4257 N. Lincoln will semi-officially be the new home of Half Acre Beer Co. We made it over the community meeting hurdle, so that’s big. This meeting was the opportunity for the community to come out and express concerns, ask questions and learn a bit more about what it is we would like to do with the space. The concerns all fell into basic categories: Are you opening a bar? Will you be blocking streets and alleys with large trucks? Will there be odor that will make my life hell? Will you bring the riff-raff? We had acceptable responses and won the vote. In the end we had only one vote against the project – that was from the one self-pronounced beer advocate. We offered attendants some beer on their way out, and I’m not positive, but I think he grabbed one.
So, off we go to the zoning commission for, we hope, the final zoning approval. All this is very exciting for us. Our new brewhouse arrives at the end of September, so our biggest goal is to have the space prepared enough so that it can receive it and not have to move it later. This stuff is big and heavy.
We’ve been hearing from a lot of people who have offered to lend a hand. Thanks to all of you. It would be great to have all of you helping us achieve our goals, scurrying about the city with blueprints, jack-hammering floors, leveling fermentation vessels, etc. We’ve been thinking of how to accept help, so if we’ve received a note from you, be on notice, the call could come – maybe in the middle of the night.
In the meantime, the summer pushes on. It’s been ungodly hot in our current 4th floor hideout. Our intern looks like Christian Bale in The Machinist, but he continues to get it done four days a week.
And speaking of….. Our intern, Chris, is a tech-savvy student at Columbia. He put a “Widget” on our Myspace page. This widget will make it easier for you to stay in touch with what’s going on with Half Acre Beer Co. You can go grab this widget and easily install it on your IGoole home page, your own Myspace or other places that people do these sorts of things. Frankly it’s over my head, but those of you who are more tech-savvy, are, I’m sure, more familiar with the world of “Widget,” and how they get information closer to your fingertips.
So, there it is, 13,000 sq ft of brewery space and a widget. Isn’t that something?
Gabriel
Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL
Wow. Companies are melding together rapidly. What a strange time in the corporate culture of large scale brewing. They’re creating bigger gangs from already big gangs in order to compete with the other gang. Competing for market-share on a scale as large as theirs, I guess, really does take efficiency and power.
You can read about it here and here
In less publicized happenings, the distributors that get these brands into the hands of consumers are also merging with one another in order to increase their chances for success over the long haul.
Even New Belgium Brewing Co, a very large brewing company by craft standards, has made an agreement with Elysian Brewing Co to brew each other’s beers. Not the same as a merger, but an alliance that will help each to compete with bigger, more dominant brands.
Check it out here
No matter what your vantage point, there’s a lot of change occurring in the industry and these changes are sure to make ripples with unknown consequence. I wonder how small brewing companies that have sold equity to macro brands feel about these changes, and if they’re getting squeezed in any way.
My hope is that one day all the macro brands are forced to form one huge company: BEER CO. This behemoth will eventually rid themselves of the stress of varied branding and recipe diversity and move to a double recipe and aesthetic platform.
1. Beer
2. Beer Light
They’ll position themselves in a way that beats down the notion that creativity and selection are positive things. They’ll pump the masses full of formulaic marketing in the hopes of raising the appeal of dull, monotonous beer and droned lifestyle.
All the while craft brewers are pushing the boundaries of what beer can be and running around doing fun things in support of their trade and for entertainment itself. It would be a huge battle dividing consumers and families across the country. All very dramatic stuff. Sons eventually leaving the house because he was caught drinking craft beer and his BEER drinking father and him could no longer see fit to live under the same roof. That kind of thing.
Who can tell?
Gabriel
Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL
This past weekend was packed with Half Acre events. On Saturday a group of us trucked out to Toyota Park to be counted as Chicago Fire fans. Some friends of ours are members of Section 8, the official Chicago Fire Supporters Club. These guys are serious about the Fire and throwing down in the parking lot before the match.
We decided the best thing to do would be to bring a keg of the Lager with us in order to be welcomed with open arms. A keg of beer usually does the trick when looking for open arms. After a brief period of hanging around and only draining a few cups of beer the buses started showing up. Both Small Bar on Division and Fado Irish Pub run buses out to the games with aid of Windy City Wanderers. (For some reason unknown to me they decided to put Toyota Park in the middle of nowhere just far enough that no one in their right mind would think about casually heading out to a soccer match.) With the buses came the lines and the opportunity to talk to a lot of people about our company and the beer they were drinking.
Between our beer and the Smoked Bourbon Pork Sandwiches the Section 8 guys were whipping out, I think people were really glad to be taking part. Following all that we got to watch the Fire take Toronto 2-1. It was a fine way to spend a Saturday night, so thank you to the Section 8 crew.
The rub came when the alarm began to chirp at 6am Sunday morning. Matt and I had to be up in order to help out at a Half Acre Cycling race. This race was a time trial in Hillshire, IL. Ever been to Hillshire? Me neither. But it was a nice place to spend a morning monitoring traffic and riders around turn 4. We managed to get through the race without one rider getting maimed on our turn. Another friend, Ben, who is an accomplished rider himself, almost got run over by a motorcycle while trying to halt him so a rider could make his turn, though. It was pretty funny really, but the guy on the motorcycle was less then amused. I was glad he didn’t hop off the bike and throttle Ben.
The weather in Hillshire was beautiful and it was impressive to see riders on Half Acre Cycling come whipping around the turn pedaling full-out when I knew we were only witnessing a few seconds of a race that was upwards of an hour long. It takes a great deal of endurance to move your body that hard for that long, and I’m glad to be affiliated with folks that wake up at four in the morning on a Sunday to push themselves like that. I was happy to be wearing a bright orange vest, waving a bright orange flag alongside a wheat field on turn 4 in Hillshire, IL.
Gabriel
Half Acre Beer Co.
You may or may not have heard that hops are pretty hard to come by these days. When you do find them, they’re very expensive.
I’ve covered all this before so I won’t bore you with more sad stories of the little brewing company trying to scrape together hop cones to eek out one more brew.
This post is quite the opposite. I come with tales of hearty hop coiffeurs and robust times. We plunked down some cash and purchased enough hops to keep our little brewery pumping out hearty beers for a good while (once we’re brewing under our roof, that is). We already own all the hops we need to brew our Lager for some time; our larger concern was the new Over Ale and subsequent brews once we’re churning out beers in the city. We’ve been badgering all the appropriate channels to cough up some hops. They coughed. Thanks to all who coughed.
This firms up a lot of stuff for us. It insures that we can go to the drawing board with ample supplies of great hops to make the beers we want to, and not what we have to. Like Scrooge Mcduck and his coins, I would like to jump into a pool of our hops and bathe in the wealth. Also like Scrooge McDuck, we’re protecting them at all costs.
Right now our hops are in an underground storage center that was built for this very reason. It’s a modest bunker outfitted with the latest in surveillance and security measures. Its entrance is a non-descript building, a seemingly average space that could house any number of basic businesses. There’s a reception desk where you’ll find a woman who we’ll call “Lynda.” She handles any misguided traffic that happens to wander in by error or curiosity. Should for any reason Lynda feel threatened, or more so, feel that the hops are threatened, she trips a multi-level defense system that’s designed to torture, humiliate, terrify and deter any intruder that may or may not be interested in stealing our hops. At a moments notice a highly orchestrated series of events that involve rabid children, trained Otters with poisonous sea urchins glued to their bodies, unbearably loud music, both complete darkness and extreme light, tattooing, foreign languages and shaving, go into effect. So, be on notice.
We can’t wait to begin work with these hops, and we’ve taken every precaution to insure that you’re able to drink the fruits of our labor.
Gabriel
Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL
This will be a short post. It’s about zoning, city, state and federal licensing, label approvals, excise taxes, state and federal income taxes and banks.
Having a beer company is truly a great thing, but all of the above things sometimes make me want to hop off the roof.
We look at it as some sort of bizarre, tortuous filtering system the government puts in place so that you have to be really dedicated in order to get through the web of continual heartache.
Good thing we’re dedicated and we have plenty of beer to take the edge off.
Here’s to all the countless people that help us dance around these hurdles.
Gabriel
Half Acre Beer Co.
Chicago, IL
We here at Half Acre Beer Company currently reside on the fourth / fifth floor of a converted factory on the near-west side of Chicago. Our headquarters is a modest loft-style space in the ICNC building; a building that hosts many companies doing their best to get up and going. We’re very fond of the space. It has tons of light, high ceilings and plenty of metal from the factory of old.
One thing it doesn’t have is air conditioning. We pay an extremely affordable monthly rent that far makes up for a little extra sweat through the course of our day. Either way, it’s hot. Really hot. We could install an AC unit, but maybe a little piece of us likes it or enjoys the challenge. Today our intern Chris looked like he was going to have a stroke before he left for the day.
When first getting into the business of selling beer, maybe a week or two in, I had a phone conversation with one of the head guys who helps to run the distributor we use. I call him The Oracle because he’s always dropping time-tested beer knowledge and letting out these humorous, sage one liners gained from working in the world of beer for the last 150 years. He asked “How you doin’ over there?” and I replied “Good, but a little hot.” It was August and I was virtually naked for fear of melting to my clothing. He paused and said “A man in the beer business never complains when it’s hot outside.” I, of course, realized his point and have made note ever since.
So, I’m literally dripping sweat as I post this to the blog, but I’m not complaining because, much like our customers, it will make it that much nicer to award myself with a cold and refreshing beer when the work day is “Over.” That’s a nice cycle to be part of. That’s also why our next beer to be released in just a few weeks is called Half Acre “Over Ale.” Look for it soon. I’ll let you know.
Enjoy the summer.
Gabriel
Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL
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