Partner up!

Thomas Edison said, "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"...

...This definitely holds true when starting your own brewery. You learn 99% from trial and error and there is a LOT of hard work involved!

I had one of my co-workers recently approach me to ask me how I make beer. I told him to look it up...I really didn't have the time or patience to give him the run-down on the entire process. He then started firing off questions at me that only lead to more questions, some of which I did not care to answer. Really I just wanted this numskull out of my office. He asked if I could go with him to a local brew store called the "Brew Hut" in Aurora (by the way, awesome folk there...very helpful), but I told him that I didn't have the time to "babysit" him and that he should go there on his own if he was really serious about making beer. I also told him this,

"If you are serious about making beer, whether it's for a hobby or for a future business endeavor, find yourself a good partner".

Brewing is NOT a one-man job. It takes at least 2 people (if not an entire village) to make a decent beer. There is a lot of back-and-forth, playing off of ideas, getting a second opinion, handing over of bottles, cleaners, hoses, measuring instruments....etc. The idea of one person doing the entire process on their own is as absurd as a surgeon performing open-heart without a nurse.

I will pass on this advice to anyone serious about making beer: "Partner UP"!

Bathroom Lightbulb

I always have my greatest ideas in the bathroom. If I was a cartoon character, there would be a glowing light bulb above whichever stall I am in at the time. That's sort of how this whole thing started....

Danny and I were taking a tour of the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins at the beginning of this year. After listening to the guide talk about the start up of their company and the shared passion for beer of its founders, I became so excited I had to run to the restroom. As I was sitting in the second stall at the brewery, I had an epitome...the little light bulb lit up so bright I thought it would burst. I thought, "We could do this!...No...we SHOULD do this!"

When I came skipping out of the "little lady's room", Danny and I looked at each other and he asked, "You know what I'm thinking?"

I immediately responded, "We should turn your basement into a brewery?"

He said, "Yes!...Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

I said, "Yes I am!"

At least that's how I remember the story...Of course this was after a few too many samples of New Belgium's delicious beers. I am told that my short term memory is not the greatest when I've been drinking.

At least we all know that great minds think alike. And when two great minds are inspired simultaneously...LOOK OUT WORLD!

In the beginning...(part 1)

...we had this crazy idea. We wanted to start a brewery. A brewery that creates the beers we would like to drink, a brewery not satisfied with the status quo, a brewery built on passion and the unquenchable thirst for unique beers.

The idea for CAUTION: Brewing Company started during a tour at New Belgium Brewery in Ft. Collins, CO on January 2nd, 2009. Funny thing was, it wasn't during the tour when we had the idea. Betty and I both had the same thought when we're in the bathroom *after* the tour was over. Somehow, the same lightning bolt had struck both our beer soaked brains and CAUTION: Brewing Company was born right then and there. Well....kind of.

Let's step back through our brief history and bring everything up to date, shall we?

Soon after the weekend was over, we started research on the Interwebs on how to brew beer. As it turns out, there is an entire industry devoted to homebrewing. Some homebrewers are rather successful at it, too. Competitions, clubs, and stores are everywhere you look, and we found out that we have the resources nearby to help us start making beer. I trekked to the closest homebrew store, Beer At Home, and asked the fated question that got this entire adventure underway: "So, I'd like to brew up some beer. Where do I start?".

Before you know it, I've loaded my car up with things that would be right at home in a high school chemistry lab. Carboys, thermometers, hydrometers, hoses, clamps, yeast, barley, buckets, airlocks, books, brushes, caps, sugar, malt extract...whew! Diving head first into something new has never been so much fun! Armed with supplies and instructions, we set out to make our first batch of beer on the evening of January 17th.

We named our first batch First Attempt (for obvious reasons) in my kitchen. While the end result wasn't too bad, we also missed our mark with what we're trying to make. The kit stated that this was to be an American Amber. Well, it turned out hoppier than it was supposed to be and was more an IPA by taste. To be honest, we were still pretty proud of our first try at this brewing thing. The beer style wasn't what we were shooting for, but it sure tasted pretty darn good.

After figuring out our mistakes during the brewing process, we decided that we could actually get good at this beer brewing thing once we do some fine tuning. So we started brainstorming ideas for a brewery. Being complete nerds ourselves, we thought it would be a pretty good idea to put a bit of ourselves into our venture. After all, if we're passionate about the things we do, it should go pretty well with the brewery, right?

One of our first brainstorming sessions resulted in the creation of (i.e.) brewing company. (i.e) stands for "id est", or latin for "this is". In our minds, however, 'i' would stand for ingenuity, and 'e' for engineering. Not being the most politically correct people on the planet, we figured our beers would stand for German Ingenuity and Asian Engineering. We would be paying homage to our ethnic backgrounds....in a strange kind of way.

The end result of one successful batch of beer (it was at least tasty), a few brainstorming sessions, and a couple of hours on the computer later, we came up the business card and logo seen above. The domain name was registered on January 23rd, email addresses were setup, and (i.e.) brewing company was born.

continued in part 2...