Brewery Update 3: Spreading the word and Frozen Beer

As a brewery, we don’t really exist yet.  We have a dilapidated old warehouse and some equipment on order.  We have months before we can sell beer.  We haven’t done anything to promote ourselves or made any grand announcements or media stunts.  Yet people are finding us.  It’s a testament to the growing enthusiasm for craft beer in Tampa.

We got our first local media hit ever on Monday when John Tesmer of Tampa Bay Brew News came by to interview us and check the place out.  John’s a homebrewer who’s very excited about craft beer and was good fun to talk to.  He got a kick out of being our first “media” interview.

Then Jenn from the Brandon Bootleggers homebrew club invited us to come out to their monthly meeting Wednesday night.  We found the back room of a local restaurant packed with craft beer enthusiasts.  She asked us to say a few words.   What should we say?  We don’t have a carefully crafted marketing message.  So, we did the best thing we could think of.  We decided to just be us, a couple of homebrewers who are passionate about great beer, hoping to turn pro.  Just like many of them.

I offered up one of my homebrews in sacrifice to their beer judging skills and got some valuable feedback.  I also sampled lots of good homebrew.  At the end we stood up and told the group about our project.  It was great to connect with other people who care about good beer and we greatly appreciate the warm welcome they gave us. After that meeting, I’m more convinced than ever that Tampa is on the verge of hitting a critical mass as a craft beer town.

In other news this week, our friends from Roy Farms sent us some new, experimental hops to play with, named only with a weird combination of letters and numbers.  You may glance briefly at this picture of hops, but try not to stare at it.  It’s top secret.  We’re looking forward to brewing up some test batches with it soon.

Also, we’ve been working on providing tons of information to the federal government in hopes that they will one day say we’re allowed to sell beer.  They’ve been asking me to answer weird questions like, “Describe the amount and composition of all liquid wastes produced during your processes along with procedures you have in place to monitor the effluent.”  I started to write about our restrooms before Casey told me I had misunderstood the question.

Iced Beer Anyone?

And, probably my favorite moment of the week, we accidentally froze a beer solid during fermentation.  Anybody know if ale yeast can survive freezing temps?  We’ll find out soon.

And, of course, we’re still working on getting the building renovations going.  We had roofers out here today working on our leaks.  We’re still hoping to finalize site planning this month and get some real progress going.

Happy Friday everybody and thinks for checking in on us.  I’m heading to Datz in Tampa to sip a cold beer.  Cheers!

– Kent

Brewery Update 2: Equipment and Concrete

This past week brought a few exciting developments.

First, after months of deliberation, and negotiation we FINALLY signed our official equipment purchase contract for our brewing equipment.  We had already reached a verbal agreement earlier in April that got our order into the queue.  (With all the new craft breweries springing up in the U.S. all the major equipment manufacturers seem to be running 6-10 month lead times.  Yikes!)  But it was nice to see it all in writing, so we could sign on the dotted line and finally put that issue behind us.

We hope our equipment arrives in November and if we’re really lucky we may still hit our goal of producing some beer on our new system by the end of the year.  My fingers are crossed.

The second exciting bit of progress was when an engineering firm showed up and started drilling holes in our concrete floors.  It turns out before you put giant steel tanks full of liquid on an old dilapidated concrete floor it’s a good idea to make sure the floor can support lots of weight.  We don’t want our shiny new tanks tumbling to the ground the first time we fill them up.  (Although the ensuing beer tsunami would be undeniably cool to watch.)  So far the core samples look encouraging.  We’ll learn more when we get the report later.

Robb and I could not be any more anxious to get our building renovations going.  We can’t start the renovations until we have permits and we can’t get our permits until we submit a site plan, and we can’t finish the site plan until someone can answer all the little questions like, “Where exactly is the steam boiler going to go?  Where will all the steam piping and glycol lines run? ” All questions I can’t answer off the top of my head.  I thought we could figure a lot of this stuff out as we go along, but apparently the city doesn’t roll that way.

We’ve planned a meeting later this month with our architect, engineer, and our fearless brewmaster, Casey.  Together they should be able to annihilate any question the city can throw at them.  The clock is ticking.  The equipment arrives in six months.  We have to get those shovels moving.

– Kent

Brewery Update 1: Recipes, and Equipment

Casey just flew down to Tampa for a quick weekend pow-wow on brewery planning.  He saved us lots of money by pulling unecessary items out of the equipment budget, and tweaking the layout a bit.  (Evidently, the giant cowboy hat and rubber paddle ball set I wanted are not strictly necessary to produce great beer.)

We also discussed what we’re trying to do with the beer lineup so we can nail down hop contracts.  With more and more breweries entering the craft brewing scene,  and all of them looking to make heavily hopped beers, we expect access to hops to get tight.  Contracting with growers ahead of time may be the best way to make sure our cold boxes stay filled with hoppy goodness.  I honestly don’t remember all the hops we decided on, but I can say we’re trying to get ahold of some varieties that are so new to the market, they have code numbers instead of names.  So, hopheads, rejoice!  We should have something new and exciting for you later this year.

For the full details on the beer lineup we decided on click here.

After all that meeting we were parched, so we headed over to The Tampa Bay Brewing Company where the seasonal pale ale proved to be exactly the restorative we needed.

Casey’s on his way back up to Philly now where over the next two months he needs to: finish planning his wedding, get married, find a place to live in Tampa, and move, all while working full time at his previous job and continuing to field random brewing questions from me.  Piece of cake, right?

So that, gentle reader, is the update for now.  This week I will turn my attention toward figuring out how to get the building renovations moving.

Cheers!

– Kent

No Turning Back

I passed the point of no return today. I signed our lease and took possession of a giant warehouse. For the last four months Coppertail Brewing Co has been a company on paper only, little more than a bank account and a collection of expenses. After a few strokes of a pen the brewery suddenly became a place. I got the key, rolled up the doors and surveyed our kingdom this evening.

I left foot prints in the black grime coating the floor as I walked. It looked like the place hadn’t been cleaned in a decade. Paint bubbled and peeled off the concrete block walls and blood stained the wood of the rusted rat traps in the corners. Had that wall always had a big crack running through it?   And why was the office door off it’s hinges?  Without the previous tenant’s belongings to shield the building from view it looked like a dump.

I stood staring into the filthy emptiness for a few moments in silence. I didn’t want to admit it but my first big decision as founder of this brewery was starting to look like a huge mistake.  But as I stared, shapes emerged from the darkness.   Shiny steel tanks stood in rows, clean red hoses ran across spotless floors, a conveyor belts shuttled empty beer bottles past. The bready aroma of barley seeping in hot water wafted along the air. People crowded around a bar, pouring back pints of a new, local Tampa beer.

The building is a dump. But it’s a dump on the on the southern edge of Ybor with enough square footage to do whatever we want, right across from Ikea and steps from the Columbia restaurant. The size and location could not be better. It just needs some work. And a whole lot of vision.

I  finished my tour of the new premises and started locking up. I pressed the down button to close the last electric roller door but less than halfway down the thing clanked to a stop and no amount of button pushing, door wiggling or cursing would get it to move either up or down again. The warehouse door was stuck open. I had no ladder, tools, or any idea how to fix the mechanism. I couldn’t even reach it. I called the repair company number from the sticker on the mechanism but was greeted by an after hours recording. I couldn’t believe it. I broke the new warehouse the very first day I took possession of it.

I stood in front of the open door for a long time wondering what to do. I haven’t moved anything in, yet, and the place is already a wreck. What’s somebody going to do? Go in and clean it up? I drove away, leaving the warehouse open to the night. I’m hoping it won’t be vandalized or filled with squatters tomorrow morning. And I hope my inability to fix the door malfunction is not a sign of things to come.

Bad omen or not, one thing is certain: there is no turning back now.

Kent Bailey
President and Founder
Coppertail Brewing Co