Intro

I'm going to start playing around with formats for this newsletter. The current format is to have 3 parts, something about beer, something about the business, and something random. Feedback welcome. (and if you know others who might be interested, have them sign up for this newsletter here https://sugoi-brewing-company.ck.page/profile)

A major inspiration for Sugoi brewing is pairing beer and food. However, before I go into that topic, I thought it might be fun to learn a little of the basics...

What is Beer?

One thing I like is to delve into is beer itself. What makes beer a beer? It's actually a bit fuzzy on the edges, but for the most part beer is made from 4 ingredients:

• water
• malted barley
• hops
• yeast

It's commonly understood that the 1516 German purity law, known as Reinheitsgebot, restricted beer to these 4 ingredients.

In reality however, things are much more complicated. For instance, I list yeast, but actually, yeast wasn't even discovered until 1680. Also, though it's likely rye and barley was excluded from the original law to avoid impacting bread production, how did we get hefeweizen, which is a German wheat beer? Turns out a certain William the IV, a Duke of Bavaria, granted Baron Hans VI von Degenber permission to use wheat, granting him essentially a monopoly on wheat beers. There's further complications in that Germany didn't exist as a country back then, it's really a Bavarian law. In fact, Bavaria insisted on adoption of it's purity law as a necessary condition to joining a unified Germany, and prevailed.

The modern-day version allows for wheat and rye, but doesn't allow for other grains, such as rice, sorghum, and corn. Nonetheless, many American beers use those ingredients, and yet we still call them beer.

Taken further, what if we make a fermented alcoholic beverage made of only rice? Is that beer? Under US law, it is, and thus, sake and makgeolli are technically beers.

For everyday life, however, definitions don't matter much. We know a beer when we see it.

But, this highly variable definition is what allows beer a great deal of latitude that does not exist in wine, whisky, rum, vodka, etc.

Berliner Weiss often has fruits, Beligian Witbier often has orange peel and coriander. In America, there's pastry stouts that use all manner of dessert ingredients (chocolate, peanut butter, coffee, jam, etc.). It can be aged like wine. It can be sour, sweet, bitter, spicey. The examples go on.

The creative potential of beer is what draws me to it like no other beverage. In future newsletters I'll cover styles and recipes and inspirations for them.

Business Update

This section is where I talk about where we are as a business. Summary is as follows:

• Formed an LLC
• Trademarked the business name
• Filed "DBAs" ("Doing Business As")
• Signed contract with a facility as an "Alternating Proprietor" brewer
• Filed paper work with TTB and ABC (government agencies so I can be licensed to produce/sell commercially)

What's next?

Originally I was going to open a brewery/taproom. A "build it and they will come" approach. (for those who don't know, that's a reference to Field of Dreams) It's an approach that has sunk many a business. So, I'm taking a more "lean startup" approach, and focusing on market validation before making the leap to doing a significant buildout.

This lean approach entails initially doing exclusive events partnering with restaurants/caterers, as well as a direct sales channel, where people can order the beers direct, online. From this, I hope to cultivate a following that justifies opening up that brewery/taproom.

If you know of any chefs or restaurants wanting to create special experiences, let me know. I'm very interested in partnering with up-and-coming food creators.

Random Tidbits

Last year I spent a lot of time brewing beer in a garage my friend graciously let me use. I managed to win 3 1st place, 1 2nd place and 1 3rd place ribbons at the Santa Clara County Fair, 2 1st place and 1 2nd at the Amador County Fair, and 2 2nd place and 1 3rd place at the California Homebrewers Competition. I also passed the Cicerone Certified Server exam, which is a first step to being a certified Cicerone.

This year, I focused more on educating myself. I passed the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) exam, which enables me to judge at competitions. Judged 3 competitions so far, and am continuing to improve.

I took a week-long intensive class at UC Davis on Wine Marketing, which gave me much better insights into the business-side of being successful.

I didn't do much brewing his year, but I did experiment with sorghum, and got 3rd place at the Santa Clara County Fair for an Irish Red Ale.

I notice that WSET now has a beer program, so I might look into that as well.

That's all for now :-)