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OPERATION BREWERY Black Hops - The Least Covert Operation in Brewing A step-by-step guide to building a brewery on a budget Dan Norris with Eddie Oldfield and Michael McGovern Copyright 2016 Dan Norris with Eddie Oldfield and Michael McGovern ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permis- sion from the author/publisher. ISBN: 978-1535548618 Contents Join us in the Black Hops Ambassador group .................................v What this book is, and what it isn’t ............................................. vii Foreword ...................................................................................... xiii Chapter 1: Eggnog What? ...........................................................1 Chapter 2: How to Build a Brand ................................................8 Chapter 3: What Do You Need to Start a Brewery? .................17 Chapter 4: Our First Commercial Brew ....................................29 Chapter 5: Relationships ...........................................................39 Chapter 6: Business Models ......................................................47 Chapter 7: Marketing ................................................................53 Chapter 8: Raising Money .........................................................72 Chapter 9: Product ....................................................................99 Chapter 10: Location ................................................................109 Chapter 11: Equipment .............................................................128 Chapter 12: Approvals ..............................................................156 Chapter 13: Fuckups ..................................................................166 Chapter 14: Opening day ..........................................................175 Join us in the Black Hops Ambassador group There’s a lot covered in this book, and many of these topics are better discussed with a community of like-minded brewers and business people. If you would like to delve into these topics further, we have a free Black Hops Ambassador group on Facebook. We help members out with questions about brewing and business and members help us when we need a hand. Win-win! Visit blackhops.com.au/ambassadors and request to join. We’ll see you there. ‒ v ‒ What this book is, and what it isn’t Hey, it’s Dan here, one of the founders of Black Hops Brewery. When we set out to build a brewery, we decided to document every step along the way. I’ve written books before, so it wasn’t long before we decided it would be a good idea to turn our lessons into a book. Starting and running any business is complicated, and it’s always dif- ficult to decide when one of your lessons is useful to someone else. My life in business has taught me that what happens to someone else is not necessarily going to happen to me. What works for them might not work for me; what they fail at might be what I succeed at. Still, it’s invaluable to learn as much as you can before you delve into starting a business, particularly one that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. You will see what I mean when you see our finances! This book was intentionally completed right when we opened. It’s full of stories and lessons from us on our journey from making ‒ vii ‒ DAN NORRIS homebrew to opening our own brewery. It means we don’t cover things relating to running a brewery like pricing, distribution, sales, hiring, etc. It also means that it’s an accurate and real account of what we went through on the road leading up to open- ing, with no sugarcoating and no hindsight. We hope the stories in this book are entertaining, useful, and maybe even inspiring. Remember, these are our lessons and your experience will be very different to ours. Although this has been written in my own voice, this project was started and worked on by Michael (Govs), Eddie, and me. Supporters By the time you read this, we will be open and selling beer on the Gold Coast. That would not be possible without a lot of epic people. Paul, Teneille, Sam, and Biebs Our investors, Sam, Paul, and Paul’s wife Teneille, backed us when we were three guys with a dream. We would not have been able to open Black Hops without them, and we are eternally grateful for their support. Our landlord, Biebs, has been our number one sup- porter from the beginning. Friends and family All of us have had epic support from our friends and family; thanks for being part of the journey with us. We decided not to mention names specifically here, but you know who you are. ‒ viii ‒ OPERATION BREWERY Black Hops Ambassadors We have a Facebook group called The Black Hops Ambassadors. The members are super active and have helped us promote Black Hops, particularly during our crowdfunding campaign. Thanks, Ambassadors! Pozible backers At the start of 2016, we ran a crowdfunding campaign to help us open the doors. Here is a full list of the epic contributors. Thanks so much for backing us to get it done and for being part of our journey. During our Pozible campaign, we had a reward for $500 for five cartons of beer. We had two legends step up and take that reward. Nathan Chan from Foundr Magazine, a good friend of mine, and Scott Imlach from Bine Bar and Dining, a good friend to all three of us. Legends! Here is a full list of the Pozible backers: Luke Marshall, Zeb Ede, Chris O’Halloran, Kristi Barrow, Wendy Papas, Stirling Howland, Esther McGovern, Helen Edwards, Marcus Marais, James Graham, Paul Soady, Toby Jenkins, Jennie Gordon, Corrie Glen, Jeremy Dwyer, John Musker, John Mur- phy, Daniel Middler, Nick Bonner, Loretta McGill, Will Mullins, Goldtoast Supper-Club, Keith Farrell, Xavier Verhoeven, Phil Guilletmot, Nat Burcher, Adam Passfield, Nathan Bowes, Mat- thew Coomber, Adam Sewell, Jenna, Paul and Teneille Simpson, Michael Carlsen, Stephen Cooper, Peter Wheldon, Hayden Brass, Mick Byrne, Emma Papas, Ben France, John McGovern, Adrian Strutton, Claire Oldfield, Gordon McGregor, Dylan Robinson, ‒ ix ‒ DAN NORRIS Dave Curtis, Luke Ronalds, Sean Reynolds Massey-Reed, Tommy and Mary Miller, Christopher Hey, Mark Moffatt, Joy Townsend, John Elliott, Tegan Knight, Scott McLean, Matthew McGavern, Gary Andrew and Joanne Kennett, Laetitia Somers, Matt Dick, Rohan Dutton, Craig Maiden, Nick Barnes, Scott Garnett, Luke Shield, Beards Meat Beer, Chris Chamberlain, Chris Wormald, Matthew Beggs, Simon Pilkington, Nicholas Pandelakis, Michael Walker, James Traill, Brad Hardy, Jarrod Robinson, Adam Coburn, Matthew Jackson, Nicole Box, Anne and Steve Carlin, Gareth Latham, Murray Francis, Martin and Pauline Oldfield, Aaron Birkby, Darren Hastie, Melina Wornes, Dean Boughen, Jo Espey, Philip Nelson, Mike Shaw, Kathleen Ho, Gary Fletcher, Troy Thompson, Matt and Ingrid Flanagan, Jamie Pollard, Joshua Lof- tus, Scott Shomer, Alan Hayes, Matthew Thomas, Gordon Smith, David Lawrence, Sarah Swinton, Andy Chilton, Ronson Blake, Rory Delaney, Ben McAdam, Damian Rigby, Matt Farrelly, Chad, Chris Marks, Michael Carlsen, Dave Perry, John Dunlea, Chris O’Halloran, Gareth Russell, Paul Soady, Nick Bonner, David Lardner, Jamie Brocket, David Kitchen, Sjon (Kegs) Wakeham, Adrian Carrales, Ryan Daniel, Dinan Gunawardena, Leith Booker, Jared Oldfield, Steven Sonsino, Tom Morkes, Miranda Packer, Kieran Ord, Robert McGinn, Chris Marr, Mark Reid, Mark Wil- liam Davies, David Black, Samantha Morris, David Scott Kane, Sean Johnson, Vic Dorfman, Nick Davis, Rob Walling, James Welham, Michael Kirchhubel, Jeremy Chandanais, Adedayo Charis, Chris Varnom, Xavier Verhoeven, Paul Kemp, Trent Mar- tin, Tim Yarham, Scott Kilmartin, Matty Oakes, Georgie Seddon, Meg Solly, Bradley McCarty, Alex Kelly, David Hindin, Debz and Moog, Jess Mcwatt Forbes, Mark Willetts, Erica and Kieran Ryan, Claire Dryden, Judd Owen, Rob McDonald, Jason Poffley, Mur- ray, Anna Webb, Kim Doyal, Cameron James, Corey Lardner, Zac Smith, and Melissa Murray. ‒ x ‒ OPERATION BREWERY HQ helpers When building the brewery, we had a lot of people come and give us a hand. Here is a list of the main suspects, but thank you to eve- ryone who popped in. Matt Vergotis, Matthew Dick, Chris Chamberlain, Fiona Ramiah, Dave Orbell, Claire Oldfield, Martin and Pauline Oldfield, Kieran Ryan, Linden Prescott, Jeremy James, Jesse Curry, Pete Wheldon, Tom Russell, Luke Ronalds, Mark Beck, Jon Kruger, Byron Hall, Mushy, Eamonn McGovern, Dave Dwyer, Russell Steele, Clive Oldfield, Claire Dryden, and Mark (Trouty) Traucnnieks. Press We’ve also had a lot of press, particularly from local Gold Coast outlets and beer and food blogs. Thanks to More Gold Coast, Inside Gold Coast, Gold Coast Bulletin, Courier Mail, Metropolist Gold Coast, The Crafty Pint, Weekend Edition Gold Coast, Craft Beer Reviewer, Brews News, Brewed Crude and Bitter, 250 Beers, From Gold Blog, FROTH mag, and Blank Gold Coast. Bars We wouldn’t exist if we didn’t have bars selling our beer. Thanks to all of the bars that have sold Black Hops. In particular, we’d like to thank: Ze Pickle, who were the first to offer our beer on the Gold Coast; HooHa Bar, who were the first in Brisbane; Bine Bar and Dining and Lester & Earl on the Gold Coast, who have sup- ported us at every step. ‒ xi ‒ Foreword By