Ajax board meeting. Market research and planning for the future.
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Commonwealth of Virginia
Office of Governor Bob McDonnell
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 15, 2012
Contact: Jeff Caldwell
Phone: (804) 225-4260
Email: Jeff.Caldwell@Governor.Virginia.Gov
Governor McDonnell Signs Legislation to Support Virginia Craft Brewers
Bills allow craft breweries to sell their beer at retail on premises, offer samples to visitors and allow flexibility to reduce start-up costs
RICHMOND – Governor McDonnell today signed two pieces of legislation to support Virginia craft brewers at the Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. House Bill 359 (McClellan) allows manufacturers to lease space in their brewhouses to smaller-scale brewers and Senate Bill 604 (McWaters) allows retail sales of beer and sampling on the premises of Virginia breweries. The governor was joined by legislators, brewers from around the state, distributors, representatives from the Virginia Craft Brewers Guild, representatives from the Virginia Manufacturers Association, commissioner of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Neal Insley, and representatives from the Virginia Tourism Commission. After the bill signing the governor helped unveil a new logo for craft beer from the Virginia Tourism Commission “Virginia is for craft beer Lovers.” Virginia currently has 44 licensed breweries.
Market research on our last night in the UK. We bought these bottles a few days ago. Black Isle organic brewery near Inverness, Scotland.
They have a working farm on premise, growing barley, and rotating the fields to naturally fertilize the fields. Also selling free range eggs, beef, and lamb. Very friendly and happy to talk to some aspiring brewers.
Did I mention the that the beer is excellent? Because it is.
More market research. Just being thorough. Not enjoying it at all. We swear.
Ajax Aleworks corporate board is doing some market research in London.
On the Edge of…
We’re on the edge of our seats.
Negotiations for brewhouse space for Ajax Aleworks are ongoing. They are slow, but its better than nothing at this point.
We are excited about the opportunity before us. The location, if obtained, will present certain challenges, offset by numerous benefits to our business. We look forward to posting more information including pictures, an address, and maybe even an estimated opening date of our space.
Of course, if things don’t work out, we will keep looking. Because anything worth doing is worth doing right, and we don’t want to settle when it comes to making great beer for you.
In the meantime, we’ll keep brewing. Our next brew day is tomorrow, April 14, 2012 at the Piney Manor brewing annex. We will have our Richmond Farmhouse and Oyster Stout available for sampling and will be brewing an Alt beer and our slight bend on an American Wheat ale. Clever names for both to follow.
Our first attempt at video documenting our brew days!
Crank up the Volume!
As a follow-up to our previous posts called “Size Matters” and “Pilot Brewing System” we wanted to discuss exactly how we have figured out our volume of brewing to date. We had to ask, what volume of beer are we going to make… a day… a week… a year?
To answer that we pulled up Excel and started looking at numbers. Lots of numbers. The trick was to look at the numbers as many different ways as possible. So ask yourself some questions:
- How many different types of beer will you make?
- How many fermenters will you have?
- How big are the fermenters and how big are your batches?
- What quantity of beer do you want to brew versus the quantity you need to brew to make a profit.
- If you brew enough to make a profit, will you be spending every waking hour at the brewery?
- Can you afford multiple fermenters the day you open?
- How many 1/2 kegs and 1/6 kegs will you be able to buy and fill, and consequently wash?
Brewed an Oyster Stout and a Richmond Farmhouse Ale on Sunday. This is a shot of the oyster shells (shells only) going into the mash. Though some famous oyster stouts have used the tasty bivalve itself in the product, we’re not so sure that’s the direction we want to go.
