Bureaucracy is a four letter word.

So I haven't posted in a while.  I've been busy.  Unfortunately I have not been very busy doing anything that I would consider constructive.  Instead of actually building a brewery, I've been dealing with the various bureaucracies involved in building a brewery.  I knew I was going to have to deal with it at some point and I knew it wasn't going to be pretty.  Still, no amount of preparation can prepare you for the mundane business end of starting a brewery.

There are two distinct areas of bureaucracy I'm dealing with at the moment.  The first deals with the whole "making alcohol legally" issue.  Funny how they just don't let you do that on your own.  There are state and federal permits that must be filled out in duplicate.  However, you can't fill out the state application until after you do the federal one.  That's where the TTB comes in.  They used to be called the ATF but after the government reshuffling that took place post 9/11 the TTB was created to handle the tax side of the ATF's functions.  The TTB is more the paper-pusher side of things as opposed to the regular ATF who are door-kicking-in kinds of folks.

So that's what I've been working on....for about three weeks straight (and off and on for a month before that), filling out the TTB Brewer's Notice.  There's a pile of forms asking every form of personal question you can think of.  You have to provide financial statements for every month in which you have spent money on the business, as well as five months prior to that purchase.  You have to get a bond to insure that the government can get their excise taxes even if you can't afford to pay them yourself.  You even have to make statements about how much garbage you will generate and what you plan to do with it (I'm not kidding).  It's a lot of stuff, but in the end it seems pretty straight forward as long as you follow the directions (which are split up amongst several different and not all that easy to find pages on the TTB website).  Thankfully I can say that as of a couple of days ago it's done!  Now we wait about three months (or more) for them to process and approve it...

Less fun so far has been the building permit process.  The brewery is an old warehouse space so of course it needs a little work.  Electrical and plumbing upgrades as well as a bathroom need to be added.  The walls need drywall.  All in all it's actually not that much work...but you still have to get a permit.  To get a permit you need stamped drawings from an architect...done.  You also have to be a city registered contractor in order to get a permit for a commercial space in Cincinnati.  That one I wasn't expecting.  So rather than pay a contractor to put up the drywall that I can put up myself, I ended up paying the fee and voila!  Blank Slate is now a city registered contractor!  Just don't call me to put an addition on your house.  I'm too busy.  Now we can finally get a building permit application filed...but then it gets rejected (which is apparently common on the first try).  So now its back to the architect for some very minor revisions.... 

Oh well, like I said I knew it was going to be this way...it still sucks though....

                                           TTB application.  Over an inch of fun fun fun...

What's your hook?

I know (or know of) a lot of people that are in various stages of starting a brewery in and around Cincinnati right now.  Sure some may be all talk, some are ready to launch, and some are someplace in between.  The most common question I get asked by people familiar with the brewing "scene" is:

"So what's your hook?  What's going to make you different from all the other guys?"

Good question.  In the craft beer world marketing isn't about football and Swedish bikini teams and "frost brewed" and "triple hopped".  It's about telling a story and finding your niche.  So what is Blank Slate's niche?

Well of course handcrafted quality beer is a must.  This is the starting point for anyone in this industry (or at least it should be).  Beyond that everything is wide open.  I brew what I like to drink and I hope everyone else will enjoy it also.  I like to drink seasonally and a big focus of the brewery will be to rotate beers as the weather changes.  Very few people like to drink a Russian Imperial Stout when it's 100° outside so why bother brewing it until the winter?  (I only say this because now that it's 50° outside I am drinking a RIS and thoroughly enjoying it.)  Sure there are a few styles that are good year round and we'll have some of those too.  There will be some "big beers" but I am also a believer that the session beer has become a lost art in American craft brewing.  Sometimes it's nice to sit around and drink two or three pints and not worry about having to drive home afterward.  Oh yeah, barrel aged sour beers are on the agenda too.

So all this may sound a bit scattershot, and yeah, maybe it is.  On the surface it doesn't really seem to answer the original question of "what's your hook?"  Well maybe that's the answer.  Maybe the hook is that there is no hook.  Maybe being a small self-distributed operation doing whatever feels right is a hook in and of itself?  Maybe the answer is right there in the name.....

I'm starting this thing with an open mind and a Blank Slate.....We'll see what falls out of it...

The backstory....part 2

So what makes me think I have what it takes to be a successful commercial brewer?  I've asked myself that question many times over the last few years.  There are a great many homebrewers around here that brew amazing beer.  I am by no means the most decorated homebrewer in this town but I have won my fair share of medals.  The truth of the matter is that's just not enough of a resume to run out and start a brewery.  So I started studying.  Reading brewing textbooks that remind me a little bit of my old organic chemistry book has become the norm around my house.  I've taken some classes at the Siebel Institute which is America's oldest brewing school.  A couple of years ago I became a certified beer judge (yes there really is such a thing), and earlier this year I became a Certified Cicerone (the beer equivalent to a wine sommelier).  I've volunteered, consulted with, downright pestered and learned a lot from some of the other local brewers along the way.  (Thank you Mt. Carmel and Rivertown).

Does any of this mean I've got what it takes to do this for a living?  Who knows.  I haven't even touched on how much "fun" learning the business and accounting side of things has been, let alone dealing with state and federal licensing bureaucracies, city building permits, or my least favorite part, preparing to make sales calls.  Thus the "scary" part in the tagline of this blog.  What I do know is that I have a passion and desire to do this that has been building inside me for years and it isn't going away.  I've been learning and working my way to this point for quite a while now and there's no turning back now.....