The Dogfish Head of the South
Whilst washing about 200 bottles last Saturday, Jeff, Joel and I participated in another segment of what has been an ongoing MNB discussion: what kind of brewery should we be?
We’re early enough in the brewery creation stages that we can still shift gears fairly easily. And this is something we will continue to wrestle with as we concoct our brewing schedules and formulate our recipes. While the marketing will (hopefully) communicate who we are, it all has to be backed up by the beer.
So, long story short, we stumbled upon this notion of being “the Dogfish Head of the South.” Dogfish Head is a Delaware-based microbrewery that we all admire. I don’t think their marketing is all that great, but they definitely make up for it in their beers. They have some killer “old faithfuls” such as their 60 minute IPA, but they also aren’t afraid to experiment, and many of their beers have a unique twist ? a hoppy apricot beer, a raisin-infused Belgian, an IPA/brown ale, etc.
We don’t think Dogfish Head is the most accessible of breweries (you can’t just name a beer “Raison D’Etre” and expect everyone to get it), and since part of our mission is to educate the Bud-drinkers of the world about good beer, we would like to bit more user-friendly. So… a slightly more accessible Dogfish Head.
We would appreciate any of your comments as we try to pull our thoughts together on who we should be. At this stage everyone has a lot of influence. Ultimately we want to be YOUR brewery, so let us know what you think.
Save Georgia’s m crobrewery!
I have gotten multiple emails today calling for action against an initiative being voted on in the Georgia Department of Revenue. In a nutshell, there is a chance that microbrewery tours in Georgia could become severely restricted in the amount of beer each person can sample. The cap would be 2 oz per beer, with a maximum of 16 oz.
As three guys interested in starting a microbrewery in Georgia in a few years, this would affect us in more than one way. Yes, brewery tours would most likely be a little farther down the list of things to do. But, as potential brewery owners, we’re also interested in keeping brewery regulations… how do I put this… not Communist.
So take a few minutes and give the GA Department of Revenue your mind. Send the following note to this address. Make sure to add YOUR name and address. You can find out more information here.
To: Commissioner Graham
Re: Notice Number AT-2007-1
560-2-2-.61The Georgia Department of Revenue has proposed a significant change in the states’ long standing policy on service limitations for brewery tours. The proposed new rule will adversely affect my decision as a customer of the breweries, to attend the tours. By doing so it will also put at risk the brewer’s investment in facilities designed to attract and accommodate tour attendees such as myself and will severely limit the marketing and sales of the brewery’s products. I oppose adoption of the proposed rule change and respectfully urge the department to withdraw proposed rule 3a.
Sincerely,
YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS HERE
280 Pounds of Sweet, Sweet Malt
After recently securing a grain mill, we have decided that buying grains in bulk just makes sense. So last week, I loaded up the 2-door Civic with 280 pounds of malt – five 50-pound bags (pale malt, pilsner, wheat, munich and cara-pils) and three 10-pound bags (two bags of 20L crystal and one 60L). Since uncracked grain lasts substantially longer than cracked grains, and is also about 40-50% cheaper, we figured this was a good investment. But next time, I probably won’t put it in the back of my Civic.
Business cards. We’re official.
Yep. That’s right folks. We received 1000 shiny new MNB business cards in the mail today. Well, they weren’t shiny, actually, as we opted for the matte finish. Also, they aren’t really business cards. We don’t have a real use for genuine business cards seeing as we don’t even have facilities yet.
However, we did want a way to easily communicate our vision with others. I’ve been asked about my brewing so many times by so many random people, and I have to think that if I gave them something related to it they would be more apt to remember when we actually open our doors. Enter the double-sided brewcard. That’s copyrighted, by the way, so don’t go trying to make your own brewcards. We’ll just sue you and use the money to buy brewing equipment.
We’ve got a spiffy logo on the front and our website on the back. It’s so SIMPLE.
We’ve got good news and great news
The good news is that our most recent Weiss Guy Hefeweizen is coming into its own as a delicious beer. We brewed half of it with an American yeast and half with a Bavarian yeast. The Americans did an okay job, but the Germans worked tirelessly to make our Weiss Guy awesome. It’s still a bit heavy for a hefeweizen, but there are some very nice banana and clove tones, as well as the bitter orange peel and coriander that we added during the boil. I must say, it was scrumptious to drink (especially on tap) during our business meeting.
Which leads me to the great news. Actually, great for us, but fairly irrelevant for everyone else. The meeting was, in one word, scrumtrulescent. We left Joel‘s porch (the site of many a great meeting through the ages) with a newfound vigor and dedication to MNB. We were more aligned on the direction of the company and our respective roles than I could have ever imagined.
Go us!
BUSINESS MEETING!
In the next few days I will be meeting with Jeff, Joel and Peter to discuss the future of MNB. This will be our econd “formal” discussion, though our first with Peter on board. I say “formal” because we’ll most likely meet up at Brick Store Pub in Decatur (again). And drink.
On the docket: our upcoming party, focus and direction of our mission and our beers, and agreeing on a timeline moving forward. Brick Store currently has the yummy Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA on tap, so it could end up being a long meeting. Especially if Joel gets on another one of his high horses.