So, what happens when a couple, who were almost killed 28 years ago, two weeks after they were married while driving through Colorado decide to make another trip to Colorado? Well, the person who was driving—me!—has a major Star Trek, KHAN-esc panic attack!
After much soul-searching, I decided that I couldn't let this opportunity pass Keith by and started to help make arrangements. You see, it was the first time he even made an effort to take charge and reach out to someone… He's not an ice-breaker, if you will. Besides, we needed to find out if we really could work in a real brewery.
Here's the story:
There is a guy, Tom Hennessy of Colorado Boy Brewery, who offers a thing he calls his Colorado Boy Brewery Immersion Course. It's three days working in a professional brewery, learning all the ropes from brewing to restaurant to legal. He has helped over 130 breweries open with this course. After returning from Chicago in September, Keith decided to email and ask to get on their waiting list. When I was taking the CEPE courses, there was a two-year wait! So, he thought that it would be okay to email since our financial advisor wanted him to try and stay at Red Hat another two-three years. Keith even mentioned that if there was a cancelation, he/we could be there in a matter of days.
He heard back almost immediately with an offer to start within the freaking week.
Queue panic.
We ended up going about a month later. We proved that we already knew what we were doing beer-wise: our host brewer was kind of weirded out by the fact he already knew how to brew and was brewing for 18 years. Since I took the CEPE courses, I already had most, if not all, of the info they could give me on running the back-end. What we really needed was to see what it was like going from 10-gallons to 10-barrels. [That's a 31-fold increase in volume.] It turns out… It wasn't all that different. The equipment was bigger. That's about it.
We got valuble information on suppliers for the brewhouse and met some really interesting people, but did we really learn much? I am still on the fence. One thing that we did learn was that whatever holding us back isn't knowledge. It is (or will be) us and the property.
Oh, and yeah… it wouldn't be Colorado if I didn't get rear-ended on our first full day there, heading out for coffee! Seriously?!
Back in mid-September of last year, I plucked up the courage to inquire about the Colorado Boy Brewery Immersion Course. I've known about Tom Hennessy, Colorado Boy Brewing, and the Brewery Immersion Course for several years, but I've never had the courage to contact them and sign up. I knew that Tom is a very busy man, and his Immersion Course attracts would-be brewers from across the globe. I figured it was time to get on the waiting list.
One can hardly imagine my surprise when I received an email from Tom less than twenty-four hours later, informing me that an opening had come up in October at one of his “partner” training breweries run out of the Denver area. To make a long story short, Teri and I had booked tickets, hotel, and car and put a deposit on our course—in just four days. Anxious much?
Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. A whirlwind of doubts and excitement raced through my mind. I knew it would be “work.” I hoped it would be “fun.” I prayed I wouldn't be “found out.”
Nonetheless, the week of October 17 arrived. Perhaps unsurprisingly, after almost a month of getting on each other's nerves [more me on her nerves], we boarded a plane for Denver, setting off to experience what I hoped would be my next career—one filled with hard work, fun, and unimaginable reward and fullfilment.
The reader will pardon me if I do not go through mind-numbing detail about the events of that week. It was a lot. We were cleaning kegs, talking brewery layout, equipment, transferring beer form tank to tank, cleaning tanks, talking about locations and real estate, employee retention, business plans, music and payment vendors, grain storage, brewing, and so much more. It really was a whirlwind. Even for someone who has been brewing for almost two decades.
I will share my impressions and take-aways, though, as well as some of the more notable things I saw while in Denver's local breweries. [Surely it is no surprise that Teri and I did as much “market research” as humanly possible while we were there!?]
The two biggest lessons I learned that week:
Let me address these (as briefly as my verbosity allows) one at a time.
Those that know me know that I started brewing—almost on a whim—by buying John Palmer's How To Brew and reading it cover-to-cover for several months. It's an amazing introduction to homebrewing. Therein lies the problem. I am a homebrewer. I know nothing about brewing beer 310 gallons at a time!
Modern brewhouses are big, expensive, and fairly complicated, often employing steam boilers and miles of process piping (and the dozens of valves needed to route product through the brewhouse). I've never been exposed to this before. Could I learn it? Sure, given enough time, I'm sure I could, but therein lies the problem. When/if Toll Bridge opens it doors, I won't have years to figure it out. I need to start making good product quickly. In this industry, one mistake can ruin a brewery. I'd rather not learn (too much) on the fly. I won't like it, and I'm sure my customers won't like it.
Much to my surprise, almost none Tom's graduates use these fancy brewhouses (more on that below). They often have one Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) pump that they use for everything. When they want to move liquid from vessel A to vessel B, they hook up a hose to both vessels through the pump. When they want to move liquid to another vessel, they move hose(s) between them.
Shockingly, this is exactly how I have been brewing for years! This was my biggest take-away of the week: Do what you've been doing. You don't need fancy, expensive equipment to make good or even great beer at the volume Toll Bridge is hoping to do.
Speaking of that fancy equipment...
Anyone that has ever brewed with me knows that my “system” (or brewhouse) is really hacked together. When I started brewing in 2004, there were no companies that were producing equipment for use by serious homebrewers. There was no Ss Brewtech or Spike Brewing. Back then, we “acquired” commercial half-barrel Sankey kegs (hopefully legally) and found someone to cut the tops off and weld fittings onto them. We used CampChef propane stoves. We fermented in buckets and glass carboys.
I typically make about ten gallons of beer every time I brew. That's one third of a barrel. We're proposing to move Toll Bridge Brewing to ten barrels. That's a thirty-one-fold increase in output per brew. To do this, we need real brewery equipment. As part of her Business of Craft Brewing course at Portland State University, Teri and I reached out to several well-known vendors of brewery equipment for estimates we could use in our business plan. For the three vendors we reached out to, the average cost of a ten barrel brewhouse, four ten barrel fermenters, and a ten barrel brite tank was north of $300,000. Ouch!
Our Colorado Boy instructors taught us a new way of thinking. Forget about those big, fancy brewhouses with process piping, multiple VFD process pumps, steam boilers, and all that bling. At our size, none of that matters. Stick with simple, well-made equipment that is easy to maintain.
They introduced us to Bennett Forgeworks. We met with a representative of the company, Lance, that explained their philosophy, influenced heavily by Tom. When we visited Colorado Boy in Montrose on a Friday evening, Lance met us to give us a tour of their facility, conveniently located next door to Tom's local's-only pub, affectionately known as the “hub.” It was an experience to remember. I will be going with a Forgeworks brewhouse when Toll Bridge opens its doors. Not only are they “beefy,” they are real eye candy. As Forgeworks says, “Sexy, Burly & Beautifully Basic.” [And we save almost $200,000 on our brewhouse costs for an American-made product using American-made materials.]
There is a lot more to write about our Colorado visit, but I will save that for a future post. This article has gotten businessy-geeky enough as it is!
Santé!
Betsi Hummer was just walking around our neighborhood talking to residents. She said she was trying to get to know people and what their concerns were and that she was running for Bellevue City Council. While our biggest concerns are ones she can't really help with, I also mentioned that we needed a place in Factoria/Eastgate to just "hangout" like they do in Europe. We needed a brewpub over here, since there were not really any breweries in Belleuve.
She mentioned BBC and Resonate, and I told her about the new BBC and what the old one is now, she said she didn't know—she hadn't been yet. She did know Resonate, and agreed that it was more of a pizza place then a brewery. And that yeah, there are no sit-down, hangout, family-friendly restaurants in our area.
When I mentioned that we were trying to put our brewery here, she said that Eastgate was just re-zoned to allow breweries! And told me to email her later for the contact information of the economic development director for Bellevue.
UPDATE: I emailed Betsi on May 15, 2023 at 3:32pm. We will see if she responds with info.
We are thinking that it would be really cool to have an official hat for the brewery staff. This is the one we decided on. You can get some really great hats at Levine Hats out of St. Louis! And their customer service is amazing!
This year, since we were going to try and do green fedoras for the brewery… we needed some nice pins to go with them. They can be used for anything: hats, jackets, backpacks, etc. These pins will be available in about 32 days after we order them and we are thinking of selling them for $7. I think they will fly off the shelves!
UPDATE! Here is a sample from Fay with a comparison with the bigger pin from ThinkGeek2018 (she's zoomed in a little more):
Beautifully smooth, deep flavors, enticing aroma, and very easy drinking. Problem is: high alcohol.
Our Dubbel brewed with bread turned out to be one of the best dubbels that we had ever had… in fact, most everyone who had it, said it was one of the best beers they had ever had. This beer alone could put us on the map. And that is not being arrogant.
The picture above was taken on our friend Justin's birthday. He shared it with his family without telling them it was from us. He had them taste it and then let them look at the label. He said it was “quite the surprise.”
Okay, really… GEORGETOWN NOW???
Stay Tuned!
I made my first beer. Not in a million years would I (or anyone else for that matter) have guessed that I would make a beer after going to college in Milwaukee. After all those months of icky, smelly, dirty, horrible breathing conditions while seven North-American-Industrial-Lager (NAIL) breweries ALL brewed at once and spewed tons of sulfury particles into the air… nope.
But, I did. I fell in love with the wonder of it all and what it could be, not what they made it out to be.
Here's the story:
A few months ago, I asked Keith if I could design my own beer. At first, he just sat there and stared at me like I had told him I was pregnant or something. I asked again and he blinked. I then assumed that was a no and said, "Fine, I will take that as a no."
When he finally came to, he remarked that no, it wasn't a no, it was just after 18-plus years no one else wanted to do it and for me of all people (like I said earlier… not in a million years) to ask, well, he was just in a bit of shock. Then he asked what I wanted to do. What kind of beer? What did I want it to taste like?
I wasn't too sure, but I wanted to do a Belgian-inspired beer naturally.
He then handed me a book and told me which chapters to read, and I read.
I have been inspired by Duvel's hoppy 6,66 beer. (https://www.duvel.com/en/the-beer/duvel-666) It's a Belgian blond ale that uses six Pacific Northwest Hops. You can go read about it at the link. Duvel is one of my favorite beers and I don't even NEED the extra hops! Those are just frosting on the cake (hehehe.)
My beer, I decided, would be inspired by Duvel 6,66… I would make a beer called Archangel ["Duvel" means "devil" in French]. It would also be a Belgian blond, utilizing four hops, one for each of the four main Archangels of my Catholic faith. I am, however, aiming for a full 7% ABV instead of my inspiration's 6.66% ABV in honor of the full seven archangels that are referenced in early Christian and Jewish literature. I am also going for a very bright yellow, straw color and a very estery aroma -- moreso than the original since I am using a very different yeast. I want bright and airy, while maintaining a hoppy structure from my high alpla acid American hops.
I will probably end up also dry-hopping at least one of the kegs since this is the first batch and my very first try.
Many of you may know my story… my run in with the three old goats who wanted to get to the other side of the water to eat and fatten themselves up. I used to own that bridge they wanted to cross. They played dirty and one day, I found myself knocked into the water being carried away by the current.
It was then that I decided to do something that even they wouldn't take from me.
I decided to make beer.
Now, no one runs from me!
