Mellody Brewing

Shiny and New - Soon

I've been working when I have the time and energy on the new website. It's cool, I like it and there are some minor things I'm tweaking to get it to look and feel the way I have envisioned it. I'm struggling with Wordpress and fonts and browser issues, and things I knew might happen, and things I honestly don't want to deal with, but that's life.  Luckily, I am getting along with a little help from my friends, and Ryan Hudak, from In Search of Beer has been helping me navigate the world of CSS and PMS and other acronyms. Others have reached out their helping hands as well. If you are interested in checking out the site - go to the beta site at mellodybrewing.com - no www. Please know it's a work in progress and will change, nothing there is final and it might not look the way it does when it goes live. I welcome any comments and thoughts as comments on this post, or to me via email to sean at this domain name dot com. I am hoping to get the site live within the next week or so once I figure out some pesky bugs.

Additionally, I've been asked by friends and others how they can taste my beer. If you aren't "lucky" enough to stop by the house/ brewery, it's been tough lately. As you know, we are still very much in R&D mode, and working on finding a location, behind the scenes fund-raising, talking to local neighborhood associations, etc. That being said, I have been brewing for some events this fall (two weddings to be specific) and that has filled up the fermentors and kegs. I do have two public events coming up; Oct 1. at the not so secret site of the SSBCS during Beer Week - PhilaMOCA, a tasting and art exhibit in honor of Mitch Hedberg. Also, I'm going to brew a pre-prohibition Pennsylvania Porter for an event at Laurel Hill Cemetary on October 22. Oh yeah and I brewed a harvest beer with garden grown Cascade hops from the Queen Village/Southwark Community Garden plot run by Jared from Philly Tap Finder and Brian Ricci, chef at Kennett Resturant. We hope to have a little tasting of that soon at Kennett, date to be determined. Finally, I've been talking to Kennett about brewing a special beer for their year anniversary in December. I'm so excited about this, I can hardly sit still. More to come once the details emerge. That all being said, I'm about to come into possession of 6 or more kegs, and fermentor space and (that's right) a lager tank - so this will up my ability to get test batches out there, and have beers ready for multiple events at a time. Thanks to an unnamed source and Triumph Brewery for that leg up and keg donation.

I'll get event updates and details on the Facebook page and the new website soon. Thanks for sticking with me and following along. Just keen in mind, "the road goes on forever, and the party never ends" - and those are lyrics to drink to.

You asked for it, well kinda...

Part of the survey I sent out a few weeks ago questioned what beer styles you all like. The top five were not surprises, well, none of the answers were really. See the chart below.

 

Red are beers within the top five; green, the next five (or finishing out the top ten) and blue are the rest.  Nothing here was totally shocking, except that RIS wasn't in the top five - I thought it would be. I didn't break these numbers by respondent sex either, which would be interesting - yet, I know plenty of girls who break the light beer, wheat beer stereotype. GO BEER GIRLS!

Anywho - who were probably wondering what I was going to do with this information. Well, first off it's part of the demographic piece in my business plan. Showing local beer drinker preferences, experiences and the like. Second, I'm going to brew some styles you all say you like that I have avoided or haven't gotten to. Specifically, the beers in green. So, the plan is brew a Hefe, Pilsner, Porter (I've been doing this, but it's almost fall so), a RIS and a Triple (I've done this before too, but time to ramp it back up again.)

So what, right? Well, right, so what. The truth is I've been in a bit of a brewing rut lately, as I'm working on perfecting recipes, and planning the brewery, etc. I hardly ever brewed beers twice before now, and while it's great to dial in a recipe and get feedback, I want to shake things up a bit. To do so to, I'm going to do a marathon of brewing, five beers in five days. One beer a day, all in a row. Stay tuned for details and follow along with the fun.

Oh, I have updates on planning too, meeting with my incoming city councilman and on the updated web site. I'll put that in another post later.

 

Stop Complaining and Do Something

I've always been a fan of civic involvement, or at the least, civic understanding. Don't like the way things are happening? Research why it is the way it is. Still don't like it? Vote, or do something to fix it.  If one things bothers me most it's ignorance. I don't like people complaining about something with no solution or knowledge of why the current state of affairs is the way it is. This is why when I started to get frustrated and complain to myself and others about the zoning laws in Philadelphia, I made sure I walked the walked, and not just talked the talk.

My frustration stems from the fact that (as I understand it) a brewery must be in an industrial zoned property in the city of Philadelphia. Remember, I'm talking production brewery, not brewpub. Now, I understand the need for zoning, and for the need for industrial zoning to protect residents. The issue I have with it is that it restricts small businesses, and not just breweries.  The need to push potentially dangerous and hazerdos operations away from residential areas makes sense to me. How this personally effects me though is that since a brewery (no matter the size) needs to be in an industrial area, this limits GREATLY where I could locate my nano brewery. It would force it to an undesireable area of the city (in my mind).  It would require more build out and renovation of the space than I need for my plans. I'm selfish, I know. My biggest issue isn't as much the cost or build out, but the location issue. As I have stated over the years, my vision of Mellody Brewing is that it is part of the community. It's walkable for people and able to support and boost local business. This is hard to achieve in this zoning requirement. I've read the zoning over, and over, and over again. I also recently spoke to a few land lords of indsutrial space, the result of which were some frustrations around igornance of our zoning laws. This lead me to a few ranting tweets on the @mellodybrewing twitter account.

 
 
 
 
No one is perfect right?

I realized the error of my ways, and my complaining with no action. So I wrote the Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, and I also wrote my current City Councilman Frank DiCicco and incoming Councilman Mark Squilla. I stated my case in a few paragraphs. Stated how craft beer is growing, even during a recession, and how breweries foster communities. How we, Philadelphia are known as a great beer city, but how we don't allow for easy zoning for small breweries or even large breweries to operate easily.  I told them I'm no expert, but from what I've read it just doesn't make sense. I told them I was angry and that I knew the city is currently rewriting the zoning to "make it more simple and business friendly." That straight from their website.  I told them I'd do what it takes to do it, but I didn't know where to start. Finally, I told them how a nano brewery is wanted and encouraged by the local businesses I have talked to here. How the local QVNA and Headhouse district have said they would love to see something like what I'm planning here.  I laid out some economic numbers, told them I want to do this in their districts (the councilman's) and I need their help.

You know what happened? They responded. They both responded, and responded not with a form letter or a thanks for reaching out we'll be in touch; but with action. They both want to meet face to face, and Councilman DiCicco suggested making that meeting with a member of the zoning code commission.  I'm not naive in thinking this is it, and TADA, I'll have the zoning I want, or we need as a city to support the local nano brewing movement. I do however know that I can't complain because my representatives (both who I have voted for) heard me, and said let's talk. They seem willing to address the issue. Do I feel like I can change the world? I sure do. Will I? No. But, this is going to be fun.

I'm currently researching zoning in other cities, particularly Portland, OR to show how other cities have allowed for nanos and how they make it work in business districts (both commerical and retail.)  Do I have a lot to learn? Yes, and I have two weeks to learn it before I meet my city representative and try to win them over to my side.

Want to help? Write Concilman DiCicco and future Councilman Squilla and tell them Philadelphia is a great beer town, and would be better with sensible zoning allowing for nano breweries. Really want to help? Email me and maybe you can help me understand zoning for breweries in other cities.

More to come, stay tuned. Also, get involved, and stop complaining about the state of affairs in your neighborhood or country. Don't like it? Stop watching TV and get involved.

Where'd who go?

While I haven't been updating this here blog much (sorry I'm busy with other thangs) I am brewing up a storm, planning fundraising ideas, scouting locations and the like. Tomorrow, I'm going to be on the radio and have been updating things over on Facebook and Twitter. So, check me out there for now - till I get this darn site refreshed and looking better and what not.

Cheers!

Stalk much?

I know that you care, so here it is. I'll update as more events that I want to attend start to fall into place on my calendar with work, etc. Seriously, I know you really don't care what I want to do during beer week, but the purpose of the calendar is to really enable the stalkers I have out there to effortlessly find me and snap photos of me using the men's room without my knowledge. Zoom lens ladies, come prepared. (get it? I made a joke about me...sigh.) The only events you really need to know about, are Beer Camp and SSBCS.