Status Update: May 2017

by Indigo on May 2, 2017 at 9:24 pm
Posted In: Blog

Hey, all! I wanted to take a quick minute and fill you all in on my current status over here at the Megalith Brewing project.

First of all, business classes are going well, I’m almost 3/4 of the way toward completing the Certificate of Craft Beverages program, and am currently learning a lot about marketing and promotion. A lot of it is putting names to things I already kind of suspected but didn’t fully understand, and the rest has been waking me up to how not-mobile-friendly all of my websites are! There’s going to be a website reckoning here soon, I suspect!

I’ve begun the process of planning my first major promotional push, which I’m calling “Megalith Brewing: Year Zero”! This will take place in the six months or so leading up to the grand opening, and will include a number of beer tastings and sampling events, tours of the facility I’ll be brewing at initially, hopefully at least one movie screening, and maybe even a live show or bowling night or something. Fun stuff. I’ll have a lot more details as that gets closer to ramping up.

And finally, I’m continuing to gather information about all of the steps that remain in this process, like getting my brewing license, putting together the beer cart and lining up a space in a cart pod, brewing my first batch of inventory, and making sure I have enough operating capital to support the business for at least the lean first six months or so. Trying to make sure I’m not focusing too much on keeping one of these plates spinning that I lose sight of another one and cause the whole thing to stall before it even starts.

For now I’m heading back to finish up the final week of Marketing class before the Accounting class starts up in mid-May. That’s the one I’ve been most concerned with, it’s going to cover a lot of information that I’m not experienced with at all. But, that means it’s the class I’ll probably learn the most from, so it’s worth it!

If you want to keep up with the latest, make sure you’re following Megalith Brewing on Facebook or Twitter, and if you’re excited about my progress please help me spread the word! I’m looking forward to sharing some great beer with y’all soon!

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It’s Brew Day, Laser Brain!

by Indigo on January 30, 2017 at 11:11 am
Posted In: Blog

Hey, all!

While I’ve got the hot liquor tun warming up, I wanted to take a moment and let you know what I’m up to right now!

The Business of Craft Beverages classes are moving right along. We’re starting our fourth week today, and I’m still doing alright. The last week’s focus was on packaging and distributing, which are things I hadn’t really included as part of my initial business plan (since the idea is to start out only with retail on-premises sales), but it’s still a good thing to keep in mind. Now I’m really looking forward to the point when I can start offering special limited 22-oz bombers in my taproom, for people to take home to share with friends!

As the classes continue, so does my GoFundMe fundraiser to help pay for them! I’m already enrolled in the second of the four classes, but there’s still two to go, and I’d appreciate any help you might want to offer to help me cover the tuition costs. I feel a little bad even asking since I know I’m going to register anyway, but hey! If you want to help, I’m certainly not going to stop you from pitching in! Every dollar helps me get where I want to be.

Today also begins a week-long vacation I had planned last month, so that’s always exciting. Originally I had planned to make it a creative retreat, but then I registered for the business class and that has preoccupied my mind with thoughts of beer. So, instead I’m using the week to focus on class, and brewing! Thus, today becomes my first Brew Day of the week! I’m making my long-time favorite ESB, Laser Brain, which I think might become my brewery’s standard Pale ale before too long – it’s just so damn good. Rich, strong, and with a great mouthfeel. Going to be another great batch.

And if you want to give this beer a taste (along with the stout I made a few weeks ago, and a couple other batches still-to-come), pay attention to this space! I’m planning to have another tasting party to celebrate the completion of the first two classes in the Business of Craft Beverages series, so that’ll fall sometime in late March/early April. Looking forward to seeing all of your faces and pouring some good beer down your gullets.

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Untappd Check-ins

by Indigo on December 26, 2016 at 11:01 am
Posted In: Blog

Ha! So I just noticed that folks have been checking in to my beers on Untappd over the last few months, which is amusing since the beers have been totally unavailable for well over a year. I’m not going to complain, though, unless folks start getting served bad ‘Irish Car Bombs’ at their bar in California and decide to take it out on my little homebrewed vanilla-whiskey stout. Until then: sláinte, beer-lovers!

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GoFundMe for my Business Classes!

by Indigo on December 24, 2016 at 10:58 am
Posted In: Blog

Hey, friends! First I have to apologize for not updating this blog over the last 18 months. My last update still holds true as far as the next steps I’ll be taking in my quest to get this brewery up and running. I had to put the plans on hold for a long period while I re-evaluated a lot of things non-beer related. But now I feel like I’m ready to get back on track and start taking the steps toward my goal, and I’m going to need a little help.

This month, I finally registered for the first two classes in the Business of Craft Beverages certificate program at PSU. I do have some experience running both a small business and with running small organizations, but I don’t have any experience in the brewing industry. The research I did a year ago to put my business plan together showed me that while there’s a lot of industry information available online, there’s a lot more to running a commercial brewery that I wasn’t learning about.

For these first two classes, I was able to dip into my savings a bit to cover the cost of registration. The remaining classes will have to be paid for out of my earnings from my USPS job. I’m going to be taking on more overtime the next couple months to help out, but it would be great if I didn’t need to. A lot of my friends have already offered emotional support for what I want to do with the brewery, so I’ve set up a GoFundMe campaign to allow interested supporters to throw a few bucks my way and help me to cover the remaining registration costs.

I really want Megalith Brewing to grow from the support of the community, to let it be a reflection of my supporters and friends, and to let the community have some ownership over the business. When the time comes, I plan to do a larger crowdfunding campaign through Hatch:Oregon to raise the capital for the physical costs of starting and running the business, but actually selling equity shares in the business. But before that can happen, I need to feel more confident with my understanding of the craft brewing industry, and that’s where I hope that the certificate program fits in.

I don’t expect the campaign to cover the entire cost of the certificate program, but it would be great if it could lighten the burden of registering for the next two or three classes (one is optional, but I’d still like to take it, completionist that I am). I’ll end the campaign once I’ve registered for the final class, and will be posting updates on how the program’s going as I’m working through it. I’m also going to plan a supporters-invite tasting party to answer any questions about my plans and goals. So, if you want to help out, go show your support at the GoFundMe page!

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Looking Back, Looking Ahead

by Indigo on June 3, 2015 at 4:51 pm
Posted In: Blog

I’ve been spending a good amount of time over the last few weeks thinking about Megalith Brewing again, about my plans, past and future, and just how exactly I want to proceed from here.

Part of that has meant looking back on all the steps I took to get where I am now. In 2014 I spent several months putting together a business plan – researching the brewing industry; pricing out equipment and ingredients, and looking at local business real estate prices; talking to a number of local small brewers, cideries, and consultants. I felt like I had a really solid handle on how to make a craft nanobrewery work, from a business point of view: develop a unique line of beers, keep them available year round in small batches, sell everything at the retail level and don’t worry about distributing or bottling, keep the entire business at a small enough scale that it can support itself easily with only a modest customer base, and then grow from there.

Unfortunately, when it came to looking for potential investors, ‘staying small’ isn’t exactly an inspiring goal, especially when their biggest concern isn’t simply owning part of a brewery, but the very real potential return on their investment. My lack of practical experience in the brewing industry was also an understandable concern – why would anyone invest with me when I have really no idea what I’m talking about, and can’t possibly understand the market I’m planning on jumping into? To paraphrase Darth Vader, they found my lack of confidence disturbing.

Even with all of that going against me, I was able to lay the groundwork for some of the long-term promotional plans I had. I brewed a lot of beer, and had a few tasting parties, which were moderately successful in getting the word out about what I want to do, and what it will take to get me there. That part of the plan, at least, proved itself strongly, and went about as well as I’d hoped. I mean really, how can you go wrong with free beer?
So what’s next for Megalith, moving forward? Well, my timeline has drastically shifted. I’d hoped originally to be opening the doors on the taproom this past January, and obviously that didn’t happen. I’m probably about as far from opening now as I was when I first put that plan together. So it’s time for a new plan.

First step is to develop some confidence in my understanding of the brewing industry, which means enrolling in the ‘Business of Craft Brewing’ certificate program being offered here at PSU. It’s a year-long program, and at the end of it I’ll have a much better understanding of running the business side of things, from brewhouse efficiency to marketing and distribution. I hope that the added confidence will come through when I start drumming up investors.

And attracting investors is the next step. Past experience has shown me that, for a business the scale I’m working on, angel investors aren’t going to be the way to go. With such a high ROI needed, I would need to plan to grow the brewery much more quickly than I feel comfortable with, and to shift the sales focus away from a retail taproom, and more onto distribution. The best option to realize my business plan will be to work with a program like Hatch:Oregon, which allows regular Oregon residents to invest small amounts in local businesses as a form of crowd-funding— similar to Kickstarter, but instead of merchandise rewards, supporters actually purchase equity in the business, with a potential (modest) ROI. It seems like a great program, geared exactly for business plans like mine, and I’m looking forward to getting that set up when I’m much further along on my certificate program.

And of course, in the meantime, I’ll be continuing to brew small batches of my pillar beers, and hosting tasting parties in the area. If you’re in Oregon and want to talk to me about providing beer for your party, get in touch and we’ll see if your event would be a good fit for Megalith Brewing!

Alright, back to brewing!

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