The Tasting Area - Part 2

Baby on Board.

Luckily we had the brute strength of two lovely ladies and a baby to get this bar off of the truck. It was pretty darn heavy--probably 350 pounds +/- before the 360 pounds of concrete was even added! 

Melamine Forms.

Skillfully and calculatedly designed melamine forms to shape and transport the concrete countertop to San Diego from Redlands, CA. 

Fresh Concrete.

Five Man Job. 

Perspective.

Huzzah!

The bar is finished, and I have to say, it looks pretty good. Not bad for our first attempt anyhow. I just have to add a few more coats of Buddy Rhodes to the concrete and it will be ship shape. 

First Licensed Brew Day!

Today we are brewing up our "Grazias Ale" it's a style of our own invention - kind of a blend between a Vienna Lager and a Cream Ale - a Vienna Cream Ale if you will. Sure it doesn't really conform to any BJCP style guidelines, but we think it's a pretty great beer anyways! Pretty, pretty, pretty... pretty good.

Our friend Frank came out to help us today. Nothing like an extra hand to hold a leaky hose, wait... that didn't sound right. I meant to say, there is nothing like a having an extra person around to assist in brewing.

It's a pretty cool feeling to be brewing our first licensed (and taxable!) batch of beer. Now it's only a matter of getting our kegs, pints, growlers, and DEH approval.

Here are some pics from the brew day:

Mike overseeing lautering - Look at the size of that kettle! It's huge!

Mashed In, recirculating the wort.

Checking the gravity on the fly in our custom small sample wort chiller, fabricated by Hess brewing brother Greg, of Sierra Graphics.

Mike sets up for single pass chilling to the conical with the Therminator
(thanks Blichmann)

Mike (the other Mike) regulating wort to the Fermenator. 68* on the dot.

We are currently using a More Beer 2050 Tippy Brewing Sculpture, but we are in the process of having a custom 1.6 bbl system made. Until then we will be SUPER nano at only 2/3 of a barrel per batch.

Re: Starting Small - The Nanobrewery Concept.

Erik Lars Myers of Top Fermented wrote up an article about the concept of starting incredibly small brewery (between 10-75 gallons for most "nanobreweries") while maintaining a full-time job. A quote from his article:

"From what it looks like, you homebrew, and then you drop the thousands upon thousands of dollars you need for the necessary permits and licenses to sell your product, and then for some bizarre reason you keep your day job.

See? It is crazy. Totally batshit insane."

The answer in Hess Brewing Company's case is that there are two of us. While we do have the same name, Michael--which makes things a bit confusing--there are in fact two of us working on this nanobrewery concept.

First is Michael Hess, owner, brewmaster and vaunted leader - the guy who was first crazy enough to say "go for it". Mike is the one with the real "paying job", now running two businesses at once! who foots the bill around here. Mike has been busy handcrafting ales and lagers for 15 years now, much to the delight of his friends, and soon, if all goes as planned, all of you!

I, Michael Skubic, will be the guy going around to bars and restaurants attempting to sell our handcrafted ales. For now, I work in the brewery full-time, drafting blueprints, Charlie work, getting all the TTB/ABC/DEH paperwork ready for signature, painting, carpentry... More importantly for our readers and followers, I'm the guy updating the blog/twitter/facebook. I am just "crazy" enough to go along for the ride. Crazy like a fox. Also, does guano make you go insane? I always wondered where that saying came from.

"What do you think? Starting that small is an undeniably cool (and even romantic) concept, but I wonder at how sustainable the businesses are. It’s great to see that some of the ones listed in the link above are making a step up in growth, but how many will successfully make that step, and how many will make that step at all? Are these merely extended hobbyists or is this a viable entrance strategy to the craft beer industry?"

From the nanobreweries (and former nanos) I have seen it can be an extended hobby or a viable entrance strategy. Breweries like Two Beers and Schooner Exact have started on 1 barrel systems and have grown into 7-10 barrel systems in a matter of months, while others like Healdsburg and Steffan's Aldergrove have stayed at 10 gallons to 31 gallon systems for a couple of years now.

How are we going to grow? That remains to be seen. For now we are just about through all of Tax and Trade Bureau licensing, we just have the interview tomorrow morning. After that we just need to show our TTB approval to the Alcoholic Beverage Control and we will be a legal brewery! All we have after that is the Dept. of Health. Wish us luck!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays from Hess Brewing!

Below I've loaded up a couple videos that should warm you up like a good holiday craft brew. So smoke 'em if you got 'em and drink your glasses to the bottom. I hope you enjoy these videos as much as I did.

Stay safe & warm and have a great holiday weekend!

Jimmy Fallon + The Roots + The Muppets Singing "12 Days of Christmas"

Special Agent Jack Bauer Interviews Suspect Smuggling Packages

"Do You Hear What I Hear?" by the Bowen Beer Bottle Band