This month’s Session is being hosted by The Beer Babe and is a topic of particular interest to me. It is, New Kids on the Block. Her summary:

With the astounding growth of the number of craft breweries this year, chances are there’s a new one in development, or has just started out in your area. My challenge to you is to seek out a new brewery and think about ways in which they could be welcomed into the existing beer community. How does their beer compare to the craft beer scene in your area? Are they doing anything in a new/exciting way? What advice, as a beer consumer, would you give to these new breweries?

I’m going to take a little bit of a different tack on this because I am, myself, a New Kid on the Block. In fact, I’ll be cross-posting this post on my brewery’s website and so, in a most amazingly selfish manner, I’m going to write about me.

I want to tell you about my crazy plans to make only seasonal beers. I want to tell you about how I’m never going to make the same beer twice and that consistency only needs to be in quality not in flavor. I want to detail how I’m going to offer a food pairing with every single brew I make. About how I want to steal marketing ideas from the wine industry and how I never want to sell a 6-pack. I want to tell you about how I plan to market to nerds with literature references and appeal to history buffs because I’m tired of beer pong and tit jokes. I want to go on about how I want to use the web and social media to engage customers in ways that I don’t see anybody doing right now. I think that I’ve got some groundbreaking new stuff in mind that could change a lot of people’s minds about how beer exists in the marketplace and how it gets in to restaurants and bars.

But I’m not going to.

Instead, I want to talk about how awesome everybody else has been using two aphorisms that you tend to hear in and around the industry.

Beer People Are Good People

You hear this a lot. Hell. I say it a lot. Beer people are good people. Let me show you what I mean. Click on this link. What you see there are the results of 243 people who appreciate good beer enough to help some lucky bastard (ermm.. me) chase his dream. That is nothing short of absolutely phenomenal. (I should also note that 1 of those 243 people is the host of this month’s Session. Thank you, Carla!) I have received support from local beer people that is beyond anything I could have hoped for. I received offers for help with everything from construction to design to manual labor. Sure, maybe there’s the hope that some free beer might change hands here or there, but I haven’t heard much about it. Instead, I’ve heard, “I’d just like to help.” As a new brewery coming onto the scene it’s heartwarming. It’s great to run into people in bars and hear their excitement. It’s humbling and ridiculously exciting.

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats

Let me tell you a starry-eyed plan that I have for my brewery. No! Let me tell you first about North Carolina beer. Here in North Carolina, we have a great beer scene. There are breweries up and down this state that are making world class beer. There are ground-breaking new breweries, veteran award-winning breweries, brewpubs, nano-breweries, Reinheitsgebot-following breweries, and everything in-between. The past year has seen 5 new breweries open in the state, 3 within an hour drive of me. On top of that? I have received nothing but kind words, support, and help from the local industry. Instead of competition, I am being treated like.. well.. a new kid on the block, a new friend. So that starry-eyed plan?

I have a clause written into my business plan that says that, whenever possible, I would like to avoid taking another North Carolina beer off tap in a location where I go on. Is it always going to be possible? Probably not. It’s not my decision, after all. But I would rather go in next to a great local beer – and have the establishment that I’m in sell the local option than replace a local beer and go in next to … whatever. Sam Adams Seasonal. Hell – keep the Boston Lager tap, but let the locals roll together because a rising tide does lift all boats. What helps one of us, helps all of us. We’re all riding this wave together, and we’ll get there a lot better if we act in unison against the forces of bland sameness instead of individually. United we drink, divided we sink.

Maybe I’m going into this with rampant naivety. Maybe all this support is merely a facade of good will, warm-fuzzies, and glowing elf hugs and it will all be whisked away by the cold light of The Need For Sales and Revenue, but I think that, as the topic of this Session suggests, there is a groundswell of support for new breweries, even in the wake of so many new openings in the past few years.

The question has been posed in the past: Are there too many breweries? I still contend that the answer is a resounding, firm no. Rather, there are still too many people in this country settling for less. There’s room in the marketplace for all of us new breweries and many more. Beer people – good people – are making that clear with their vociferous support.

Thanks to all of you good beer people. I look forward to reading the advice posted for new breweries in response to this Session.

À votre santé,
Erik

As a fun treat, I’m going to start sharing homebrew-sized recipes of experimental batches that may or may not see the light of day on the commercial line. Some of them are good and some of them are downright strange. Beer that hits the shelves will make it up there eventually, too, but only after the batch has come out of the market (unless you’re a Kickstarter – then watch your mail).

In the meantime, keep an eye on hopville (for now, until something better – or at least more frequently updated – comes along) to see what’s coming out of the Mystery Brewing experimental archive.

À votre santé,
Erik

It’s been a while since any news has been up and around, so here’s an update of what’s been in the works.

Space: The final frontier. Not really. As of August first, Mystery Brewing Company has its own address. We’re even on Google Maps! Is it a tiny, tiny warehouse space? Sure, yep. Does it need some work? Boy howdy. But, it’s ours. It’s storage space and will eventually hold a cold room, a little merch shop, and maybe, just maybe, if we play our cards right, a little tasting room and spot to get growlers filled. Keep your eyes peeled.

Evangeline: As I’ve mentioned before, Evangeline – a saison – will be our flagship. The recipe is set and ready to be scaled up. Our yeast will soon be on its way to the good people at White Labs who will keep it for us as a proprietary strain, now all we need is a place to make it, and that’s in the works. Trust that as soon as a deal is struck, you’ll see news of it here.

La Concorde: It’s official. Beer number two, our second flagship, will be a Black IPA called “La Concorde: a Carolinian Dark.” This’ll be a little different than most Black IPAs that you’ve had. For one thing, I don’t use any American hops. The plan is to emulate a classic British IPA in every way shape and form, except the color and the chocolatey backbone. To that end, the only roasted malt that I use in this is Chocolate Wheat malt. Since wheat kernels (or berries, if you prefer) don’t have hulls they don’t pick up as many of the harsh bitter tones that barley can pick up during high temperature kilning. What that means is a much smoother dark/chocolate/coffee flavor. You see, the point is to derive all of the bitterness in this particular beer from the hops, rather than balancing hop bitterness on top of the natural bitterness of chocolate malt, black malt, or roasted barley. That way, what you’re getting isn’t just a glass of bitterness, but a well-balanced IPA that just happens to be black in color. I promise you’ll like it.

Online store: Anybody who is anywhere near me when people have asked have probably heard this a hundred times, but! Coming soon – really soon – like, hopefully this week soon – we’ll have a little online store to buy Mystery Brewing swag. Until I can find some good boxes for glassware it’ll just be t-shirts online, and eventually some stickers, but the t-shirts are beeee-yoo-tiful, and I’m sure you’ll want to wear one. Keep an eye out.

Video chat: Kickstarter backers should keep an eye out for an invitation to the first video chat. It’ll be on a Sunday Saturday night, and I’ll invite you to share a beer with me as we talk about brewing, saison, why I hate the name “Cascadian dark” and whatever else comes up. Look for info in your e-mail soon.

À votre santé,
Erik

Awesome.

Today is a great day. Today we are featured in an article in the News and Observer. Today is the day that our Kickstarter funding draws to a close (there’s still time to get involved!). Today is the day we get to celebrate our pants off at its success. I hope you can join us. If you can’t, then please take the time to raise a glass at 9 PM in toast.

You’ll see a little bit more here once today’s festivities are over. Until then!

À votre santé,
Erik

First off — a little bit of bad news: The bad news is that it looks like we won’t be able to share any rare beer on Friday.

Did you know that raffles are illegal in North Carolina unless you’re a non-profit? Next time you hold a home raffle, bear that in mind. (Also illegal? Drunk bingo.)

We were also originally going to have a silent auction with all of that wonderful beer that I featured in an earlier post, but it’s been brought to our attention that it constitutes re-sale of alcohol which: 1) We’re not yet licensed to do all by our lonesome and 2) A lot of that stuff was above the ABV limit allowed inside the state.

So, sad to say we’ve been stopped in our tracks on that front. On the other hand, I’ll be hold onto said magical beer and will look into organizing a rare beer sharing activity soon so that I feel a little less like a douchebag about it.

Good news: You will be able to try a potential Mystery Brewing Company beer this Friday night. Bear in mind that it’s a prototype, so it’s probably going to change (in fact, I KNOW it will) but I’ll be more than happy to talk to you about how. It’ll be significantly lower in alcohol than those other beers, but I’ll tell you now that it’s a hell of a lot more rare than Dark Lord because there’s only 5 gallons in existence.

Come drink some. See you on Friday.

À votre santé,
Erik

We hit our goal – and with 10 days to go! A huge, hearty, and hefty thanks to everyone who donated – in the past two days, including the matching funds, we’ve raised over $17,000. That is just phenomenal. I cannot describe how difficult it will be to sit through the rest of my work day.

So what happens now? Well – two things!

First: We go on raising money for the next 10 days. Anything above goal means we’re that much closer to our first batch of beer and that much more of it. Kegs get ordered, ingredients are lined up, we look at warehouse space and refrigerated storage. We’re already on the path through licensing and getting ready to make beer.

Second: WE PARTY. What are you doing July 23rd? Is it joining us to celebrate? Because it should be.

More from me when I’m not shaking with excitement.

À votre santé,
Erik

Friends –

We’ve had a very generous offer. Starting at midnight tonight (Sunday, July 11) and going through 12:00 PM EDT on Tuesday, July 13, all pledges made to our Kickstarter drive will receive a 50% matching grant from one of our backers.

That means, if you’ll pull out your calculator and follow along, that all pledges made in that time period will be matched fifty cents to the dollar. So, if you donate $20, another $10 will be pledged. If you donate $50, it’s $75 total. If you pledge $100, it’s $150, and so on. This includes any increase in current pledges made during this period.

Note: That doesn’t actually mean that if you pledge $50 that you can get the $75 reward – this is not Kickstarter making this match, this is a backer that has offered to do this awesome, generous thing.

What does that mean? Well, it means that if you’ve been waiting to pledge, or you have friends that have been waiting to pledge, that now is the perfect time. It means that until noon on Tuesday, the goal is 50% closer.

Make sure you follow us on Twitter or Facebook for updates.

Click here to pledge now, or to manage your pledge.

À votre santé,
Erik

Just a short update because I wanted to throw out a quick visual.

Looks like we’ll probably do a silent auction rather than a raffle at the fundraising party; here’s most of the beers we’ll have around to auction off, more should be on their way:

Seriously. On this alone – how could you miss this party?

Don’t. Get your tickets.

À votre santé,
Erik

Friends -

As you know, we’ve been working for the past month to raise money for the brewery via Kickstarter. We have to meet our goal by July 23rd at 9 PM EDT.

To commemorate this – in hopes that we make our goal, and also to help us make our goal – we’re throwing a party.

Join us at The Speakeasy of Tyler’s Taproom in Durham, NC from 7 – 10 PM on July 23rd and help the celebration. There will be pool and foosball and lots of great beer people to chat with. There will be Mystery Brewing t-shirts and glassware available, a raffle for some rare beer and other goodies (2010 Dark Lord and Sexual Chocolate will be on hand and lots more) and maybe – just maybe – some Mystery Brewing Company beer to sample.

You need a ticket to get in (get them here – only 200 available!), and, of course, we’d really appreciate it if you would take the time to pledge to the Kickstarter drive if you’re planning on being there.

Finally, if you’re local, we’re looking for a couple of volunteers to help out during the event. Shoot me an e-mail if you’re interested.

À votre santé,
Erik

Friends -

Great news, we’re up over 40% with 24 days to do. Momentum is building, paperwork has begun, and pretty soon we should be seeing designs for the stickers, shirts, and glasses that you’ll all be receiving. I’m excited to have all of my backers on board with me, but I’d love to have more – scads more. I’ve just drawn up a little graphic so that you can wear the badge of a backer of Mystery Brewing proudly, if you so choose.

If you’re a backer, I invite you to post this on your website, on your Facebook page, or anything you’d like to do with it. Hell, print it out and bring it everywhere you go! Proudly show your involvement and get your friends in on the fun at the same time. You can click on the picture above for a full size image and here’s a little bit of code that you can use to post it on your web page (if you have one). Just edit that width measurement to fit whatever space you need:

<a href = "http://www.mysterybrewingco.com/kickstart/"><img src="http://www.mysterybrewingco.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/mbc_publicflyer_WEB1.png" alt="" title="There's a Mystery Brewing...." width="400" /></a>

If you’re not a backer, well.. hey.. feel free to post it, but I bet you’ll feel a lot better about yourself if you pledge first.

À votre santé,
Erik