Shade Tree Brewing Company is going pro!

[ajwillys]

It's finally happening. Due to day jobs, wife, kids, etc... its a been a very slow road, but its finally coming together! Over the last year or so, dtbritt and I have been gathering equipment, honing our recipes, building our brand, and searching for a location. That pace is over now as we've just recently embarked on a major push to get open. We have a tentative location, we're hosting a fundraiser/party this Saturday night (all are welcome), and we've launched a Kickstarter campaign to try and get the funding for the equipment we couldn't make or come by cheaply.

This is going to be a huge month for Shade Tree and its the reason I'm posting this now. Homebrewtalk has been a huge factor in my short but awesome brewing hobby and soon to be career. We wanted to let all of you know about our party and invite everyone to come. It will be at Niche in Holly Springs (outside Raleigh, NC) and starts at 7PM. We'll be giving out generous samples of our Kolsch and our Imperial IPA. We'd love to have whatever local HBT'ers are willing to come down and hang out with us.

Also, coinciding with this party (and another in late January), we are doing our Kickstarter campaign. Our goal with the fundraiser is to raise the cash necessary to put us over that hump and get open! We're really excited about this campaign and have some pretty sweet rewards! It would awesome if you'd go check out our Kickstarter campaign. If you feel so inclined and would like to support our project, we'd be very appriciative. Of course, there's cool swag and other things you get for backing us. And, as with all Kickstarter projects, if we don't make our desired goal, your pledge is refunded to you. For those of you in homebrew clubs, take a look at that $500 reward! You know you want it!

Check us out!
Kickstarter Campaign
Our website
Facebook (obligatory social media)

 

[birvine]

Congrats! May the commercial brew experience be as enjoyable as the homebrew experience!

B

 

[HokieBrewer]

Hooray for local breweries! What are your distribution plans? Bring Shade Tree to Greensboro!

 

[ajwillys]

Dave actually lives in Greensboro so I'm sure he'll be pushing for distribution there ASAP. To be honest though, we are not really focussing on wide distribution right now. We will be self-distributing to local bars at our current size (3 BBL batches), with plans to scale up in a couple years. Once we do that, I'm sure we'll start expanding our footprint.

Greensboro isn't that far away, you going to make it to the party?

 

[HokieBrewer]

I'd love to, but it's the same night as my company's Christmas party. Let me know if you guys need any unpaid weekend help, I'd love to hang out!

 

[Yooper]

I wish I was closer, so I could be there! It sounds like fun.

Make sure you keep us posted on how it's going, so we can live vicariously through you!

 

[Spintab]

I wish you guys the best of luck. I had someone send me a couple bombers from a 3BBL brewery in NH and they were fantastic. Don't let anyone, except your customers, tell you it's not enough.

If you don't mind my asking, do you know about how much your system ran you? I'm hellbent on opening a tap room at some point in the future but as we all know it's that first lump sum that stops most in their tracks.

 

[DisturbdChemist]

Good luck Ya'll. If i'm ever in that part of the country hopefully i can find your beer around.

 

[Hugh_Jass]

It's finally happening. Due to day jobs, wife, kids, etc... its a been a very slow road, but its finally coming together! Over the last year or so, dtbritt and I have been gathering equipment, honing our recipes, building our brand, and searching for a location. That pace is over now as we've just recently embarked on a major push to get open. We have a tentative location, we're hosting a fundraiser/party this Saturday night (all are welcome), and we've launched a Kickstarter campaign to try and get the funding for the equipment we couldn't make or come by cheaply.

This is going to be a huge month for Shade Tree and its the reason I'm posting this now. Homebrewtalk has been a huge factor in my short but awesome brewing hobby and soon to be career. We wanted to let all of you know about our party and invite everyone to come. It will be at Niche in Holly Springs (outside Raleigh, NC) and starts at 7PM. We'll be giving out generous samples of our Kolsch and our Imperial IPA. We'd love to have whatever local HBT'ers are willing to come down and hang out with us.

Also, coinciding with this party (and another in late January), we are doing our Kickstarter campaign. Our goal with the fundraiser is to raise the cash necessary to put us over that hump and get open! We're really excited about this campaign and have some pretty sweet rewards! It would awesome if you'd go check out our Kickstarter campaign. If you feel so inclined and would like to support our project, we'd be very appriciative. Of course, there's cool swag and other things you get for backing us. And, as with all Kickstarter projects, if we don't make our desired goal, your pledge is refunded to you. For those of you in homebrew clubs, take a look at that $500 reward! You know you want it!

Check us out!
Kickstarter Campaign
Our website
Facebook (obligatory social media)

Congratulations! Hope all goes well for you guys.

 

[Walker]

And now I have TWO breweries within 10 minutes of my house....
And like 4 more if I am willing to drive an extra 10 minutes.

Life is hard on the tough streets of south-side Cary.

 

[sheeshomatic]

And now I have TWO breweries within 10 minutes of my house....
And like 4 more if I am willing to drive an extra 10 minutes.

Life is hard on the tough streets of south-side Cary.

Oh man.. you've also got Carburritos, Elaine's on Franklin, etc, etc...

 

[daksin]

Congratulations and best of luck. Living the dream!

 

[ajwillys]

If you don't mind my asking, do you know about how much your system ran you? I'm hellbent on opening a tap room at some point in the future but as we all know it's that first lump sum that stops most in their tracks.

We've built most of it from scratch, welding our brew stand together and sourcing 55 gallon drums (its a 1.5 bbl brewhouse to 3 bbl fermentors). It's not done yet and there will be LOTS more to add. We've put LOTS of money into the project (not really going to go into specifics), but the brew system itself is not that much, maybe $2K.

 

[ajwillys]

And now I have TWO breweries within 10 minutes of my house....
And like 4 more if I am willing to drive an extra 10 minutes.

Life is hard on the tough streets of south-side Cary.

Well, we're not open yet... but you're right, we got a pretty good thing going for breweries around here!

 

[ajwillys]

Thanks everyone for the well wishes. If you follow us on facebook, its the easiest way to keep updated. In the past, there hasn't been much, but now that we've got the groundwork laid, it should come together much faster and we'll be updating pretty regularly.

 

[Hugh_Jass]

Love the Browns pint glass in the pic on Kickstarter!

 

[elvestinkle]

I am incredibly sad to be missing this--heading up to DC for the weekend. But I'm glad to see other Raleigh-ites making good on the dream!

 

[Spintab]

We've built most of it from scratch, welding our brew stand together and sourcing 55 gallon drums (its a 1.5 bbl brewhouse to 3 bbl fermentors). It's not done yet and there will be LOTS more to add. We've put LOTS of money into the project (not really going to go into specifics), but the brew system itself is not that much, maybe $2K.

Gotcha thanks. Now if only that was the only expense to worry about, heh.

 

[ajwillys]

Love the Browns pint glass in the pic on Kickstarter!

Thanks! Mansfield huh? I was up there for Thanksgiving. My dad's family all come from up there...

 

[ajwillys]

We had a great turnout for the event. We packed that little wine bar full! Hope more people can make it out to our next event, sometime in January. We'll hopefully provide a bit more notice next time.

 

[BBKing]

Congratulations guys!

Wish I lived in your neck of the woods, I'd be over in a second! Best of luck to ya!

Jerks

 

[ajwillys]

Ha, I understand. I used to feel the same way every time I saw a new brewery start up. Now when I see them open, it just makes me want to get it open faster!

 

[ajwillys]

Hey everyone, its been a crazy few months. I'm not sure if anyone's seen the news around, but we have really been getting some press lately! We've been on Beer Advocate, the NC Brewer's Guild (home page!), and several other local/regional beer blogs and sites. They're even working on an article about us in the News & Observer!

In all that, we've been able to raise a significant amount of Kickstarter money. We're very thankful to all our backers, but we still have a long ways to go. Please consider checking out our project and giving. It's only $2 to show your support and get a mention on our website and it would be hugely appreciated! All you need is a Kickstarter account (easy) and an Amazon account with some payment method attached. Amazon handles the money, so there's nothing shady going on. If we don't get fully funded, you get all your money back!

Thanks again!
Andrew Simmering
owner/brewer
Shade Tree Brewing Company
Our KickStarter Project