Someone Has To Brew.

I am not a brewer. I knew this going in. So my first order of business was to find a brewer willing to get on board with a start up that couldn't pay a huge salary to start. Hiring a brewer is tricky business so I decided to stick with brewers I knew had experience and most important of all, brewers whose beer I have had. During the initial search I spoke with Buzz Brown formally of Spanish Springs Brewery in The Villages. I'd had Buzz's beers before and I enjoyed them a great deal. Buzz, had the right attitude and the willingness to take a gamble with me. Unfortunately, Buzz also has bills to pay and I was several months away from getting started. During this time Buzz got offered a position in Utah filling in for an ill friend and he took it. So I lost my Buzz.

I spoke with a few other brewers including a brief meeting with Madison Roane formerly of McGuires and now with Dunedin Brewery. I've always been impressed by Madison's passion and encyclopedic knowledge of brewing and beer. Unfortunately, Madison had already joined on with Dunedin Brewery where he quickly settled in and is producing some great beers.

My search finally lead me to a gentlemen I had talked beer with numerous times. A guy who very much has his finger on the pulse of craft beer and understands the approach I'd like to take. I knew he had a good job though and figured he wouldn't be interested in taking a pay cut to roll the dice with me. I was wrong though. His passion for brewing was calling to him and he was indeed interested.  I'd love to tell you this fellows name, but he still has another job and until we get permitted and up and running it seems premature. So check back for that announcement.

We Do Need Stinking Permits?

I am going to mention www.probrewer.com a lot because frankly the majority of the information I was able to find in regards to getting a brewery up and running, I found on probrewer. Permitting was no exception. It was on probrewer that I learned a creature named Vezelgoth the Destroyer who is employed in the Seventh Circle of Hell and the Departhment of Alcohol, Tobaco & Firearms developed the laws regarding brewing permits.

Permitting is a nightmare plain and simple. Initially I was going to handle the task myself and I got as far as downloading all the forms for my Federal Brewer’s Permit (all brewers in the US must have one). Around this time I spoke with Tom Moensch the man behind Orange Blossom Pilsner and Unique Distributors. Tom turned me on to Will Orozco of Alcohol & Tobacco Consultants out of sunrise Florida. 

Will used to work for the State and he has intimate knowledge of permitting and reporting laws and procedures. His fee was steep, 5K to get started and an estimate of up to 8K depending on what issues we encountered. I debated spending such a large amount, but I recalled the trials and tribulations Bob Sylvester of Saint Somewhere Brewing in Tarpon Springs went through with permitting and label issues. It just seemed like the smart bet to hire the expert and cover my ass, so I sent Will a check.

It’s a Business Too.

Around the time I opened the Cigar City Brewing bank account I was wondering how exactly I was going to keep up with the business side of my business. I am not a brewer and I am not a bookkeeper. Even a company with one or two employees can generate a staggering amount of bookkeeping work and it is difficult to get out there and hand sell beer if you are spending your days balancing the check book, pay invoices, generate P&L statements and send out invoices. My wife has a good friend who recently opened a business and she raved about her bookkeeper. I gave her a call, we met, and I had a bookkeeper. Kimberly easily answered all my questions and pointed out many things I had not considered.  It’s comforting to know that I can focus on the beer side of things and leave the stuff I suck at to people that don’t suck at it.

Finding A Space.

As a production brewery location is less important than it would be as a brewpub. My main concerns were the proper amount of space and access for deliveries and pick ups of the finished beer. On this front my father came through big again. We had looked at the old Tampa Bay Brewing space in Ybor City, but it just wasn’t ideal for a production brewery with no access for large trucks and little space to set up a large keg station and bottling line.

It would have been nice to be in Ybor due to its historic background as Tampa’s cigar production nexus, but the space would have called for a lot of square pegs stuffed into a lot of round holes.  So a space was still needed. My father keeps his offices in a converted warehouse space and adjacent to his offices is 6000 square foot of warehouse space with a large roll up door that would easily accommodate a semi-truck. This space was settled on and its open layout and high ceilings make it close to ideal for a brewery space. Check back for pics of the space.

Logos.

Getting the right design may not be as important as getting the right beer, but it is certainly an area you can't overlook. A breweries label should reflect their attitude and approach to brewing and a regional brewer should not overlook the flavor of the community they live in. For this reason I felt it was critical to capture some of the elements of Tampa’s cigar producing past. For this task I selected Cari Hanzl. Cari has a unique style and she immediately grasped the feel I was looking for and that was reflected in her initial rough designs:

These first rough sketches captured a little bit of the flavor of Tampa. Some reminded me a bit of the work of Ferdie Pacheco, one of Ybor’s most famous residents.  From there the work was refined:

I'm sure the art will evolve as we continue to develop and get into label design, but for now I am happy with the direction it is going. Feel free to comment on the art and vote on your favorites.