Bringing in the Partner
After completing my first brew, I had a few close friends over to try it. Friends are perfect as a test market because they will tell you how it is, and if you have crap beer they will thank you for the free alcohol and be on their way. However, the first batch was a huge success! This gave more fuel to the fire that I could pursue the dream of opening the brewery!
From here I soon realized that I would need a partner to have the best chance of success with the brewery. Someone to bounce ideas off and someone to keep the momentum going strong. I was very fortunate to be able to have access to a few hardworking and dedicated classmates in the all of the group projects that we were required to do in the Lundquist College of Business at Oregon, and it was here that I enlisted the help and support of the current Co-CEO, Addison Stern.
Stepping Our Game Up (and taking up much more of my living room…)
We hit the brewing hard after that point, working to enhance our knowledge and brewing skills. We expanded quickly from the original 5-gallon carboy to 10 gallons, which required us to buy a propane burner and a 10 gallon stock pot to brew the double batches in. Shortly after we expanded again, doubling to four 5-gallon car boys and an additional four 6-gallon carboys to be used as secondary fermenters that we would rack the beer into to clear it.
5-gal fermenter being siphoned into the 6-gal secondary fermenter
Double the fun! – Lots of blow off with our IPA
4x the fermentation
Where the hell am I going to put my couch??
How are we going to serve all of this??
It was apparent that it would really suck to bottle all of this brew we were creating, so thats when we asked around and found out about the actualbest thing since sliced bread; the KEGERATOR! We purchased a mini fridge off a friend (something that is extremely easy to find in a college town) and chopped out the inside but leaving all the coils so it would still be able to get cold. With a little Tetris we fit a 5-gallon keg and the 5-lb c02 tank inside. Drilled a hole in the door for the tap shank and put on a little drip tray and we were in business. Being able to put the beer into the kegs and then force carbonate it in a few days, was huge! It made life so much easier. No more sticky bottles and the 2 week carbonation time with priming sugar. We were ready to let the tasting parties begin!
Kegerator!
Daniel McTavish, Founder and Co-CEO
-Pillage Responsibly-
Easier to ferment in the 6 gallon and rack in the 5 for secondary, less to worry about blow off