The Startup Dialogues: Brewing in New Orleans (NOLA Brewing, New Orleans, LA)

In this edition of ‘The Startup Dialogues,’ I talked with my friend Kirk, founder of NOLA Brewing. In honor of the Super Bowl this weekend, I thought it would be fun to interview a brewery from New Orleans all about starting up in one of America’s greatest cities. For full disclosure, I am a Saints fan so there will be no mention of any Indianapolis breweries on the page this weekend

1. New Orleans is a city with a great brewing history. What is the New Orleans brewing scene like now and how is your brewery helping to revitalize it?

As you say, the history of brewing is very strong in New Orleans.  At one time there were over thirty breweries in the city, and by 2006 we had no operating production breweries.  Our brewery is the first production brewery to open since Dixie closed in 2005.  There are two operating brew pubs in New Orleans; Crescent City Brew House in the French Quarter and Gordon Biersch near the Harrah’s Casino.

NOLA Brewing Company has been able to start a craft brewing movement in the city and hopefully will encourage more brewers throughout the State of Louisiana to enter the craft brewing market.

2. What challenges did you encounter when starting a brewery in a city like New Orleans? Specifically, were there any lingering Katrina-specific issues you had to overcome?

The first challenge was finding a location that would be “water proof” if there was another breach in our levee system.  When we started our brewery, the levee repairs were not complete, so we made sure that the building we chose was above sea level (12 ft above… a very high point in the city of New Orleans, where most property is below sea level.)  Another challenge was finding someone in the city who knew what forms and permits were required to open a production brewery.  It had been quite some time since anyone had tried to start a production brewery in the city, and no one really knew where to start or what paperwork needed to be completed.

3. How has the city embraced the arrival of your brewery?

We have had wonderful support from the city as well as the entire State of Louisiana.  New Orleans has always been a city that primarily supports local businesses.  It is almost impossible to find a chain restaurant or business, and if you do find one, odds are there will only be tourists doing business there.  We pride ourselves on being one of the first cities to embrace the “buy local” philosophy, and it certainly benefits our brewery.  Finally, the support for our flavors and the unique packaging that we use has been great, and allowed us to start our brewery without the initial expense of a full bottling line.

4. How has NOLA Brewing contributed to the resurgence of New Orleans?

We are currently employing 5 people at the brewery, and bringing in a good amount of tax dollars for the city and state.  Most importantly, however, we have allowed the city to once again take pride in a beer made in the city for locals.  We think that it is one more thing New Orleanians can be proud of.  We are a very independent, headstrong lot down here in New Orleans, and we take a great amount of pride in our ability to do things for ourselves.  It’s in our unique music, unduplicated food, and now our uniquely New Orleans beers.

5. New Orleans is famous for its parties – Jazz Fest, Halloween, Mardi Gras and so many others. Has NOLA Brewing participated in these (through donations, promotional tie-ins, etc) and if so, how?

We hold events throughout the year, and have been able to sponsor several festivals (including a new green festival called Project 30X90 and charitable events.  Only being 11 months old, we haven’t had the chance (or the capability) of sponsoring big events such as Jazz Fest or major Mardi Gras events, but we are distributed throughout the city and state, allowing anyone visiting for these big events to try our beers when they leave the festival and continue their festivities into the night (er, morning?)

6. Do your beer styles reflect New Orleans at all? If so, how?

Our beers are all malt beers made right in the center of the city (The Irish Channel.)  The area we are located in was originally populated by a large group of Irish who had moved to New Orleans to start a better life.  Throughout its history, the Irish Channel has represented the backbone of New Orleans; the hard working blue collar class.  We like to think of ourselves fitting that mold, coming into the brewery each day and hand crafting our beer in a traditional, artisanal style.  This is a strong reflection of the city as a whole, where doctors, musicians, artists, chefs, bakers and mixologists use centuries old skills to produce products and services that exceed those offered by the mass produced juggernauts from outside our Crescent City.

7. The New Orleans Saints have made a historic run to the Super Bowl and I’m sure it’s an exciting place to be now. Any special Super Bowl plans for NOLA brewing?

The Saints have really embodied the rebirth and renewal that our city has been working so hard to achieve over the last five years.  Everyone in the city will be glued to a TV and watching as the Saints show why New Orleans is a relevant, dynamic and culturally vibrant city that continues to bring an important mix of European and American style to the United States.  Win or lose, the Saints have shown in a microcosm the growth and renewal that is happening in the city, and every single person in this city will be screaming Who Dat in Black and Gold on Superbowl Sunday.  My plans are to watch my Saints finally deliver on my birthday wish I made at 10 years old, and win the Superbowl… then about 48 hours of incessant partying in the French Quarter. Lassaiz le bonne biere verser!!!

8. Finally, what is your Super Bowl prediction?

New Orleans Saints by 21 points, and two days of festivities to rival Mardi Gras.  My crew already has Monday off, as we know we will be celebrating!  Who Dat say de gonna beat dem Saints?  Not the Colts!  Go SAINTS!!!!

Thanks again to Kirk and everyone at NOLA Brewing! Make sure you visit their website here.

The Startup Dialogues: Differentiation (Equinox Brewing, Fort Collins, CO)

For this edition of ‘The Startup Dialogues,’ I talked with Equinox Brewing, a brewery-in-planning in Fort Collins, Colorado. Equinox grew out of a local home brew store and will place its emphasis on education and beer appreciation. Considering Fort Collins already has six other breweries and one other brewery-in-planning, brewery differentiation is a very important factor. Shannon and Colin, the founders of Equinox, were kind enough to discuss this topic with me.

1. You are opening your brewery in one of the cities that has the highest craft breweries-per-capita. How has this affected your strategy?

It would be very difficult to open a brewery in Fort Collins that is planning on distributing the majority of its product.  The competition for tap handle space and shelf space in liquor stores is huge when you consider the marketing power and presence of New Belgium Brewing and Odell Brewing.  We have no plans to push ourselves into that market, and instead are focusing on in-house sales for on-site consumption.

But, because the local breweries have built such an enthusiastic beer community, there are a lot of people looking to learn more about brewing and beer tasting.  Our goal is to offer a relaxed environment for beer appreciation and supporting information about recipe formulation, brewing techniques and beer style history.

2. Are you going to be the ‘first of your kind’ in any category? If so, what are you doing that is unique – that no other brewery has done before?

The idea of combining a home brew supply shop with a brewery is not unique.  In Colorado there are a few examples of other people already doing this: Ska Brewing Co. in Durango has a small home brew shop on the side and Dry Dock Brewing in Aurora grew out of The Brew Hut, a home brew shop.

We are going to present all of our beer recipes openly in our tasting room.  We want customers to know as much as possible about each beer we produce.  While I doubt we are unique in how much we are willing to share about our brewing process, I am unaware of anyone already doing so.

3. What specific measures are you taking to differentiate your brewery from others in Fort Collins?

Our two main focuses are beer presentation (various dispensing methods and quality beer) and beer education (supporting literature about brewing methods, beer styles, recipe formulation and tasting notes).  We are not a brew pub, so we don’t need to focus any of our attention, or our customer’s, on the food.  We’re also not a full production facility that concentrates on production for distribution and consumption off-site.  We’ll have direct interactions with the majority of our customers and will be able to offer them a unique and educational beer drinking experience.

4. Are you looking to expand beyond the Northern Colorado beer market? If so, what measures are you taking to differentiate your brewery from others in Colorado and the US?

We are not planning to distribute our beer beyond walking distance of our location.  We try to keep all of our purchasing, personal and professional, as local as possible.  We want to be an extremely local product.  Our beer will only be available in Old Town Fort Collins, primarily in our tap room.

5. What aspect (branding, quality of ingredients, beer styles, experiences, etc) is the most important to differentiate in?

The experience our customers take away from a visit to our tasting room and beer garden is the most important aspect that will differentiate Equinox Brewing from other breweries in town.  The tasting room environment will be relaxed and approachable, typically with the brewer on hand to answer more technical questions.  Servers will be trained to properly dispense beers and will be well versed in brewing methods and beer styles.  Of course we will be using high quality ingredients and producing beer styles we feel customers will enjoy, but more importantly, we want to make sure they gain a deeper understanding of beer styles, brewing techniques and a general appreciation for beer.

6. From a strategic standpoint you are operating under the differentiation focus model – you aim to differentiate within just one or a small number of target market segments (craft beer drinkers). The craft beer target consumer is someone who is already looking for differentiation (from the macro lagers everyone else is drinking) – how do you think this helps (or hurts) your strategy?

Our strategy is to provide our customers with a unique beer tasting experience.  Craft beer drinkers are already seeking out an experience different (better) than what has been offered in the past.  We’re aiming to take that experience to the next level.  Fort Collins already has a strong beer culture.  Because of this, we feel there’s a market of beer drinkers eager to learn more about beer and brewing.  The size of our system, and lack of distribution, gives us the opportunity to change our lineup frequently and offer dispensing methods not commonly found.  The fact that craft beer drinkers are looking for differentiation is the entire basis of our strategy.

7. How do you plan to differentiate your products within Equinox brewing? Do you have any interesting internal product differentiation strategies aside from different styles of beer?

We will have a few different dispensing methods.  Primarily we will be serving beers as typically offered, force carbonated and dispensed through a faucet using compressed CO2.  We will also have a few beers available on beer engines, hand pumped from their vessel, displaced with CO2.  Once a week will be tapping a firkin, which will be gravity fed from the bar, utilizing no compressed CO2.  Sometimes the beers available on tap will be the same as the beers on the beer engine and the firkin.  We’re planning to use this as an opportunity to help our customers recognize how much the dispensing method can affect a beer’s overall presentation, flavor and experience.

8. How will you communicate your message of differentiation to your target consumers?

Our home brew shop has a newsletter that reaches most of the local brewing community, and this will be where we initially communicate with our target market.  Proximity to the home brew shop is extremely important to our marketing strategy.

In the brewery we will be providing menus with our beer offerings.  Each beer will have a full description, a brief history of the style, the beer recipe/brewing techniques broken down to a 5 gallon batch and tasting notes from local beer judges.

9. What unique value do you hope to provide to your consumers?

Our goal is that our customers gain a further appreciation and understanding of beer and brewing.  While that is not a particularly unique goal, I’m sure all craft brewers are aiming to increase awareness of good beer, we’re looking to take beer appreciation to an extreme.  Our average customer will be at least a little interested in the information we’re providing while they’re enjoying a beer and, hopefully, will leave with a better understanding of what it takes to make beer.  Perhaps, the next time they sit down for a pint, they’ll be better able to taste, analyze and consider the beer in front of them.

The Startup Dialogues: Real Estate Selection (Fullsteam Brewery, Durham, NC)

In this edition of The Startup Dialogues, I talked with Sean from Fullsteam Brewery. Fullsteam is a new brewery set to open in 2010 in Durham, North Carolina. With a focus on local ingredients and developing a Southern style of beer, this will definitely be an exciting brewery to watch in the coming year. For this interview, we talked about real estate site selection when choosing potential brewery locations. When you’re done here, make sure you visit Fullsteam’s website here.

1.  For what specific reasons did you decide to locate your brewery in Durham, North Carolina?

I’ve been mulling over this concept for three or more years, vetting spaces and refining my concept as I learned more about the industry (my previous experience was in craft beer lobbying; I’ve not worked for a brewery before).

Our concept is to develop a Southern beer style using locally-farmed ingredients. So the first several sites I considered where in more rural locations in the fringes of the Triangle (Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill) area of North Carolina.

Ultimately, I realized Fullsteam would do best if it was located in a more urban area. My vision for the brewery is to be both a production brewery and an on-premises tavern — the best of both worlds. We’re lucky that North Carolina law allows breweries to serve on-site and distribute off-premises; many Southern states don’t allow breweries to do this.

Why Durham? Tons of reasons, really. Durham’s home to Duke University and I believe it has more PhDs per capita than any US city. It’s plenty large to support a thriving on-site tavern. Historically, it’s a manufacturing town, so it has plenty of stout, warehouse-y buildings to choose from. Durham has a booming food scene that reflects Fullsteam’s interest in celebrating the union of great beer and great food. I attended grad school at Duke. I love Durham’s authenticity and diversity. It truly is the ideal city for Fullsteam.

2. Were there specific neighborhoods or areas within Durham that you wanted to be located in? If so, what about these locations attracted you?

We looked at downtown, East Durham, and the Central Park warehouse district near downtown. While downtown is going through an exciting revitalization period, locating in city-center would have pushed us to a brewpub model. The more economically-distressed area East Durham would be a challenge for a tavern-minded brewery, though not impossible — in fact, there are some excellent development projects in East Durham that we strongly considered.

We honed in on the warehouse area of Durham just four blocks north of downtown. During the boom times of two years ago, Central Park was becoming “speculation central,” with tons of proposed condo projects and mixed-use facilities. It’s since slowed down, but it’s widely seen as Durham’s next up-and-coming area. There’s no better place for a brewery to get up-and-running, especially given that we want people to come on-site.

Every site I looked at during the site selection process, I asked myself two questions:

1) Can it fit a forklift?

2) Will they come on a Tuesday?

That is, is the space “industrial” enough for a forklift…but accessible enough for a Tuesday night crowd? 726 Rigsbee is a resounding YES to these two simple questions.

3. What were the ‘must haves’ in a potential location?

Every brewery is going to have a different answer for this. For us, it was mostly the above two questions, supplemented with this like: strong concrete floors (or the ability to make them strong). Tall ceilings. Big doors to bring in tanks. Three-phase power. Oh, and affordable rent!

But again, this differs based on a brewery’s business model. A brewpub can thrive in a walkable downtown region where rent is $20 a square foot. Scrunch in a 7 barrel brewpub system in 500 square feet and you can do well. But we’re not a restaurant; we’re an 8,000 square foot warehouse split between production brewery, event space, and tavern.

4. You selected an existing building for your brewery, correct? Did you also look at building your own or were you only looking at existing locations?

We briefly considered a “build to suit” site in Central Park, but we liked the idea of adaptive resource of an existing building. One nice thing about our space: it’s a steel-framed Butler building — an 1980s extension to a 1935 bottling plant. It’s very utilitarian and easy to upfit. Very much a blank slate.

5. What square footage requirements were necessary for the brewery? How flexible could you be with square footage?

We explored sites as small as 4,000 square feet and as large as 10,000. It can be dangerous to take on too big of a space. We decided on an 8,000 square foot mixed venue that has a 3,500 square foot brewing space, 3,000 square feet of unconditioned event space, and a 1,500 square foot tavern and future kitchen. We have an option on the next bay over, which is 6,000 square feet. Our hope is to eventually expand brewing operations into all 8,000 square feet of the big steel building and expand the public space into the lower-ceilinged, more “charming” 6,000 square foot bay. We’ll see. Right now we have a lot of operating space for both the brewery and the public space, and a lot of hard (but exciting) work ahead to build interest in our Southern-style beer

6. Some production only breweries are located in very industrial areas (cheaper rent) vs.  brewpubs which can often be located in high traffic retail areas with much higher rent. You will have a tavern at your brewery, so how did you decide to balance visibility vs. rent? Which is more important for your concept – more visibility or cheaper rent?

Cheaper rent.

Our visibility isn’t that great, and parking may present a challenge (though I keep telling myself that hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people attended the Durham Bulls games just a block away at the old stadium).

We’re walking/biking distance to two neighborhoods that we believe can sustain us. We’re not that far from downtown. And there will always be a certain percentage of tourists and beer enthusiasts seeking out a brewery. Plus, our plan is to do weird stuff at the warehouse that may attract a following: frequent showings of Terrible Movies (”The Room” is my favorite), a communal pig pickin’ or red beans and rice, and a diverse range of music and mini-festivals. Durham doesn’t have a “warehouse district” like so many other cities have. I spent some time as a twenty-something in Dallas, where Deep Ellum had both a mix of great food, art, and music. That’s the potential of Central Park (not that Durham needs to emulate Dallas…it’ll be it’s own thing, of course).

But getting back to the question: cheaper rent.

7. Are there special zoning codes for breweries? Did these limit you in what sites you could select or did you have to try and get zoning changed?

Man, you’re asking the right questions. Yes, we had to be mindful of city and state ordinances that regulate brewery and tavern locations. Sites that serve or brew alcohol have to be located a certain distance from a place of worship. This can be a challenge in an urban area, because storefront churches often take advantage of cheap rent — the same cheap rent a brewery is looking for. Luckily, that wasn’t an issue for us.

What was a concern was zoning: we looked at a location across the street from where we ended up. Though it was literally just across the street, that site was zoned by the city as Commercial General (we’re zoned Industrial). A CG zoning meant that half of the site’s square footage would need to be dedicated for “public use.” In other words, it would have to be a brewpub to work. This would have limited any plans for expansion. It’s very important for us — I imagine most breweries — to not be handcuffed when there’s an opportunity for expansion.

8. Did you consider a historical building for your brewery? If so, are there special considerations to take into account when you’re located in an older building?

We’re in a newer section of an old building. The biggest expense associated with older buildings is the wiring and code issues. Often times old buildings will have strong floors and excellent support — they were often oversized compared to modern standards. Again, breweries need to be very mindful that they’re not romanticizing the location. There’s a reason that most breweries are located in plain, utilitarian warehouses.

9. Are you leasing or did you buy your building?

Leasing. Maybe someday we’ll buy, but that’s not in the cards for us right now.

10. What specific demographic parameters (employment, population, education, age, etc) did you consider when choosing a location?

A friend of mine gave me some computer-generated demographic information for some sites that we looked at, but it comes down to gut instinct. And asking a lot of locals what they want. When I first started exploring Durham, I looked at an old church for sale in a nice neighborhood. A freakin’ church. The idea was to specialize in farmhouse and abbey-style ales. I learned pretty quickly that the neighbors did not want a brewpub in their upscale neighborhood. And that, more broadly, Durhamites wanted a “brewery” more than they wanted a “restaurant that brewed beer.” All it took was a move *four blocks away* from the church, and Fullsteam became such a different business: one that the neighbood would embrace rather than fight. That became a “Brewery” versus a “Restaurant.” On paper, a demographic analysis of 726 Rigsbee would hardly be different than the old church in the upscale neighborhood. But the feel of the site is so very different, and perfect for what we ended up deciding to do…and want the community wanted.

The Startup Dialogues: Finding Investors (Grimm Bros. Brewhouse, Loveland, CO)

In this edition of the The Startup Dialogues, I talked with Don from Grimm Bros. Brewhouse, a new brewery opening in Loveland, Colorado. Grimm Bros. is in the process of finding investors to seed their dreams of opening a brewery. This is a very relevant and important step for startups that can sometimes catch starry-eyed entrepreneurs off guard. Thanks again to Don and make sure you check out their website here. If you are interested in becoming an investor, you can contact Grimm Bros. Brewhouse at don@grimmbrosbrewhouse.com

What is your brewery concept, and why should someone invest with you?

Our mission statement is as follows:  “The mission of GBB (Grimm Brothers Brewhouse) is to provide fresh, exciting, and flavorful beer to consumers. It will focus on German-style Lagers and Ales but not limit itself to any one style. GBB is a result of a passion for beer and beer education and will endeavor to spread this passion at every opportunity.”

As we took a look at our local market we saw a hole that we felt we could fill by brewing German style beer.  The craft beer market has shown a consistent growth over the last 5 years reaching as high as 12%.  Even in our rough economic times the craft beer industry continues to grow at an incredible rate. When looking at market growth per person, the mountain west region is historically the second fastest growing in the United States.  Investing in our brewery not only gives investors a chance to place their money behind a credible market, but it also allows them to invest in a local business, a place they can congregate and be a part of.

What steps did you take before you began seeking investors in order to build credibility? (business/marketing plan, etc.)

When we became serious about opening a brewery, we spent a good 12 months researching the market, learning about the industry, talking to breweries and brewers, and writing our business and marketing plans. We had been home brewing for quite a few years by this time and felt we at least had a handle on brewing, but through this process we really started to understand the business side of operating a brewery.  By the time we had finished our business and marking plans we were able to approach our potential investors not only with confidence in our plan but with enough knowledge to answer any questions they asked.  We think this is our biggest source of credibility.

The beer helps too!

Who are your main target sources of investors?

Our main target sources at this time are private individuals who want to be part of a brewery in some way.  Most of our investors are people who enjoy beer and are passionate about it.

Are you working with Venture Capital firms or Angel Investors?

We looked into this, but decided that we would rather not proceed down this road. We currently own the brewery 50/50. If we would have gone with an angel investor or venture firm, the majority of the company would have gone to that investor.  While this would have made it possible to start at a much larger level, we feel that we can afford to start a bit smaller and work our way up without giving away a majority of the ownership.

Do you have an ideal ratio of investment capital to other capital (loans, out of pocket)?

Ideally we would like to see 2/3 of our initial capital investment come from private investors.  The rest will be handled via a combination of loan and out of pocket expenses.

What strategies have worked best in finding potential investors?

We have tried several; we have had some investors show up via word if mouth, we have had a couple hits using Craigslist, we even hosted a beer tasting with a local restaurant in order to drum up some potential investors.  By far the best contacts we have are people that we have met and have had a chance to talk with face to face, like friends, family, and co-workers.  Not only has this proven to drum up investment, it has also spawned additional contacts that we can follow up on.

What strategies have worked best when making your sales pitch to potential investors?

We have tried hosting beer tastings for potential investors and powerpoint presentations, however we have found that the best strategy is sitting down with a potential investor over a beer face to face, explaining our idea, sharing our business and marketing plans and answering questions.

Have any strategies backfired? If so, how were you able to turn them into a learning experience?

Yes, at one point we were going to work with the local businesses in our town to have an Oktoberfest celebration.  We had a meeting with everyone involved and agreed we would proceed.  We began brewing a massive amount of beer for a home brew system.  Once we had all of the beer underway, however, we found out that the Oktoberfest celebration was not going to happen and we were stuck.  We were able to turn around and work with a local restaurant to host a beer tasting that allowed us to share this with the public that ended up being a very positive experience.

We did learn that you have to be flexible; the best plans can sometimes fall through especially when it involves multiple parties.

How has your investment product (a brewery) affected your ability to raise capital? Are investors eager to get involved with such a ‘fun’ company concept? Or are they wary?

Most definitely, all of our investors are people who want to be involved in a “fun” project.  People love beer and our investors are people who want to be involved not only in a brewery, but also a local business that will be part of their community in years to come.

We have also seen the other side of this as well though, where people are a bit wary to enter into a new market, some of the people we have spoke with are just not familiar with the brewery market and are therefore timid about jumping in (especially in our current economy).

What is the investment structure you offer? What is the security offered?

We are offering a 7% annual interest on a 5 year unsecured promissory note. Our payments will be applied to interest first and principle second. Our first payment will be on September first of this year and the final payment on September first of 2015. After working with our business consultant and lawyer, we decided that this would be the most effective route given our limited budget.

If you have any other questions or issues you would like to see covered regarding the financing of a brewery, let me know in the comments and I will do my best to find answers for you. Thanks again to Don from Grimm Bros. Brewhouse.

The Startup Dialogues: Ocean State Hops (Rhode Island)

For this edition of The Startup Dialogues, I caught up with Matt from Ocean State Hops – a new hop farm in Rhode Island. Ever wonder what goes into starting a hop farm? Check out Matt’s interview below to find out.

How did you decide you wanted to grow hops?

We have been brewing beer at home together for a while now and both love hoppy beers so three years ago we planted a few plants so we could grow some of our own hops to brew with.  Right around the same time there was news of a world-wide hop shortage so we decided to plant a few dozen more plants the next year (we really like hoppy beers).  After we started hearing more and more stories about the smaller microbreweries and homebrewers not being able to purchase the hops they needed we decided to plant enough plants to start selling commerically.

What are the various startup expenses associated with a hops farm?

With a farm our size, the main startup expenses are land, trellis equipment, plants, and drying equipment/space.  We do all of our picking by hand so we don’t have any expenses yet in terms of harvesting equipment, which is a significant expense for larger farms.  Luckily for us, our family owns some land so were able to put money we would have needed to purchase land into the trellis system and plants. And we are still expanding every year at this point so we really haven’t grown out of the startup expense phase yet.

What are the day-to-day expenses associated with a hops farm?

During the growing season, the day-to-day expenses generally are fertilizer, fuel for the lawnmowers and weedwackers, rope for training the hop vines up, maintenance and repair of tools and trellis equipment, and beer for the family and friends that help with the work.  Once harvesting starts in late summer/early fall, there’s also the added expense for packaging equipment and running the freezer to store the hops once they’re packaged.

What special circumstances do you have to take into account when starting an agricultural business as opposed to any other business operation?

Really, the biggest factor you have to take into account in the agricultural business is the weather.  In 2009 for example, we had record rain in June and July in New England that slowed down growth during the early growing season and a few hail storms that could have been really detrimental to the plants.  Next year we could have a drought or a late frost, you never really know.  Hurricane season here on the east coast is a big threat to the plants and the trellis equipment, especially since hurricane season starts right around harvesting time.  A hurricane at the wrong time could wipe out an entire year’s harvest in one storm. Not only can the weather directly affect the plants physically, such as frost, but also indirectly, such as fungal spore distribution and insect hatch and emergence.

What is competition like amongst hop purveyors? How have you differentiated or branded yourself differently in order to become more competitive?

Virtually all of the hops produced in the U.S. used by the bigger breweries are grown on large farms in the Pacific northwest.  Recently though, a number of smaller hop farms like Ocean State Hops have been popping up in areas such as Colorado, the mid-west, and New England.  A lot of these smaller hop farms are teaming up with microbreweries to produce beers brewed with local ingredients or “wet hop” ales brewed with hops that have been harvested within 24 hours of being added to the kettle.  There are a few breweries around New England that grow some of their own hops, but there really aren’t many local hop farms in our area that can offer local hops or whole hops to be used in wet hop ales.  Because of this, we don’t have any competition in our area to speak of and are able to differentiate ourselves that way.

What is your sales strategy? How have you built a client base within the brewing industry?

Our sales strategy has been to make connections with local microbreweries and  homebrewers interested in brewing with locally grown, fresh ingredients.  We’ve been in contact with a few local breweries that are pretty excited about making beer with locally grown hops.  The advantage of dealing with local breweries is that they will take a large quantity of the harvest in a short amount of time which means less packaging and storing on our end.  We’re also big proponents of supporting local farms and businesses so it’s great when a local brewery and farm can collaborate for a quality product like beer brewed with local ingredients.  Being homebrewers originally, we’ve also  enjoyed building a client base with homegrowers.  Since 2009 was really our first substantial harvest we wanted to get our name out there and get some feedback from homebrewers so we have had a promotion going on since November where we are giving away our hops to homebrewers that contact us.  All that we ask in return is that they use our hops to make beer and fill out a questionnaire afterwards about how they liked the hops.  So far we’ve gotten great responses from some pretty excited homebrewers.

How did you select your hop-growing real estate? How much space is required for a profitable hop farm?

Since our family already owned farm land in Rhode Island, the location for our hop farm was a pretty easy decision.  It’s actually worked out great because there are some smaller hop farms in northern New York and Vermont that we’ve heard of but none in the southern New England area so we are able to offer a pretty unique product.  For the smaller hop farms like ours, about one acre is generally the minimum size required for running a profitable hop farm.  Most of the smaller farmers we’ve talked to are growing anywhere from 1 to 5 acres of hops.  Beyond that you start to need some pretty substantial harvesting equipment and room for drying and storage, and anything less than an acre doesn’t produce enough of a harvest to offset start-up and operating expenses.

What type of agricultural/horticultural knowledge did you have going into this?

We both have a pretty good background in agriculture and horticulture.  Joel (the other founder) grew up on a farm and we both worked our way through high school and college at local farms.  We also have degrees in soils and horticulture, so from a general farming standpoint we had a good background.  Hops are a pretty specific crop to grow though so we had to do a lot of research into growing their habits and requirements, general pests we would have to contend with, and things like that.  Since there aren’t any hop farms in our area either we have been growing trials with different varieties to see which would grow well in our area.

What mistakes have you made en route to where you’re at now? How have mistakes helped improve or streamline operations?

Luckily we’ve been patient and have been able to use a trial and error approach.  Instead of buying 100 plants of a certain variety we have bought 5 to 10 and done trials to see if our local environment and conditions would be adequate for that variery before investing in large quantities.  Same goes for the materials needed for the farm.  For the trellis system, for example, we started with a small system to see how it worked before we set up the permanent trellis.  Using this trial and error approach we can easily observe the positives and negatives of our system and tweak it as needed to make it easier on us and the production.

Thanks again to Matt from Ocean State Hops and make sure you check out their website here.

The Startup Dialogues: Branding (Monday Night Brewing, Atlanta, GA)

Note: This is the first in a series called ‘The Startup Dialogues’ which will focus on a different aspect of starting a brewery in each post. For my first interview, I talked with Jonathan from Monday Night Brewing – an Atlanta-based craft brewery in planning with the mantra ‘Weekends Are Overrated.’ We discussed branding, labeling, and packaging.

When you were initially thinking about the concept, how forward thinking were you? Were you looking for something to show your friends or envisioning your bottles in stores across the country? Or somewhere in between?

When we first started planning a brewery, we were definitely thinking long-term. As we developed the brand over the next 2 years, we considered where people would have contact with our brand as a startup brewery and designed around that. We wouldn’t have money for commercials or billboards or print ads. Taps, bottles and six pack carriers would be our primary means of “marketing” so the brand had to work in those arenas, and had to be distinctive in context (versus other beers on the shelf or other taps at the bar).

What efforts did you take to create your brand?

A lot of brainstorming. Many a night was spent arguing with Jeff and Joel over beer names. As the Marketing Guy and Master of Mind Control, I had the most at stake, so I would think about our brand constantly. While falling asleep or showering. I also dabble in design, so I created the initial designs.

What efforts have you taken to develop your brand?

We’ve concentrated most of our resources on growing our brand presence on the web pre-launch, simply because we don’t have a lot of resources. We also view the actual brewing on Monday nights as an integral piece of our “brand experience.” It’s not like we have MONDAY NIGHT plastered up everywhere, but there’s a general vibe of camaraderie, transparency, meeting new people, and relaxing after a day’s work. We did a complete logo redesign about a year and a half in, which was emotionally exhausting.

What went into developing the name for the brewery?

The name was actually the easiest for us because it was grounded in who we are and what we are about. We started brewing every Monday night. Hence, Monday Night Brewing.

Did you have other ideas for the name? If so, how did you test the various names?

Nope. Monday Night was one of the first names we considered and there was a general consensus that it fit. My mom actually suggested “3 J’s Brewing” because all three owners have names starting with J. But I think Three Floyds would have put a hit out against us.

How did you develop concepts/ideas for logo and label design?

We knew we wanted our logo to stand out. And on labels we wanted our logo to be big, which meant it had to be changeable depending on the beer. Initially we started with a monk as our logo because monks brew beer and we were born out of a bible study. Which made sense at the time. But we realized that what we were really about was weeknights. Monday Night was where it was at, and there was no discernible connection between monks and Mondays in our logo. So we decided to change it to make our entire logo (and name) more weeknight-centric.

We spent a lot of time brainstorming new directions and whining to friends, but couldn’t land on anything that felt right. From there we crowdsourced our logo to get new ideas from a lot of designers. There was one that stood out in terms of idea, but needed some help in execution, so we paid them for their work and took it from there ourselves.

Once we had a logo in place, the labels, taps and 6 pack carriers pretty much designed themselves. They came together in my head and all I had to do was spend hours in Adobe Illustrator bringing them to life. We also ran our designs past consumers on our blog and a few people in the industry and made revisions throughout the process.

Did you hire an outside design firm?

We did not. We did crowdsource ideas for the new logo. The final execution is actually a silhouette of Joel, our Operations Guy. We had a little photo shoot at Joel’s house one Saturday to get the outline right, and then edited it ourselves. In terms of direction for the crowdsourcing, we were looking for diversity of ideas, so our primary direction was explaining our brand… We’re a witty, white-collar, Southern cosmopolitan beer brand, and our logo needed to reflect that.

How did you decide on colors?

We tried to choose colors that would stand out on the shelves, so we did a little inventory of the colors most used in beer brands and tried to avoid those. Of course, it’s not an exact science. But we wanted to use bold colors that we loved. The way we built our brand, black and white are the primary colors, and each beer will get 2 shades of one bold color. It should be pretty versatile down the road.

What were your final reasons for selecting the logo?

When we were clearly communicating one unified idea simply with both our logo and our name, we knew we had arrived.

Thanks again to the guys at Monday Night Brewing for their help with this article! Make sure you check out their website and if you’re ever in the Atlanta area, stop by and brew with them on a Monday night!