2013 - A Brewery is Born

In 2013, I founded a brewing company. Wow.

As is customary in the waning days of the year, we have been taking some time to reflect on the progress which has been made in the development of The William Street Beer Co.

The decision was made to move forward with the brewery project in the early part of the year. As I continued to slog away in my day job, selling commercial fitness equipment, I went into the project full steam ahead scouting potential locations and crafting a business plan.

In the summer, we stumbled upon our little service station at 412 William Street. It's certainly not spacious nor is it overly gracious. However, it is a central, high traffic location in a fabulous community. Through a series of hurdles and struggles, we managed to come to an agreement with the property owner and, as of December 1st, we gained possession of the site.

The process of becoming a licensed brewery is a bit of a long one. However, we have been blessed thus far to have great support from all levels of government in it looks like we are on track.

In October, I retired from selling treadmills in order to apply myself to William Street Beer full time. During this period I have also been continuing to refine the recipes for our core brands. Cliff Top Pale Ale seems to be the fan favourite at this point, with North Shore Blonde and Red Sky Ale also getting good reviews. This holiday season I have also been focusing on our Robust Vanilla Porter and Cranberry Saison.

As we celebrate the New Year this week, we are tremendously thankful for the progress which we have made thus far and we are completely stoked about the next stages. January will be a huge month for William Street. Our brewing equipment is being delivered mid month and it will be a crazy two weeks getting the brewery ready for that. Mark my words, by the end of January 2014 we will have a brewery taking shape at William Street in Cobourg.

Thank you all again for your interest and your support. The William Street Beer Company is excited to serve you delicious craft beer in 2014.

Happy New Year!

Sean, Karen and the entire William Street Beer Co. family

Stainless Steel Fantasies Realized

Alright, it's probably not quite as weird as you might think...or maybe it is. I can't really tell anymore.

Regardless, I could not be more excited for the opportunity to make beer on a larger scale in Cobourg's new craft brewery. In order to facilitate that process I have enlisted the help of Stout Tanks and Kettles of Portland, Oregon. Stout is doing more to make professional brewing equipment available to small scale brewers than anyone else in North America. Thank you to John and his team out on the west coast.

So...that brings me to the brewing operation at 412 William Street. We have selected a 3 bbl brewhouse which will net us approximately 90 gallons of beer from each production cycle. In addition to the three brewing vessels, we are also receiving two conical fermentors and two beer brite tanks. The latter of these will be roomed in our onsite cold room for secondary fermentation, conditioning and carbonation.

Deposits have been submitted and we are awaiting confirmation of delivery. The projected timeline has the truck landing mid January, which suits our purposes beautifully. That gives us 5 weeks to get the building prepped and ready without having to work around the vessels.

I will keep you all posted as we progress.

To build it...

Brewhouse...Before

Well, December 1st has come and gone and we now are officially into our brewery location at 412 William Street (at University) in beautiful Cobourg. In fact, we had our first semi-casual investors meeting on site this past Sunday afternoon and there was one completely overwhelming shared sense...Wow. There is a shit load of work to do.

The good news, however, is that we are full of positive enthusiasm and we are completely stoked to make this dream a reality. Unfortunately, before we can start producing Cobourg's own delicious small batch brewed craft beer, there are some minor tasks which need to be completed around the brewery. These include (but are not limited to):

• evaluating the state of current drains and upgrading
• installing electrical for brewhouse controls
• framing and finishing retail area
• building the retail bar/counter and draft system
• pickup and install walk in/ reach in cooler
• improve bathroom
• line parking lot
• design/order signage
• receive and install brewhouse and fermentation equipment
• assemble and install brewhouse controls
• Order and organize ingredients and packaging materials
• Engineer an electric barley mill

This is what's on the top of my head right now. All of this whilst doing everything that I can to facilitate the licensing processes. Wow, it's a lot.

Thank you again for all of your support and I look forward to you visiting The William Street Beer Company. If you haven't already, like our Facebook page HERE for more frequent updates.

Cheers!