Rushing Duck Logo

If you’ve looked on our Facebook page recently you might have seen our logo was finally posted (it's also at the bottom of this post). It was done by Nick Penta. He is a very talented artist and he also happens to own Dead Seagull clothing company. I was hoping that it would have been done a while ago, but I really only have myself to blame for that. Being a newb to this whole thing, there are a lot of aspects of this that I had absolutely no knowledge of; getting our logo designed was one of them. I had no idea what the steps in the process were(brainstorming, going through multiple drafts, more brainstorming, getting a black and white version, more brainstorming, more drafts, ending with a final color logo), and therefore had no idea how long it’d take.  Regardless of my oversight, I couldn’t be happier with the logo. I think it does a great job of paying homage to the 1940-1950’s story behind our name, but still looking modern and fun. Hope you all like it too. I’m not sure how many people actually read this, but we will be printing t-shirts soon (also done by Nick at Dead Seagull). We’ll keep you updated on that.

So with that issue resolved, we move right on to the next. We need to start thinking about getting individual beer labels designed. It seems like we have a lot of time being that we are still about two months away from selling beer, but being that the labels need government approval we’re actually behind on that too. The fun never ends.

I’d like to write a bit more, but I’m actually in a rush. I desperately need or organize myself and pack for the Craft Brewer’s Conference that I’m leaving for tomorrow morning. For the next five days I’ll be in San Diego attending brewing lectures, making contacts with other brewers and suppliers, and drinking a lot of Southern California’s finest beer. Be jealous.

 - Dan

 

Overdue Update

So I’m very aware of the fact that I’ve been completely neglectful of this blog. There are a bunch of reasons as to why. For the past few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of back-breaking manual labor in the brewery that was leaving me completely exhausted at the end of the day and in no mood to write. We were cutting and breaking concrete so that we could have floor drains put in that would allow for proper drainage (I’m currently drooling at the idea of being able to spill liquid on the floor and having it head towards a drain without having to be vacuumed or squeegeed – ask any brewer, they’ll understand). Anyway, that process took the better part of three weeks. The drains are being installed as I write this by a qualified professional.

There were so many other things going on at the brewery at that time that when I finally did get time to write an update I was overwhelmed with all the different things that needed mentioning. What I decided to do so as to avoid a novel length blog post is just to give the cliffs notes version, and maybe I’ll elaborate on some of the bigger things later…

-          On 3/23 we purchased our glycol chiller to regulate temperature for all of our fermenting beer, and we also bought a used walk-in cooler to store packaged/kegged beer.

-          During the week of 3/26 we submitted applications to the state and federal governments so that we can legally manufacture beer. This means we are +/- 3 months from being open! (my stomach just did flips from writing that last sentence)

-          The 15bbl brite tank we purchased back in November has been completed and is on a truck probably somewhere in middle-America on its way to our brewery.

-          Floor drains (as mentioned above) are about 1-2 weeks from being finished.

-          I’ve seen the final black and white version of the Rushing Duck logo and it looks awesome. We’re still finalizing some color options, but it’s just around the corner.

-          I will be signing a lease agreement today to reserve brand new kegs to be delivered in a couple months.

-          Lots more purchases, lots more projects

That’s about it for now. I’ll try to be more up to date on things as they come up…but don’t hold me to it.

-          Dan