Planning a New Brewery [part 1]

Sometimes A Perfect Plan Just Comes Together

---

Let's call it Kismet; written in the stars. There are times when everything just clicks in place, and the world is immediately as it should be. This was one of those mornings.

As I walked through the front door, early morning sunlight crest over the horizon outside and swept across the room. I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment. Threading my way across the taproom past some sofas and chairs, I made a b-line for the heart of this 13,000 square foot facility and immediately smelled that glorious scent of heated grain wafting though the air. Music was playing on the other side of the glass door. I reached out, but just as my hand was reaching for the door, the most god-awful sound filled my head. Like the start of so many cliché movies, little squiggly lines are spiraling in my vision. I rub my eyes, sit up in bed, and look down at my silky Hugh Hefner pajamas (it was either that or a batman onesie, so just go with it).

The point is, it was only a dream. In reality, Siren Rock Brewery still had quite a road ahead of it.

The Evolution of Siren Rock

There seems to be one constant theme with breweries. Everyone wants to know the story. I guess it's just more fascinating than knowing how someone started their accounting firm. I thought it would be nice to tell the story from the beginning.

Well, this adventure started in June of 2017. We were riding in a beat up van in Cancun, Mexico. My wife, her mom, our three kids, my daughter's then boyfriend (now known lovingly as the "him"), and myself. We were on vacation headed to a water park just down the road from our hotel. This was a pretty special vacation. Two of our kids were about to head off to college, and we were a couple months away from closing on a recent acquisition of our company. We had started this little technology company that had grown globally, we had been able to travel and see parts of the world that many people don't get to see, and we knew we were ready for the next stage. At that moment, sitting on that bus in Cancun, the words just fell out of my mouth as naturally as saying my name.

"yup. We're going to start a brewery".

Immediately everyone turned around in their seats and stared blankly back at me. Which is when I realized that this entire conversation had been happening in my head and I might have yelled that out rather loudly.

Who. What. When. Why.

Fast-forwarding a little. After getting back to Texas and some back-and-forth reassuances to each other that we were not crazy, Eva and I agreed that in fact we were going to start a brewery. I feel like I need to mention something here about us. When we decide to do something, we jump in with both feet and make it happen. WITHOUT FAIL. It's just how we were made. So the reassuring conversations were necessary, because we knew that as soon as we both said "yes", there would be no turning back. No backing down.

The very next day we got to work on our brand. Who did we want to be and what was our story. For us this was much more than just coming up with a name or logo. This was much deeper. This was also the "why". Why did we want to start a brewery and how did we want to live and coexist in the craft beer world. As Eva is planning a couple posts about the story behind our brand, I will just say that after a few false starts and crumpled pieces of paper, Siren Rock Brewing Company was born.

We immediately filed trademarks for our brewery name and 8 beer product names, we started working to get our logo and branding concept out of our heads, and I put pen to paper (i.e.my laptop) and started what would become our comprehensive 96-page business plan.

It's Only Been 60 Days, Geez!

I started this blog with one of my favorite TV quotes from Hannibal of the A-team -- "I love it when a plan comes together". From a friend of a friend, we got introduced to our contractor and project coordinator (who is a genius, but don't tell him I said so), who in turn introduced us to our realtor, our banker, and our architects. We also found out that our long-time legal counsel was an avid home-brewer, and our insurance agent’s brother's sister's husband loves craft beer (that's my Ferris Beuller reference). Now we had our own A-Team and we had a plan.

Literally counting from the day we were sitting on a bus in Cancun and I excitedly hollered out my new ambitions, a mere 60-days had gone by. Within 60 days, we had started developing our brand identity, filed trademarks, almost completed our business plan, hired a contractor and project manager, found a location, put a contract on the land, hired architects, engaged the bank, and engaged investors (I told you we move fast).

Within 90-days we had finalized our business plan and started fleshing out ideas for the design of the facility. By 120-days, we had a rendered design concept for our building and we were ready to present to the city for approval.

We Actually Thought it Was Going to Be Easy.

So this is the part of the story where EVERYTHING. COMES. to a SCREECHING. HALT. If you've read any of the various NEWS ARTICLES about Siren Rock Brewing Company over the past year, then you probably know this part of the story. Hell, if you've read any news articles about any new brewery, you can probably guess how this next part goes.

I have to admit, as smart as we think we are, we did not see it coming. We had a great plan, we had a great location, we had some excitement and buzz generated, we’ve started and successfully ran two multi-million dollar startups already. Bing. Bang. Boom. The problem was that no matter how good we were at starting and running a business, we had never put a brewery in a historic downtown, conservative small town in Texas.

And apparently, that is a BIG deal.

Stay Tuned for the rest of the saga...