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

Who Needs Lawyers

So what’s new at Rushing Duck? We’re still working on a lot of things. Unfortunately that means lots of loose ends and unfinished projects, which is very frustrating. I’ll start sleeping through the night again once we can start getting some of these things completed. The biggest issue right now is working towards getting licensed. We were going to give the forms to a lawyer to fill out to make sure everything is done correctly, but the quote we received from the law firm to do this was well out of our budget. Instead we’re gonna try and tackle it ourselves. After going over it a ton, we think we’ve got things pretty well laid out and organized, so hopefully we can file for the licenses in the next week or so.

To balance out all of that tedious paperwork we decided that we should get some fun work mixed in to keep us all sane. We’ve started taking small steps in marketing and sales in the Hudson Valley area. What that really translates to is visiting bars/restaurants/growler shops that serve craft beer and getting a meal, some good beer, and talking about Rushing Duck to anyone that will listen. We’ve also been talking to and visiting a lot of other brewers in the general area to pick their brains about starting up, checking out the layout of the breweries, and of course drinking delicious beer. Like I said, this is the fun part.

               

              -   Dan

A Couple Tons of Debris Later

Tons of stuff going on...The big projects at hand right now are getting the building brewery ready and working towards getting licensed. Getting the building ready includes everything from general cleaning to getting our electric and plumbing needs squared away.  

Cleaning is actually the fun part. It feels amazing to put a day’s worth of work in straightening the place up and having it look more like a brewery when I leave than when I got there. Unfortunately the previous tenants were tile manufacturers, so they have an entire showroom that is very well tiled. Pulling up tile might be one of the most frustrating jobs on the planet.

Setting the electricity and plumbing up is another matter all together. That is far beyond my scope of expertise, so I kind of have to just relay what we need done to get brewing and hope that it doesn't cost too much. Getting our electric straightened out seems to be working itself out alright, but the plumbing situation has me a little uneasy. With the building as old as it is and drainage being so important in brewing, I have a nervous suspicion that it’s going to be a little more complicated than I’d like. We’ll see…

On the other end of the spectrum, we’ve decided that we’re going to hire a lawyer to help us fill out our state and federal brewing applications. I've spent long enough looking at the applications to realize that there are plenty of places that I can make mistakes on it. Approval can take three months to get back, and mistakes on the forms can delay that by six weeks or more. We decided that whatever the legal fees cost, we’d probably lose more money in lost income if our opening gets delayed just because i’s weren’t dotted and t’s weren’t crossed.

-Dan

P.S.

If you live in NY keep an eye out for Newburgh Brewing Co. I’m not positive on their distribution, but they will be selling beer in the Hudson Valley (Orange, Rockland, Westchester, Putnam counties) and in NYC. They should have beer flowing in the March time-frame. I haven’t had a chance to try it yet, but they’re really good guys and I’m sure it’s delicious.

No Longer Homeless

Great news! We finally have an address. Rushing Duck Brewing Co. is located at 1 Battiato Lane in the Village of Chester, NY. I know updates have been scarce lately, and the reason is that we were at a standstill waiting for approval of our building. Issues regarding a handful of parking spaces have delayed us by about two months. However, now that that’s (mostly) behind us, we can start attacking things that will get us closer to opening. The next hurdle is getting state and federal paperwork squared away. While we wait +/- 3 months for licensing, we’ll be doing a ton of demo/construction, installation, planning, promoting, etc.

Things should get much more interesting in the next few weeks/months, and now that we’re past one of our major hang ups, we’ll be posting pictures and updating a lot more too.

Cool stuff to come…

-          - Dan