MicroBrewr 018: Start a commercial FrankenBrewery for $18,000

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In this episode, I talk with Nigel Askew from Horsefly Brewing Company in Montrose, Colorado. As a teenager, Nigel made beer for his dad in Zambia. In the 1990s he was homebrewing in Los Angeles. When he moved to Colorado, he took his 1.5-BBL homebrew system. He and friends pooled money and started their brewery for $18,000. A year later, they moved to a larger facility and expanded to a 10-BBL FrankenBrewery. Now they’re getting ready for a 20-BBL system.

Horsefly Brewing Company’s main operating tenet is to be fair and honest. Nigel is super generous with stories and advice. He tells us about piecing together their brewhouse, and finding amazing deals on equipment.

He offers some great advice, like:

How to get a fair price from your suppliers
Don’t over plan
Start small
Sanitize and clean

Listener question:

From Kristine Dubie: What are the pros and cons of whole cone hops vs. compressed hop pellets?

Book recommendation:

Brewery Operations Manual by Tom Hennessy.
New Brewing Lager Beer: The Most Comprehensive Book for Home and Microbrewers by Gregory J. Noonan.
Brewing Classic Styles: 80 Winning Recipes Anyone Can Brew by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer.

Check out the entire list of recommended books, click here.

An upcoming beer style:

Session beer

Other resources:

Brew Stuff custom made brewing solutions in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and Lynden, Washington.
A look at session beer; Light-alcohol brews growing in popularity by Brandon Anderson, The Bulletin, June 13, 2014.
Cutthroat Shamrock band, Appalachian Punk Rock from Tennessee.

You can reach Nigel Askew and Horsefly Brewing Company at:

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