Congrats! What city are you guys in? I need to keep an eye out in case I'm doing any business travel in the area this fall.
Congrats! What city are you guys in? I need to keep an eye out in case I'm doing any business travel in the area this fall.
NOHOME wrote: So, assuming you are not picking up where the old management left off, what is the general flavor of the new enterprise? It is getting hard to carve out a unique niche in the craft beer world. Getting tap-space in the local bar/restaurant scene is quite competitive. Are you worried that the old management might have left a bad taste that might affect the new effort? Looking forward to your future post; as someone who has been in the beer business, it is hard to get the romance out of the system.
We are not picking up where they left off. We will have all new recipes at least to start. There are a couple that were big hits and/or that I developed and am emotionally attached to that will likely come back after we've established our new identity.
Not giving details on the new identity and direction of beers until things are certain and ready to launch. Don't want someone potentially stealing our ideas and brewing the same sort of thing before we can release it.
We are a bit worried about the damage this guy has done to the reputation. It will take work to repair it. We're pretty positive though. We've already begun the process of repairing relationships with some partners, clients, and vendors. People within the industry who could see the change and might think we're just trying to restart and refresh the brand know who this guy is and that he was the problem. We might have work to convince them that this is actually going to be new and different, but not that we'll actually be able to put out quality product.
For consumers who don't know the personalities in the industry, we figure they will only see this as new brewing company and not be able to connect the dots to the outgoing company that had a bad reputation.
ultraclyde wrote: Congrats! What city are you guys in? I need to keep an eye out in case I'm doing any business travel in the area this fall.
Columbus, OH
John Welsh wrote: Sounds like you're putting the band back together.
I just realized that in the picture I chose there is a Blatz sign over Elwood's head.
Or, as we called it in college, Splatz. 
Good to hear, can't wait to try some! Are you a partner in the brewery or an employee?
Gearheadotaku wrote: Good to hear, can't wait to try some! Are you a partner in the brewery or an employee?
Those details will be worked out. There was a lot that we didn't spend too much time worrying about working on because we weren't sure if this would happen (or at least if it would happen until 6-12 months later). Things
Current plan is that a certain portion of equity is going to be set aside for key employees (of which I am arguably most key) as part of their contracts. The details of that will get negotiated with my real contract. So almost certainly something where I have a hefty chunk of equity that I would forfeit all or part of if I leave the company.
Beer Baron wrote: So almost certainly something where I have a hefty chunk of equity that I would sell all or part of if I leave the company.
FTFY
OHSCrifle wrote:Beer Baron wrote: So almost certainly something where I have a hefty chunk of equity that I would sell all or part of if I leave the company.FTFY
I'm not saying that I would voluntarily forfeit equity if I left. I'm saying that it's common in contracts like this for brewmasters with a company to be offered a chunk of equity (say 20%) that they don't own outright the way a cash investor does. That equity is only their's as long as they stay with the company. They have the voting privileges and get a portion of profit as a shareholder, but you are not free to dispose of those shares. Frequently there's also a clause built in that every year a portion of that (say 0.5%) actually gets transferred to them as permanent ownership that they are free to dispose of.
That way, that employee is incentivized to work hard and incentivized to stay at the company. If they leave for some other deal, the company gets that equity back that they can use to incentivize the person who replaces them. Yes, it will be a smaller percentage of total ownership, but presumably the company will be worth more, so that 10% of the company 20 years into operations would be of greater value than 20% at year 1.
Type Q wrote:Beer Baron wrote:Déjà Brew?John Welsh wrote: When you say same space and team do you mean the exact same physical address? I enjoyed the one day I stopped in and glad to say I had a genuine hand in the production that day (even if it was the most minor hand in the production.)Yup. Exact same physical address. Same space. Same equipment. Back to working with my old assistant too. Love working with him. He and I make a great team.
I'm actually digging that name!
Local article teasing about the new project.
Lots of people locally have heard something is happening to the old brewing company and have been asking. Local beer site came by to get some information.
Cool deal Baron!
This looks more like a Chipotle than a brew pub. Are you doing any redecorating during the two days between the old name and the new name or just changing signage?
In reply to T.J.:
Bwahaha! Agreed. That's an old picture. There are some other decorations that make it a bit homier. We support a lot of soccer, so that stupid orange board is covered in scarves.
We will definitely be doing some redecorating. Not immediately, but soon. Plan is to pick a week to close down from like Sunday through Thursday and repaint and do something about some of the lower quality decorations. Hoping to have an opportunity and funds next winter/spring to do a more major overhaul and renovation of the space.
Congrats! I hope it works out well, the location is good and your beer is good. It's nice to have options other than the usual "IPA, Double IPA, Super IPA, quad-hopped IPA." And I love IPAs, but c'mon.
Get a couple high chairs! I know it's not going to be a kid centric place, but I've gone with my 2 year old and she loves the Explorer's Club food but it's awkward eating with a kid on my lap. That is, unless you don't want kids around. Which I would understand, especially right now. ;-)
dculberson wrote: Congrats! I hope it works out well, the location is good and your beer is good. It's nice to have options other than the usual "IPA, Double IPA, Super IPA, quad-hopped IPA." And I love IPAs, but c'mon. Get a couple high chairs! I know it's not going to be a kid centric place, but I've gone with my 2 year old and she loves the Explorer's Club food but it's awkward eating with a kid on my lap. That is, unless you don't want kids around. Which I would understand, especially right now. ;-)
Yeah. Excited by the variety. I have some great stuff planned for the start. One IPA I'm looking forward to, and another style that, can't reveal yet, but will hopefully be a surprising offering that should appeal to both hop heads and light beer fans.
I'll pass on the suggestion about high chairs. It should fly easily. One of the new owners are about to have their first any day now. We were discussing how if we are trying to be a beer hall or very European style pub, that implies "families" and "kids" in a way that just being a Bar doesn't. Not sure how quickly we'll get some, if it will come with or before we get new tables for the main area.
Ordered yeast, malt, and hops for the first 4 batches yesterday. Brewing starts next week. 
Release will likely depend more on getting new kegs than on when the beer is done fermenting.
Nice; you got named in the Business First post about it:
I was sad to see that Explorer's Club wasn't operating there any more. Their food is good. I hope the rotating food trucks are good though! If you can get her, the Coop food truck was/is amazing but I barely see her around any more. I think she bought a farm (Literally, not euphemistically), but her yak burgers were awesome, and she always had interesting stuff.
In reply to dculberson:
Sweet. Interesting to see what details of the deal are getting leaked. We were really hoping we'd be able to delay spreading news about our plans until we at least had the name registered and preferably a logo drafted up.
Explorer's Club is slowly moving out, but isn't out of the space completely yet. Running a food truck and a kitchen was just too much work and the kitchen wasn't as lucrative for the work it required. They decided they wanted to just focus on the food truck.
Very exciting.
You are going to have your first batch out on or before International Beer Day. The first Friday of August I beleave.
First new beer got tapped today. A Belgian style Witbier with coriander, orange peel, and chamomile.
We're being kind of quiet about the release, no social media announcements or anything because we haven't announced the name of the new brand or anything yet. But we ran out of hefeweizen at the bar and were tired of waiting to tap the beer that's been ready for almost two weeks now.
Well that sounds delicious; I very much like Belgians and beers with coriander. Wish I was close enough to be able to try some.
Keep us advised, I am in Columbus fairly regularly.
Psssst, Porter....
From the article:
“I think we can add in some areas where the market is under-served,” he said.
as opposed to most of the beer market which badly overserved. No, wait, it's just the customers that are! rimshot
Congrats on the first tap! sounds tasty.
Awesome!
Update - First 4 batches are on tap now :
Batch 5 may or may not go on next week, and will round out the initial offerings.
We're currently planning for the official new brand unveiling party to be August 24.
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