State & Federal Agencies

I have been told many nightmares about dealing with both the state and federal agencies that oversee craft beer production and sales however my story is a bit different. Let’s just say I did my homework! When I first began researching this great endeavor the first item I tackled was the federal agency the ATF, or Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms division of the government. In the production of beer we deal with a section of the ATF called the TTB, the Tax and Trade Bureau. Now for someone who is building a brewing manufacturing facility this is a bit more involved then what I ended up doing. I applied for a simple Basic Permit to sell beer. This is just a way for the feds to see that we exist. So not such a difficult thing to do. The people I dealt with there were very nice and very helpful. Not something you find in a government office these days but there they were. They got the permit taken care of in less then a month.

OK

On to the ABC. Now this was a bit more tricky. The ABC, or Alcohol Beverage Control, is the state based agency that oversees all alcohol production and sales in each state. There are many regional offices throughout the state and their headquarters are in Sacramento. I have to say that I probably put in about 2-3 full weeks of talk time with the many different offices in California before settling in and getting my paperwork going. This is no joke. Seriously, 2-3 weeks of pure talking. Some of the people I spoke to were kind but some were quite the opposite. I’m sure with the boom of craft breweries in the area all starting at once they became quite busy. The problem was that Los Angeles was not a location for so many craft breweries. The regional offices are primarily for retailers and events and not for production.

So another snag. When I started this venture I lived in one county and currently I live in another. I was asking so many questions in one county only to switch to the next and have to start all over again. Well this change was definitely for the best because I met one gentleman that truly knows his stuff. I had spoken with Sacramento and then confirmed this with my new local office and they were spot on.

Let me just say, the different licenses that you must get to produce, distribute, sell or serve can become quite confusing. One says you can make the beer but can’t sell it, the other says you can sell the beer but not to these folks on the left but then there is another license to sell to those on the right but then there is one to sell to everyone else except those on the right or the left and then a license to basically just drink the beer yourself. But don’t forget to tax yourself on the beer you drank!!!

Part 2 Coming Soon!

Marketing & Websites

Getting a brand going from scratch is a tough job to say the very least. I find that many of the people that I talk to think f the concept as "Just another set of flavors and art to try to sell some bottles" when in fact I am looking forward to creating a wonderful brand of beer based on great styles of beers that are still not in the forefront of the industry yet and using a fun and entertaining marketing campaign to pull people in.

In order to build a marketing campaign on a shoestring budget I have had to do many things. To start, I needed a logo. This came pretty easy as I had a friend I did some work for a few years ago on a video project he was working on and he had expressed interest in creating a logo for the brewery if I ever needed one. I had an idea for the concept and called him up and told him what I was thinking. I always loved the tri-fin spaceship from the old Flash Gordon serials. When I received the first draft of the logo I have to say I was blown away. I had no idea it would look so cool! We worked on it a little bit but really it was near perfect the first time out.

Jump forward a couple years to the present time and I sit designing this website. I'll get back to the rest of the marketing later. There really is so much to go over. So I have literally spent 3-4 weeks building this website. I am so ready to go live tonight! I started with about 30 different pages for you all to play with but decided to cut it back so that there can be fun things to introduce over the next year. My goal is to make sure that the website is not only informative about the most important part of all this, THE BEER, but also entertaining. I want you all to have fun cruising through and looking at the new features each week. We plan to keep updating it all the time with new blog posts, pictures, videos, news, stories, games, comics, etc., etc., etc.

So with your comments and suggestions we will strive to make this a truly entertaining place to visit and discuss craft beer.

So with this, I hereby launch the site!!!

Financing 2.0

More financing and still no beer? Well let me tell you the latest.

I've been working on getting financed in this economy and as you have read in previous posts this is not an easy task. I have spoken with many potential investors and they have all been great people but when it came down to it they were interested in me and the company but not the initial phase of financing. So I went to the best resource for getting something that you truly believe in funded and operational. I went to my parents.

Thank you mom & dad!!! Yes I know that it may seem silly to call upon the folks to get this brewery off the ground but they believe in it too. The beer is that good! So now I have an angel investor!!! I am ready to rock and roll.

So upon depositing the investment and I began taking a very strong and serious look at the budget to see what is needed to get the process rolling. If I told you I have been planning this day for years it would be an understatement. The funny thing now is that with the money, I am now going over everything once again before I spend dime one.

Stay tuned for How to spend you investment.