Kaiser Brewing Company

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Number Two & That Ain’t Bad!

We are pretty proud of representing Forest Grove in Portland at the Nano Beer Fest at John’s Marketplace in Multnomah Village. Ridgewalker and Waltz joined us, along with 26 other nanos for the two-day fest honoring Oregon’s smallest breweries. Friday, April 21 was warm and saw a great flow of crowds in the tent-covered parking lot of John’s Marketplace, and despite the wind and rain, Saturday April 22 was even more packed out with thirsty beverage connoisseurs.

Over all, twenty-eight Oregon breweries, cideries, and meaderies were in attendance at the fest, featuring 2-4 of their best styles. Many had owners and brewers onsite to promote their businesses and discuss with patrons how their craft drinks were made. A panel of VIP industry judges walked through on Friday and tasted every beer, cider, and mead offered, and then ranked them on flavor, color, and technique. The winners were announced on the Nano Beer Fest social media pages on Monday, April 24.

Out of 60 other beverages poured, we were proud to take second place for our “Wheeze the Juice” New England Style IPA. This marks our third award-winning beer, and we are so honored to be recognizes and appreciated by our amazing fans! We will be showcasing this winning brew, among other popular styles of beer in our tasting room at 1607 Hawthorne Street, and at First Wednesdays on Main Street in Forest Grove, June 7, July 5, and August 2, and at Forest Grove’s UnCorked on August 19.

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Kaiser Brewing Company is all about community, fellowship, and good beer. Founded by seasoned homebrewer Jonathan Kaiser, Kb is a nano-brewery in Forest Grove, Oregon, looking to expand the craft beer experience with unique and robust flavors. For more information about Kaiser Brewing, please visit and like us on Facebook!

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Smallest Licensed Brewpub in the Region

If you live anywhere near Portland, Bend, Eugene, and many other parts of Oregon, you are probably aware of the Craft Beer scene; either as an active participant or occasional goer. You may also be familiar with the Beer Guide the Willamette Week comes out with each year outlining all breweries within 100 miles of Portland. If you are one to either purchase this guide in softbound form or just browse online, you will find one called “The Smallest Fully Licensed Brewpub Anywhere Near Portland” and, yes, that would be us.

Now, we did not choose that name. Nor did we provide or even hint to that name. Were we surprised to be dubbed that name? No. But honestly, if Willamette Week did the research to come up with that, I think it’s a pretty cool achievement.

However, there are some clarifications about the write-up that are needed; either due to the taster/journalists note-taking skills, loss in translation to the editor, or the editor choosing to change text. Whatever the case, here are some things that need correcting:

  • Our website is not kkaiserbrewingco.com it is kaiserbrewingco.com.
  • We are not appointment only. We have set hours, M, W, F (6-9 p.m.) and Sat (2-9 p.m.).
  • We are not selling kegs to Uptown Market at this time (even though we know them well and have had our beer on tap with a collaboration in the past), our distribution of kegs is just within Forest Grove right now to Waltz brewing and other establishments.
  • We do offer tastings and growler fills directly in our brew pub as well, which was left out.
  • Yes, we are only making “basic” ales right now. Sorry, no barrel-aged, no sours, no whatever the latest food-turned-beer is, no pablano/habanero chili blast porter with a touch of lime … sorry, not sorry. Our ales follow a lot of the BJCP guidelines in design, as well as looking historically at the tradition of the style itself. But, sure, they can call them “basic.”

All in all though it was a good experience. It is humbling to see our little nano-brewery grow and get more exposure. As they mentioned we wrote a zero-debt model, scaling year after year with what we bring in. We already doubled our output from last August when we were finally licensed by the TTB (federal government) to start selling our beer, so the model is working. Markets and events are a large part of our business plan and we missed most of that season last year so it will be interesting to see how it plays out this year.

Anywhoooooo … A big thank you to all our followers for your support and encouragement. Oh and of course if you do pick up a copy of the Willamette Week, bring it in and we’ll be happy to autograph it 🙂

Cheers all!

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Our Small Business Story #ProFinderContest

We are participating in the LinkedIn #ProFinderContest with this blog post. Want to submit your own, small business story? Go here for all the details!

It’s tough to be a small business today. The American Dream can quickly become a nightmare with all the bureaucratic hoops to jump through, the red tape, and the insurmountable competition that exists.

But Kaiser Brewing didn’t start out as a business. At first it was just a homebrewing hobby. Then, as Jonathan Kaiser grew in his talent for making craft beer, so did his following. We shared his new batches at potlucks, family reunions, even at our church! Our kids got involved ,and, over the years, as we opened our garage door to make a new batch of home brew, other homebrewers, even passers-by would stop in to watch, lend a hand or just chat for hours about beer, life, even faith. Eventually, brewing beer became more about facilitating relationships.

It was with this community-building in mind, that we made the decision to pursue the requirements and licencing to open our own brewery in our hometown of Forest Grove, Oregon.

After much research, connecting with other nano brewers, and attending brewery conferences, we sold our first home, purchased an older home with a detached garage, and moved our family of five across town to begin the business. We invested nearly all of our equity into bigger brewing equipment, supplies, and remodeling materials to turn the detached garage and shop into a full-scale nano brewery, complete with a fermentation chamber, cooling room, and built-in tap lines.

almost finished brewery

Our final licensing went through this past August, and we officially opened for business, offering one-ounce tastings, grower fills, and keg sales out our garage, and full-pours at offsite events. We also sell Kb sweatshirts, and growlers, with plans to offer tees and trucker hats soon.

The support and business we have received from our community and the craft beer industry has been overwhelming. There is always a huge crowd at our tasting and pouring events, with positive feedback on our brews, and we continue to receive orders for growlers and kegs. We hope to continue this momentum by expanding our following on social media like Facebook, Twitter, and connect with other brewery professionals and organizations on LinkedIn. To help us with our marketing, copywriting, and accounting, we hope to use the freelance professionals at LinkedIn ProFinder keep our business on the up and up!

They say about 1/3 of small businesses fail in the first two years. 50% after five years, and a whopping 90% of start-ups do not make it to year ten! Do these numbers scare us? Nope. Because we never really started this business to be “in business.” We started it to facilitate relationships, build community, and make some pretty awesome craft beer. And no matter where Kaiser Brewing as a business is in two, five, or ten years, we know that we will still be doing those three very important things! Beer brings people together and that is what will continue to do.

Cheers!

painted logo

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The “Why”s of Kaiser Brewing

As our ‘About’ page says on the website “Kb started over a decade ago when Jonathan Kaiser was given a large box of home brewing equipment. That box sat in his garage for a few more years and he was about ready to sell it when his wife, Wynter, suggested he try making one batch first…And it was love at first brew! Our motto is Community, Fellowship and Good beer and we stand by that.

Our model is not one surrounding the typical Brewery / Public House (BrewPub) out there today. First, we are nano in scale. There are no kitchens, no food, not even beer consumption allowed on-site, with the exception of tastings. These are all purposed though, and yes we are licensed by the OLCC and TTB as a BrewPub. But as a BrewPub, we are first a brewery of course, brewing 1-2bbl batches at a time. We also fill containers from 32oz, up to 2gal, offer direct keg sales, and of course give tastings of what we have on tap. Oh yeah, and all this out of our detached garage.

Some might ask why. Why the garage, why nano in scale, why no consumption on site, why a BrewPub instead of just a Brewery, why do fools fall in love? That last one is probably answered by lots of craft made beer.

I think to simplify it all, after years of home brewing, hundreds of tweaks, countless hours of reading material to learn from, brewing workshops, start-up courses and collaborations, sensory panels and off-flavor evaluations, and the thought of actually pulling the trigger on opening… We set out to do this without having to go into debt, taking on partners or investors, etc. and figured that if nothing else, I still have my day job, and it would be one hell of a man cave!

So, Why Our Model?12107147_1090819554263455_4124280162521647560_n

  • The garage? Purchasing a building or even just leasing one for a taproom would be costly and incur debt. And many great businesses have started out of a garage.
  • Nano in scale? We purchased what we could, within budget, with the plan to scale over time as our sales revenue grows.
  • No On-site Consumption?
    1. We want to allow minors under 21 to enter, especially our own children. We want them to be able to see what starting from the ground up looks like, what it means to work with your hands, engineer and create something. We want them to see options for themselves. Not necessarily brewing, but creative thinking. We want them to witness their family’s hands-on work.
    2. To allow on-site consumption and minors we would have to serve food. This is just not feasible at this time.
  • Why a BrewPub if no on-site consumption? Simple. It allows us Special Event Brewery (SEB) licensing, allows us to self-distribute, and to sell other’s beer, wine, and cider as we choose.
  • Why zero-debt at start? Just Google what it takes to start a brewery and then double that cost. Think equipment, staff, buildout, building purchase or lease, insurance, licensing, lawyers, and so much more! If your pockets are that deep then go at it. The other way is investors, backers, partners (at minimum three at $250,000 each!) Can it be done? Yes, and it has been proven over and over, but we are not in a hurry. We have time. And I am not going to put my family in that financial debt situation.

So what can you expect from us and where to see us? Our focus will shift with the seasons. During festival, market, and event seasons we will look to be out in those, directly in front of you, in community with you all, with kegs to local breweries as well. When seasons change, and our lovely Oregon weather rolls in and the festivals, markets, events close; we will look to increase our keg distribution to local breweries, pubs, and restaurants. And, well, you will find us in our garage of course, year round, with our kegs stocked and our taps ready to fill your growlers!

If you have other questions for us, just let us know. If you want to come for a tasting, just let us know. Looking for us to host or provide our beer selection at a special event? Just let us know. Or if you are looking to fill a growler, yes even if not our own, just let us know and come on by! You’ll find our new hours posted here.

Cheers everyone, and thank you for your continued support!

 

CONTACT US

For more information about our beer, to make an order, or book a private tasting, drop us a line!

503-412-9628
kaiserbrewing@gmail.com

OUR HOURS

We are open MOST Fridays 6-9 p.m.
and Saturdays 2-9 p.m., but call ahead or check our Facebook page as these sometimes get switched around due to event scheduling.

1607 Hawthorne Street
Forest Grove, Oregon 97116

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