Hello to some and farewell to others...

I know, it's been way too long since my last post. I was away for most of January and February and was very busy with my other job. If this is the first time you visit our Square Timber Brewing Company blog, Welcome! As some of you may know, I am full-time touring musician with the April Verch Band and we are always on tour. In the last few years we've averaged 250 days a year on the road and it has hampered somewhat my work on the brewery. But, as some of you also know, I am retiring from the band at the end of this next tour, on May 5. I guess this could be considered my farewell tour. :) It has become too difficult working on opening this brewery while being on the road away from home so much. I'm really looking forward to being home and getting the brewery off the ground. So, if you happen to live in an area where we are touring for the next couple of months (AB, Australia, MN, IA, MO) come out and see the show as it will most likely be the last time you see me on stage. Well, that's not quite true because we plan on putting a small stage in the taproom and you might see me on that one, but you know what I mean.

As for the brewery work... We have spent a considerable amount of time working on the numbers (rev/exp projections, construction budget, etc) and are still lining all of our ducks up in a cute little row. We are trying to get a lot of different pieces into place at the same time. I guess normally they would go in sequence but given our situation we are having to work on the simultaneously. No shortage of work, that's for sure.

One of the pieces we are working on is a "survey" of sorts with local licensees to gauge interest and sales potential. I have already met with a couple of people and the excitement level is very high, to say the least.

So, stay tuned. We have more exciting news to announce shortly but can't let the cat out of the bag just yet. Take care.

ps. we extended the time to vote in our poll to the day I retire from the band. PLEASE VOTE! :)

Happy New Year!

We would like to wish everyone all the best in 2009. We are hoping this year will be a great one for us as the Square Timber Brewing Company. We are going to work our tails off to get things up and running by the end of this calendar year. Keep your fingers crossed and tuned into our blog.

Cheers.

We're blushing!

Much to our surprise and pleasure we've been mentioned in another beer news blog. Greg Clow, of Canadian Beer News, is a renowned writer for several print publications and blogs/websites including Beer, Beats & Bites and Taps: Canada's Beer Magazine among others. We would like to thank Greg for the mention. Although these mentions are great we do feel the pressure. Good problem to have, I guess.

We got mentioned!

Wow! Are we ever happy to get a bit of attention! Troy Burtch, of Great Canadian Pubs and Beer, has posted a note about us and our plans to open the brewery. Troy has a great blog full of info for beer lovers across Canada and beyond. Troy is also a writer for TAPS: Canada's Beer Magazine , Canada's ONLY beer magazine. We've received three issues so far and it really is a wonderful publication.

Troy mentioned that we haven't posted anything about the styles of beer we will be brewing at Square Timber Brewing Company. Well, we are working on this and will post them soon. In a nutshell though... they will all be great!

We want to thank Troy for the note and we'll let slide his comment about Pembroke being a village. :)

Brewery building designs

Here are 2 different designs we are looking at for the brewery. The first one is with the building in a side-to-side orientation and the second one is a front-to-back orientation. They are both good designs that offer the same amount of floor space. At the moment, they are both 50 feet wide and 70 feet long giving 3500 sq ft on the main floor with some extra space on the second floor areas. We want to build a hybrid timberframe/steel building which will on one hand reflect the heritage and tradition of the Ottawa Valley and, on the other hand, be cost effective to build and operate. Anyway, here they are! Let us know what you think!

Happy Holidays!

Dang, where did November go??? I was on the road with my regular gig for most of November and the first 2 weeks of December so it was tough to work on the brewery. But, I'm home now and am working on lots of different things including the floor plans, building designs, etc. I will post some pics of what we want to the outside to look like. Let me know what you all think.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year.

Hops! Hops! Hops!

I had the great honour and privilege of attending a hop seminar last night presented by Diana Puterbaugh from Puterbaugh Farm/Hops Direct and Bob Latimer of Beer and Wine Filter. The seminar was hosted by Ron Keefe at the Granite Brewery in Toronto, ON. We had a great time rubbing and smelling about 20 varieties of hops brought by Diana. It was also a great chance to meet a lot of the members of the Ontario Craft Brewers association (OCB) and big hitters in the Ontario craft beer industry. Everyday I wake up I am more excited than the last day about our little brewery. We can't wait to get it up and running!!

Later!