Montana Dreaming

  It happened! He's back (see photo) and the brewhouse is on the way home. Tuesday is the big day! Thanks to the guys and gals at Red Lodge Brewing for helping and sharing a large amount of their tasty IPA, the Broken Nail.

Bringing It All Back Home

Right now, as I write (it’s 1:30, Wednesday March 18, 2009), Matt’s sitting in a bar in SeaTac drinking a beer and waiting for his plane to Billings, Montana. From there he’ll rent a car and drive to Red Lodge, a small town about an hour and a half outside Billings in the mountains on the highway to Yellowstone and also home to Red Lodge Brewery. Matt is finally TAKING POSSESSION of the brew system he bought from them now that Red Lodge’s new facility is built and they can use their new, bigger system.

I say finally because we first met the gorgeous, 15 bbl system last September when the whole family road-tripped to MT in order to check it out (and visit my uncle who lives in Billings while we were at it). Since then, Matt has signed the lease, acquired fermentation tanks and a bunch of other equipment, laid plumbing, redid the electrical, painted, built a wall and more (much thanks to all the volunteer and cheap labor!) – everything but brew beer!

The Plan: Matt arrives in Billings at 6:30 tonight. He’ll drive straight to Red Lodge and help the crew brew one lasty: a triple batch of IPA because they don’t want to leave their customers jonesing while they get their new system up and running. Tomorrow, Thursday, Matt will spend all day helping to clean everything so that it’s ready to be loaded on a big truck (with a crane, my sons would add) on Friday the 20th. He’ll supervise the loading and fly home that night and the truck will arrive in Seattle on Tuesday, March whatever.

It’s happening! Stay tuned…

Construction Update from Matt

....and for those that are following the hardcore construction, we've put together the walk in cold room. Note the green, very green paint job. Painting the cold room was a slog but Devin from Blue Marble stepped up to the task and, three coats later, got the job done and done well. Thanks, Devin. Rick and I put the cold room together one weekend and then Kemp and I fine tuned the rest until she was just right. Kemp (see photo of Kemp trapped on the fork lift) and I then set about, with Devin's help, constructing decking for the glycol chiller and compressor, which were put into place yesterday. Today, Devin, Kemp and I picked up the antique refrigerator (see picture) from the ReStore and planned out her restoration. This refrigerator will hold our growlers for sale in the retail area and we are very excited to restore it to it's former glory. It was made sometime in the 1930's here in Seattle by Marine Refrigeration and was previously in use at Pies and Pints in the Roosevelt neighborhood. Coincidentally, Pies and Pints was started and run by one of Sara's childhood friends from Sacramento. You can also see in the picture below, Mike, our landlord, driving the forklift and hauling out the concrete blocks left behind from cutting the trench drains. Mike came early in the morning and worked all day, even providing the dump truck and driving said death trap to one of his lots where he is storing them for a future use. Thanks, Mike. Our hats off to Mike and the Fremont Dock Company (our landlord) for believing in what we're doing and for going the extra mile. We've also finished demoing (thanks, Devin) the area that will be our temporary retail sales room and will begin build out next week. Kemp is drawing up a material list and our friends at Bitters Co. will help with the design. With friends like these, it's easy to believe that this community will pull through these hard times. We're humbled. So, now the big news: the brewhouse is set to arrive on March 23rd and we're very ready to make some beer. Why? Because Beer Matters. So, a big thanks to Kemp for working in the trenches EVERY DAY through surgery, kidney stones and some really bad music; to Rick for picking up the ball on marketing and for digging, building and endless planning; to Devin for painting everything and not breaking too many of our tools, to Sara for holding down the fort, the blog and putting up with me and all this insanity, to Terry, Mike, Roger, Manny, and Bret for helping out with all the little questions that are a big deal and for allowing us to treat their company like a big brewery Costco; to our investors who have put their faith in our vision and to the many volunteers who have pitched in with a smile. We would not be here today without each and every one of you.

Random updates: we've singed up to sponsor the Fremont 5K which is the Friday night before the Fremont Fair and are the proud sponsors of the Seattle Art Car show during the Fair.

Well, that's a little more than a construction update, but there it is. Next week, we'll dial in the last of the plumbing, get our new gas service and spiffy up our retail section. Thanks for staying tuned...now back to Sara's regular blogging.

Killer Green Beer

I’ve never thought about running my own business because I’ve never had any good ideas of things to sell and I’m not one of those can’t-work-for-anybody-else sorts of people. I’ll work for the Man no problem – as long as I believe in the mission and values of said (figurative) Man. And for the most part, I’ve been perfectly happy executing the vision of someone else, most recently my former boss, Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin.

Being a complacent cog in a machine, I haven’t focused on the challenges of running a small business -- if it’s too hard Working For Yourself, then be a happy little cog like me or quit complaining. Until now. You might remember that my husband, Matt, is starting a brewery from scratch, in the midst of a financial catastrophe, with 2 kids at home and a wife whose marketable skills are inversely related to her education. Plus, Fremont Brewing Company is striving to produce beer as sustainably as possible, which can mean more expensive equipment, ingredients, and all that.

Mayor Greg Nickels has spoken a lot about both the importance of climate protection and supporting small businesses. So, using my contacts at my old place of employ, I set out to see what bennies were available for small businesses trying to do the right thing. Loan assistance for small green businesses? Nope. City Light did a site visit and told us that we could get a rebate by using certain lights and VSD pumps to conserve energy. But overall, there’s no single program for small businesses that are either producing green technologies or trying to be green in their operations, procurement, facility, etc.

So I’ve drawn up an outline for a City of Seattle program for a One-Stop-Shop for green-inclined businesses who need technical assistance (in designing their space or figuring out which equipment is most energy efficient etc.); information on incentive programs for water, electricity, and gas conservation; building permit expedition; and so on. Most of this is already available but it’s hard to access because there’s no integrated program to go to – businesses have to contact SPU, OED, DPD, City Light, etc. And who has time for that when you’re trying to Make Money? Even though my program has gotten positive feedback from City staff, there’s no cash to fund anything new these days.

In the meantime, businesses should check out the Seattle Climate Partnership (http://www.seattle.gov/climate/partnership.htm). It’s a group of businesses that pledge to reduce their carbon footprint. And Fremont Brewing Company will be the very first brewery to sign up (paperwork in progress). Stay tuned…