So lately I’ve been daydreaming hard about opening a nano-brewery. I think about it often and have thought about it for the last 3 years off an on. I would love to be able to produce a few good beers and be able to sell them and have people enjoy them. That is one of the greatest things to see, is when you pour someone a cold beer, they put that glass to their lips, take a big swig and you see their eyes light up and their body relax as they enjoy that delicious goodness we call beer. Then once the first sip of enjoyment is over and you tell them that you brewed that beer and see the look of amazement on their faces, its priceless. That is what I want. I want people to go into a store buy a six pack of my beer, read my little blurb on the bottle, see my signature, and think to themselves “Damn, that Naps makes one hell of a beer.”
So on my way to that final dream, I have done a lot of dreaming and wishing. At times I have let that dream slide to the back of my mind, because the normal everyday stresses add up and just push it to the back, then on other days I go to the other end of the spectrum and think of nothing else but developing my brewery. I mean everything from the brewery name, to beer styles/names/labels to brewing systems. So today was one of those days where I was just thinking of nothing else and I started with brewery names.
A while back I really liked the name Stubborn Bull Brewing Co. I thought it just fit me and my life. My family is full of Tauruses, Me, my wife, my daughter, my brother, my father, my best friend, you get the idea. There are a lot of bulls in my life and my world is definitely dominated by the bull. They are all grounded people, but once they get an idea in their head they are stubborn as hell, myself included, I am probably the most stubborn. So with that in mind I had an idea of what I thought a logo should look like and I fiddled around with a logo company and this is what they came up with.
Now I don’t think it’s perfect, but I thought it was a pretty good start. I really liked the bull and the head position, like he is pulling away from anyone/anything that maybe calling/chasing him. He’s standing defiantly on the top of the hill refusing to be pulled down to the pasture. But I was also thinking that it could be set a little further away, so it looked like a lone bull standing on a hill with his head held in defiance. So we’ll see if I tweak it or start from scratch, who knows by the time I actually get around to being ready to start up. But what do you think??
So as I was thinking back on this logo, it naturally led me down the path of equipment needs and actual brewing knowledge. My practical side kicked in and I was all about the cost and logistics of starting my own brewery. I definitely want to start small, something along the lines of 1.5 – 2 barrel system. A quick google search led me to this 2 Barrel Brewing System . It is a great system, with a relatively modest price tag of approximately $20,000, which in the big picture is small potatoes. However in my picture that is a huge chunk of change that is a risky venture, but I try to tell myself that other people have done it and are doing it all the time. So I figure if I had a nice size pole barn, the 2 barrel system, some start up money for materials, utility bills and other incidentals that I’m leaving out here for the sake of not scaring the shit out of myself more, I would roughly need $45,000-50,000 to start up properly. But in the business world that is a very cheap start up cost. So there is hope for my dream of coming true, but before I take the risk I have some serious work to do.
I have been a serious homebrewer for the last 5 years, but I have no idea of how to ramp up my 5 gallon production to a 2 barrel system (roughly 60 gallons). I need to take a few more tours of the smaller brewpubs and talk to their brewers and see what helpful hints they can pass along. Then read a few books that have the practical knowledge I need. Then who knows, maybe I’ll be ready to throw my hat in the ring of nanobrewing and craft beer. But until then I’ll just keep tipping them back and wishing and dreaming, I suggest you do the same, well at least the tipping them back part. Prost!!
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