When I started this blog, my 'dream' was to open a brew pub. A series of brainstorms, reality checks, and other such events has changed the vision. The new dream?: a standalone nano-brewery, Otium Brewery, to be precise.
What is Otium Brewery? When will it open? How big is it? Where is it? Why the name 'Otium', and more importantly, what the heck does 'Otium' even mean?
Those are all good questions that I will attempt to answer now. So go grab a beer, sit back, relax, and listen to the story of how Otium came to be...
Those of you who know me already knew, some of you discovered when I started writing this blog, and the rest of you will learn by the end of this sentence, that I have been homebrewing with my brew partner Chris for 4 years now and have made well over 50 batches of beer (all of which you can read about in previous posts). This is not a story of Chris and me or the homebrewing, however, this is a story of Otium Brewery.
The Idea
Chris and I decided 2 summers ago that we wanted to brew for a living. A thought that almost every homebrewer has at least once in their life. Being the financially responsible man that I am, I knew that the best way to accomplish that goal while making enough money to get by would be to open our own establishment. At about the same time, a phenomenal show by the name of 'Bar Rescue' aired. Watching the show, I had the obvious thought that "Clearly, if these people with apparently no knowledge of the bar business, or any common sense at all, can open a bar (albeit a failing bar) and turn it around, then I undoubtedly would be successful." The plan was to open a brewpub.
We set out on the research and discovered that opening a brew pub is a costly endeavor (I know, I was as surprised as you are). $250-500K would get you on your way, but considering I had just started my first job out of college and Chris had just departed to CA to pursue a writing/directing career, we didn't have close to that amount of money (and still don't, but let's use the newly employed excuse anyway). With that, we knew we had to take a more practical approach. What could we do that would require the least amount of money, but still accomplish the lifelong (6 months long, same difference) goal of brewing for a living. The answer, open a
The Plan
After some more researching, we decided that the ideal size for what we were trying to accomplish with the least amount of risk/seed money involved, would be a 7bbl system. A 7bbl system will produce 14 kegs of beer for each batch. Your standard micro-brewery usually runs a 15 - 50 bbl system, and larger scale breweries can have 120bbl systems or larger. The small size of the system is part of the reason the brewery is called a nano-brewery, but in actuality it is the total annual production that classifies a brewery's size for federal/state regulation purposes. That is why we won't have to pay the same license fees that Anheuser-Busch pays.
A nano-brewery comes with its pitfalls. The amount of time/labor that goes into a batch of beer is relatively equal no matter how large the batch, so it's going to be a lot of work for a relatively small amount of beer. Considering the fact you can only sell as much beer as you make profits will not be huge in its early goings. Because of this, the plan will be to 'not quit my day job' and brew late at night. My roommates have already pointed out: "so that will be exactly like what you do now then." This point alone is the reason I am not terribly worried about the fact that I will have to spend a couple (or several) late nights a week making a little money doing what I would otherwise be doing in my leisure time anyway. Which is a good segue into what the name 'Otium' means/represents.
The Origins of 'Otium'
The first thing we needed to do to make the brewery real was to name it. I mean, once it has a name it's half way to being real, right? True or not, that is what we set out to do, name the brewery.
Brewery naming is a difficult process. A lot of ideas were thrown around. A lot of themes were considered. Chris' girlfriend, Ila, produced a laundry list of possible names that I think she just had lying around in case someone ever asked her for brewery name suggestions. Near the bottom of that list, amongst several random latin words, was 'Otium'. I liked the word, no clue what it meant, but it sounded cool, was short and sweet, and just felt right. So I googled it and came across the wikipedia page on 'Otium'. The thing that stood out was a phrase "otium cum dignitate," literally 'leisure with dignity,' which is the idea that leisure time should be spent productively: reading, studying, spending time with family, and bettering yourself and the world. It was perfect because that is exactly what brewing is for me. I spend my time brewing because I enjoy creating something that everyone can enjoy, that's how I spend my leisure with dignity.
Who is Otium?
At its current stages, Otium has a core braintrust: myself (the brewer), Chris (the idea man), and my sister Stephanie (the accountant). We are very excited for what the future holds.
What next?
If having a name, a recipe list pages long, a box of tasting glasses, an executive board, a twitter account, a facebook page, a website, and a company e-mail address make you a working brewery, well then we are a working brewery. If it doesn't, and I have a feeling it might not, then there is a lot more work to be done. A lot more work that we are excited to get to do.
The timeline for opening is in the order of years, but I will continue to give monthly updates on the progress of the brewery, no matter how large or small.
If you have finished reading this you are probably done with that beer, so go grab another one. You earned it!
"Drink Otium - Because leisure is a choice."
