Nanobrewery Interviews: Night Shift Brewing (Part II)

While many of us have toyed with the thought of starting up our own nanobrewery, there are others who have taken the plunge.  To find out who these people are and what makes them do what they do, Tom and I embarked on a series of interviews with regional nanobreweris to get their stories.

Night Shift Brewing

Everett, MA

http://www.nightshiftbrewing.com/

As a follow-up to the first half of our interview with Night Shift Brewing, this post presents the conclusion of our conversation we had with the nanobrewery.  Night Shift Brewing has just recently completed all its licensing, brewed their first batches, and have now launched their first commercial offerings at select locations around the Boston area.

*    *    *

Lug Wrench (LW): What has been the biggest challenge you have faced so far in starting the brewery?

Night Shift Brewing (NSB): Probably the biggest challenge has been dealing with how slow everything progresses. If we did not have day jobs during the initial stages, it would have been extremely tough to survive. Perhaps the next biggest hurdle is figuring out everything you need and where you are going to source it. All those minor things begin to add up. Simple tasks like choosing our bottle supplier took months to figure out. We talked with many different suppliers, emailed other breweries, compared quotes, compared shipping costs, etc. We looked at bottles from US companies, Canadian companies, and even bottles from a French company. It was often the company that showed the most initial effort and responded to our questions the fastest that got our attention – time is so important, and you value people who appreciate that.

LW:  I love the visual look of the website and company logo. Where did the company name and imagery all originate?

NSB: The name “Night Shift Brewing” comes from how we started this brewery. When we first began, we all had separate day jobs, but would come together at night to brew test batches and talk about developing the business. It was like a second job, only at night. We’d often be up brewing until two or three in the morning, only to wake up hours later for “work.” In this sense, our day jobs sustained our night shift brewing, which is where our passion truly lived. Thus, “Night Shift Brewing” reflects our origins, our brewing passion, and our observation that the night shift really does seem to bring with it a sense of magic and possibility.

It’s also worth noting that we’ll continue night shift brewing at our brewery in Everett. Two of us – Michael Oxton and Mike O’Mara – work full-time for the business, but our third founder, Rob Burns, will continue his daytime job as a software engineer until we can afford to pay him full-time as well. As Rob is our de facto Brewmaster, we’ll do most of our brewing when he’s back from work, so we’re still on the night shift (day shifts will be spent selling, pouring, promoting and just contemplating about beer).

We really wanted an animal logo, something active and recognizable, but also memorable. An owl was the perfect fit – mysterious, nocturnal, apparently quite wise, and fairly unique (and, let’s be honest, owls are just cool). The final image for our logo is the hop-owl (its body has the shape and texture of a hop), which was drawn by one of our founders, Michael Oxton.

Our general branding attempts a look that’s handcrafted and rustic, but also classy. We’re small, we’re making our beers by hand, and we brew in an old WWII parts factory, so our look needs to feel a bit raw. But, we’re also making very complex, intricately flavored beer – a beverage that’s closer to wine than Bud Light. So, we also want to appear tasteful and refined, not cheap.

LW: I've noticed you guys use a lot of social networking - how has social networking and other online tools been useful for Night Shift as you started building the business. What has worked and what has been disappointing?

NSB: Online social networking is huge. It allows us to connect with fans and really interact with them in ways that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. It’s been especially interesting to learn how Facebook and Twitter can be used most effectively, and differently. At first, we treated them both the same and would simply post the same messages on both. What we’ve learned, however, is that we have two fairly different sets of people following us on each, and the manner of our interaction should be different, as well. Twitter is more about our dialogue with an online community, where Facebook is more about Night Shift news and updates. With Twitter, we try and craft interesting, relevant messages that others can re-tweet and use to generate a conversation. With Facebook, we’ve put a bigger focus on visuals and letting people learn about us through photo albums.

Our blog, however, is currently our most important and useful online tool – it just gives us so much freedom to tell the Night Shift Brewing story and share our voice. The more you can share with people, the personal and interesting your relationship with them will be. The blog is still very much in its infancy, but we’ve had great success with it so far.

LW: Where did you get the inspiration for the beers you plan to commercialize? How did you pick your range of offerings?

NSB: We draw a lot of inspiration from the culinary world – restaurant menus, cooking at home, and even non-alcoholic beverages. Quite often, a recipe idea comes from something completely unrelated to beer. One of our launch beers, Bee Tea, is a prime example. Bee Tea is a wheat ale with orange peel, orange blossom honey and green tea. Rob designed this recipe after growing to appreciate the green tea and honey combo at work. There was a challenge in translating that idea into a tasty beer, but we brewed a lot of test batches and ended up with something we really like.

As stated before, our initial range of offerings is the very best of our 80+ homebrew recipes. We did keep it diverse – a wheat ale, a Belgian-style pale ale, and a stout – but those also happened to be some of our favorites. We plan to be constantly experimenting, however, and coming up new recipes all the time. Much like what White Birch has done so successfully, we plan to release a lot of specialty batches as we move forward. It’s more fun for us to share what’s new and interesting, and hopefully it’s more fun for our drinkers.

LW: Any plans to do collaborative brews or even Pro/Am brews with other local brewers/homebrewers?

NSB: We don't have any immediate plans, but it would definitely be great to do collaborative brews with some of the local Massachusetts brewers. To our knowledge, there actually hasn’t been a collaborative brew between two MA breweries, so maybe we’ll be one of the first.

We would also like to work with homebrewers. Boston has a great club, The Worts, who have an insane amount of knowledge. We also recently featured some beers at a North Shore Homebrewers meeting, and they’re another crew with lots of interesting, experienced brewers. It would be great to support the people in groups like those, and work with them to create some special beers.

LW: Since you've started this venture, what's been the most rewarding or interesting thing that's happened to you?  

NSB: Very tough to say. We’d like to think that the most interesting phase has yet to come. However, just watching the enthusiasm build around our beer and our brand has been incredibly exciting. When a friend in Maine tells us that people in Portland are talking about Night Shift, or when an account in Boston goes “Guys, customers want to know when your beer hits the shelves,” it’s really hard to not feel almost stunned. Until quite recently, our beers were only shared with friends and family, and no one outside our social circle had heard of “Night Shift Brewing.” To see this hobby (ok, maybe obsession) transform into something so much bigger, something that people care about, is just incredible. The culture of “sharing” is something all three of us seem to enjoy and embrace – now it’s become our full-time job.

*    *    *

If you want to find out more about Night Shift Brewing, check out their website, or better yet, if you are in the Boston area, stop by the brewery.

Slainte!

-JW


"In my opinion, most of the great men of the past were only there for the beer."
-A.J.P. Taylor, Bristish historian

Nanobrewery Interviews: Night Shift Brewing (Part 1)

While many of us have toyed with the thought of starting up our own nanobrewery, there are others who have taken the plunge.  To find out who these people are and what makes them do what they do, Tom and I embarked on a series of interviews with regional nanobreweris to get their stories.

Night Shift Brewing

Everett, MA

http://www.nightshiftbrewing.com/

I recently had the opportunity to chat with the three owners (Michael Oxton, Robert Burns, and Michael O'Mara) of a new Boston nanobrewery that is on the verge of opening its doors.  Night Shift Brewing is setting up shop in an old WWII parts manufacturing facility in Everett, MA.  After signing the lease back in July 2011, the trio have been pushing hard to get their space in shape.  And with all the pieces finally coming together, the company was awarded their Farmer Brewery License just last month.  Brewing on a custom-built 3.5 bbl system, the brewery is planning to self-distribute to the Metro Boston area with targeted spots in the North and Southshore regions.

If Everett, MA sounds familiar, it might be because Night Shift Brewing is also the physical neighbor to one of our prior interviewees, Idle Hand Craft Ales.  With Night Shift tasting room almost complete and beer targeted to be ready to served toward the end of this month, a visit to the 3 Charlton Street facility in Everett to check out the two breweries should certainly be a worthwhile venture.

Below is the first part of our multi-part Q & A interview with Night Shift Brewing.  The conclusion of the interview can be found here.

*   *   *

Lug Wrench (LW): How long have you been planning the Night Shift nanobrewery?

Night Shift Brewing (NSB): Starting a brewery has been on our minds since we graduated college. Two of our three founders – Rob Burns and Michael Oxton – went to Bowdoin College in Maine, and were exposed to a lot of great craft beer from Allagash, Geary’s, Shipyard, etc. Rob actually brewed his first beer in college, looking to get deeper understanding of beer and its ingredients. After graduation, Rob and Michael. both moved to Boston, and began brewing more and more often. Honestly, it only took a few batches until the hobby of brewing became a total obsession.

During this time, our third founder and childhood friend of Rob, Mike O’Mara, had graduated from Philadelphia University and began brewing beer himself down in Philly. His exposure to some of the great PA/NJ breweries like Weyerbacher and Flying Fish definitely helped influence his perception of craft beer. In the summer of 2010, Mike moved to Boston when Rob and Michael (different person) began exploring the possibility of starting a nanobrewery.

Now homebrewing 1-2 times a week on our 15-gallon system, we also started developing this idea of Night Shift Brewing, a name we had given to our nocturnal brewing efforts. After some serious planning and organization, we incorporated Night Shift Brewing in January of 2011. Our business plan took shape soon after that, and it all escalated from there. About sixteen months of hard work and serious planning has led us to where we are now, on the verge brewing our very first official batch.

LW: When did you know this was something you were going to go for, as opposed to just just daydream material?

NSB: In our six-bedroom Somerville apartment, we began holding weekly beer tastings. Quite often, we’d have 10+ friends show up, each with 1-2 beers that would all get sampled, discussed and rated over the course of the night.  Over the years, we tasted and documented over 400 different beers this way, which became invaluable market research.  At the same time, we were just beginning our foray into homebrewing. Drawing inspiration from our many tastings, we experimented with our own recipes in an attempt to create beers that were equally unique, interesting and delicious. We often played with unorthodox ingredients and many strains of yeast, looking for flavors that were great, but also memorable.

Eventually, we began slipping homebrews into our weekly tastings, just to see how they stacked up. It wasn’t all positive at first, but after some improvements in our equipment, techniques and recipes, ratings for our homebrews went up. When they began tasting on par with certain commercial beers, the realization hit: we could actually do this professionally.

Fueled by this possibility, our brewing efforts increased even more. We bought better equipment and put as much time into brewing as we had available. With beer piling up around the apartment, we decided to start throwing tasting parties. These were a huge success – we’d usually have close too 100 guests show, all sampling 6-8 of our different beers on tap. We handed out rating cards to everyone, and collected feedback that way, and through conversation. When it became clear that many types of people with many different tastes thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated our product, we began developing serious ideas for the business.

LW: How did you gather the required capital to start the brewery?

NSB: Our start-up capital came from our friends, our family, and ourselves. As a business with no credit history, banks or traditional lenders would never have given us the necessary loans. So, we wrote a strong business plan and convinced friends and family members that our strategy and product had real potential for success. The business plan itself took a lot of work and many, many drafts, but it was hugely helpful and ultimately quite successful.

LW: As you began to plan the nanobrewery, what resources did you use to gather information?

NSB: Starting the brewery has been a long and painfully slow process. Everything has taken longer than expected. Perhaps most helpful to us were conversations we had with other brewers and breweries - we tried to learn as much as we could from them. We were also lucky to have Idle Hands Craft Ales directly next door to us, and 6 months ahead of us in terms of licensing and build out. Chris Tkach, the owner of Idle Hands, was a fantastic resource.

We also read a number of beer blogs to help us navigate the mess. The Bruery’s blog was one of our best resources, as they fully documented a large part of their start-up. Another great site is Probrewer.com. There are a lot of active discussions on there, and many people who will answer your questions.

LW: Night Shifts initial plan is to self-distribute. Why is that?

NSB: We chose self-distribution because (a) we simply cannot afford a distributor right now (b) we don’t really need one until our production increases, but also (c) we’d much rather become familiar with our accounts as we start. Being able to speak personally with the beer buyer or restaurant manager about our own product is really important to us, and that relationship is something we want to cultivate before we grow too big.

Eventually, we would like to expand to other New England states, as well as more of the east coast (especially Pennsylvania, where two of our founders are from). For now, though, given our small size, our focus is on Massachusetts.

LW: How are you planning to differentiate your beer from all the other offerings that are out there?

NSB: Night Shift Brewing is really trying to be an innovative brewery. Each of our beers will incorporate unusual ingredients, processes, or inspiration from rare styles. Our goal is to fuse these ideas into beers that are truly memorable and interesting. But we’re not looking to make gimmicky beers or put out extreme flavors. Rather, we want to build unique, complex flavor profiles that create a product that, above everything else, is simply great beer. People will hopefully find intricacies in our beer, but the focus is a drink that people will enjoy, and remember.

When possible, we also plan to source ingredients from local businesses. Two of our three initial offerings use a locally sourced product – our Bee Tea uses organic green tea from Somerville’s Mem Tea, and our Taza Stout uses organic roasted cacao nibs from Somerville’s Taza Chocolate.

Finally, it is our belief that beer and food are a natural combination. While our beers should be worth appreciating on their own, they should also pair well with the right complementary dish. Our labels will details “Suggested Food Pairings” for each beer, and our blog will have an ongoing focus on both eating and cooking with beer. We also plan to work with various restaurants in and around Boston in hopes of uniting great craft beer with great food.

* * *

Part 2 of our interview with Night Shift Brewing can be found here.

If you want to find out more about Night Shift Brewing, check out their website, or better yet, if you are in Boston, stop by the brewery.

Slainte!

-JW


"Work is the curse of the drinking class."
-Oscar Wilde

Nanobrewery Interviews: Idle Hands Craft Ales (Part 2)

While many of us have toyed with the thought of starting up our own nanobrewery, there are others who have taken the plunge. To find out who these people are and what makes them do what they do, Tom and I embarked on a series of interviews with regional nanobreweries to get their stories.

Idle Hands Craft Ales

Everett, MA

http://www.idlehandscraftales.com/

As a follow-up to the first half of our interview with Grace and Chris Tkach, owners of Idle Hands Craft Ales, this post presents the conclusion of our conversation with the new nanobrewery.  Idle Hands, which was founded in 2010, is planning to release its first beer before the summer of 2011.

*   *   *

Lug Wrench (LW): Where did you get the inspiration for the beers you plan to commercialize? How did you pick your range of offerings?

Idle Hands (IH): Chris has always had a fascination with Belgian beer and the concept of pairing beer and food. So the beers that we will produce will reflect those interests. As much as Chris loves hoppy IPAs, he does feel that the style has been a little overdone and wants to offer something a bit unique. We’ve decided to take the idea and turn it on its head a bit which was the inspiration for our first beer, Pandora, a hoppy Belgian pale ale. Pandora is not tongue-numbing bitter, but we think the citrusy characteristics of the late hop additions play wonderfully with the Belgian yeast. It is a beer that you can drink a lot of in one sitting yet still have taste buds left over for other (food) flavors.

Other mainstay beers for Idle Hands originate from the homebrewed beers that Chris has made in the past - ones which have been well received in both competitions as well as with our friends. Our follow on beer to Pandora is called Brevity, a Belgian style Wit. The wit is one of Grace’s favorite beers and has always had a big following among our friends. It has been touted numerous times as ‘very refreshing’ and should be a nice option in late Spring/Summer.

Beyond Pandora and Brevity, we are still working out which beers will be ‘usual suspects’ versus which will be ‘specialty’ beers. Among the options include a single or patersbier, a dubbel, a quad and a golden strong. There are also plans to start barrel aging and souring beers from the start and Chris may even resurrect the barleywine recipe he used for our wedding favor beer (Double Happiness) as a specialty player. We won’t stick strictly to Belgian beers either but we do hope to inspire the theme of beer-food pairings with each offering.

LW: How do you plan to differentiate your beer from all the other offerings that are out there?

IH: We are hoping that Idle Hands can capitalize on being local and offering a focused product line. Boston has a great beer culture and we are fortunate to have a great market for good beer. However, the one thing we believe the city lacks is a lot of “local” beer options. While there are many New England breweries starting up, there are few that really find their home in Boston.

Additionally, many of the breweries that have started up offer a broad array of beers - many English style ales but very few Belgian options. In contrast, Idle Hands Craft Ales heavily leans towards Belgian styles for inspiration. Our plan is to focus on these styles of beers as our flagship and regular options, but we won’t rule out the occasional non-Belgian offering within our specialty line.

We love Belgian beers because of their complex nature and how they help to bring out the flavors of food. This complementary nature of our beer with food is one of the key attributes that we are promoting. As we get established, we hope to place increasing emphasis on beer-food pairings. There are so many flavors in beer in general that work with a large variety of foods; our beers will offer such variety. While the beer and foodie communities are becoming more and more engaged in beer-food pairings, we know that the general public does not realize how synergistic the two are.

In addition, there is an ever increasing movement around buying and sourcing local these days that we hope to capitalize upon. In particular, the “locavore” and “farm-to-table” movements are very strong in the Boston and surrounding metropolitan areas. Once we are able to get buy-in into such restaurants, our plan it to work with them to create unique beer pairings for their menu. Finally, we plan on highlighting recommended pairings on our website so that foodies and gastronomes can enjoy these options at home.

LW: Looking forward, what are the biggest hurdles you see the brewing facing?

IH: Today, our biggest hurdle is the actual brewery buildout. It has been a very long road, one which has taken much more time than we expected. We thought the Federal licensing process would be the limiting factor but we were wrong! We know the buildout is a temporary hurdle, but knowing we are licensed to brew already, it is emotionally draining that we cannot start yet. There are many nights that Chris wakes up thinking about the brewery and what’s still left to be done. On top of that, we’ve had restaurants and stores ask us when they can expect to purchase our beers. It is frustrating that we have the interest and cannot meet their requests yet. We just hope we don’t lose momentum.

Once the brewery buildout is complete, our next hurdle will be sales and distribution. Since we are self-distributing and it is just the two of us who also have “day” jobs, our time for the brewery is limited to nights and weekends. Logistically speaking, it will be a challenge to offer samples and have conversations about Idle Hands and our beers with the individuals we need to in order to get to customers (i.e. restaurant owners, bar managers, beer buyers, etc.). We’ve already had some momentum on this front, but as most small business owners know, how do you continue this momentum and run the business at the same time - plus keep your day job!

Finally, looking into the future, capital for expansion will be our next hurdle. Given the current market, banks are being very careful about lending money. We hope to have an established business and consumer demand which will help to build our case for a small business loan.

LW: Is there anything else you think our readers might enjoy learning about you or your brewery?

IH: A lot of people have commented on how much they like our logo. We’re really excited about it and in particular, the way it was developed. A friend of ours had suggested utilizing a crowdsourcing website, CrowdSpring.com, to get our logo developed. After putting together a comprehensive creative brief, we held a contest through this website to develop our logo. We received over 100 entries and after a two week period of critiquing the submissions, we were excited to select the winning logo after soliciting feedback from our Facebook fans. As a small business owner, you need to be resourceful about how you get things done. Developing our logo relied a lot on us knowing what we wanted to be, but it also enabled us to use the power of social media in getting something so important done.

In the spirit of trying to keep things local, we have been aiming to keep our dollars in the community where possible. Also, we are making sustainable (green) choices in inputs and outputs to our business. Though we are far from our goal of always making local and sustainable choices, as we mature and grow, we will do so with these ideals in mind.

LW: Lastly, our homebrewing readers always love a recipe – would you be willing to provide one for people to try?

IH: Here is one of my all time favorite beers to brew and drink. It’s a Scottish 70/- that is brewed in the traditional sense; with no caramel malts. All of the caramel flavors are developed in the kettle and from the boil down of the first runnings. I’m sure that at some point this beer will show up as a specialty release because I love it so much.

Scottish 70/-

==========

batch size: 5.5 gallons

SG: 1.040

FG: 1.011

IBUs: 14

Ingredients

---------------

6 lbs 11oz - Scottish or English 2-row Pale Malt (I prefer Golden Promise but have used Marris Otter in the past which adds a slight nuttiness to the final beer)

20z - German Carafa II

1oz - Roasted Barley

1oz - Kent Goldings (4.5% AA)

1 vial - White Labs WLP028 (Edinburg)

Process

----------

Using a step mash routine, mash in at 144F with 1.2 quarts/lb and rest for 20 minutes. Then raise the temp to 158F and rest for another 40 minutes or until conversion has completed. Mash out at 168F.

Pull the first gallon of runnings into a separate pot and boil it down to less than 1 quart. This will create a light syrup filled with medium-light caramel flavors. While that 1st gallon is boiling down, continue the sparge.

I use the rule of thumb of ½ gallon water per pound of grain for any additional water used in the mashing and sparging process. So if you’re using an infusion mash routine with this recipe the maximum amount of water you would use with your additional infusions and sparging is 3.5 gallons (~ 7lbs of grain * 0.5 gallons/lb = 3.5 gallons).

Once you’ve finished sparging add any additional water to the kettle so that you start your boil with 6.75 gallons total. Boil for 90 minutes, adding the hops at 75 minutes and the boiled off first runnings when its been boiled down to the consistency of a light syrup (think warm pure maple syrup).

Chill the wort to 62F and pitch the yeast (I prefer to create a small 1 liter starter for this beer).

Ferment the beer at 65F for approximately 1 week or until fermentation has completed. Let the beer sit on the yeast for an additional 3-4 days after fermentation has completed so that the yeast will clean up any fermentation byproducts.

Transfer the beer to a keg and cold condition for 2-3 weeks at 40F, carbonate to 2 ATMs and enjoy!

* * *

If you want to find out more about Idle Hands Craft Ales, check out their website, or better yet, if you are in Boston, stop by the brewery.

Slainte!

-JW

“Beer should be enjoyed with the right mixture of abandon and restraint.”
-M.F.K. Fisher

Nanobrewery Interviews: Idle Hands Craft Ales (Part 1)

While many of us have toyed with the thought of starting up our own nanobrewery, there are others who have taken the plunge. To find out who these people are and what makes them do what they do, Tom and I embarked on a series of interviews with regional nanobreweries to get their stories.

Idle Hands Craft Ales

Everett, MA

http://www.idlehandscraftales.com/

As we continue our series of nanobewery interviews, I had the opportunity to chat with Grace and Christopher Tkach, owners of Idle Hands Craft Ales. Idle Hands, which is located just north of Boston in Everett, MA, is a nanobrewery on the verge of releasing its first beer (Pandora), which should be out mid-to-late spring.  The brewery is a self-designed, custom-built 1.5 bbl system made from 55 gallon stainless steel barrels. The Tkachs have begun fermenting in 60 gallon plastic conicals for economical reasons, but plan to upgrade after the brewery has become more established.

Idle Hands is planning an extremely local approach to distribution, as they will be initially self-distributing their beer mainly within the 128 beltway of Boston. However, if you live outside of this region, the brewery will also have a tasting area to accommodate visitors and potentially fill growlers, pending town approval.

Below is the first part of our two part Q and A interview with Idle Hands Craft Ales.

*   *   *

Lug Wrench (LW): What inspired you to start-up Idle Hands Craft Ales?

Idle Hands (IH): The idea of starting a brewery was something Chris always dreamed about since he received his first homebrewing kit at the age of 21. However, it was not until the last 18 months, that the aspect of starting a brewery started to get some legs. Chris had been reading about nanobreweries cropping up in the industry and our decision was sealed after an impromptu stop and tour of Maine Beer Company, a nanobrewery in Portland, ME. After speaking with David Kleban, the owner at Maine, we realized - and he encouraged - that such a business was possible.

Once we visited Maine Beer Company, we realized that (starting a beer-related company) didn’t have to be that complicated. Starting small was a (relatively) inexpensive way to enter this business. It was incredible to learn that within just a year, the brewery was essentially paying for itself. After having this conversation with David and physically seeing a nanobrewery set-up, everything seemed much more accessible and things started to fall into place.

Most importantly, Chris received tremendous support for his beer throughout the years. From day one and throughout his 16 years of brewing, he had been submitting his beers to local competitions and had done quite well in many of them. Since his re-engagement in brewing over the last 4 years, he was brewing so much, he had more beer on hand than the two of us could feasibly consume. We attended lots of parties and hosted several ourselves where Chris’ homebrew was a mainstay and center of many conversations. Our friends often commented that his beer was “really good”, often “better than other commercial beers”. They often asked if he was going to sell it. It was those words of encouragement that helped to grow the entrepreneurial bug that had already been planted. While we know our friends can be biased in favor, there was something to be said for the support they had. That support, coupled with knowing that unbiased beer judges rated his beer well, encouraged both of us to run with the brewery. Whether or not we make all of the right business decisions, in the end, we are confident our product will be good!

LW: How did you gather the required capital to start the brewery?
 
IH: We are fortunate that Chris’ current and past “day jobs” enabled him to build up some savings which we are using to start the business. Our recent wedding gift fund has helped as well! We knew we did not want to bring in any outside partners or investors so that we could maintain full creative license with the brewery. At some point, however, we may look for investors as we grow but for the time being, we are 100% self-funded.
 
LW: How did you design your brewery? Where did you get all the equipment?
 
IH: Chris reads a lot about beer and the brewing industry. When we started to look into things more seriously, he had already read about other nanobreweries in the making. The brewing community is very open so he was able to make connections with those brewery owners and he asked a lot of questions on how they designed their systems. He took a lot of design cues from other nanobreweries including Hess Brewing and Breaker Brewing. Chris has an engineering degree so he was able to utilize some of his dusty engineering knowledge to incorporate ideas from other breweries with his own to design both the physical layout of the brewery and the brewhouse itself.
 
The 55 gallon stainless steel barrels came from a posting on Ebay. It was that posting that helped to inspire the entire brewstand process. From there it was about finding a welder that we trusted and drafting a set of drawings that he could follow. All of the fittings that got welded into the barrels came from supply houses like McMaster-Carr. Our fermenters were ordered from Tank Depot and we’ve used craigslist extensively for odds and ends including the walk-in cooler that will serve as both our fermentation room and cold room.
 
With the brewstand, the one thing that troubled Chris most was the height needed between the burners and the bottom of the barrels. There was a lot of conflicting information on what the best height was. We hired a welder who came up with an ingenious system that allows us to adjust the height of the burners and thus “tune” them to the brewer’s preference. Our welder also came up with an adjustable system on the mash tun so that the pivot point on the dump can be adjusted up or down which allows us to mash different amounts of grain without worrying about the stability of the pivoting mash tun.
 
LW: What’s the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started the brewery?
 
IH: We have realized that the craft beer industry is a very tight knit community. It is extremely collaborative and surprisingly not competitive. There is tremendous support in the group of aspiring breweries just here in the Boston area and we all tend to lean on each other for advice. Nationally, the support is there as well. We hope that this camaraderie continues as we all find our individual places in the market.
 
It has been great to see the excitement that people have for the project. Most people we have met have encouraged us to follow our dream and are excited to be part of it with us. There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t receive an email from an eager fan asking a question or two about the brewery, whether they can help out or when they can expect our beer in the market. It’s been very validating.
 
LW: If you were speaking to an individual who is considering the prospect of opening their own nanobrewery, what advice would you give them?
 
IH: It’s not a project for the faint of heart. It’s very time consuming and you need to be prepared to spend more time than you think on other aspects of the business other than the beer. The beer almost becomes secondary to things such as finding a location, dealing with the local government, filing the paperwork, talking to potential customers, managing the buildout, etc. Chris has brewed less beer in the last 8 months than he was expecting - that is for sure!
 
Also, do whatever you can to find a space that is already 90% built to your needs and avoid having to build out the space yourself if you can.
 
Finally, just remember there are others out there who have done what you’re trying to do. It is possible - it is tough, but ultimately will be a very rewarding experience. The brewing community has been extremely supportive - reach out to them. We have met a lot of passionate brewers and fans who have offered their help, advice and/or moral support.
 

* * *

Part 2 of our interview with Idle Hands Craft Ales will be posted shortly. 

If you want to find out more about Idle Hands Craft Ales, check out their website, or better yet, if you are in Boston, stop by the brewery.

Slainte!

-JW


“For we could not now take time for further search (to land out ship) our victuals being much spent, especially our beere.”
-Ship’s log of the Mayflower

Nanobrewery Interviews: Lefty’s Brewing Co.

While most of us have just toyed with the thought of starting up a nanobrewery, others have taken the plunge. To find out who these people are and what makes them do what they do, Tom and I embarked on a series of interviews with regional nanobreweries to get their stories.

Lefty's Brewing Co.

Bernardston, Massachusetts

http://www.leftysbrew.com/

Next in our series of nanobrewery interviews, Lug Wrench got the opportunity to speak with Bill Goldfarb, founder of Lefty’s Brewing Co. in Massachusetts. Lefty’s kicked off his nanobrewery just this year (Jan 2010) with a 2 barrel brewhouse and 16 barrel cellar. Bill, a homebrewer for over 8 years, distributes his beer within 30 miles of the brewery in Franklin County, MA.

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Lug Wrench (LW): What inspired you to start-up Lefty’s Brewing Co.?

Bill (BG): I have been a home brewer for years and brewing for a living has always been a dream of mine. Being a commercial roofer since I was 18, I did not want to grow old on the roof.

LW: Where did the Lefty's Brewing Co. name come from?

BF: My name in the roofing community (my prior trade) was Lefty.

LW: How did you gather the required capital to start Lefty’s?

BG: Life savings as well as a small loan from my grandfather. The beauty of a nano-brewery is that it does not take a lot of capital to start up as long as you are creative with how you do things. You don't need all the bells and whistles with a small operation.

LW: How have you involved the community in your brewery? Do you interact with local homebrew clubs?

BG: The community is involved in the brewery through tours and retail sales out of the brewery. This allows the surrounding community to see where and how the beer is made, as well as give input and opinions. I also send the spent grain to local farmers as feed for their cattle. Currently, I don’t have any official affiliation with any local homebrew clubs, other than just informal conversations.

LW: With regards to selling your beer, what has been the biggest challenge you have faced in getting draft accounts or shelf space?

BF: I have had no challenges getting draft accounts or shelf space. Every draft account and package store carrying my product has come to me. Currently Lefty's has a waiting list for wholesale accounts. I believe that the positive response is due to the appreciation for local business in my area.

LW: If you were speaking to an individual who is considering the prospect of opening their own nanobrewery, what advice would you give them?

BF: That the paperwork and prep time for a nano-brewing operation will take much longer than expected. Be prepared to keep working your current job while getting the operation set up. It will be a long time until you can actually fire up the kettle for the first time. The biggest hurdles that I encountered opening the business were local, state and federal licensing.

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If you want to find out more about Bill or Lefty's, check out their website or better yet, if you are in the area, stop by the brewery. 

 
Slainte!
 
-JW
 
 
"I drink when I have occasion, and sometimes when I have no occasion"
-Miguel de Cervantes