$20 +$3.99 shipping.
Prost!
Jeff
Hob Knob Brewing Company
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tee Shirts For Sale!
Hot off the presses! Hob Knob Tee Shirts For Men (Sizes L, XL, XXL) and Women (Sizes S, M)
$20 +$3.99 shipping.
Email Jeffrey.Lever@Gmail.com to pick your's up today :)
Prost!
Jeff
$20 +$3.99 shipping.
Prost!
Jeff
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Brewing with A.D.D.!
 |
| Hob Knob Brewing Co., Cornelius, NC |
I figured I'd write this to help myself as much to update everyone on Hob Knob. Putting my thoughts down on paper has always helped me in organizing them, and made me consider things I possibly hadn't thought of when rambling through dozens of thoughts per minute. Such is the mind of a person with ADD. Some consider it a weakness, but I've come to look at it as a strength. While it is true that focus is more difficult, the fact that your mind bounces around to 50 different things a minute presents opportunities and considerations that a more focused individual might overlook or not even think of. Another difficulty associated with ADD is obviously your attention span. Things that interest me typically only do so for a very short time period. The question is can you stay focused on something long enough to become truly successful at it.
My brewing 'prowess' has slowly, but steadily increased over the last 2 years to the point that I can make pretty good beers. That doesn't mean I know jack about running a brewery, and only slightly more about running a business. Knowing your weaknesses is a key in any business. Knowing mine mean I need more people. I need someone who knows breweries and machinery. I need someone who knows the intricacies of the brewing process, namely yeast, malts, water profiles, etc. I need someone who can keep the business focused while not restricting creativity. I need a 'by the books' individual who can run the day to day operations and manage accounting, the government, new accounts, etc. In the end, I need a group of talented individuals with their own unique set of strengths in the brewing world. Starting a production brewery like this would be futile by myself.
Which brings me to one hell of a difficult decision. Do we offer shares of ownership in exchange for people's expertise, or do we keep the brewery in the family and pay out the wazoo for other people's expertise? I'm very averse to offering partnership to anyone outside the family because of the inherent problems one inevitably finds in any partnerships. Even in the family, they are never easy because of differences of opinions. Still, through partnerships, you can work out of better locations, brew better beer, make fewer mistakes in starting up. I guess the real answer to that question is how much startup capital can you amass, and can you survive the learning process if you want to go it alone. There's no doubt about it, a partnership would be much less of a risk, but would it be worth the problems? At 31, I've already been involved in both, and neither are easy. Perhaps the best choice is a little bit of both. The dogfish head brewery is an excellent model. While Sam Calagione is the owner, his employees are all part of a profit sharing plan - all the way down to the dock workers. As of right now, that sounds like it's probably the best option along with bringing my dad in, in a family partnership. He's got a lot of strengths that could overcome my individual weaknesses.
So that brings us to the next difficult decision. Where should you put Hob Knob? Craft beer lovers tend to be yuppies (like me!). They appreciate quality over quantity, and price for the most part is only a small consideration. We've considered Statesville, but that doesn't really have the market for a craft brewery, nor does downtown Mooresville, which was another consideration. As my friend Todd said, both areas tend to be lager Mecca's, or as I put it, more country and less yuppie. That leaves a few prospects - around downtown Davidson, near the Birkdale area (yuppie central at Lake Norman!), or in the business park that's about a mile from my house and near my friend Matt's brewery - Assclown. All have their strengths and weaknesses.
One of the obvious considerations for the building is how appropriate it would be for Hob Knob, and at what level do we start. Naturally, we want to prove our beers first and come up with some solid recipes. The real question is in what format do you want to do that. You can get the ball rolling with the gov't, and a small hole in the wall place to begin creating a buzz about the brews that you make, but you'd have to move up to a larger facility and production capabilities when you're successful. That would be time consuming to say the least! The other option is to continue doing what I've been doing. Remain an enthusiastic homebrewer. Obviously, there's no costs involved which reduces your risk, and allows you to put more money away faster for a much larger scale brewery. The real question is the size of the steps. Do you go from homebrewer straight into a 7-15BBL system - maybe, with the right personnel, but it still sounds risky. The alternative is to take progressive steps. Start immediately, and go from homebrewer, to glorified home brewer (but with commerical & gov't licenses), and then take the next big step into a 15BBL system?
The scary thing is things are coming to fruition. What have been dreams up to this point have reached the point of crystallization. My entire family is 100% behind me. By the end of this year, we'll have the access we need to capital to go bigger than we ever thought possible a year ago. I've got an incredible knowledge base to pull from both from people that have walked this path before, and from my brew club, the Carolina Brewmasters. I've got just about all the literature I can bear to read on starting a brewery and perfecting the brews.
What will our next steps be? Make sure to like us on facebook and keep up to date on all the happenings. I'll also be brewing like crazy, and will have more than enough to go around. I'll be looking for feedback, so let me know if anyone would like a growler!
Cheers!
Jeff
Monday, March 19, 2012
System Up Up And Away-Grades!
The move to our new building for the family answering service business is finally complete! My new office has officially been dubbed the "boiler room" where nothing but big deals will get inked (Hey...a guy can dream can't he)!
The ideas of what Hob Knob will eventually be are still swirling in my brain like fresh wort in a whirlpool tank! Though the timeline has been pushed back with the new building acquisition and upgrades to the 'boiler room', the wife and I are still committed to bringing Hob Knob online sometime in the near future. Pops has always said the hardest thing was to set aside capital for a new business, and he was spot on (he sure would get a kick out of me saying that, no doubt with that corny 'I told you so' grin of his)!
Some day, the dream will become a reality. I've got a really cool business model for it that won't be like anything we've seen up to this point from other breweries.
The system has got some new upgrades! I now have an aging chamber, aka a new 12.4 cubic foot chest freezer with a temperature control module that ages the brews at 40 degrees. I've upgraded the HLT to include a rudimentary HERMS system controlled by the RANCO temperature controller. I have yet to try it out, but may give it a trial run this Sunday!
In the meantime, I've been brewing, brewing, and more brewing. The latest are an Oud Bruin (Old Brown Ale) modeled after one of my favorites - Adriaen Brouwer. If you don't know who Adriaen Brouwer is, he was definitely a man who lived life to the fullest (eventually having this great gold ale named after him)!
The one just before that was a variation on sweetwater 420 (dubbed Wellwater 840 lol). The 840 was colored for St. Patty's Day of course! Note the tint of green at the bottom of the tulip! :)
Happy Brewing Everyone! Until next time!
Prost!,
Jeff
The ideas of what Hob Knob will eventually be are still swirling in my brain like fresh wort in a whirlpool tank! Though the timeline has been pushed back with the new building acquisition and upgrades to the 'boiler room', the wife and I are still committed to bringing Hob Knob online sometime in the near future. Pops has always said the hardest thing was to set aside capital for a new business, and he was spot on (he sure would get a kick out of me saying that, no doubt with that corny 'I told you so' grin of his)!
Some day, the dream will become a reality. I've got a really cool business model for it that won't be like anything we've seen up to this point from other breweries.
The system has got some new upgrades! I now have an aging chamber, aka a new 12.4 cubic foot chest freezer with a temperature control module that ages the brews at 40 degrees. I've upgraded the HLT to include a rudimentary HERMS system controlled by the RANCO temperature controller. I have yet to try it out, but may give it a trial run this Sunday!
In the meantime, I've been brewing, brewing, and more brewing. The latest are an Oud Bruin (Old Brown Ale) modeled after one of my favorites - Adriaen Brouwer. If you don't know who Adriaen Brouwer is, he was definitely a man who lived life to the fullest (eventually having this great gold ale named after him)!
The one just before that was a variation on sweetwater 420 (dubbed Wellwater 840 lol). The 840 was colored for St. Patty's Day of course! Note the tint of green at the bottom of the tulip! :)
Happy Brewing Everyone! Until next time!
Prost!,
Jeff
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Yuletide Greetings From Hob Knob!
Did you know that "Yuletide" is actually a winter festival that was initially celebrated by the historical Germanic people as a pagan religious festival, though it was later absorbed into, and equated with, the Christian festival of Christmas. Just your useless holiday factoid of the day :)
Anyways, Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas everyone! First, an update on the brewery. We're still in a holding pattern for now. The family business, our Telephone Answering Service - Answerphone of America, is getting ready to begin moving into our new building that we just purchased. It looks like it will be a busy holiday season for us. Even with the old lady (the wife) working come next year, there won't be enough cash flow for the brewery. After next year is when things get exciting. The up-fitting costs of the new building will be paid off, and we should see some money start to come in from the investment. So fingers crossed, 2013 should be our year. I know...if the Mayans are right, we're screwed.
On to brewing. I've been staying busy brewing. I finally had a brew session go exactly according to plan. Hopefully, I'm starting to get the hang of this thing! That brew was my Coconut Creme Stout. I added the coconut to the secondary, and am hoping that it will be ready to go by Christmas. Just got another upgrade to the garage brewery - a 12.4 cubic foot freezer - which is presently cold crashing the Apricot Pale Ale I made a while back. I just added the Oatmeal Stout to the kegerator, and have to say it turned out pretty well.
That's it for now! Happy Brewing!
~Jeff
Anyways, Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas everyone! First, an update on the brewery. We're still in a holding pattern for now. The family business, our Telephone Answering Service - Answerphone of America, is getting ready to begin moving into our new building that we just purchased. It looks like it will be a busy holiday season for us. Even with the old lady (the wife) working come next year, there won't be enough cash flow for the brewery. After next year is when things get exciting. The up-fitting costs of the new building will be paid off, and we should see some money start to come in from the investment. So fingers crossed, 2013 should be our year. I know...if the Mayans are right, we're screwed.
On to brewing. I've been staying busy brewing. I finally had a brew session go exactly according to plan. Hopefully, I'm starting to get the hang of this thing! That brew was my Coconut Creme Stout. I added the coconut to the secondary, and am hoping that it will be ready to go by Christmas. Just got another upgrade to the garage brewery - a 12.4 cubic foot freezer - which is presently cold crashing the Apricot Pale Ale I made a while back. I just added the Oatmeal Stout to the kegerator, and have to say it turned out pretty well.
That's it for now! Happy Brewing!
~Jeff
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Brew Day - Apricot Pale Ale
Things never go according to plan on brew days. I think a skilled brewer already knows this fact, and utilize their experience to take quick corrective action to save the brew. Sh#t happens as they say. So, since I made every mistake under the sun brewing my Apricot Pale Ale, I figured I'd elaborate on my corrective actions to see if anyone had any ideas they'd like to share, or maybe help some brewer noobs out there hone in their own skills.
First problem: Forgetting things until the last minute. I almost forgot the 5.2 (a powder that gets the acidity of your water to the ideal levels for your mash). I did forget about the whirlfloc tablet, but was able to add it later on. I didn't have any yeast nutrients, not that, that mattered with how well the starter performed. The point is, add your additives to your brew day planner (I use beersmith), and set the additives out right next to your brewing setup so you have to walk past them 20 times.
Second problem: Know your system. I just installed the 5500 watt elements in my brew kettle and hot liquor(water) tank from the electric brewery. It's incredible how fast it can heat 8g+ of water. Which leads us to our problem. Know your boil off figures (how fast your system boils off wort/water). When it came time to cool the wort, I should have had 5g left, and instead, had only 3.5g! The garage had clouds of steam hovering around the ceiling. The simple corrective action - just add more water (which is when I remembered to add the whirlfloc tablet. I boiled just long enough to sterilize the wort, and give the hops a little more time. Which leads us to problem #3.
Third problem: Timing. Since I didn't know how fast my system boiled off water, I was guessing at the hop timing. I hit my volume levels after only a 20 minute boil with the hops - which is part of the reason I ended up with 3.5g. The element in the boil kettle comes on slow, but once it's hot, it tears through your water volume. I estimated I was losing about 1g every 30min - which is 2x as fast as the propane fired system I used to use. That was one of many problems with the hops, but by simply adding more water, I was able to extend the boil time, and get my volumes back in line. The good news is, at that boil rate, their should be a hint of any DMS!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Fourth problem: Know your hydrometer. Your brew day planning sheet (in beersmith) gives you estimates of where your original gravity (the sugar content of your wort) should be before you boil off some of the water. I thought the efficiency of my system was off because I'd get 45% efficiency when everyone else would get 65-70% on average. The light bulb finally went off (hey...better late than never!). HYDROMETERS ARE CALIBRATED TO 60 DEGREES! Not the 140 degree plus wort I was pulling. There are calculators online that can give you an accurate adjustment based on the temp/og reading you get. As soon as I plugged my numbers in the calculator, it came out to an OG of 1.040. Beersmith estimated I'd get about 1.039!
Fifth Problem: Hop leaves don't act like hop pellets. The pellets practically dissolve during the boil. Hop leaves however, just sink to the bottom. They're extremely adept at clogging your plumbing in the most annoying locations. When I tried to start cooling the wort, the hop leaves almost immediately clogged the pump housing. Not a big problem, simply removed the pump housing and cleaned it, but it took probably 20-30 minutes. During that time, I added water straight to the wort, and brought it back up to a boil, while re-adding the hops to give them some more time to soak - this time using a HOP BAG, so they wouldn't clog my plumbing. The hops that were in the wort, I strained out into a bucket, and trust me, holding a 20g steel kettle while pouring out the wort is a man's job. That thing isn't lite!
Sixth problem: Avoid stupid mistakes. Once I finally got to cooling the wort, the process began to flow smoothly. The wort had already been strained, so I just pumped it straight into a 6.5g carboy that had been sterilized. It's busy fermenting at about 65 degrees. The last problem was that I forgot to put a bit of gin in the air lock, so it was open to air all night. Hopefully, that won't create any sour tones in the brew!
All in all, brew day was an adventure to say the least. I think it means I'm out of practice, so I'll have to brew a whole lot more! :)
Happy Brewing,
Jeff
First problem: Forgetting things until the last minute. I almost forgot the 5.2 (a powder that gets the acidity of your water to the ideal levels for your mash). I did forget about the whirlfloc tablet, but was able to add it later on. I didn't have any yeast nutrients, not that, that mattered with how well the starter performed. The point is, add your additives to your brew day planner (I use beersmith), and set the additives out right next to your brewing setup so you have to walk past them 20 times.
Second problem: Know your system. I just installed the 5500 watt elements in my brew kettle and hot liquor(water) tank from the electric brewery. It's incredible how fast it can heat 8g+ of water. Which leads us to our problem. Know your boil off figures (how fast your system boils off wort/water). When it came time to cool the wort, I should have had 5g left, and instead, had only 3.5g! The garage had clouds of steam hovering around the ceiling. The simple corrective action - just add more water (which is when I remembered to add the whirlfloc tablet. I boiled just long enough to sterilize the wort, and give the hops a little more time. Which leads us to problem #3.
Third problem: Timing. Since I didn't know how fast my system boiled off water, I was guessing at the hop timing. I hit my volume levels after only a 20 minute boil with the hops - which is part of the reason I ended up with 3.5g. The element in the boil kettle comes on slow, but once it's hot, it tears through your water volume. I estimated I was losing about 1g every 30min - which is 2x as fast as the propane fired system I used to use. That was one of many problems with the hops, but by simply adding more water, I was able to extend the boil time, and get my volumes back in line. The good news is, at that boil rate, their should be a hint of any DMS!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Fourth problem: Know your hydrometer. Your brew day planning sheet (in beersmith) gives you estimates of where your original gravity (the sugar content of your wort) should be before you boil off some of the water. I thought the efficiency of my system was off because I'd get 45% efficiency when everyone else would get 65-70% on average. The light bulb finally went off (hey...better late than never!). HYDROMETERS ARE CALIBRATED TO 60 DEGREES! Not the 140 degree plus wort I was pulling. There are calculators online that can give you an accurate adjustment based on the temp/og reading you get. As soon as I plugged my numbers in the calculator, it came out to an OG of 1.040. Beersmith estimated I'd get about 1.039!
Fifth Problem: Hop leaves don't act like hop pellets. The pellets practically dissolve during the boil. Hop leaves however, just sink to the bottom. They're extremely adept at clogging your plumbing in the most annoying locations. When I tried to start cooling the wort, the hop leaves almost immediately clogged the pump housing. Not a big problem, simply removed the pump housing and cleaned it, but it took probably 20-30 minutes. During that time, I added water straight to the wort, and brought it back up to a boil, while re-adding the hops to give them some more time to soak - this time using a HOP BAG, so they wouldn't clog my plumbing. The hops that were in the wort, I strained out into a bucket, and trust me, holding a 20g steel kettle while pouring out the wort is a man's job. That thing isn't lite!
Sixth problem: Avoid stupid mistakes. Once I finally got to cooling the wort, the process began to flow smoothly. The wort had already been strained, so I just pumped it straight into a 6.5g carboy that had been sterilized. It's busy fermenting at about 65 degrees. The last problem was that I forgot to put a bit of gin in the air lock, so it was open to air all night. Hopefully, that won't create any sour tones in the brew!
All in all, brew day was an adventure to say the least. I think it means I'm out of practice, so I'll have to brew a whole lot more! :)
Happy Brewing,
Jeff
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Updates, Happenings, and Occurrences
Hi Friends! So I know it's been a while since my last post. A lot of things have been happening with the family business between travel and real estate deals. So far I've been to Las Vegas and Orlando, and Boston is right around the corner. We're also looking at a significant investment property for the family call center here in Statesville. In my opinion, one of the nicest buildings in Statesville may soon be home to Answerphone of America and the telephone answering service. Here's a picture:
The good news is it looks like the deal is becoming more and more likely, and it will get us out of our current location that we've been shoe horned into for so long (not to mention the area isn't the greatest). The real estate deal looks like a lock tight commercial deal that should generate a decent cash flow for years to come. The bad news is it looks like it will be a significant investment personally on me and my wife's part, so the brewery is going to be delayed fairly substantially. While not my ideal choice, the safety and security this deal represents compared to opening a brewery is a no-brainer, and I'm very excited about it.
The brewery looks like it will stay in the garage for now, where I'll be working to perfect my different recipes and experiment with different ideas to create unique and tasty beers! Right now on tap, we've got a hefe, a blonde, and a brown ale. All almost crystal clear, crisp (with the exception of the brown) and delicious! My pumpkin ale is still a bit of a disappointment, and I'm still hoping it will mellow out, but so far, no dice.
Anyone's welcome to come on by for a good brew anytime! Hope to see you soon!
~Jeff
The good news is it looks like the deal is becoming more and more likely, and it will get us out of our current location that we've been shoe horned into for so long (not to mention the area isn't the greatest). The real estate deal looks like a lock tight commercial deal that should generate a decent cash flow for years to come. The bad news is it looks like it will be a significant investment personally on me and my wife's part, so the brewery is going to be delayed fairly substantially. While not my ideal choice, the safety and security this deal represents compared to opening a brewery is a no-brainer, and I'm very excited about it.
The brewery looks like it will stay in the garage for now, where I'll be working to perfect my different recipes and experiment with different ideas to create unique and tasty beers! Right now on tap, we've got a hefe, a blonde, and a brown ale. All almost crystal clear, crisp (with the exception of the brown) and delicious! My pumpkin ale is still a bit of a disappointment, and I'm still hoping it will mellow out, but so far, no dice.
Anyone's welcome to come on by for a good brew anytime! Hope to see you soon!
~Jeff
Monday, August 15, 2011
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
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
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