nice. I finished my beer and thanked him and left. Still fuming. I'm pretty sure I will not be buying any equipment from Allied Beverage Company. It has been more than 24 hours, I haven't gotten those spec sheets that Allan promised. surprise.

Mayday!

Its been a long time coming, but things are starting to happen in my quest to open my own brewery/taphouse. I met with Austin Gray last week. Austin will be designing our logo and working on branding our name. I am leaving this weekend for Chicago where I will be attending Siebel Institute's "opening your own brewery" class led by none other than Ray Daniels. When I return we will continue working on the business plan, meet with a CPA and a realtor to help things move along.