Updates: 8-15-11 - The Knob Hits The Beach!

Hey everyone! After a great week and a half at the beach, it's back to the daily bump and grind (got a few shots below). Have a lot of travel coming up for work, and I'm looking forward to hitting up quite a few craft breweries. I'll be in Vegas, Orlando, and Boston in the coming weeks.
On The Beach

Bar Knopping (Get it? wocka! wocka! wocka!)

More Foolishness




Had a great day over at Chuck & Chad's place yesterday where the beer never stopped flowing, and the pizza was hot and spicy! Got to make a few new friends and even ran into an old friend I played ball with back in the day (ahhh the good ole days)! We, and by we - I mean Chad, brewed 20g of NoDa-rized. Got to try some award winning baltic porter, along with some other great porters and ipas. Their place could definitely be considered hop heaven when it comes to brews!

As for the brewery, I continue to piece together our pilot system for the main brewery. The 1/2bbl system will be fully electric, which will hopefully save some cash on propane. I'm thinking about adding a HERMS system to the pilot. The plans for the system can be seen at theelectricbrewery.com - a very well put together piece of machinery!

Our expected launch date has been pushed back due to repairs that we're undertaking on the house. Originally, we were looking at October, but with all of the planning, testing, gov't red tape, etc, we're now looking to (hopefully) open on St. Patty's day next year with a big party. We're looking to rent a location in January of next year, and build out the brewery.

The other option we're considering is a much slower roll out - which is a definite possibility. Instead of diving into the game with a 3bbl system, we might hold out until we can afford a 10-15bbl system. Let's face it, it's rare for a brewer to become a millionaire in this business, but brewing on such a small system would be very difficult to make any profits off of. Profits from a 3bbl system aren't projecting that high, and I've heard to make any money, you have to operate at least a 7bbl system. It'll be a difficult choice to make as I'm one of the least patient people on the planet, and waiting until St. Patty's day of next year is killing me. We'll continue running the numbers and stick with that plan until we see that it can't work. Either way, we'll continue perfecting the brews and loving life!

Cheers!

Jeff