Baby Steps

I've started getting serious about planning a brewery, and have spent a lot of my free time the last few weeks in front of the computer. I've devoted a lot of that time to creating hypothetical brewing schedules based on having different numbers and sizes of fermenters, and a lot more of it to haphazardly web-researching every issue that pops into my head. A search for "brewery layout" led me to this weblog of an upstart brewery in Santa Cruz. Although the context of my search phrase was irrelevant, I was fascinated and spent the rest of tonight reading their story from the beginning - I'm about halfway done and am calling it quits to maintain the proper balance in my life (aka go to sleep two hours late). As a sidenote, brewing organic beer is a possibility that I've acknowledged but not given a whole lot of consideration to. Being here in Madison where organic beer would 1) likely go over very well and 2) doesn't exist yet, I should give it a lot more thought.

I've also managed to take a couple of bigger steps in the last couple of weeks. First, I signed up for this small business course. Thanks for the tip, Margie! Second, I told a couple of my bosses today that I plan on cutting back my hours in the near future to work on opening my own brewery. Rich, the head brewer, is supportive and doesn't mind keeping me around while I moonlight, as long as I give him advance notice about when I'll be gone and do the same when I quit for good. David, the owner, cocked his head, raised an eyebrow, chuckled, may have sneezed the word "idiot" and told me that we should sit down sometime and talk about the logistics of opening a business. Working a day or two less each week will enable me to talk with people during normal working hours. People who I need to contact include equipment manufacturers, government officials, utility providers, other brewers, contractors, lawyers, junkyard owners, back-alley welders, potential investors, the devil and certain restaurant contacts who Robyn has graciously put me in touch with. Onward!