Brewery Startup Roundtable: Peaks N Pines, Triple S, Local Relic

We're due here in Colorado Springs for another brewery expansion, so we sent out a little questionnaire to some of the up-and-coming breweries in the area to help get a feel for what they're all about! Thanks to Paul from Peaks N Pines, Steve from Triple S and Grant from Local Relic for their responses! We'll hopefully have a follow up article with others that are soon to open as well!

What is your brewing experience? Why did you decide to open a brewery?

Triple S: I've been home brewing for 6 years, am a Nationally Certified BJCP judge, and a Cicerone Certified Beer Server training for the Certified Cicerone test the September.  I just retired from 20 years in the Army, my favorite class in college was starting a small business. Always wanted to start one, have the time now, am passionate about beer and live in the state with the most permissive beer laws. All this pointed to starting a brewery.

Peaks N Pines: I (Paul Vieira) started brewing in 1978 when it became legal to do so in Massachusetts. Back then it was a hit or miss for yeast, since I got all my extract and ingredients from overseas mail order. Occasionally the yeast would be so old, it wouldn’t start productive fermentation. Red Star to the rescue. Assistant Brewer Mike and his wife Dee started brewing several years ago. They took a class that I donated for a fund raiser and I taught them how to brew. Since then, they’ve won several awards for their beers. I always wanted to start a brewery but never has the business savvy to kick start the process. My wife Teresa had more business knowledge and did get things moving, particularly the LLC, partnership, state and federal licensing paperwork. A year ago we began seriously building a business strategy and finding dedicated partners who shared the passion for beer. Also, look that what the craft beer market is doing! It’s exciting to be part of something that allows someone passionate about brewing to jump head first into an sensational and for now, fertile beverage industry.

Local Relic: I have been homebrewing for 11 years now, since I turned 21. I have also worked for some breweries around town, rocky mountain brewery and phantom canyon. I have always wanted to have my own brewery, where I have complete creative control and I get to decide what to make and be as creative as I want.

What will help set your brewery apart from the rest? (theme, styles, food, etc.)

Triple S: Beer education will set me apart. My biggest pet peeve is going into a beer joint (especially in Colorado) and the staff only kind of knows about the beer, if at all. According to national market research, 10% of Colorado Sprrings regularly drinks craft beer. The other 90% are simply not informed- I plan to change that through well trained staff, beer pairing, and beer tasting dinners. 

I also have another hook- I'm going to deliver the beer I make. Regular scheduled, like the milkman, and on demand like the pizza man. This will be a first in the industry.

Peaks N Pines: We have an outdoors theme, focusing on wood pine, with some blue pine (beetle kill) repurposing. We’ll keep that theme throughout the branding and even considering donating a pine seedling to VIP customers (replenish the forest) on opening day. The style of beer will be American Ales, Belgium Wit, a wheat and mix of lagers, a pilsner and dark lager. We expect to have 4 flagship beers, a ginger beer, and 3 seasonal varieties. We are partnering with the local food retailers and restaurants for food, we’re planning to have a food pairing evening, once or twice a month. We will have a VIP membership program (details still being worked out) and we plan a brewology clinic to teach brewing to beer brewing novices or experts alike. I’ve donated brew classes for non-profit fund raisers for schools and kids sports teams.

Local Relic: We won't have any flagship beers. I know a few locations around town are already doing this, Nano 108 and Paradox for example, but we really want to focus on being as seasonal and local as possible while still maintaining a level of creativity that pushes the boundaries of craft beer. Opening in a distribution-first model also allows us the opportunity to get our beer into competetive, locally owned restaurants and liquor stores that share a similar mindset.

What aspects went into picking your location?

Triple S: So at first I did a demographic study and was aiming to serve an underserved market. Unfortunately those areas all have very expensive real estate. This location popped up downtown, the rent was great, location was great, and landlord was awesome, so I shifted camps to the "rising tide floats all ships" camp. There's a reason that all the fast food restaurants are all right next to each other. Selection.

Peaks N Pines: A lot of effort went into finding the right location. It had to be in a thriving location, easy to get to and one that demonstrates much craft promise. Factors that we considered in our location? We are a few yards from Sky Sox stadium, a few minutes’ walk from hundreds of new apartments on Tutt and Carefree, and access to Springs Ranch and Sand Creek neighborhoods. We found out shortly after signing the lease that a new Fairfield Inn will be constructed next door which supports our confidence that we have a good location. The impact that social media has on today’s craft beer drinker means we don’t have to sit on a major thoroughfare. Peaks N Pines can be discovered and mapped with a few clicks on a keyboard or smartphone! Oh and there’s a lot of apartments being built along Tutt and Carefree – we’re hoping we become their neighborhood getaway!

Local Relic: Our warehouse space is conveniently located between a distillery and a cider manufacturer. I feel this will help inspire us and create a symbiotic relationship between the three of us. We'll only be manufacturing out of this space, probably with a few special events there. We're making plans for a tasting room, and want it to be something that represents our mindset and our brand.

What single piece of advice were you given that has already come true?

Triple S: HA! It will take three times the time and twice the money. Or reverse that depending on what day it is.

Peaks N Pines: This is hard, taxing work. Everything we’ve read said it’s not going to be easy. So far, we realized that there are many bumps along the road and you have to persevere to get through them.

On another note, we always heard that the relationship among brewers in Colorado Springs is more like a brotherhood. We’ve talked with many other established brewers and all of them have been terrific, offering advice, encouragement, assistance,  and have no problems answering questions to help you get off on the right foot. So that advice is spot on – we’re excited about being part of that culture.

Local Relic: Stand back and throw money. It'll all be ok.

Tell us a little about your name. Why did you decide on that name for your brewery?

Triple S: So I went down two roads for the name: traditional American brewery (XYZ Brewing co) and English (House of Trembling Madness, Worlds End, The White Stag, etc).  I even made a trip to England for pub research.  I picked the American name pretty quick- Triple S Brewing.  Unfortunately, even with ample research, no suitable English style name came to me. The whole process of starting a business starts with the name, so I had a deadline and had to choose. Triple S it became.  Triple S originally stood for Steve & Sarah Stowell, but my graphic designer suggested Sip, Savor & Stay as the tag line. It fits with what I am creating, so we went with it.

Peaks N Pines: We’ve always wanted something that reflected Colorado, it’s outdoor character, the mountains, the forests. We focused on the Blue Pine Beetle Kill and the fact that it’s a reliable/attractive wood to build from. Of course anything rocky mountain, pikes peak, any of Colorado’s ski areas and towns and nearly everything else Colorado (themed) has been taken! We think peaks n Pines captures that outdoor essence.

Local Relic: I originally had another name in mind that I've wanted to use since this whole brewery thing became plausible, unfortunately a small brewery out in Vermont found it to be quite alluring as well. We came up with local relic because we want to stay as community oriented as possible. Sourcing ingredients and catering to our community is one of our main priorities. Relic comes from the fact the we want to stay true to the origins of beer making. It's an ancient process that has been done since the civilization of man and we want to respect that and stay humble to the process.

How has the process from an idea to opening gone? Any fun stories to share?

Triple S: I started in January of 2014 by writing the business plan and doing the financials, in order to make a go/ no go decision. I was still in the Army at the time, and it took a month of weekends/ evenings. The numbers I projected looked attainable, so I kept going down the road. You can read about my process in the article I wrote for the  July/ Aug issue of Zymurgy.

Briefly, I utilized a lot of the awesome Small Business Administration resources we have here: Senior Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), Small Business Development Center (SBDC), COS New tech, COS Tech incubator.  My business degree was 20 years old, and those helped me refresh.

Next was finding money & location. This is tough to do concurrently, because you kind of have to have a lease amount to lock in the loan. And you can't get a lease without money.  AND, you have to have a location before you can submit for your  federal license.  So you have to take this big step before you know if you will even get a license! And it takes months to get all the licenses, and you technically can't brew until your final building inspection, so you have to front all this money for a LONG TIME.

Once I got the location, I really enjoyed designing the space. I like big picture, strategic thinking. Whats more fun is seeing it go from paper to reality! It's not fully there, but it's close now! Funny story. Be VERY sure where you cut the holes in your roof. in my haste to get the kettle plumbed, I marked the holes in the ceiling. Literally as I watched the chunks of my landlords roof fall to the brewery floor ad sunlight stream in, I turned around, looked at the kettle, looked at the roof, looked at the kettle. $%#&! I marked where the burner attaches to the kettle, which is exactly opposite where the exhaust comes out. Hole in the wrong place.

Peaks N Pines: Well, as I mentioned before, we had to change our name! We thought we had performed due diligence ensuring our name was unique but once we published our website, we received a call from an intellectual property lawyer – our name was a little too similar to another brewery’s moniker. So rather than toss turds at each other, we changed our name. I won’t mention the brewery because like I said it’s a brotherhood – we may be collaborating together on a stellar IPA one day….!

Local Relic: We really started to think about this thing about 2 1/2 years ago. So it's been a fairly slow, involved process. It's been relatively painless so far. A lot of paperwork. A lot of waiting.

Do you have an opening date set? (exact day or even approximate...)

Triple S: Oh it most definitely will be near the end of September. GABF in the middle of the month completely threw things off.

Peaks N Pines: We hope to be open by mid-October. We have our federal license, still waiting on our buildout and state license. We can’t wait to pour that first ale!

Local Relic: We have recently been approved by the state and the TTB, so we are officially allowed to sell beer. You should be able to find us in restaurants and liquor stores around town in the next few months.