So, here goes nothing! I suppose this first post should have a little background about what is going on. A few months ago Ryan came to me and a couple of other guys with an idea, "Let's start a nano-brewery!" Ryan had been toying with this idea for quite some time, however Iowa had a rather restrictive law regarding alcohol content in beer that was not conducive to the craft beer drinkers of the world. Essentially any beer brewed that is over 5% ABV is considered liquor and has to be sold to the state for distribution. Imperial Stouts, IPA's and Belgians would pretty much all qualify and have to be either watered down or sold to the state. That would be a huge barrier to an operation the size that he wanted. However, on March 10, 2010 Governor Chet Culver signed into law a new, higher limit of 12% ABV before brew pubs had to sell their beverages to the state for distribution. All of a sudden Barleywines, Imperial Stouts, Double IPA's and the like were able to be brewed and distributed from brew pubs all across Iowa without the heaps of red tape.
This one event is what could possibly allow Ryan's idea to be viable! So, he reached out to Brandon, Dave and myself to see if we wanted to be a part of this little endeavor. All four of us have been brewing in our garages and on our porches for awhile. While Ryan, Brandon and Dave all have a strong appreciation for IPA's, I am more of a lover of the darker styles. I don't care how hot it is outside, give me a good Irish Stout and I am a happy man! Since we all like different styles for the most part, we all brew different styles as well. So, we all bring a lot of different ideas to the table.
All those ideas, we feel, are perfect for the style of brewery we want to open. We want to have only a few standard beers that are available at any time. The rest, since we are brewing on a small scale, we can play around with and develop a wide assortment of styles.
Currently we are still trying to find the perfect name for the brewery. We have had several meetings with charts and poster board taped to walls. Each one of us has thrown a myriad of options into the mix, but nothing has really hit any of us as being a definite winner. We want to indicate we are a local brewery servicing a local community, but don't want to be handcuffed if we are lucky enough to expand to distribute regionally. We want a name that is catchy and that is easy to market, but we are definitely struggling with this part of the process. It is such an important piece of the puzzle, we want to make sure we get it right.
We are all still working on recipes. I recently re-worked my Numb Nut Brown Ale to be a little bit better. It was a hit during a New Year's Eve party and all 5 gallons in the keg were finished off that night! I am trying to wait for it to finish conditioning in the secondary fermenter before transferring to a keg next weekend. Brandon has an American Ale that is almost ready for bottling and a Berlinner that is still fermenting. Ryan and Dave are working on a couple of IPA recipes that we hope will be winners!
I think this has gone on long enough for a first edition, and if you have stuck with me this far, thanks!! I'll keep updating and posting new thoughts and developments during our process. This is an exciting adventure we have embarked on and we hope that it will be fulfilling for all of us! Read along and enjoy the ride!
No comments:
Post a Comment