Nun Chuck's Brewing Company
Donation protected
First things first!! I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you who donates ANYTHING to the dream of Chuck’s Brewing. It’s you that is ultimately laying the first bit of groundwork to this huge endeavor, and for that I can’t thank you enough! So from the bottom of the keg thank you VERY MUCH!!
The purpose of this paper is to layout somewhat of a road map as to where I see Chuck’s headed, in both short term as well as long term goals. I want to give you a rundown on what exactly this Go Fund Me campaign will achieve, the huge impact it will make on the start up, and why it will make such an impact. While the overall success of Chuck’s is solely on me , I want to be as transparent as I can. I want you as a donor to know exactly where Chuck’s is and where we’re headed. For this I will send out update emails throughout the entire process so you can see our progress. If and when this thing really gets rolling I want you to look back and say “Hey, I was a part of that brewery from the start.” After all, you will be Founding Members
A little background on me:) I LOVE BEER!! No surprise there LOL:) With that said I love beer like some like wine, or whiskey, or scotch, or sake. The list can go on! Bottom line, there is much more to beer than just its effects… Which happen to be a bonus:) Beer can be quite complex, as can its brewing process, and I love every aspect of it!
I started brewing roughly thirteen years ago in a garage in the back alley of our West Seattle rental. I noticed my neighbor and his buddy one Saturday afternoon with all kinds of vats, hoses, and big ol plumes of steam. I HAD to find out what they were doing. After a few home brews and a couple hours watching them brew I knew I had to try brewing for myself. They invited me to pitch in a few bucks on their next batch since I didn’t have any equipment of my own, and a week or two later I was strapped in behind 50 gallons of Scotch Ale learning how to brew. They had plenty of buckets and airlocks to spare and sent me home with 5 gallons of our creation to ferment and bottle for myself…. I was hooked! A month or two later my wife bought me a $75 starter kit for Christmas and I never looked back:) Since then I have built my system up and made some pretty killer beer along the way. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made some pretty s#!tty beer too LOL!! We’ve got some stories LOL!! Over carbonated bottles, or overactive ferments that have exploded in the closets. LOL, I’ve even managed to have exploding beers that had to be washed off the ceiling:) Since about 2007 I’ve toyed with the dream of turning my hobby and passion into a career, and more and more recently, more and more people have been nudging me to do so. At 43… maybe it’s time to throw it out there and see what floats. As Gretzky said “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. Might be a good time to take a shot!
Why Chuck’s brewing you ask? Well… It’s a long story that I’d love to sit down with you over a beer or two and tell you all about it. But for now here’s the short of it. For the longest time if I ever was fortunate enough to have this opportunity my brewery was going to be named Back Alley Brewing Co. Because that’s where I learned to brew. I just loved that name, and I should have trademarked it even though I wasn’t ready to have a brewery yet. Well I didn’t! And looking at the registry someone in Minnesota opened Back Alley Brewing about 3 or 4 years ago...SOB, LOL:( So what now? Ever since our daughter Taylor was born I’ve called her Chuck! Chuck Taylor, Sweet Chuck, Super Chuck Etc. We love her to pieces and I can’t think of a better place to have a beer and a snack than at Chuck’s Brew House! As parents we grind to give our children every possible advantage to have a safe and successful future. This is the same grind and passion that will go into giving every possible advantage to the future and success of Chuck’s Brewing.
As I said earlier this Go Fund Me campaign will make a huge impact on the start up of Chuck’s. So what is our goal? We’re looking to put together $10,000. Obviously it’s going to cost much more than $10,000 to start a brewery!:) However there is a silent partner or two sitting here on the sidelines who are ready to pull the tap handles if we can prove to hit our goal. These partners will essentially be contributing generously which is one of the reasons this Go Fund Me campaign will make such an impact. Opening a small brewery is HARD work. I have contacts that are big in the brewing community and know a TON of brewery owners here in the NW and every one of them will say don’t do it! LOL, while they are proving to be successful many of them say it’s not a hobby any more, you don’t just get to show up, throw a few back, brew a batch of beer and kick it with your friends. NO SIR, it’s work, and it’s hard work. 60 - 80 hour weeks just trying to make a name for yourself. Well... I’m still somewhat young and have quite a few more years of work in me. I have no problem working 80 hours a week to create my success story. These potential investors want to see that there is enough support out there to hit this minimal goal before we go further. I couldn’t agree with them more, if we can’t hit our goal then there is no sense in dropping large amounts of money into something that doesn’t have enough support to get off the ground. $10,000 sounds like an impossible goal. However in the grand scheme of things we can break it down into more reasonable terms that make it not sound so intimidating. For instance, 300 people giving $33.33. Now that sounds feasible. That’s three six packs of good beer. Or 4 - 5 good beers plus tip at the pub. Some will give more, some will give less but I think in the end we can hit our goal and begin moving forward.
How will the funds be used? The funds we raise will provide two key elements.
1). A system Upgrade
2). Licensing and Trademarking
System Upgrade:
There is a number of reasons a system upgrade is necessary. Supply and demand is one of em! Currently my system capacity is 15 gallons. What this means is that after fermentation and boil loss I can yield 10-12 gallons. Layman’s terms 10 gallons equals 1,536 oz. That’s 128 12oz. Beer bottles, or 5.3 cases, or 20 64oz. Growlers, and 80 16oz. Pints. Most beers take 2-3 weeks from start to palate. (Some longer depending on the style.) And since I currently have limited fermentation space I can only produce 10-12 gallons every two weeks. Giving us maybe 20-24 gallons a month. This means when a batch is done 15-20 lucky people get a growler and then we’re in a holding pattern again. Fifteen growlers goes in less than 24 hours, very quick. With the system we are upgrading to we can more than double our production. And with the installation of TWO temperature controlled conical fermenting vat’s we can have essentially 60 - 80 gallons in fermentation at the same time. Potentially giving us upwards of 120 gallons a month. To put that into perspective a normal keg we’re all used to seeing is 15.5 gallons. So 120 gallons is about a quarter keg shy of 8 full kegs. Currently I can only make one style at a time. This upgrade will allow me to make up to 4 different styles a month, giving us a variety to choose from opposed to just the option of the week.
Another major reason for the upgrade is consistency!! When you drink an Elysian Space Dust IPA, or a Mack n Jack African Amber Ale, or whatever it is that is your favorite beer, it always tastes the same. It’s that specific flavor that you personally like that brings you back for more. No matter how long its been since you last had one, you’re not disappointed because it tastes exactly how you remembered it. There are a few different elements in the brewing process that have to be exact every time to obtain this kind of consistency. Now I won’t bore you with all the scientific beer jargon, but we’re talking about Mash temp and fermentation temp just to name a couple. Mash temp is critical! When we convert the starches in the grains to fermentable sugars it’s called Amylase. This happens at 149-158 degrees. The low end produces a lighter bodied, drier beer, whereas the higher end of the spectrum gives you a bit sweeter beer with more body. Different styles and different recipes call for different mash temps. If you want consistency in the recipe you’re brewing time after time, you need to hit that temp exact every time. The system upgrade is a H.E.R.M.S. style system giving us 100% control over all aspects of our brewing process. The acronym stand for Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System if you were interested, and this system will help us achieve that consistency we’re looking for.
Licensing and Trademarking:
The first order of business is to create our entity! I do already have access to an attorney for my trademarks as well as contact information to get my licenses rolling. The trademark process takes about 90 days. Not only do we need to trademark the name, we also need to trademark our beer names such as Chuck’s Candied Amber, Bad Day IPA, Chuck’s Brown Ale, Jen-A’s Wee Heavy Scotch Ale. There are a couple others I have yet to name but I can always add them at a later date. The other licensing through Washington State LCB and Federal TTB can take anywhere from 10-14 months. Once all of these are are completely in order we can legally begin outside distribution.
So putting this all into a conclusion and give you a road map as to the next 12 months here is a quick timeline.
First Year Goals:
1). Accomplish our Go Fund Me Campaign (1-3 Months)
2). Obtain our system upgrade (Start hammering down our recipes and consistency)
3). Complete the Trademarking process (90 days)
4). Obtain all required licensing for complete legality (10-14 Months)
Founding Members:
So all Go Fund Me campaigns should offer their donors some sort of incentive for their contributions. I am offering you a Founding Member Club membership. This will only be offered to donors that have donated until we hit our goal. Once we hit our goal membership will be closed and whomever is in will be in a group of very few. If we do go above and beyond our goal we can re-asses and offer those late donors to join the party! Once the Go Fund Me is closed you will receive a card that will entitle you (for the lifetime of Chuck’s Brewing) to $3 pints, $7 growler fills, and if we get to the point where we have merchandise you will receive 20% off on that as well. As a beer drinker who as spent countless dollars at bars and breweries on $5 pints and $10-$20 growler fills I think this is a pretty stellar offer. I hope that you feel this is a good offer as a thank you for your contribution. If we can surpass our goal we will get to work on printing out some shirts with our logo and a founding member badge on the sleeve or something cool like that.:)
In Closing:
As we all know in this imperfect world nothing is certain. The same goes for Chuck’s! Nothing is guaranteed. You can be certain however that the time, effort and passion that I put into this endeavor IS guaranteed! If the future of this brewery weighs solely on my work ethic and passion for the cause it will most certainly be a success! However as we all know there are many more factors in the equation that will no doubt play a part in the future of Chuck’s, and we will attack those head on as they present themselves. This thing may soar or it may sink but we won’t know until we try. One thing I do know is that without you we wouldn’t be knocking on the door of opportunity right now. So again from the bottom of the Pint THANK YOU SO MUCH for believing in my dream and becoming a founding member of Chuck’s Brewing Co.!! LET’S DO THIS THING and make some great memories, great friends, and great beers!! If everything works out phase 2 will consist of a location, a few employees and public distribution!!
STAY TUNED!!
The purpose of this paper is to layout somewhat of a road map as to where I see Chuck’s headed, in both short term as well as long term goals. I want to give you a rundown on what exactly this Go Fund Me campaign will achieve, the huge impact it will make on the start up, and why it will make such an impact. While the overall success of Chuck’s is solely on me , I want to be as transparent as I can. I want you as a donor to know exactly where Chuck’s is and where we’re headed. For this I will send out update emails throughout the entire process so you can see our progress. If and when this thing really gets rolling I want you to look back and say “Hey, I was a part of that brewery from the start.” After all, you will be Founding Members
A little background on me:) I LOVE BEER!! No surprise there LOL:) With that said I love beer like some like wine, or whiskey, or scotch, or sake. The list can go on! Bottom line, there is much more to beer than just its effects… Which happen to be a bonus:) Beer can be quite complex, as can its brewing process, and I love every aspect of it!
I started brewing roughly thirteen years ago in a garage in the back alley of our West Seattle rental. I noticed my neighbor and his buddy one Saturday afternoon with all kinds of vats, hoses, and big ol plumes of steam. I HAD to find out what they were doing. After a few home brews and a couple hours watching them brew I knew I had to try brewing for myself. They invited me to pitch in a few bucks on their next batch since I didn’t have any equipment of my own, and a week or two later I was strapped in behind 50 gallons of Scotch Ale learning how to brew. They had plenty of buckets and airlocks to spare and sent me home with 5 gallons of our creation to ferment and bottle for myself…. I was hooked! A month or two later my wife bought me a $75 starter kit for Christmas and I never looked back:) Since then I have built my system up and made some pretty killer beer along the way. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve made some pretty s#!tty beer too LOL!! We’ve got some stories LOL!! Over carbonated bottles, or overactive ferments that have exploded in the closets. LOL, I’ve even managed to have exploding beers that had to be washed off the ceiling:) Since about 2007 I’ve toyed with the dream of turning my hobby and passion into a career, and more and more recently, more and more people have been nudging me to do so. At 43… maybe it’s time to throw it out there and see what floats. As Gretzky said “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. Might be a good time to take a shot!
Why Chuck’s brewing you ask? Well… It’s a long story that I’d love to sit down with you over a beer or two and tell you all about it. But for now here’s the short of it. For the longest time if I ever was fortunate enough to have this opportunity my brewery was going to be named Back Alley Brewing Co. Because that’s where I learned to brew. I just loved that name, and I should have trademarked it even though I wasn’t ready to have a brewery yet. Well I didn’t! And looking at the registry someone in Minnesota opened Back Alley Brewing about 3 or 4 years ago...SOB, LOL:( So what now? Ever since our daughter Taylor was born I’ve called her Chuck! Chuck Taylor, Sweet Chuck, Super Chuck Etc. We love her to pieces and I can’t think of a better place to have a beer and a snack than at Chuck’s Brew House! As parents we grind to give our children every possible advantage to have a safe and successful future. This is the same grind and passion that will go into giving every possible advantage to the future and success of Chuck’s Brewing.
As I said earlier this Go Fund Me campaign will make a huge impact on the start up of Chuck’s. So what is our goal? We’re looking to put together $10,000. Obviously it’s going to cost much more than $10,000 to start a brewery!:) However there is a silent partner or two sitting here on the sidelines who are ready to pull the tap handles if we can prove to hit our goal. These partners will essentially be contributing generously which is one of the reasons this Go Fund Me campaign will make such an impact. Opening a small brewery is HARD work. I have contacts that are big in the brewing community and know a TON of brewery owners here in the NW and every one of them will say don’t do it! LOL, while they are proving to be successful many of them say it’s not a hobby any more, you don’t just get to show up, throw a few back, brew a batch of beer and kick it with your friends. NO SIR, it’s work, and it’s hard work. 60 - 80 hour weeks just trying to make a name for yourself. Well... I’m still somewhat young and have quite a few more years of work in me. I have no problem working 80 hours a week to create my success story. These potential investors want to see that there is enough support out there to hit this minimal goal before we go further. I couldn’t agree with them more, if we can’t hit our goal then there is no sense in dropping large amounts of money into something that doesn’t have enough support to get off the ground. $10,000 sounds like an impossible goal. However in the grand scheme of things we can break it down into more reasonable terms that make it not sound so intimidating. For instance, 300 people giving $33.33. Now that sounds feasible. That’s three six packs of good beer. Or 4 - 5 good beers plus tip at the pub. Some will give more, some will give less but I think in the end we can hit our goal and begin moving forward.
How will the funds be used? The funds we raise will provide two key elements.
1). A system Upgrade
2). Licensing and Trademarking
System Upgrade:
There is a number of reasons a system upgrade is necessary. Supply and demand is one of em! Currently my system capacity is 15 gallons. What this means is that after fermentation and boil loss I can yield 10-12 gallons. Layman’s terms 10 gallons equals 1,536 oz. That’s 128 12oz. Beer bottles, or 5.3 cases, or 20 64oz. Growlers, and 80 16oz. Pints. Most beers take 2-3 weeks from start to palate. (Some longer depending on the style.) And since I currently have limited fermentation space I can only produce 10-12 gallons every two weeks. Giving us maybe 20-24 gallons a month. This means when a batch is done 15-20 lucky people get a growler and then we’re in a holding pattern again. Fifteen growlers goes in less than 24 hours, very quick. With the system we are upgrading to we can more than double our production. And with the installation of TWO temperature controlled conical fermenting vat’s we can have essentially 60 - 80 gallons in fermentation at the same time. Potentially giving us upwards of 120 gallons a month. To put that into perspective a normal keg we’re all used to seeing is 15.5 gallons. So 120 gallons is about a quarter keg shy of 8 full kegs. Currently I can only make one style at a time. This upgrade will allow me to make up to 4 different styles a month, giving us a variety to choose from opposed to just the option of the week.
Another major reason for the upgrade is consistency!! When you drink an Elysian Space Dust IPA, or a Mack n Jack African Amber Ale, or whatever it is that is your favorite beer, it always tastes the same. It’s that specific flavor that you personally like that brings you back for more. No matter how long its been since you last had one, you’re not disappointed because it tastes exactly how you remembered it. There are a few different elements in the brewing process that have to be exact every time to obtain this kind of consistency. Now I won’t bore you with all the scientific beer jargon, but we’re talking about Mash temp and fermentation temp just to name a couple. Mash temp is critical! When we convert the starches in the grains to fermentable sugars it’s called Amylase. This happens at 149-158 degrees. The low end produces a lighter bodied, drier beer, whereas the higher end of the spectrum gives you a bit sweeter beer with more body. Different styles and different recipes call for different mash temps. If you want consistency in the recipe you’re brewing time after time, you need to hit that temp exact every time. The system upgrade is a H.E.R.M.S. style system giving us 100% control over all aspects of our brewing process. The acronym stand for Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System if you were interested, and this system will help us achieve that consistency we’re looking for.
Licensing and Trademarking:
The first order of business is to create our entity! I do already have access to an attorney for my trademarks as well as contact information to get my licenses rolling. The trademark process takes about 90 days. Not only do we need to trademark the name, we also need to trademark our beer names such as Chuck’s Candied Amber, Bad Day IPA, Chuck’s Brown Ale, Jen-A’s Wee Heavy Scotch Ale. There are a couple others I have yet to name but I can always add them at a later date. The other licensing through Washington State LCB and Federal TTB can take anywhere from 10-14 months. Once all of these are are completely in order we can legally begin outside distribution.
So putting this all into a conclusion and give you a road map as to the next 12 months here is a quick timeline.
First Year Goals:
1). Accomplish our Go Fund Me Campaign (1-3 Months)
2). Obtain our system upgrade (Start hammering down our recipes and consistency)
3). Complete the Trademarking process (90 days)
4). Obtain all required licensing for complete legality (10-14 Months)
Founding Members:
So all Go Fund Me campaigns should offer their donors some sort of incentive for their contributions. I am offering you a Founding Member Club membership. This will only be offered to donors that have donated until we hit our goal. Once we hit our goal membership will be closed and whomever is in will be in a group of very few. If we do go above and beyond our goal we can re-asses and offer those late donors to join the party! Once the Go Fund Me is closed you will receive a card that will entitle you (for the lifetime of Chuck’s Brewing) to $3 pints, $7 growler fills, and if we get to the point where we have merchandise you will receive 20% off on that as well. As a beer drinker who as spent countless dollars at bars and breweries on $5 pints and $10-$20 growler fills I think this is a pretty stellar offer. I hope that you feel this is a good offer as a thank you for your contribution. If we can surpass our goal we will get to work on printing out some shirts with our logo and a founding member badge on the sleeve or something cool like that.:)
In Closing:
As we all know in this imperfect world nothing is certain. The same goes for Chuck’s! Nothing is guaranteed. You can be certain however that the time, effort and passion that I put into this endeavor IS guaranteed! If the future of this brewery weighs solely on my work ethic and passion for the cause it will most certainly be a success! However as we all know there are many more factors in the equation that will no doubt play a part in the future of Chuck’s, and we will attack those head on as they present themselves. This thing may soar or it may sink but we won’t know until we try. One thing I do know is that without you we wouldn’t be knocking on the door of opportunity right now. So again from the bottom of the Pint THANK YOU SO MUCH for believing in my dream and becoming a founding member of Chuck’s Brewing Co.!! LET’S DO THIS THING and make some great memories, great friends, and great beers!! If everything works out phase 2 will consist of a location, a few employees and public distribution!!
STAY TUNED!!
Organizer
Justin Johnson
Organizer
Lynnwood, WA