123 replies to this topic

[SchwanzBrewer]

Back to the drawing board. The owner of the building doesn't want to rent it to us. She'd have to spend some money to make it a legally separated space and she doesn't want the liability of having an alcohol business there. Fucking sucks.

[TehFury]

Back to the drawing board. The owner of the building doesn't want to rent it to us. She'd have to spend some money to make it a legally separated space and she doesn't want the liability of having an alcohol business there. Fucking sucks.

 

Feel ya, bro. Better that you found this out now before investing too much time and money in it. The right space will come.

 

[SchwanzBrewer]

Just found a spot 500 ft from that one. I'm gonna call Dave and see if we can't take a look this afternoon.

 

Oh yeah, add a few more squiggles to that diagram and you have where we've been.

Edited by SchwanzBrewer, 14 August 2015 - 07:38 AM.

[TehFury]

Just found a spot 500 ft from that one. I'm gonna call Dave and see if we can't take a look this afternoon.

 

 

There you go. Fall 99 times, get up 100

[Deerslyr]

Sorry to hear the spot fell through.  Hopefully the next one works out.

 

In real estate, it's all about location, location, location.  Hopefully this next space is better on all fronts for you.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Well good news and bad news...

 

Bad news is that a spot we'd been working on fell through. I just don't understand why the owner was willing to throw away so much money. The spot hadn't been rented in about 7 years and no one had inquired about it other than us in 2 years.

 

We have another spot already we're working on though. We're going for it big time, but I've learned not to hold my breath. I'll be sticking my neck out big time for this one to work.

 

Sorta good news, my buddies that bought a homebrew shop are expanding it to have a brewery and tasting room. We might work out an agreement to brew my beer there and contract sell it if we don/t find a home soon.

 

Good news, we got a trailer for free for the BBQ trailer. My partners buddy wanted to get rid of his 26 foot travel trailer. It's in great shape. We have another one that we take to the keys every year as well. So we're going to look at both of them and figure out which one to keep and which one to modify. This ought to save us about $25k by building it ourselves. So no matter what we'll have a BBQ trailer built and earning revenue sometime in the next couple months, which will help things move along.

 

So that's the recent trials and tribulations.

 

Cheers!

[matt6150]

So what was the secret ingredient?

[Deerslyr]

Well good news and bad news...

 

Bad news is that a spot we'd been working on fell through. I just don't understand why the owner was willing to throw away so much money. The spot hadn't been rented in about 7 years and no one had inquired about it other than us in 2 years.

 

We have another spot already we're working on though. We're going for it big time, but I've learned not to hold my breath. I'll be sticking my neck out big time for this one to work.

 

Sorta good news, my buddies that bought a homebrew shop are expanding it to have a brewery and tasting room. We might work out an agreement to brew my beer there and contract sell it if we don/t find a home soon.

 

Good news, we got a trailer for free for the BBQ trailer. My partners buddy wanted to get rid of his 26 foot travel trailer. It's in great shape. We have another one that we take to the keys every year as well. So we're going to look at both of them and figure out which one to keep and which one to modify. This ought to save us about $25k by building it ourselves. So no matter what we'll have a BBQ trailer built and earning revenue sometime in the next couple months, which will help things move along.

 

So that's the recent trials and tribulations.

 

Cheers!

Can you post pics of the BBQ Trailer?  Very interested to see.  I've got a buddy in Virginia that is into BBQ competitions in the summer.  (He's a high school teacher by trade)

If you go down the road with the new location and start to work on a lease, if you have any questions that are non-brewery related (I'm not up to speed on brewery and alcohol sales regulations, so think more "legal boiler-plate") hit me up.  A lot of it can seem pretty foreign and I'm more than happy to try and explain in layman's terms what things mean.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Can you post pics of the BBQ Trailer?  Very interested to see.  I've got a buddy in Virginia that is into BBQ competitions in the summer.  (He's a high school teacher by trade)

If you go down the road with the new location and start to work on a lease, if you have any questions that are non-brewery related (I'm not up to speed on brewery and alcohol sales regulations, so think more "legal boiler-plate") hit me up.  A lot of it can seem pretty foreign and I'm more than happy to try and explain in layman's terms what things mean.

 

Right now it looks like a travel trailer since that's what it technically is. When we start to work on it I'll post progress pics.

 

If we ever get to see an actual lease again I'll try and get you and fury a copy.

[Big Nake]

So what was the secret ingredient?

Notice he didn't answer you? Huh? Tease thread!

[SchwanzBrewer]

Notice he didn't answer you? Huh? Tease thread!

 

I thought I did answer this before. It was guarapo (sugar cane juice). I don't recommend it. You need to filter it and then boil it to use it. The boil smells like vomit.

[SchwanzBrewer]

By filter it, it needs to be a two step process. First you need to filter it through a sieve and get all the large chunks of vegetal matter out. Then you need to filter it again to get the fine particles. It will still smell like vomit when you boil it though.

[Big Nake]

By filter it, it needs to be a two step process. First you need to filter it through a sieve and get all the large chunks of vegetal matter out. Then you need to filter it again to get the fine particles. It will still smell like vomit when you boil it though.

Um. No, thank you?

[Deerslyr]

By filter it, it needs to be a two step process. First you need to filter it through a sieve and get all the large chunks of vegetal matter out. Then you need to filter it again to get the fine particles. It will still smell like vomit when you boil it though.

Why not dilute it in the water in the HLT and use it to sparge?  If you have vorlaufed adequately, wouldn't that filter out the particulates?  Or is it just not worth it to even try???

[SchwanzBrewer]

Why not dilute it in the water in the HLT and use it to sparge?  If you have vorlaufed adequately, wouldn't that filter out the particulates?  Or is it just not worth it to even try???

 

The raw juice has a flavor that is pleasant that I thought would go great in a BGS. I was unaware of the processing problems until I actually tried using it.

 

Bottom line is, you can buy surgar cane syrup that is naturally processed. If I were do it again, I'd try using that instead. (again I didn't learn this until after the first attempt)

Edited by SchwanzBrewer, 18 March 2016 - 09:03 AM.

[Deerslyr]

The raw juice has a flavor that is pleasant that I thought would go great in a BGS. I was unaware of the processing problems until I actually tried using it.

 

Bottom line is, you can buy surgar cane syrup that is naturally processed. If I were do it again, I'd try using that instead. (again I didn't learn this until after the first attempt)

I suppose the syrup you can get has a net cost equal to the raw ingredients, plus processing efforts (time and $).

[SchwanzBrewer]

I suppose the syrup you can get has a net cost equal to the raw ingredients, plus processing efforts (time and $).

 

No more than adding belgian candied syrup. Getting the sugar cane juice wasn't cheap either. I paid $20/gal. It would cost me about $100 to get a juicer, but then you still have to buy the cane and probably dedicate a filter to doing it.

 

It was a nice idea, and the the whole thing stemmed from making a "Florida" beer using things we grow here like sugar cane that isn't a berlinner. But, you won't know what you get until you try it and I'd say it was a fail. The beer - pre guarapo tasted much better than the final beer. I added the guarapo around day 4 in the fermentation to make sure it dried out enough.

 

I'll likely try it again, but not until I get the base beer perfected and I'll either go through the filtering process or just use the syrup.

[MyaCullen]

What about roasting chunks of cane and adding to secondary?

[chuck_d]

Schwanz, I'm sending you a PM.  When you get further along and need some advice on the brewery side of things, email me.  I've got experience starting up several breweries at this point.  This last one I've designed from scratch, as in there was no existing building to even house the brewery space.  From the type of concrete mix, how thick to pour it, slope it, seal it, to the ceilings and how strong the support beams need to be to hold my pipes up, and everything in between, wiring, plumbing, etc.  That's not even dealing with the usual brewing equipment.  I feel like I've placed every subatomic particle in this new brewery space.  The Craftwerk guys and I were having a laugh over beers a couple nights ago about the amount of detail I've had to provide our architects.  Nobody goes as deep as I had to when building a brewery.  If you've got any questions about this stuff, I can help you out.

 

So what was the secret ingredient?

 

It was hidden in the OP.

 

Why not dilute it in the water in the HLT and use it to sparge?  If you have vorlaufed adequately, wouldn't that filter out the particulates?  Or is it just not worth it to even try???

 

On the homebrew scale, sure perhaps you'd do something like this.  On the professional scale, I would never put something like that into my HLT.  I don't want to be dirtying that vessel, and possibly dealing with particles that could gum/jam my check valves.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Thanks Chuck, you have an email coming...