We're Getting Close!

It's been difficult to find time to give an update, but lots of things have been happening at Sugoi Brewing Company.

For anyone considering doing a business, always realize, the work involved in the business will be much greater than whatever the core of the business is. In software, one often thinks of the person writing the code, which of course is important, but no software will be used by anyone if not for everything else in the business. Facilities, IT, accounting, marketing, sales. Not to mention mundane yet also important things like ordering snacks, and tracking expenses.

Starting a brewery is no different. With added complications that there's a lot more regulation involved, and we're dealing with physical things. Perishable ingredients, equipment, etc. And also since things are physical, they have to be shipped. So logistics is another fun activity.

But, things are close. License is approved. Ingredients are almost all here. Label design is almost done. Kegs and bottles have been ordered. The next step is to brew the beer!

About Beer

The first beer being worked on is tentatively called "Nagoya," named after the city. It was inspired by a trip there last spring where I came up with the idea for the beer. I wanted a light, classically hopped beer that is refreshing, uniquely flavorful, and will go with almost any dish.

It's base style is a German Pilsner. Which is the dominant style for Japanese beer. (Btw, Pilsner is a type of lager. I say this since I was once corrected at a tap room by a server who told me "That's not a lager, it's a Pilsner." No. A Pilsner is a type of lager.)

For hops, I'm using a combination of Saaz and Sorachi Ace. The former is a noble hop from the Czech region, and is a classic hop used in making pilsners. The later is a relative of the Saaz variety that originated in Japan. The hop character should have a very soft bitterness, with a nice mix of floral, herbal flavor, and a zing of lemon peel.

For fermentables, I love the malts from Admiral Maltings, based on Alameda Island. Freshness is key in beer, and that starts with the grains. This includes rice, and for that, I'm using a special Japanese varietal known as koshihikari rice. It's a very fragrant short grained rice that makes for excellent beer. This too is grown in California. It's not straight-forward to use raw rice in beer making. Especially since we will use koji (also used in sake making) as part of the process. But it's worth the special flavor that results from it.

Another special ingredient in this beer is genmaicha. This is a Japanese green tea mixed with toasted rice. You will often encounter this at sushi restaurants as the house tea. It is added in small quantities to infuse the beer with a unique flavor that blends nicely with everything described above to create something both familiar and new.

I brewed a test batch earlier this summer, and it's one of my favorite beers I've made so far.

Very excited to bring this out as the first Sugoi beer!

Business Update

To illustrate a bit what goes into the business, I'll just itemize some things along the way:

• alcohol license - It's a lot of paperwork in general. But this took unusually long to finish approval. It was sitting pending for a while, until finally it got done once others helped me by calling up the office asking for updates. It takes a village.
• fictitious name registration - it's not complicated really, unless it is. The LLC is registered in Moraga, the mailing address is in San Francisco, the brewery is in San Carlos. The names are registered at the county level, which means I had to do both Contra Costa and San Mateo. The forms are a little confusing to me, and took multiple rejection and resubmission rounds to get right, and with the addition that there was a mix up in getting the notice published in a physical paper in time, I had to re-apply and start all over. But that finally got done.
• ingredients - setting up accounts with various suppliers so I can order from them required me to file with CDTFA which administers taxes. This is so I can buy things at wholesale.
• brewing details - to use raw rice for brewing beer, one would ideally have a cereal masher. However, the brewery does not have one. So, long story short, we have an interesting solution.
• packaging - ordered bottles, which have to be bought by the pallet. Similarly for kegs. Pallets. Then there's lots of options for each. And pricing it all, and selecting. Like everything else, it took much more time than I expected.
• labels - label design is an extremely long journey. It's what the customer sees, so it's worth putting the time and effort to getting it right. Very close on this. And after the design is settled, there's the details of the physical manufacturing of the labels and all the various options available. (I learned what BOPP is) On top of that, there are legal requirements, and all labels (along with pricing and ingredients) goes through an approval process with the relevant government agencies
• data - managing data is already quite a lot of work. From recipe development and translating that into production. To tracking all the financials.
• spreadsheets - Though everyone makes fun of spreadsheets, I'm positive the invention of the spreadsheet is one of the most under-appreciated consequential software innovations ever. I have all most cost of goods calculations done. And will need to add inventory tracking next.
• And I still haven't worked on the website or e-commerce site... There's always next week.

Thanksgiving Beer

It's close to Thanksgiving, so here are some beer suggestions that might be helpful:

For the IPA-loving crowd, it's hard to go wrong with Sierra Nevada's Celebration Fresh Hop IPA. It's made from this year's harvest, so all the bright pine and grapefruit hop flavor should be there in bold quantities, along with an equivalent of hefty caramel malts.

This is a clean carmely German lager. It's rich and creamy, and is great for the cold weather. There's something about a malty lager that makes the dark season bright.

If the other two are not bold enough, you can try Delirium Noel, which is from the brewery that brings you Delirium Tremens. Super rich, and complex. Consume slowly.

Of course, there's the controversial pumpkin category. For that, if you are struggling to choose, you can't go wrong with Sam Adam's. It's a classic pumpkin ale, and will get you in the mood for the season. An interesting one I have yet to try is Elysium's pumpkin ale called, Night Owl, which has one two gold medals at the GABF.

Random Tidbits

• Beer in Japanese is "biiru" or ビール, which is a transliteration of "beer"
• Beer in Chinese (Mandarin) is "pi jiu" (in pinyin, pronounced "pea-joe") or 啤酒. "jiu" is alcohol or wine. The "pi" being phonetically close to the b in beer.
• Beer in Taiwan is often called "biru", which is likely a borrow word from Japanese.
• But the other day I saw a bottle of Japanese beer that said 麥酒 in kanji. Or "mai jiu" in Chinese. （"mugisake" in Japanese?).
• That sounds similar to Korean for beer: maekju or 맥주. And looking on wikipedia, it's the same when written in Chinese characters, 麥酒.
• The character 麥 (mugi, maek, mai) refers to wheat or barley. So basically 麥酒 literally means barley wine.

For past newsletters, please visit: https://sugoi-brewing-company.kit.com/​