In MA there's a farmer-brewer and farmer-brewery classification / designation. I'm certainly no lawyer, but I'm taking away from it that if you meet a few simple criteria, and aren't producing a whole heck-uv-a-lot, you can get a license to brew from the ABC for a $3k bond (one time) plus $22 / year. The amount per year can change depending on your excise volume (IE: the amount that you produce for your tax determination tank(s)), but it never truly gets outrageous.
I've talked a bit with some folks about forming an LLC, and taking this thing to the big-time. I'll need to get my recipe's in killer condition (I just started developing one that seems good enough to get dialed in -just- right) and have a strong whisper campaign. But, if everything lines up correctly, the brewing company could see real revenue (beyond a few hundred dollars a month) in a few years without accruing much (if any) debt. All the while, it could grow organically.
Ok, head-in-the clouds thinking, I know. But the ABC + Fed costs aren't that high, the equipment cost can be managed. Like everything, it will all come down to location and dedication. 3 AM brew days, here I come.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Brew chem 101
I was thinking about water this morning. Water is not just that clear, life-giving substance that comes from the faucet. It's actually pretty critical to brewing. In fact, sometimes the difference between an amazing beer and a terrible beer could be the water (I kid you not!). When I brew there are two different types of water I have access to:
Good 'ol Dracut, MA water.
Good 'ol Dracut, MA well water.
I haven't sent either out for any kind of real analysis, but I'm betting that the well water is quite soft, as compared with the stuff from Dracut (Town of). This can be important, as most of the enzymatic action that a brewer is looking for is somewhat lower on the PH scale (between 4.5 and 5.5). Truely pure water is a 7. Think about that.
Ok, why is this even that important? So what if the water is softer? What are these enzymes? What do they do? Why are you confusing me?
Let's back up a bit. The basic process of beer making is pretty straight-forward. We are looking to make alcohol. Alcohol is made by feeding yeast a bunch of sugar. Plain and simple. Ancient brewers got the yeast by just hoping they'd land in the sugar-water mix they had. But where did they get the sugar? Grain. Huh?! Grains are starchy, right?
Grains are seeds. They are the "next generation" of a stalk of wheat, barley, oats, or corn. In essence, they are self-contained baby plants. What do all living things need in order to grow from initial state to adult? Energy. How do seeds get this energy? It's locked away in large-chain starch molecules. The cells of the seed can't digest these molecules on their own, though. The chains are just too long. However, they CAN digest sugar to create energy. So, locked in there with the "baby" plant are enzymes which break long-chain starches into medium and short chain sugars.
Think of it like this:
You are building a shed and need a bunch of 10-ft and 5-ft length 2x4s. Instead, you have a pile of 100-ft planks. In order for you to get these planks the right size, you are given some power tools.
The power tools have some pretty specific rules though. If there's too much heat, they'll overload and break. If there's not enough heat, they won't turn on. If the environment is not absolutely correct, they'll work inefficiently and you'll have some pretty rough-cut planks.
This is why the water is so important. It's important to control the temperature so that the enzymatic actions you need can happen. It's important to control the PH because that action will be slow and inefficient (and possibly not even work) as compared to what it could be.
With me so far? Good. If not, drink less beer next time you read this post.
Adding salts and minerals to the water can have a nice buffering effect on the ph, and give those enzymes (power tools) the absolute best environment for production. With a larger supply of short-chain sugars to eat, the yeast will be less stressed. Less stressed yeast produce cleaner flavors, and attenuate better. Sometimes, you want to stress out the yeast a bit. Those off flavors can lend some interesting characteristics to a Belgian or a lambic. Otherwise, you generally want to avoid off-flavors. Esters, dme's, diacetyl, and phenols are generally not good in something like a lager, which wants clean and crisp malt and hop flavors.
This all goes back to the water I have access to. Ideally, distilled water allows me to buffer the water any way I want. Since I don't have access to a real production quality still (I do have a still that could process about 6 gallons of water, but I've only used it once - it's really for emergencies) I'd have to either buy distilled water (expensive) or more realistically, test all of the surrounding area water to figure out exactly what the chemical and mineral composition looks like.
oi vay.
Good 'ol Dracut, MA water.
Good 'ol Dracut, MA well water.
I haven't sent either out for any kind of real analysis, but I'm betting that the well water is quite soft, as compared with the stuff from Dracut (Town of). This can be important, as most of the enzymatic action that a brewer is looking for is somewhat lower on the PH scale (between 4.5 and 5.5). Truely pure water is a 7. Think about that.
Ok, why is this even that important? So what if the water is softer? What are these enzymes? What do they do? Why are you confusing me?
Let's back up a bit. The basic process of beer making is pretty straight-forward. We are looking to make alcohol. Alcohol is made by feeding yeast a bunch of sugar. Plain and simple. Ancient brewers got the yeast by just hoping they'd land in the sugar-water mix they had. But where did they get the sugar? Grain. Huh?! Grains are starchy, right?
Grains are seeds. They are the "next generation" of a stalk of wheat, barley, oats, or corn. In essence, they are self-contained baby plants. What do all living things need in order to grow from initial state to adult? Energy. How do seeds get this energy? It's locked away in large-chain starch molecules. The cells of the seed can't digest these molecules on their own, though. The chains are just too long. However, they CAN digest sugar to create energy. So, locked in there with the "baby" plant are enzymes which break long-chain starches into medium and short chain sugars.
Think of it like this:
You are building a shed and need a bunch of 10-ft and 5-ft length 2x4s. Instead, you have a pile of 100-ft planks. In order for you to get these planks the right size, you are given some power tools.
The power tools have some pretty specific rules though. If there's too much heat, they'll overload and break. If there's not enough heat, they won't turn on. If the environment is not absolutely correct, they'll work inefficiently and you'll have some pretty rough-cut planks.
This is why the water is so important. It's important to control the temperature so that the enzymatic actions you need can happen. It's important to control the PH because that action will be slow and inefficient (and possibly not even work) as compared to what it could be.
With me so far? Good. If not, drink less beer next time you read this post.
Adding salts and minerals to the water can have a nice buffering effect on the ph, and give those enzymes (power tools) the absolute best environment for production. With a larger supply of short-chain sugars to eat, the yeast will be less stressed. Less stressed yeast produce cleaner flavors, and attenuate better. Sometimes, you want to stress out the yeast a bit. Those off flavors can lend some interesting characteristics to a Belgian or a lambic. Otherwise, you generally want to avoid off-flavors. Esters, dme's, diacetyl, and phenols are generally not good in something like a lager, which wants clean and crisp malt and hop flavors.
This all goes back to the water I have access to. Ideally, distilled water allows me to buffer the water any way I want. Since I don't have access to a real production quality still (I do have a still that could process about 6 gallons of water, but I've only used it once - it's really for emergencies) I'd have to either buy distilled water (expensive) or more realistically, test all of the surrounding area water to figure out exactly what the chemical and mineral composition looks like.
oi vay.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
I'm going to start a brewery
I've been thinking about it more and more. Brewing is something I'm intensely passionate about, and it's something I enjoy. Hello, my name is Aaron, and I have fun.
There's always some reason to not jump into this. The cost to entry, lack of market experience, no customers. Heck, I don't even have an AHA award. That doesn't matter. What matters is this: I like brewing; I like beer.
I don't even mind the drudgery that goes along with brewing. Sanitize, scrub, disassemble, reassemble. It's not a bother to me (although, my wife probably isn't too thrilled about it when it takes about 8 hours to get a brew done). That's why I think I am going to start a brewery. Even the part that isn't fun, is fun.
But there's a lot more to starting a brewery than just "Here's my recipe and my bottles, lets find a store!" There's licensing, inspections, fees, approvals, and vast array of process. At the federal level, it's not a huge amount of work. It can be banged out in a few weekends, as far as the paperwork goes. At the state level there's a bit more work to do. But the costs at the state level is huge in MA. It can cost up to $10k USD to setup a brewery. With that kind of cost, starting a small nanobrewery to serve the local community (and I can think of a few places that would probably be eager to serve up some backyard brown ale) is pretty much out of the question.
Still, I'm going to start a brewery.
There's always some reason to not jump into this. The cost to entry, lack of market experience, no customers. Heck, I don't even have an AHA award. That doesn't matter. What matters is this: I like brewing; I like beer.
I don't even mind the drudgery that goes along with brewing. Sanitize, scrub, disassemble, reassemble. It's not a bother to me (although, my wife probably isn't too thrilled about it when it takes about 8 hours to get a brew done). That's why I think I am going to start a brewery. Even the part that isn't fun, is fun.
But there's a lot more to starting a brewery than just "Here's my recipe and my bottles, lets find a store!" There's licensing, inspections, fees, approvals, and vast array of process. At the federal level, it's not a huge amount of work. It can be banged out in a few weekends, as far as the paperwork goes. At the state level there's a bit more work to do. But the costs at the state level is huge in MA. It can cost up to $10k USD to setup a brewery. With that kind of cost, starting a small nanobrewery to serve the local community (and I can think of a few places that would probably be eager to serve up some backyard brown ale) is pretty much out of the question.
Still, I'm going to start a brewery.
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