Supplies are Finally In

With the holidays it seemed like it was taking forever for my supplies to arrive -- well they finally did minus the grain mill.  This seems like one of the easiest items to get but it has proven to be quite the challenge.  First, Amazon did not have it and them Learn to Brew refunded my money because they did not have it.

In a week I am going back to Maine where there a plenty of brewers stores ... my hope is that I will come back with the supplies I need so I can make my first wort.  For now, still not brewing but fear not ... it has not stopped me from drinking that fine beverage.

While Waiting -- Permits and Trademarks

While I am still waiting for my supplies to get in I have been looking into the setup of a brewery company in Maine.  They have numerous types of licenses but the one I have been mainly looking at is the small brewery permit which allows for a production level of 55,000 gallons of beer or 24,444 cases of 12 oz beer bottles ... I think this will do just fine.

Additionally, I looked into the trademarking of the names for the Brewery and beer itself.  I started the work on trademarking the brewery name ... wow, each trademark cost $325 each.

Supplies, Supplies

After really looking into my starter kit I discovered that I was missing quite a few things that I would need to brew my own beer.  This starter kit was great if you are going to use batch kits that they provide but lacked numerous pieces of equipment if you were going to brew your own.

Since here in Palm Springs area there isn't a store that specializes in brewery supplies I had to go back on line and order missing items such as funnels, grain grinder, etc.

The beer I use to make years ago ... if you want to call it beer ... lacked the art of brewing of today's standards.  We used simple yeast like you would find for making your mother's bread and simple sugars ... now those days are gone along with "crappy" batches of beer and blown bottle tops.  I got two books "Home Brewing for Dummies" & " How to Brew" as a refresher but soon discovered that times have greatly changed.  These books are great, easy to read sources on the art of brewing.

Working on Getting the Ingredients

Where I live I have discovered is not the "mecca" for micro breweries thus finding ingredients locally doesn't seem like it is going to happen.  I am researching the yeast strains I want and the grains so I can hopefully order my supplies online and get brewing.

Supplies are In

When starting a new recipe you first have to find out if someone has already done it ... so far it looks good.  The lager is the first one I am going to try, now I need to get the hops, barley, etc. to start the first batch.  I should note that I have plenty of friends willing to be Guinna pigs ... or at least want free beer.

Although you can really use any dish rack to dry the sterile bottles I like this configuration.  Hopefully, by this weekend I will be brewing my first batch of sweet beer.

Day One

I am so very excited as today I received numerous boxes containing all of the supplies needed to start brewing up my first two recipes of Maine's finest organic micro-brew.  This site will document the starting of  the brewery and the trials and tribulations of breaking into the industry.  So here we go!!