1st blog on the road to beer!

Here we go again, but this time on the path we should have originally pursued.  I really believe that, but also strongly believe we would have never made it here via any other path.  For those of you who don’t know us here is a little personal background on who we are and how we got to Big Elm Brewing Company.  My husband Bill and I met at Victory Brewing Company in Downingtown PA in 2003.  He hired me and then swept me off my feet.  I returned the favor by talking him into opening a Brewpub in MA.  Most of my ideas up until this point had been pretty good, so he went along with it.  

We opened Pittsfield Brew Works in Pittsfield MA in May 2005.   We made and sold lots of great beers.   We had a great staff and made lots of great friends.  Everything was fantastic, except the restaurant business really didn’t fit us.  We were not happy.  What we know and love is making beer, which became only a side task of running the brewpub.  So we sold it right after our son Tobi was born.  It was a very hard and scary decision, but the right one.

This was June 2010 and we were all set to start up a production brewery.  We had equipment lined up; financing lined up; everything except a building to brew in.  We were picky at first.  It had to be in Pittsfield and had to be just so.  A couple months later we loosened our standards and started thinking about renting and looking at the rest of Berkshire county.  Still, NOTHING.  Then we got very creative with a few locations, set on making it work.  Several places fell through last minute (zoning issues, scaredy cat developer, etc).   We of course needed more money than we originally predicted and the bank we secured financing with closed/sold.  The summer of 2011 we had no building and no financing and a baby girl.  Yup, Agnes joined us in May.  This was not how we would have planned it all, but I am sticking with my original statement that it’s the only way it could have happened.

So at this point we had all but given up on the idea of a brewery, then we found 65 Silver Street in Sheffield MA.  Perfect building, way bigger than we need and affordable.   Looking into it further, we discover it’s a cool town.  Everyone we meet is nice!  Small town; Big Heart!  Home!  Well at least the brewery’s home and hopefully we can follow.

So that is our story.  

Soon to come: pictures of our progress.  Despite the fact that the building is perfect, it is dirty.  In future blogs we (Bill will most likely be writing some blogs too) will share the fun of Big Elm Brewing’s start!