The William Street Beer Co. - Update

I always roll my eyes a little bit when a blog entry starts with; "I know it's been a while since my last post, but I've been CRAZY BUSY!" However, here we are...I think that everyone has been patient long enough and deserve a bit of info. So, what's new on William Street? Well, where should I begin?

I guess we'll start with our work on the old service station at 412 William Street. The plumbers finished up their efforts this past week having installed the sinks and floor drain. We have started to assemble the cold room (home to our new Brite Tanks) and from there it's all about paint, trim and finishes. I am hopeful that the retail area can be suitable for guests within the next two weeks or so.

Our licensing process is proceeding as expected as well. Our next step is the CRA site visit, which has been scheduled for the near future. The AGCO has all of the required elements, everything looks great and I am holding high hopes that we can hold to our March 1st opening date.

Perhaps most exciting is the arrival of our brewhouse equipment on Friday. We purchased our 3bbl brewing system from Stout Tanks and Kettles of Portland Oregon and they were kind enough to crate it up beautifully and toss it on a truck bound for the East. Unfortunately, the weather necessitated a hasty retreat and I didn't get a chance to fully open a single crate. All I managed was to pop the top and get a peak at our new Brew Kettle...pretty sweet.

So what's next? The good news is that I can stop thinking so much about the building and I can start focusing on the more important things...put first things first, if you will. I have been putting the final tweaks onto our core brands and I could NOT be more excited to share them with you all. Maybe I will go into more detail on that later. In the mean time, I have some brewing to attend to.

Who's thirsty?

2013 - A Brewery is Born

In 2013, I founded a brewing company. Wow.

As is customary in the waning days of the year, we have been taking some time to reflect on the progress which has been made in the development of The William Street Beer Co.

The decision was made to move forward with the brewery project in the early part of the year. As I continued to slog away in my day job, selling commercial fitness equipment, I went into the project full steam ahead scouting potential locations and crafting a business plan.

In the summer, we stumbled upon our little service station at 412 William Street. It's certainly not spacious nor is it overly gracious. However, it is a central, high traffic location in a fabulous community. Through a series of hurdles and struggles, we managed to come to an agreement with the property owner and, as of December 1st, we gained possession of the site.

The process of becoming a licensed brewery is a bit of a long one. However, we have been blessed thus far to have great support from all levels of government in it looks like we are on track.

In October, I retired from selling treadmills in order to apply myself to William Street Beer full time. During this period I have also been continuing to refine the recipes for our core brands. Cliff Top Pale Ale seems to be the fan favourite at this point, with North Shore Blonde and Red Sky Ale also getting good reviews. This holiday season I have also been focusing on our Robust Vanilla Porter and Cranberry Saison.

As we celebrate the New Year this week, we are tremendously thankful for the progress which we have made thus far and we are completely stoked about the next stages. January will be a huge month for William Street. Our brewing equipment is being delivered mid month and it will be a crazy two weeks getting the brewery ready for that. Mark my words, by the end of January 2014 we will have a brewery taking shape at William Street in Cobourg.

Thank you all again for your interest and your support. The William Street Beer Company is excited to serve you delicious craft beer in 2014.

Happy New Year!

Sean, Karen and the entire William Street Beer Co. family

Stainless Steel Fantasies Realized

Alright, it's probably not quite as weird as you might think...or maybe it is. I can't really tell anymore.

Regardless, I could not be more excited for the opportunity to make beer on a larger scale in Cobourg's new craft brewery. In order to facilitate that process I have enlisted the help of Stout Tanks and Kettles of Portland, Oregon. Stout is doing more to make professional brewing equipment available to small scale brewers than anyone else in North America. Thank you to John and his team out on the west coast.

So...that brings me to the brewing operation at 412 William Street. We have selected a 3 bbl brewhouse which will net us approximately 90 gallons of beer from each production cycle. In addition to the three brewing vessels, we are also receiving two conical fermentors and two beer brite tanks. The latter of these will be roomed in our onsite cold room for secondary fermentation, conditioning and carbonation.

Deposits have been submitted and we are awaiting confirmation of delivery. The projected timeline has the truck landing mid January, which suits our purposes beautifully. That gives us 5 weeks to get the building prepped and ready without having to work around the vessels.

I will keep you all posted as we progress.

To build it...

Brewhouse...Before

Well, December 1st has come and gone and we now are officially into our brewery location at 412 William Street (at University) in beautiful Cobourg. In fact, we had our first semi-casual investors meeting on site this past Sunday afternoon and there was one completely overwhelming shared sense...Wow. There is a shit load of work to do.

The good news, however, is that we are full of positive enthusiasm and we are completely stoked to make this dream a reality. Unfortunately, before we can start producing Cobourg's own delicious small batch brewed craft beer, there are some minor tasks which need to be completed around the brewery. These include (but are not limited to):

• evaluating the state of current drains and upgrading
• installing electrical for brewhouse controls
• framing and finishing retail area
• building the retail bar/counter and draft system
• pickup and install walk in/ reach in cooler
• improve bathroom
• line parking lot
• design/order signage
• receive and install brewhouse and fermentation equipment
• assemble and install brewhouse controls
• Order and organize ingredients and packaging materials
• Engineer an electric barley mill

This is what's on the top of my head right now. All of this whilst doing everything that I can to facilitate the licensing processes. Wow, it's a lot.

Thank you again for all of your support and I look forward to you visiting The William Street Beer Company. If you haven't already, like our Facebook page HERE for more frequent updates.

Cheers!

Home Sweet Home - Update!

As you know, we have come to an agreement for the location of our brewery. We are proud to be brewing and bottling (and kegging) high quality, small batch craft beer at 412 William Street, right at the NE corner of University. This detail being finalized has put us into motion in a crazy way. This week I have been finalizing insurance policies, updating government licensing applications and trying to figure out how to pay for all of this. But seriously, check out the building. We're gong to make beer in an old service station. How cool is that? So, where are we at?

Well, now that we have an address, (and BTW - a big thank you to the team at the Cobourg Postal Station for securing our bond!) we are able to move some things forward from a Federal, Provincial and Municipal Licensing perspective. No matter how you slice it, that will be the final detail. Cross your fingers and pray that the CRA is on our side!

The order is in for our stainless steel brewing equipment and we are hoping that it will land before the year is out. Big thanks to John at Stout Kettles for his help and patience!

We will be in and working on the space in the days to come. There are drains to be cut, wiring to be moved and a bathroom that needs some big help, but I'm confident that the build will go very quickly. Once the kettles arrive, we will be ready for inspections in a matter of weeks.

If you're in the area, you will see my truck in the lot in the days to come as I start throwing myself into the renovation. Beer will be a couple of months away, but I would be happy to say hello if you're so inclined.

Oh, We also felt it crucial that we get a little festive element onto the building, even if we don't have the keys yet.

Have a great Sunday, Go Ti-Cats!!!

Welcome to The William Street Beer Company!

It is with great pleasure that I announce that The William Street Beer Company will be brewing high quality Craft Beer in the Town of Cobourg at our new brewing facility at 412 William Street.

As many of you may know, this announcement represents a full circle resolution to a lengthy process. This was in fact our first choice, so we are well prepared to hit the ground running on the renovation and equipping of this great building.

I have a load of other news, and I will sit down to share it all with you shortly.

Cheers!

Survey Says!

This week we sent out the first in a series of market research surveys through the magic of social media. I want to certainly thank all of you who have taken the time to answer the 10 quick beer related questions. For those of you who haven't had a chance, please take a moment and take the survey HERE. I don't care where you live, your answers are relevant and valuable!

I wanted to take a few moments to address some of the initial results and feedback. These responses will be completely key as we work our way forwards with opening Cobourg's brewery!

The responders to this point have been largely male (68%) and nearly half (49%) are between the ages of 35 and 45. No big surprises here, but I would love to hear from more ladies and from some of the 55+ crowd!

As far as preferred beer styles is concerned, I think that we are on the right track. Blonde Ales and Pale Ales seem to be very popular amongst the beer lovers in the Cobourg/Port Hope area, with the standard Lite Lager being less so. The big surprise, however, has been the overwhelming call for an IPA. This will necessitate some further questioning. How bold of an India Pale Ale are we talking here? I am really looking forward to getting our Hardscrabble India Pale Ale in front of you for your for feedback. It's a little sweeter than many of the really hop forward IPA's on the market, but still packs a punch at 7% ABV and nearly 100 IBUs.

The other area that I'm really looking for feedback on is packaging. In this area, I need to be considering several factors. Obviously, cost of packaging materials, bottles, labels printing etc. is a huge consideration, but I am also very conscious of the bottling process as it will be done largely by hand. At this point, I am happy to see that the Cobourg area is not inclined to prefer cans. I am a bottle guy as well and really did not want to consider canning beer onsite. The big question will be the size of the bottle and number. People do tend to like buying a single 650ml bottle, as it is a great size for sharing (or not). However, the survey results are indicating that you really like standard sized bottles. If that's your preference, how would you like them packaged...six packs? four packs? I'm hoping that a future survey will shed some light.

In the final question, I asked you to give me any further thoughts or opinions on our Cobourg Brewery project. Some of the popular items included:

• Extended retail business hours (to be decided)
• Available brewhouse tours and sampling (definitely...that's my favourite part too)
• Incorporate local history and culture into branding (absolutely, yes)
• LCBO Distribution (we walk before we run)
• Onsite restaurant (not in the initial plans but we are looking forward to working with some of the great restaurants in the area)
• Gluten Free offerings (ummmm....can we talk cider?)
• Keep the product natural and local (yes, yes, a thousand times yes)

Thanks again to everyone who has contributed the benefit of their wisdom thus far. I am, as always, humbled by the support and enthusiasm. Please don't hesitate to contact us at any time with thoughts, suggestions, complaints, braggings or whatever else is on your mind...you can reach us by email HERE.

Cheers,

Sean