Building a Brewery: December 27, 2017

We have a nice, big, juicy update for y'all this week. But first, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! I hope Santa brought each of y'all the perfect present, and I hope you have your shiny new list of New Year's resolutions scrawled out and ready to display prominently, if not passive-aggressively at eye-level on the fridge. First at the top of our list is opening our taproom and events venue AS SOON AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE. 

To that end, the holidays were no excuse for us to take a load off and stop chipping away at the to-do list for our opening. We even drafted our friends and family into helping us with some work on the taproom. We added another coat of gold paint to our mirror mural... our mirral? We also began building the actual counter and bartop over which countless pints, growlers, crowlers, flights, and tasters will be shared with you fine people. 

There is still plenty left to do to finalize these items, but we certainly appreciated several extra sets of hands pushing us a few steps closer to our dream.

Do y'all remember when I set out on this blogging journey over a year ago and said we'd share everything with y'all, good and bad, uplifting and down-bringing, warts and all? 

Wart time.

We bought a walk-in cooler from a fella on Craigslist about 6 months ago, and we've been impatiently waiting to hook it up while our contractors worked on some interior improvements necessary for its installation. Once we got the all clear from contractors and inspectors, we excitedly assembled the box, like Christmas morning in reverse. With no small amount of effort, hard work, and swears sweat, we were finally ready to wire it up and get it cold. Our good friend Ron gave me a crash course in electrical work, and we were ready to recharge the fridge unit and cool that baby down. We even used old fence pickets to give the facade an artsy up-cycled look.

We called some fridge techs to come out and breathe life into the empty shell. You ever heard that bad news comes in threes? One: the unit runs on an extremely expensive, out of date refrigerant that is also far less efficient than the current, cheaper refrigerant. Two: with all the holes drilled for wiring, mounting, and the reach-in doors, (forget about the panels that refused to latch together for a proper seal) the condenser and fan would be working overtime just to maintain the proper temperature, IF it even passed inspection. Three: WHEN, not if, the unit failed every couple of weeks, it would be somewhere around $1,000 to "fix" it, and the techs could not warranty any work they did given its age and likelihood to continue crapping out on us. Yay, small business ownership!

So after some quick mafs, I figured it would be cheaper in the long run to replace the box entirely rather than try to limp to our grand opening with the pile of crap we bought from a stranger on the internet. (Insert cliche about getting what you pay for). We began searching desperately for anyone who could get us a cooler in the next 2 weeks, becoming "those people" who don't care that it's Christmas and New Year's soon, and that the company is operating on a skeleton crew, Sheryl, we need it yesterday, by God! No less than 16 conversations and quotes later, we found someone who could get us a running box by New Years. The box arrives tomorrow, and we're going to bust ass to get it running by January 1 so we can start grabbing the finest beverages available for our opening.

To help us recover from our walk-in woes, we were also joined by some new friends of the brewery, Dirk and Alexa for some much-needed brewery cleaning and sign installation. We rented a 30 cubic yard dumpster to throw away pretty much every pile of refuse that builds up after a year of renovation. Toilets, sinks, boxes, sawdust, old fences, you name it. The dumpster arrived at 11am and was full before 3pm the same day. We shed blood, sweat, and tears getting the building cleared out, and I don't mean that symbolically. Alexa stepped on a nail while hauling fence panels to the dumpster (did you know tetanus shots are good for 10 years? Yay!), everyone was sweating profusely in the 80 degree December-in-Texas afternoon, and I'll admit I shed a few tears of joy after we mounted our sign out front of our building.

There's no rest for the weary, and no shortage of axioms and cliches in the beer blogging world. We still have a lot of work to do to open our doors and officially welcome you to the New Main Taproom and Events Center. Each passing day of hard work and dedication by us, our loyal friends and helpers, and each of you sharing our story with friends and family brings us all closer to that first foamy pint. We hope your holidays are safe, warm, and restful. See y'all again real soon!

Building a Brewery: December 5, 2017

It's beginning to look a lot like a taproom! The past few weeks have been monumentally productive for New Main Brewing. We have been working on furnishing our conversation room, completing some major plumbing and mechanical work, building new signage to help bring people in off the street, and getting ready to start building up our beer stock.

 

Social Media & Signage

For those of y'all following our social media, you know that we just reached 1,000 likes on Facebook. That is a huge deal for us! We are so thankful to each and every one of you who mentioned New Main Brewing to a friend or coworker, and we look forward to a thousand more people to meet in the future. You may have also noticed on social media all of the photos on social media of us swinging hammers and toiling tirelessly inside our space. Our main sign will be placed over the existing sign in front of our building (because up-cycling), and should be easily seen and read from Pioneer Parkway - Spur 303. We will be staining and sealing all of the wood to keep it weather-proof, then we will install that bad boy very soon. Expect lots more photos from artistic angles and such.

Taproom Improvements

We have also been working on a creative solution to there being mirrors on almost every vertical surface in our building. We're planning a simple mural to cover a good portion of these mirrors, which should make the taproom feel more like a taproom and less like Zumba class - not that there's anything wrong with that. We have also been replacing some lighting fixtures in the conversation room to bring a little warmth and comfort to the place. We spent the last few weeks scouring DFW and Facebook Marketplace for inexpensive but tasteful furniture for an eclectic mix of pieces that will make your beer drinking experience richer. As a bonus, I've meet even more folks excited to come see us once we open (and maybe sit in their old chairs for nostalgia's sake).

T.A.B.C. & B.E.E.R.

We are also proud to announce that our TABC licensing came through! We are now authorized to purchase beer, cider, kombucha, coffee, or whatever beverage you would like to see issuing from one of our 20 taps. We assembled our cold room this past weekend, and with a few connections here and there, soon we should have her cold and ready to start amassing a great selection of Texas craft beverages. We have a handful of suggestions so far, but we'd love to hear more about what y'all are excited to try. We need you to tell us what you want to drink, so email david@newmainbrewing.com and let us know what we need to track down. 

New Main Studios

New Main Brewing has also become the new home to our beer-centric podcast, Casually Lit. Casually Lit is basically a weekly bottle share where our friends Jason, Rohde, Chris and I share five or so independent brews and chat about what's moving and shaking in the Craft Beer scene. We discuss things like proper aging of beer, the latest trends in new beer styles, and we bring on guests from across the spectrum of beer experience - from your average macro beer drinker to actual professional brewers and beer journalists. If you enjoy the types of conversations overheard at any given brewery tour or taproom, then you should love our show as much as we love bringing it to you. Fair warning, we discuss adult topics with adult language, so it might not be great for the kiddos.

With the help of some great friends, we have been transforming this great big shell into our new home (just like a nautilus). We still have a large amount of work to do, but there is most certainly a light at the end of the tunnel. The number one question on all of your minds, I'm sure, is "When are y'all going to open?!" The best answer I can give you is "Not soon enough," but I can say with finality that we are weeks away from a couple soft opening events. 

We will likely have our Grand Opening in January 2018, but we have not set a date yet. Join our mailing list to be included when we send our invites out for the upcoming events in our newly remodeled taproom, and you'll be the first to know when we are ready to fling our doors wide and serve the finest beverages Texas has to offer. Cheers!

Building a Brewery: November 17, 2017

Ah, don't you just love fall? The crisp, cool air, the sound of leaves crunching underfoot, sweet holiday drinks, the ever-present reminder of the enormous hulking pile of work that needs to be done before you can open your craft beverage taproom and events center? Oh, is that last one just me?

Y'all, there truly is a lot to get done, but we've been chipping away at it steadily for the last several months. I'm sorry we couldn't make the group work party happen last month, but a certain waste removal company botched the dumpster rental so it would have all been for naught. Instead, my hard-working brother Andrew brought his pick-m-up truck and a big ol' trash trailer for us to load up. We took 2 loads to the dump, cut down lots of overgrown shrubs and bushes, and laid some brand new decking in the backyard. It's really starting to shape up into the beergarden of our dreams!

I have also been busy on the paperwork front. Our TABC permit is very close to being issued. We have been meeting and submitting plans to the Town of Pantego for various renovation items like our sprinkler system, new drain for the bar sink, hookups for the cold room, and the like. I've been spending an odd day here and there each week in the brewery to tackle some of the minor plumbing/painting/decking/cursing activities, and slowly but surely, a craft beverage taproom and events center is peeking out from under the pile.

Now comes the fun part. We need y'all to tell us which Texas craft beer, cider, coffee, tea, or other beverages you want to drink when we open our doors soon! We are honored that we get to share some of our brewing friends' fine beverages with our fans, but we'd also love to try something out that we've never had before. So we need y'all to email us with your suggestions at david@newmainbrewing.com for your favorite local craft beverages that you want to see on our tap wall (doesn't have to be alcoholic either, we'll carry craft sodas as well!). We'll try our very hardest to grab what we can for our soft and grand opening events. 

Remember, we want to support and grow the Texas craft movement, so please keep your recommendations inside the borders of the Lone Star State. Also bear in mind that we will not be signing with a distributor right out of the gate, so that means I'll have to physically drive to these breweries/cideries/coffee shops to pick up the kegs (and return them!). Please give me a heads up if I'm going to have to make a road trip out of the area so I can try to source more than one brewery or beverage manufacturer. Kill two brews with one stone, so to speak.

"But David, what if I don't have any recommendations? How can I help New Main Brewing get open?" 

Well I'm glad you asked, random citizen! The biggest thing you can help us out with right now is getting the word out about our upcoming opening. We are still trying to pinpoint an exact date for opening, but it will likely be the end of December or possibly the first part of January 2018. That's a month and a half of liking our Instagram posts. That's a good solid 6 weeks of bringing up New Main casually in conversations at work. That's 45ish days of tagging a friend in our Facebook posts. That's over a 1,000 hours wherein you can go knocking door-to-door to shout out your excitement for New Main Brewing. That's nearly 65,000 minutes that you could spend imagining yourself in our taproom with your favorite people around and favorite beverage in hand.

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, we know many of y'all will be travelling to celebrate with loved ones. Please drink responsibly, and designate a driver. And hey, while Uncle Jimbo is passing the mashed potatoes around the dinner table, maybe mention to everyone that you're excited to be taking part in the Great American Craft Movement with us at New Main Brewing in Pantego, Texas. We can't wait to open our doors and serve you a nice cold pint of friendship. Cheers!

Building a Brewery: October 17, 2017

It's time to swing some hammers, quite literally! Renovations are in full swing at New Main Brewing as we work toward our goal of opening our doors and taps for y'all by the end of the year!

But we need your help!

On Saturday, October 21 from 2PM-4PM we will be working on the backyard beergarden to turn it into one of the coolest features of our amazing New Main Brewing facility. We will be wrecking out some of the existing dilapidated fence, dumping the pile of deck boards, trimming some overgrown branches, and maybe even installing the new decking. As much fun as that all sounds like, it would be ten times easier if there were ten more people besides little old me.

That's where YOU come in!

We need about 8-10 people ready to roll up their sleeves and tackle the brewery's backyard honey-do list with us. Sure, we could pay professionals to do a lot of this stuff, but: a) we ain't got that kind of money and 2) it would take the fun out of #buildingabrewery. Plus, how else are you going to get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at our taproom, personally guided by the founders of New Main Brewing?

We definitely don't want to work y'all to death, so we're capping it at an even 2 hours from 2pm to 4pm. Plenty of time to come work up a sweat with us, hit the showers, and get back out to your weekend merrymaking. Pretty soon, you can hang out in our brand beergarden, sipping some of the finest beverages made in the great state of Texas, and tell all your friends that YOU helped build this place. There's nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment achieved by a little hard work. 

And you can bet your socks that we'll remember your hard work when it comes time to paint our faithful fans' names on our Wall of Supporters, featured prominently in our taproom. Fun fact, each of our Wall of Supporters members will be treated to discounts, first crack at new beers, and a whole bunch of other cool stuff we haven't even thought of yet!

So come on out this Saturday, October 21st from 2PM to 4PM to help us do this thing. If you can make it, PLEASE RSVP by emailing david@newmainbrewing.com. With your help, we can stay on track to open before the end of this year. Cheers!

Building a Brewery: September 20, 2017

I owed everyone an update last week, so I apologize for missing it. We were at mile 26 in the marathon that has been our fundraising phase. Finally, after countless forms, signatures, research, copies, scans, and no small amount of faith, I'm pleased to report that we closed on our SBA loan this morning! This means we can finally schedule some of our heavier renovation items with contractors and start really putting New Main Brewing together.

Our main renovation item to accomplish is the installation of fire sprinklers in the building. The contractor will connect a brand new fire line to the water main out front, feed it to the building, and then hang a lattice work of pipes from the ceiling to cover every square foot of the building with fire protection. Aside from that, we need to extend water and sewer services to our bar area so that we can provide clean glassware for your favorite craft beverages. We also need to run a dedicated electrical circuit over to the cold room to keep those beverages cooled and ready to pour.

From there it's a simple matter of replacing the deck boards we stripped a few months ago, tearing out and rebuilding the pathetic excuse for a fence that lines our backyard, new front door, rework the restrooms, new sign, and, and, and... Okay, so we still have A LOT of work to do before we open our doors to the public. At least we now have everything we need in order to get started on that work in earnest.

The next thing we're going to do is bang out a schedule for each part of the very long list of renovation items. Whenever possible, we'll still work in some opportunities for you fine people to come hang out with us and swing a hammer. Hell, we may even get back to brewing sometime soon to reward all of our patient fans and friends. Opening as a taproom serving our friends' Texan-made fine beverages will help us get off the ground, but we're still dedicated to brewing and serving our award-winning beer just as soon as humanly possible.

In the months leading up to our opening, we'd love to hear from y'all as to which craft beverages from Texas you'd like us to pour when we get open. Drop us a line on our Facebook page or email us at david@newmainbrewing.com and we'll make sure to procure the finest beer, cider, tea, coffee, or kombucha we can get our hands on! Cheers!

Building a Brewery: August 30, 2017

We have a short post for y'all this week. Our hearts go out to all of our friends, family, and fans who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey this week. The strong resolve of Texans will help us recover and rebuild, but it's important to recognize what a massive impact this storm has had and will have on us for quite some time to come. 

If you haven't already, please consider donating to a charity helping the millions of people affected by Hurricane Harvey whose lives will never be the same again. Here are just a few that are working tirelessly to make an impact on the Gulf Coast:

American Red Cross

H-E-B Helping Here.

The Humane Society

Houston Food Bank

United Way Houston

Locally, click here for a list of DFW establishments supporting relief efforts that you can visit and contribute to, courtesy of the Dallas Observer.

----------------------------------------

In New Main news, things are still busy on the business-building front. We have a few quotes coming in for some plumbing renovation we need. Our 60 days notice is complete for TABC permitting, and our license should be processed sometime soon. We have a few more things to do inside our building like painting and some general sprucing-up. If all goes well, we should be able to open by the end of this year, as planned. 

The next work items we could use some volunteer help with are re-surfacing the deck in the backyard, demolition of the old fence, building our bar, and a few more painting touch-ups inside. As the weather begins to cool off heading into fall, I imagine we'll sprinkle a few brew days in there as well!

Thanks for reading our updates. Again, if you haven't already, please consider giving to one of the charities listed above, or patronize one of the establishments committed to offering assistance to those in need on the Gulf Coast. Cheers!

Building a Brewery: August 15, 2017

The last two weeks have been HUGE for New Main. As we mentioned last time, we have been focusing our energy on our Special Use Permit (SUP) Application allowing for the sale of alcohol in our building. Basically, the Town had to clear us to be able to operate a taproom for on- and off-premise consumption. I'm proud to announce that we received unanimous approval from both the Planning & Zoning Commission as well as the Town Council of Pantego! 

We are very grateful for the support shown by our community and our fans throughout this process. I wanted to cover some of the topics we discussed at the meeting so that y'all don't get the impression that we just breezed through it all. SUP Applications take a great deal of time, effort, planning, and teamwork to get approved. As a Civil Engineer, I have prepared zoning cases for clients before on things like residential developments, gas stations, and assisted living facilities all across DFW. It's definitely a little more "real" when you do it for your own project.

The most important component of the SUP process is to discuss what the intended use will be and how it will impact the community if it were to be approved. The Pantego Town Council and Planning & Zoning Commission brought up a few important points that I think would be good to share with y'all. 

First of all, we believe good fences make good neighbors. The fence at the rear of the property (to the north) is in desperate need of replacement. We plan to replace the existing dilapidated 6' fence with a new 8' fence to improve the aesthetics of the backyard area, promote sound dampening, and show goodwill to our residential neighbors. 

Second, since we do share a property line with multiple Pantego residents, we submitted guidelines for a Noise Abatement Plan so as not to disturb our neighbors' lives with our business operations. Replacing the fence, adding vegetation in the backyard area, prohibiting music in the backyard area, and limiting our hours of operation will all hopefully express our concern with our neighbors' well-being and enjoyment of their properties.

Lastly, parking was an issue that was discussed at length in both meetings with the Town of Pantego. For those of you who have been to many of the other fine craft breweries in DFW, you know that parking is always a struggle because of the nature of industrial buildings that breweries tend to occupy. One of the reasons we selected our building is because it offers 25 spaces onsite, overflow street parking, and several excellent neighboring businesses who are excited to see a brewery come to Pantego. That said, we only signed a joint parking agreement with The Runner Shop, right across the street from us. 

There are many other fine Pantego businesses on our street, but we couldn't reach an agreement with all of them to share parking burden. With a little coordination and signage, we should be able to let our guests know where it is safe to park without the fear of getting towed. We will have signage on our property and temporary signs on neighboring properties to guide our patrons to agreed upon parking areas. We have also learned that quite a few of our fans are within walking distance to the brewery, which will cut down on the amount of vehicles looking for a space as well as helping the environment. Hey, two birds, one stone!

We anticipate weekly parking (Thursday & Friday) to be adequately served by our parking lot and overflow street parking. Saturdays may be a little more busy, so we can direct additional folks over to The Runner (where you can find some of the best athletic apparel and gear in DFW, I might add!). For events where we anticipate larger-than-normal crowds, we will communicate with our neighboring businesses to see if we may temporarily use their lot space. We can also partner with ride-sharing services like Uber and/or Lyft to cut y'all some deals. Either way, a parking diagram will accompany all of our social media event posts, a parking map will be posted on our website, and an additional map will be prominently displayed inside to remind folks where it is recommended they park. Nobody wants to get towed, and we certainly want to make it as easy as possible to visit New Main.

Now that we have approval from the Town to operate as a taproom and eventually a brewery, it's time to get down to business fixing the place up. We have a fence to replace, a cold room to install, a bar to build, a sign to re-face, furniture to acquire, and a deck to finish before we can dream of opening for business. Some of those things are better left to the professionals, but there are plenty of things that some well-motivated volunteers can get done! After the success of our first work party a few weeks ago, we'll be hosting a few more in the coming months as we get closer to opening our doors. 

As always, keep up with our blog updates and Facebook page for more information about where, when, and what we'll be working on. Oh, and now that all this Town stuff is finished for the moment, I think it's high time I got back behind the brew stand and make some more award-winning New Main beer!

Building a Brewery: August 1, 2017

It was shaping up to be a VERY hot weekend, so we decided to sacrifice a few sleep-in hours Saturday morning to get busy building this dang brewery while it was still relatively cool. We put out a small flyer on Facebook last week, and some brave and generous souls answered the call to arms (well...power tools).

I want to acknowledge and thank our amazing volunteers that came out this past weekend to help us with renovations on the building. Jeff Knussman, Jim Kunkle, Gerry Cooper, and Jim & Brenda Case, you guys are all rockstars! I don't know about y'all, but I'm still sore from ripping the old, rotten deck boards off the backyard deck and painting the interior room. Your hard work and support are the most important part of building this brewery, and we are forever grateful.

We were hoping to be able to reuse the deck boards for various crafts and improvements, but they are largely rotten and unusable. Sadly, we're going to have to find a trailer and haul the stripped lumber off to the dump. The good news is that all of the joists under the deck are in pretty good condition and won't need to be replaced. All we'll have to do is replace the decking with some treated lumber, and we've got a brand new-ish deck for the back yard!

While us poor saps were outside sweating to the hits of the 80's, Amanda and Brenda were inside painting what will become the conversation room. This is the interior of the smaller free-standing building inside our main space. When we get up and running, we envision this space will provide a quieter, more intimate setting to toss back a pint and catch up with friends and family. It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do to a room.

Amanda and I must be gluttons for punishment, because we returned Sunday afternoon for a little more painting in the building. Now that the interior of the small building was looking good, we decided to get rid of as much orange as possible on the exterior. As many of you know, our name comes from a family story wherein two brothers got into hijinks at Texas A&M University. We decided to pay them further tribute by painting over the orange with a nice fresh coat of maroon. WHOOP! 

The next big renovation items looming on the horizon include assembling the cold room we purchased a few weeks ago, building the bar, furnishing the taproom area, resurfacing the deck out back, building a sign out front, and probably a million other things we haven't thought up yet. We'll organize another work party soon so y'all can come in and help us get this show on the road as well as getting a sneak peek of the taproom before we get open. 

Many of y'all are asking, "When will you be open?" The only answer I can give you with 100% accuracy is "Not soon enough!" However, we do have some milestones coming up that you can help us with to make our opening come sooner! We posted a few weeks ago about submitting our paperwork for our Specific Use Permit with the Town of Pantego, and we are pleased to announce that the Planning and Zoning Commission will be hearing our case at 7pm, Monday, August 7th at the Town Council Chambers on Bowen Rd. 

We would greatly appreciate it if any of our Pantego-resident fans could come and show us some support as we describe our goals and visions for New Main Brewing. If everything goes well with the P&Z meeting, our case will go before the Town Council the following Monday evening, August 14th, also at 7pm for final review (and hopefully approval). Both of these meetings are very important in terms of eventually getting open and becoming your neighborhood gathering place. We hope to see y'all there! Cheers!

Building a Brewery - July 18, 2017

Rather than try to keep up with how many weeks we've been at this, I thought I'd just slap the date on the title and get on with our progress reports. Y'all get it. You're smart. It takes a while to build a brewery. Anyways, we've been busy bees lately, and we have some cool news to share!

But first, a tale from the depths of Craigslist... 

We at the brewery find ourselves in the midst of finding cheap deals on equipment and materials to furnish our taproom build out. Daily, Amanda and I sift through postings and pictures for things like sinks, pallets, furniture, and lately small pickup trucks. 

A few years ago, Amanda and I lost some Texan points by getting rid of our two pickups in favor of more fuel efficient vehicles to make our hour-long commutes hurt a little less. Alas, though we have saved some cash in the long run with better gas mileage, we are at the mercy of our friends who own trucks when it comes to hauling large items. We finally decided enough was enough and began looking for small body pickups to help us search for taproom loot in DFW.

We went through countless posts and contacted about 5-10 sellers per day, all last week. We scheduled times to come look at the trucks and test drive them any spare moment we had. And you know what we found out? People LIE on the internet! I know right?! Seriously, if I have to read one more description of "a pretty good little truck," I'm going to lose my pretty good little mind.

Things like claiming it has 120,000 miles on the odometer, only to drive out to the middle of East Texas to discover it has 190,000 miles. Oh, and the ceiling is sagging so much that there are two perfect oil slicks where it has touched the driver's and passenger's heads for who knows how long. And also every glass surface is cracked or tarnished. And also rust. And a check engine light, even though the place selling the truck IS ATTACHED TO A MECHANIC'S GARAGE. And that wasn't even the cheapest one we looked at!

To be fair, that was just one of the 10 vehicles we test drove, but it was pretty damn disgraceful compared to the general sunshine pumping going on in the CL post. By and large, the biggest transgression from most sellers on Craigslist was taking photos of their trucks in such a way as to hide windshield cracks, claiming the interior was "clean" when there was literally an apple and candy wrappers strewn about, and for some reason, a half-empty (half-full, whatever) bottle of water in each of the beds of these trucks. We began to think it was all a big prank, and Ashton Kutcher was around the corner waiting to tell us we got Punk'd, bro.

We finally found a great deal from a guy in Garland where the interior hadn't been straight-up destroyed, the miles were reported accurately, and the vehicle was in overall pretty good shape. Long story longer, we bought the truck and drove it back to Pantego for use in official brewery building business. Folks, say hello to New Main Brewing's newest team member...

Bob Barley, the New Main Brewery Truck

Aside from our North-Texas-trotting escapades, we managed to accomplish a few other major milestones. We filed for and received our Sales and Use Tax permit (hold the thunderous applause until the end, please). We also busted our humps to gather all relevant information to submit our Special Use Permit to the Town of Pantego in order to open as a taproom. This one was actually a big deal, folks, and it wasn't just the New Main crew that worked hard to make it happen. 

I want to give a HUGE shout out to Larissa at The Runner Shop in Pantego for helping us secure our joint parking agreement, one of the most important facets of our SUP application. Thanks to her extremely prompt responses and kindness, we will be one of very few breweries in DFW with adequate parking that doesn't make you walk several miles to get to the air conditioning! The Runner has not only some of our favorite running and athletic gear, but also a stable of amazing people ready to help you get where you want to go. Make sure you show them some love, because there's a good chance we would've missed a narrow window to get open this year without them!

More updates on the way, and details for our first work party should come out this week. Spoiler alert, we're resurfacing our deck in the beer garden area. We'll post later this week on our Facebook page with details. Until then, stay cool. Cheers!

Happy Independence Day!

We're starting to get down to business fixing up the building. We have a lot of irons in the fire at the moment with TABC licensing, Indiegogo order fulfillment, our SUP submittal for the Town of Pantego, business plan re-re-re-re-re-re-visions, and of course starting to acquire some equipment and materials to turn our space into New Main Brewing Company.

First things first, you all are being incredibly patient with us on the Indiegogo order fulfillment, and we sincerely appreciate it. We apologize that it's taking so long to get these items out to all of you, but we are working our hardest to get the items made, printed, and ready for shipping. We are waiting on one more vendor to get our glasses, tin tackers, and stickers to us before we can start shipping everything out. 

We are incredibly happy with the items we've ordered so far, so we want to give a huge shout out to Nice Dudes Servicing Craft in Denton and Cornerstone Impressions in Fort Worth. Both of these businesses gave us prompt service, outstanding product quality, and you can bet we'll be using them again. We think you should too!

Amanda has been working hard to get our licensing process underway, and we're proud to announce that our 60-day notice has been put up at our location! We are also starting our paperwork for our brewpub licenses, both with the State and the Feds because we know it takes a long time. By the time we're ready to brew our first batch of our own beer (after we start up serving our favorites from our friends in the DFW craft scene), hopefully we should have all the licensing and paperwork in place.

We're also submitting our plans and applications to the Town of Pantego, who have been a great bunch of folks to work with so far. We've met with the Town Manager and Development Director as well as the Assistant Fire Chief a few times so that they know who we are and what we want to bring to Pantego. Even though our plan shifted from the first time we met, they have been very helpful in letting us know the process to get our plans before the Planning and Zoning commission as well as the Town Council. We will keep all of you updated on our progress at Town Hall, including ways for you to help make your voice heard when it comes time to show your support of New Main.

This week, we gathered our team to help us secure some equipment that we need. We have been scouring used equipment sites and Craigslist to find some cost-effective cold rooms to house the beverages we plan to serve. We located an excellent prospect in Burleson, and after verifying that the cooler was in good working order, we had ourselves a deal. 

Mega-huge shouts out to Rohde and Jason for stepping up to help us dismantle, pack, and unload the cooler panels and parts at the brewery. I also want to thank William Enox of Crossroads Station Storage for selling us the cold room, helping us disconnect and load the pieces, and of course renting us the truck we needed to haul it all. If y'all need storage or U-Haul trucks in the Crossroads/Burleson area, William is your guy. Next step is to call in some friends who speak fluent HVAC to help us puzzle-piece everything back together into a working cold room.

The next items we will need to get working on will be some painting and trim work inside the building as well as some TLC on the outside of the facility. We're talking fence, deck, signage, doors, and whatever else pops up on the way to getting open. We also need to get back to brewing so we can have some New Main beer to share with our volunteers. Once we have a batch or two ready to drink, we'll set up a Saturday or two for y'all to help us swing some hammers. In the mean time, we're also working with a contractor to install a fire suppression system inside the building. These are busy times indeed. Cheers!

1 Year of Building a Brewery

May 24th was the anniversary of our announcement that New Main Brewing was going pro. We've learned a lot about starting a brewery in this last year, but we've also learned that it takes a whole lot more than passion and good beer to get started. Looking back on a year's worth of posts, our goal is the same but our path has changed nearly constantly. We are still committed to this dream, and we are still doing everything in our power to make New Main Brewing Company a reality.

That said, we've hit a few rather sizable bumps on our road to opening. We are very blessed to have received such a warm welcome at each of our tasting events over the last year. The friendships we've forged and fans we've met mean the world to us. We fell short of our crowdfunding goal, but we were able to reach more craft beer fans than ever before thanks to the tireless efforts of our friends and teammates. For those of you who contributed to our Indiegogo campaign, thank you for your contributions and your patience. Ordering and assembling the perk packages to ship out is taking us a little longer than we hoped, but we are working on getting everything shipped by the end of the month.

We spent more than a little time trying to find investors who were interested in our plan as well as seeking funding through various lenders and banks. To pull the curtain back a little bit, any time I said we had stuff going on "behind the scenes," that was pretty much code for trying to find substantial funding for our business plan (which has changed several times now). After several months of speaking with lenders and financial institutions, we kinda get the sense that they don't want to lend you any money unless you don't need it. And despite 30 years of evidence that craft beer isn't a fad (seriously, thirty years of craft beer scraping and clawing its way to more than a quarter of all American beer produced), funding a brewery still seems risky to people outside the industry.

We've learned to be flexible with our means, but rigid in our goals. We've learned how to tell when someone is stalling for time and when someone is genuinely interested. We've also learned that not everyone is as passionate about craft beer as we are. We've learned that no one cares as much about our dream as we do, and that there's really nothing personal about that. We've learned that everyone draws the line between business and personal life very differently.

We've learned that there is no "one way" to open a brewery, and everyone's experience is very different. There are many books that brewers have written about the origin of their brewery, with many similarities, but there is no sure-fire way to make something out of nothing. You kind of have to feel it out for yourself and not be afraid to make some changes to the image in your mind to make it come to fruition. We have been very fortunate to have so many amazing and genuine people giving us advice from their own experience opening breweries in DFW, and the new friendships we've forged throughout this process reassure us that we want to be a part of this community.

The dream of New Main Brewing is to bring interesting and tasty beer to our community in a comfortable, inviting place. We are still very much committed to this dream, but we're going to be building it from a slightly different angle now. 

Since brewing equipment is hella expensive, we will be opening our doors as an events center and guest taproom until we can save up enough to commercially produce our own beer. I know that's not what most of you were hoping for (hell, we were hoping to make our own beer right out the gate, too), but cultivating the local craft community is very important to us. It is our hope that we can show you our commitment to Texas craft beer by providing y'all the atmosphere that we have come to know and love in the past 5 years of brewing and drinking across this state. In addition to a curated list of local craft beer, we will be offering non-alcoholic options as well like craft sodas, kombucha, and cold brew coffee.

This is most definitely a longer road than we thought we were setting out on, but who gives a damn when the journey is infinitely more interesting than the destination? We are literally going back to the drawing board to determine our next steps, but we are going to start taking action to make our space an interesting and fun place to visit and/or party.

In order to get our Certificate of Occupancy, we have a few major renovation items to get done. First, we must install a fire sprinkler system, then remodel the bathrooms that were formerly gym locker rooms, then we're going to get busy painting the inside spaces, and finally we're going to build a bad ass bar across which some of the finest liquids in Texas will be served (whether or not it's ours). The support and love that all of you have shown us throughout this process is overwhelming, and we are truly grateful for it. As we get our plan of attack laid out, I'll announce when our work weekends will start up so that you all can volunteer. (By the way, we've never stopped brewing our own beer, so there will be liquid reward at the end of each volunteer activity!)

It's been a long year, but our future is still bright. We have several months of hard work ahead of us before we can open our doors. With your continued support, the strength of our team, and the vision to build the place we want to see in the craft beer community, we will all discover the roles we play in building our New Main Brewery. Cheers!

Building a Brewery: Weeks 47-50

Yes, things have been quiet around here lately. Yes, it's been more than a couple of weeks since our last post. Yes, there's not a whole lot of new info on this week's post. No, it doesn't mean we don't have a lot of things happening behind the scenes. But a lot of that stuff doesn't make for exciting reading unless you just love hearing about emails and numbers.

What is interesting, and IS important, and DIRECTLY AFFECTS THE TEXAS BREWING INDUSTRY is something you've probably seen us post about a lot lately on our Facebook page. There is a bill that was introduced a few weeks ago to the Texas House of Representatives that has a direct negative effect on craft brewers and their rights. It's referred to as HB 3287 and Senate companion SB 2083.

There are a few limitations the bill puts on larger brewers, which we don't technically have to worry about as a startup brewery, but if I'm not planning the future of this company, then I'm doing everyone a major disservice. The really shitty thing this bill does propose, however, is what is referred to as a "dock bump tax." I don't usually like to copy and paste content on this blog, but I think you should hear about this from those more seasoned and eloquent than I am to explain why this is a bad, unfair, and damaging thing to the Texas Craft Brewing industry. Here's Josh Hare, founder of Hops and Grain Brewing in Austin:

" If the total production were to increase above 225,000 bbls this bill would still allow for the 5,000 bbl sold on-site but the beer would have to be sold to a wholesaler and then purchased back at retail price before it could be sold on-site.  But the beer would never actually leave the brewery.  A brewer would have to invoice their distributor at the normal wholesale cost and then the wholesaler would send back an invoice at retail cost before the brewer could sell it.  And because of the wonders of the Alcoholic Beverage Code, the brewer would have to pay the invoice immediately and the wholesaler would be allowed credit terms on their invoice."

You read that correctly, this bill allows wholesalers to essentially receive a cut of taproom sales simply because that beer was not given to wholesalers in the first place. I'm sorry, but taking money for something you didn't do to earn it is called stealing in my book. And they say millenials are entitled...

Unfortunately, and despite HEAVY resistance by craft brewers and their fans alike, the bill was approved by the House and now travels to the Texas Senate for approval. If you want to do your part for craft beer, please consider calling your senator and urge him or her to vote NO on Senate Bill 2083. You can find out who represents you and their contact information HERE. You can also read all of Josh Hare's entire post regarding the bill to fully understand why this has brewers angry and share the link on social media so more craft beer fans can voice their outrage.

In the meantime, things will begin to pick up for renovation of our space. We will hopefully be re-surfacing our deck in the backyard fairly soon, for which we will contact a handful of folks that have reached out to us as volunteers. We may have a freshly brewed batch of Pantego Porter that might need drinking at the end of a hard day of work, just sayin'. Until then, y'all stay tuned. Big stuff coming!

Building a Brewery: Weeks 45-46

I want to start off this post with one last word of gratitude for everyone that helped us with our Indiegogo campaign. While we didn't reach our monetary goal, we were able to reach more craft beer fans and have a few excellent parties with each other. Now is the time to roll up our sleeves and actually start to build this thing.

For those of you who have been to our building, you know that the floors are just a mess. Glue, tape, paint, weird stuff... yeah. We decided we would see if rehabilitating the floor was within our capabilities. The resounding conclusion was "LOL nope." We tried chemical adhesive remover, floor maintainer with a carbide scraper attachment, we even tried literally scraping the glue from the floor with a floor stripper, and alas the only thing that was removed was our interest in continuing the futile battle. You win some, you lose some, I guess.

In an effort to keep the weekend from being a total loss, we decided to try a couple different shades of paint for the taproom building. Seeing as how the tremendous amount of orange in the building was slowly but surely causing me to lose my grip on reality, we decided a hefty application of Aggie maroon would be just right. We bought a couple of cans of paint and rolled it right on while listening to a couple spooky podcasts. Pro-tip: Don't listen to spooky podcasts when you're in a large empty building on a windy night with lots of mirrors and not all the lights on.

We have been very fortunate to have lots of you fine folks ask if you can help us with some of the renovations, and I believe we will have our first Work for Beer day in May. The goal will be to re-surface the deck as well as some general TLC for the backyard area. I will set up an event on Facebook and make sure to email y'all a few weeks in advance so we know how many hands we'll have and how many glasses to fill at the end of the day.

I also want to remind y'all that throughout the brewery buildout, we will make our large and unique space available for event rental. Now we're not a fancy ballroom, we don't have crown molding, and sadly, no we can't make chicken cordon bleu for y'all. But what we do have is a large, one-of-a-kind space that would be great for parties, celebrations, club meetings, flea markets, etc. We want our community to become a part of our brewery, and vice versa. If you or someone you know is interested in having an event in our space, please email me at david@newmainbrewing.com.

Cheers!

Building a Brewery: Weeks 43-44

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWWWWN!!!!

We only have a few hours left in our Indiegogo campaign, so if you were waiting for some sort of sign, THIS IS IT! It doesn't matter if you have $1 or $100 to give, every single dollar counts and will go into our taproom and beer garden budget, even if we don't reach our goal. This is the last crowdfunding campaign we are going to run, and when it's over your options for actively helping New Main Brewing get started will be of the elbow-grease and personal-time variety. Not that we don't want your blood, sweat, and tears if you're offering, but I mean money just seems a little easier. And potentially less smelly.

Our goal was $40,000 for taproom and beer garden improvements, but it doesn't look like we're going to hit that mark in the last few hours here (unless our Beer Garden and Talking Fermenter videos go viral). That being said, Indiegogo is a flexible goal crowdfunding site, meaning whatever the campaign raises goes directly to our project so that we can get you all the cool perk items you ordered and so that we can build you an amazing taproom and beer garden. 

With 13% of our goal reached, that just means the taproom and beer garden improvements are going to be more DIY and less grand than we had hoped for. However, the campaign is and was about bringing the community together around the Nautilus symbol, and I think we've amassed a fine group of craft beer fans that are ready to see another great addition to the DFW craft beer scene. We are so very fortunate to have had the chance to pour y'all some free beer and talk about our plans.

We want to acknowledge and thank each of our wonderful fans and backers throughout the campaign. Your contributions not only earn you some exclusive New Main Brewing swag and apparel, it earns our eternal gratitude and admiration. Special thanks to:

Gerald C.

Kyle F.

Clydene S.

TJ G.

Emily W.

David & Lori N.

Barbara L.

Teresa B.

Jim & Brenda C.

Kevin & Tammy H.

Ashton S.

Chris & Alicia W.

Denise G.

Russ B.

Diane J.

Maurice K.

Kay C.

Marshall N.

Steven K.

Jeff K.

Randy N.

Brian B.

James L.

Zach T.

Fernando Z.

You guys are all rockstars, and we are forever grateful to count you among the faithful New Mainiacs. 

For those of y'all that participated in our Facebook Share competition, winners will be announced Friday, so make sure to stay tuned to our social media pages for updates. If you can do us one last favor before the Indiegogo campaign is over, please share our campaign link with all of your friends and family and tell them you're helping to build New Main Brewing in Pantego. Cheers!

Building a Brewery: Weeks 40-42

I'd like to get a hold of the person that decided days are only 24 hours long. We're so dang busy we can barely see straight, and it's not just the beer talkin'. In the last few weeks we've poured countless free samples of New Main beer at some of our favorite places like On Tap in Arlington, Dr. Jeckyll's Beer Lab in Pantego, and LUCK in Dallas. We have one last great big ol' party to throw, and wouldn't you know it, it's going to be right next door to our brewery!

You are hereby invited to "Not Your Mother's Fundraiser" on Friday, March 31st at the Pantego Lions Club, a party featuring Jambo's Barbecue, a local DJ spinning tunes, door prizes, yard games, a full-on auction, and of course New Main beer! We're also going to take a field trip next door to look at our soon-to-be-brewery. Tickets are $15 for those planning on sampling New Main beer, or you can participate in the festivities sans-alcohol by purchasing a $5 Designated Driver ticket.

We will have many of the fine New Main beers you've come to know and love as well as some never before seen variations of our stout, wit, and IPA. We may even have some uber-rare barleywine to sample as well! Jambo's Barbecue will be in the house serving up some tasty appetizers. We'll have games, music, prizes, and some words from the New Main crew to thank everyone for their part in making New Main Brewing a reality.

Don't forget, the New Main Brewing Indiegogo campaign is almost over, so make sure to grab your limited edition New Main t-shirts, pint glasses, growlers, embroidered brewer's shirts, personalized barstools in the taproom, VIP memberships, and brewery rentals while you still can! Go to bit.ly/2nNKtVh and secure your perk package right now!

To those of you who have contributed to our campaign, we are forever in your debt: 

Brian H.

Sonny S.

Julie C.

Michael P.

Maurice K.

Jeff D.

Cynthia B.

(Rockin') Reid D.

Karen N.

Trent D.

Hami A.

(and a few anonymous beer fans)

From everyone at New Main working hard to bring Pantego fresh craft beer, thank you so much for becoming a part of our story. We hope to see each of y'all and your friends and family at our party Friday, March 31st in Pantego!

Support New Main Brewing Co. on Indiegogo!

After much hinting, several not-so-subtle clues, and countless hours of prep work, we are excited to announce our Indiegogo campaign!

Remember all those times you said to yourself, "SELF! I just love New Main Brewing so, so much. I wish there was some way I could show my support and at the same time help build an outstanding community taproom and beer garden while getting some great, exclusive New Main Brewing Co. swag in the process." Well now you can!

Our dream is to build an outstanding taproom and beer garden where beer fans can come relax, sample a variety of our main recipes alongside the new variations we roll out every month, and learn about everything the world of craft beer has to offer. Our goal is to raise $40,000 to help us fund construction, renovation, and upgrades to your community brewery-to-be.

All you have to do is go to bit.ly/2mxR2gX and select which donation/perk package you want. Whether it's a couple of New Main Brewing pint glasses, an embroidered brewer's shirt, or even a party with us once the taproom is complete, there are several ways you can become a part of the New Main Brewing story. You can also watch our home-brewed crowdfunding video at https://youtu.be/VM5gBlqRY9w to see how we got our start in the brewing world and to learn more about why we're turning to our fans to help us build our community taproom and beer garden.

Alongside our Indiegogo campaign, we are dedicating an entire batch of beer to be featured at a special Indiegogo Wrap Party in Pantego! The #PANTEGOgo batch is our very own Friday Night White Belgian witbier, which we will split into a bunch of different variations for you to sample in a horizontal tasting. You can even track its progress on our Indiegogo page as we brew, ferment, package, and serve this delicious witbier for your enjoyment. As we have more details to share, we will update our blog and send out email reminders so you can grab your tickets for an amazing night in celebration of Pantego's first craft brewery. If you haven't already, sign up for our mailing list at the top right corner of this page!

Please do us a huge favor, and share our Indiegogo link with all of your friends and family that you love experiencing great beer with. With a little help from you, we'll be raising a glass alongside you in our taproom and beer garden soon!