I was Born a Ramblin Man

It has been a little over a week since I left Chicago and it feels like I have been both very productive and extremely worthless at the same time. The worthless is very warranted because I wake up when I wake up and I spend a lot of time on the couch. I start my morning reading about every website that writes anything about the Huskies, then I check back a few more times during the day to see if they wrote anything new. Bear in mind that it is the end of March, spring practice may have started today, but there isn't much news this time of year. At the same time, the Dawgs reading isn't really any different to what I did at Boeing, so maybe it is productive.

Baby steps. That is what it feels like I am making in the direction of opening Payette Brewing Company, but they are starting to get the ball rolling. I just realized how in this post I have equated baby step to being productive...I spent too much time at the lazy B. I met with The White Space today (a design and marketing company in Boise) to talk about Payette Brewing Company. It was a great meeting and I am very interested to see what they get back to me with. I think it will be a great company to work with, the work they have done looks excellent. I want PBC to be "Boise's Brewery" and to get into the "Think Boise First" crowd, I should probably be thinking that way. At first I thought it was too early in the process to even worry about that, but after meeting with them, I think it is going to go a long way in getting me to focus on what I want the image of PBC to be. It will also force me to sack-up, make some decisions and put some money down so I stop dreaming and do.

I talked with some other people while in Boise, most notably the beer buyer at the coop. It was sort of a first stab at some market research. It was good to get his opinion on the beer scene in Boise and where it is headed. He seemed very connected and he is someone I plan on keeping in the loop as I get closer to opening. He was aware of two brewpubs in the planning stages for Boise and maybe one production brewery. The production one he mentioned I didn't get a clear explanation of what he meant by maybe, but it isn't a big deal. Although I would like to be the first, I think this market can support two breweries without a problem.

On the job front, not much luck at this point and I need to get back at it once I get back to Seattle. I had an interview with Mac and Jack's for a position in the cellar. I had some great conversations with the manager which I feel will help me on my search. It wasn't that I was offered a job or that he said no, it just didn't seem like the right fit at the time. If it came to me desperately needing a job I could probably have one, but I need to feel out any opportunities to be a brewer before I take a cellar job.

Big things the next few days, weeks, etc...called finding a job and working on a business plan.