Brewing up a possible business plan

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Although there is some flaky exterior paint and stained doors, the building is in sturdy shape still. (GRANT HAMILTON / BRANDON SUN)

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There is plenty of space inside. (GRANT HAMILTON / BRANDON SUN)

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The interior detailing is still in excellent condition. (GRANT HAMILTON / BRANDON SUN)

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The second floor is gorgeous. (GRANT HAMILTON / BRANDON SUN)

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Look up, look waaaay up, into the former bell tower. (GRANT HAMILTON / BRANDON SUN)

What a difference a week makes.

Just eight days ago, on this site, I proposed my barebones idea for a brewpub located in downtown Brandon’s vacant former fire hall.

To recap, I envisioned a small microbrewery paired with a poutine restaurant (along with plenty of other "pub grub") to create something that had a Canadian flair. I suggested that a community-owned co-op might be the best way to get people interested — and would help fund the project as well. I also pointed out that there were natural partnerships in the community that could make good use of a brewpub in that location.

I called it "Brewtinerie." (It’s a pun on "brewpub" and "poutinerie" — I had to explain it to a couple of people.)

No, it’s not a particularly original idea. Putting a brewpub in the old fire hall is something that loads of Brandonites have dreamed about for years. But it’s only in the past year that changes to the province’s Liquor Control Act have made it legal. And with the fire hall going up for sale just this month, the time is finally at hand.

Anticipating that this would happen sooner or later, a year and a half ago I bought the website brewtinerie.ca and put up a placeholder site.

But it just sat there.

Until a week ago, when I wrote that column.

The very next day, dozens of responses had flooded my inbox. Not only were people eager to see Brewtinerie up and running — and fast — they were eager to pitch in, as well.

My proposal to organize the brewpub as a co-op struck a chord. "How much are shares and where can I buy them?" was the most common query. Many people offered their sweat equity as well.

Things got pretty serious, pretty fast.

A quickie Facebook page (at facebook.com/brewtinerie) and Twitter account (you can follow @Brewtinerie) attracted dozens of social media types. Their posts of support were enthusiastic.

"This is going to be epic," wrote Colin Enquist on Facebook.

"I’m really excited about the possibility of some local beer," added Cart Noonan.

I knew quickly that my idea had legs — and it was clear that people were looking at me to move it forward.

Now, normally I’m the idea guy. Here’s my pie-in-the-sky concept, you invest the money and effort, and I’ll take the credit, thanks.

But in the case of Brewtinerie, the loud-and-clear message was "Great idea, Grant. Looking forward to YOU opening it."

All right, challenge accepted.

I downloaded the city’s request for proposals and read every word.

I called a few friends to sound out some of my ideas.

I reached out to a lawyer for incorporation advice (it might be a little premature for that).

Then I arranged a tour of the building.

The city, graciously, arranged for a basement-to-bell-tower exploration of the fire hall at extremely short notice.

In the persona of "Brewtinerie" online, I also tweeted out photos from the tour, and posted them later to Facebook.

From a personal perspective, the fire hall tour was a real treat.

There were many parts of the building I had never seen before — including the very tippy top of the tower. And the third-floor gym I only dimly remembered from my days taking the babysitting course as a preteen.

That was a while ago, if you can’t tell from my profile picture.

Thinking back on it, I think the last time I was in the building was close to a decade ago, when I had been scolded by a fire marshall for having roommates in a possibly-illegal basement suite who caused a certainly-illegal out-of-control bonfire in my back yard. (More trouble than they were worth, I moved the roommates out, and problem solved.)

But the tour was for more than nostalgia. I paid close attention to the condition of the building.

Yes, there are some issues with the roof. A dormer window at the back slopes back into the main roof, and leaks into the gym.

Yes, the old boiler in the basement heats the building through hot water radiators, and there are obvious issues with condensation and other water damage around some of them.

But overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how rock-solid the structure is. The main floor, reinforced to hold fire trucks and ambulances, could easily support a mash tun or three. As for restaurant tables and chairs? Forget about it — you could have a thousand people jumping up and down on that floor, and it wouldn’t even budge.

The second and third floors are concrete, too.

Much of the original wood detailing is still in the building, and it looks to be in great shape, too. Some of the second floor is absolutely gorgeous.

There appears to be plenty of fairly modern power and water in the fire hall — although whether the drainage system could handle the volumes required by a brewpub is a serious question.

And there’s certainly enough space.

In fact, there’s almost too much room. It would take careful maneuvering to make sure the dining room doesn’t seem empty, even if there were more than a hundred people in it.

But I think that’s one of those "good problems."

Some of the other problems with the building are almost too minor to mention. For example, I was disappointed that the brass fire pole is gone — moved to the new fire hall.

I figure we can install a new one later.

After getting back from the tour, I started doing some serious research. Knowing little about starting a restaurant or incorporating a co-op, and less about brewing beer than I probably should, I’ve spent the last few days getting as much up to speed as I can.

I was also pleased to learn that I’m not the only one doing a little bit of learning.

On Tuesday, I went for lunch with Mark Frison, the president of Assiniboine Community College. He’d reached out to me after reading about the Brewtinerie idea — in which I mentioned that partnering with Culinary Arts students, or Restaurant Management students, would be a natural fit.

Little did I know, he was taking it one step further.

Frison told me that, this fall, ACC was sending a few staff members to Niagara College in Ontario, on a fact-finding mission. Why Niagara? Well, that’s currently the home of Canada’s only college program in Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management.

And ACC wants to find out what would be necessary to get a similar program off the ground here in Brandon.

It’s not something they’ll do for sure, Frison said, but they want to be ready. And I have to think an up-and-running co-op brewery would only make things easier.

Especially with all that classroom space upstairs.

BRANDON TOURISM

Speaking of the upstairs, that’s another place where extra space in the building is a "good problem."

Although plenty of people Tweeted or posted on Facebook that they were interested in living in a cool studio above the brewpub, I’m not convinced residential apartments would be an easy conversion in the building, nor an easy sell. Although the cement floors are likely pretty soundproof, I’d suspect living above a bar gets tiresome after a while.

Frankly, I think offices — normally filled during the day, when the brewpub would be quieter — would be a better fit. But then, on the tour, I saw some old firefighter beds, and I had a different idea.

As my girlfriend and I prepare for an extended trip to Europe this fall, we’ve been researching ways to shave costs. I may be too old for the gap year hostel experience, and I’m definitely too poor for the Parisian hotel extravaganza.

Luckily, with the internet, there has been an explosion of options. People are renting out their spare bedrooms for a day, a week or a month at a time on websites like Airbnb.com.

The alternatives on that site range from a $14-a-night sofa in somebody’s Berlin living room, to $8900 a day for a villa on Ibiza.

Obviously, we’re looking at the lower end of that scale, but to get a feel for that site, we listed our tent trailer, in our backyard, to see if anyone was interested. Use of the bathroom and kitchen was included, of course, but they (and we) would get nighttime privacy.

We also listed the pop-up style trailer on a similar site, called Couchsurfing.org. It works similarly — you list your space, and people contact you to stay a day or two — with the important exception that it is free.

That’s right, you crash on peoples’ couches, and they crash on yours, no money changes hands.

Except, like our tent trailer, some of the "couches" are a little different. Some of them are beds, some of them are self-contained suites — I even saw a tricked-out cave.

No one has yet offered to pay us any money for the use of our tent trailer. But in less than a month, we’ve had two separate cross-country visitors decide to stay (for free) through Couchsurfing.

The first was Dave, a Toronto-based nuclear technician with a year off work, trying to hit every U.S. state and Canadian province on his motorcycle. He was great, you can follow his exploits on couchsurfamerica.com.

Our second visitor was a pair of women from France. They were architects who had taken a year off to live in Montreal, had flown to Las Vegas, and were plains-trains-and-automobiles-ing it back to Montreal.

They were great, and provided an outsider’s look at Brandon that we don’t often get. My quick takeaway (from them) were that our downtown was "pretty good" and "could really become something, if you filled in the gaps." They were documenting their trip with a (dwindling) supply of Polaroid film, so they were stingy with their photographs. They were interested in taking pictures of only two things: Where they stayed (with us); and the Brandon water tower.

Let that be a lesson to the folks who say it should be torn down.

But the whole experience got me thinking. Here’s three people — "tourists" — who came to Brandon simply because it was free accommodation on a website.

With a couple of beds upstairs in the fire hall, why not leave one of those rooms open? Not a hotel, not a hostel, just a funky place to stay in downtown Brandon. For people who would otherwise just head on straight to Winnipeg.

SO WHAT’S NEXT?

There are less than two weeks left before the city’s deadline for proposals. That’s not a lot of time.

But, it’s only been a week, and so much has already happened.

The next two weeks will call for some rigorous number crunching. We need to figure out how big a restaurant downtown Brandon will support, and how many pints of beer we could sell at that restaurant.

Then, we need to figure out what size and volume of brewing equipment would have to be installed, along with restaurant kitchen equipment. And how much that will cost.

Things like tables, chairs, dishware, an actual bar and an outdoor patio area — all of that adds up.

We’re already working on the outline of a business plan, but those numbers are going to have to be solid enough to take to the bank. Literally.

Only then can we start to finalize a proposal to take the city.

With any luck, brewing can start in early 2013.