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29d •

If you're serious about having your own drink business, do this right now!

That first step, that MUST be taken in my opinion before anything else, is to....come up with your OWN identity. A brand name, some semblance of a logo (although this can evolve over time), and something that will make your company unique. Having a brand that is uniquely you will give you that mentality that you have already begun the journey, and give your close friends and family that try your homemade products something concrete in their minds, instead of just Gran't home-brew that was pretty good they had that one time." In my opinion, the brands that really stick it out are culturally tied to the market in which they exist. Unless you're a celebrity with a huge following, you probably will be facing an uphill battle standing out if you try to make the brand about yourself. In my case, I came up with Two Saints as the brewery name, because my plan was to open it in my home town of St. Maries, and St. Maries sits at the confluence of the St. Joe and St. Maries rivers, the two saints. "Grant's brewing company" doesn't have quite the same appeal to as many people as something like "Two Saints". Being the first brewery the county had ever seen and making it about the whole area created a lot of curiosity as well as local pride. The local culture here revolves mostly around two things, the waterways and the timber industry. The logo doesn't need to be overly complicated or busy, it just needs to be recognizable. I would also recommend something somewhat simple. Remember, you need to be putting your logo on things like shirts, hats, and glassware. You also need to think about what identity your company is going to have. Unless youre in a large market, it would not be wise to narrow your scope so much that you alienate the vast majority of people. My town is largely beer and whiskey drinkers, and the people that did drink beer, pretty much just drank Coors Light. Even today after two years I still get people that come into the Taphouse and ask the question "What do you have that's closest to Coors Light?" Some people even alluding to the fact they think craft beer is "crap" or "too strong". The first beer I came out with was my "St. Joe Special American Lager". It was an almost amber in color, barely hopped, pseudo-lager. It was my introduction to the town and most of the people here had an idea that "craft" meant triple IPAs and Imperial Stouts. It took a good year of several batches of my hazy IPA before it actually started to sell, only after I had gained the trust of the area by producing several good approachable styles.

New comment 8d ago

Grant Lee

2d •

Taproom Talk

3 Things that are stupidly inconvenient in a rural brewery

This week we've dealt with our first big snow, and now tons of rain and wind. This usually leads to the number one thing on my list but first: 3) 🐞Bugs!: More annoying than inconvenient. We have these bugs called "Western Conifer Seed Bugs" and every year they take over the whole friggin area. They fly from place to place but they generally just sit there, barely moving, it's a wonder they survive in nature at all. I bet I pick up and toss in the trash hundreds of these damn things every year, whether in the brewery or the Taphouse. I'm always worried someone who isn't from around here is gonna think they're a big cockroach. Oh, and did I mention they're a kind of stink bug? Every one that gets squished gives off this weird cooked banana smell. I hate them lol 2). 🚚Supply runs and deliveries: Before we had the Taphouse open, our first two years, we had no "in town" presence at all. This might not be a big deal if you're close to a highway or have a large flat area for semi trucks to get to, but we are not and do not. Whenever I need a c02 tank, or pick up grains from my local maltster(Im just outside of his delivery area) I have to personally drive 50 miles on way to get things. And anything that might arrive on a truck bigger than a UPS van? Forget about it, Im either sending them to another business that lets me ship there, or I'm meeting them down on the highway at one of the logging companies landings to do the pickup. As you may well know, delivery drivers tend to show up at the worst times, or forget to call ahead, sending me scrambling down the road suddenly. Also if you plan on ordering a pallet of grains etc from a big distributor it's 150 bucks shipping whether its 4 bags or 14. 1) ❄️💡Snow plowing and power outages: The snow plows only handle county roads, so if we're dealing with a big snow event, guess who's the one plowing our steep half mile driveway, me! An easy way to burn a whole morning when Im already strapped for time. But this week the biggest inconvenience has been the power outages. Being at the end of a long dirt road, we are where the power lines end. Many a mile of line runs through thick timbered properties and when the wind starts to blow, trees fall. And when trees fall on the lines, it's night night for anywhere from 4-24 hours. Although USUALLY it's 12 at the most, we were without power for 48 hours a couple years ago. I was lucky this week and didn't have any tanks that are heating, so the worst that happened was my chilled tanks warmed up from 36 to 40 maybe, but were quickly cooled off again once the power was restored. So far only once have I had a tank that was fermenting at 90 degrees F and we lost power for over a day. Luckily things never really got below 60 something and when the power came back on the yeast had no problem kicking back up and everything was fine.

New comment 8h ago