A Taste of Savannah

Dockside Brewery, is eager to fill you in on the wonderful opportunities brewing. Over the last few months, we have done multiple tastings with excellent feedback. One tasting was with a very popular restaurant and bar located in downtown Savannah. The restaurant wants to exclusively, carry all six of our main lineup and a seasonal. But that’s not all, they also want to contract us to make them one or two beers to call their own. While these beers would have the restaurant’s labeling, we would have credits for brewing on the packaging and get royalties off of distribution sales. The tastings we speak of yielded great results. We gave each taster a scoring card with a comment box and area to judge on:

• Appearance (10 points)
• Smell (10 points)
• Taste (30 points)
• After Taste (20 points)
• Drinkability (30 points)
• Total (the total of each score tallied with up to a possible 100 points)

The average score for each beer tested is listed below with a few standout comments for each:

Hazy Days
Average Score: 86.88
Comments:

• Light, crisp on the top of the tongue. Clean after taste.
• Very drinkable without being to citrusy.
• Going to be a Savannah favorite.
• Lemony and delicious.
• Love the light finish and citrus smell.

Hopped Up
Average Score: 76.88
Comments:

• The nose is a little weak for a hoppy beer but has a strong front taste. The citrus notes are enjoyable.
• More drinkable than any IPA I have ever had.
• Tastes the way an English Pub Ale should!
• I love this beer.

AAA
Average Score: 81.23
Comments:

• Great caramel taste. Flavorful and inviting. Perfect for a novice craft beer drinker.
• Different in a good way. Great tasting.
• Clean and tasty.
• I have a new favorite beer.
• Amazing smell.

Hale Storm
Average Score: 85.41
Comments:

• This is a great beer! I love the hops! The after taste is a total treat. Well done!
• Excellent! Hoppy but smooth. You would never guess from drinking it that it was a high alcohol beer. Very well crafted
• Very good taste. Very drinkable for an Imperial IPA.
• Best yet!
• God what a great beer.
• Can I have 5 more, please.
• Beautiful color.
• Great finish. Hoppy but not overdone. Very smooth. I think everyone will love this beer.

Moon Pie
Average Score: 87.52
Comments:

• I enjoy the coffee scent. Has a full taste, just as you would expect from a stout.
• It is like an adult chocolate milk.
• Stouts are my favorite style of beer and this is the best I’VE EVER HAD!
• I love it. Very sweet but very good. Not a huge fan but this is delicious.
• I want to give this beer extra credit.
• This beer is so yummy!
• Love it but couldn’t drink it all night or I would have to go on a diet.
• Great beer! Good drinkability but a little heavy.
• I only have two words for this beer “Fucking Brilliant”!

Anal Probe
Average Score: 87.11
Comments:

• Spicy smell, I love that! This is a beer for the adventurous. Hits the back of your throat but in a good way.
• Very interesting I am sure it will have a cult following.
• I have to give it an A+ for uniqueness.
• Most unique beer I’ve ever tasted.
• Simply Great!
• Great but a little weird!
• Very good, wonderfully smooth with a radical flavor
• Absolutely the best beer I have ever had.
• Too hot for me but great.
• Awesome beer!
• When can I get this beer on tap?

As you can see, our main line up is a true success. It should be noted that when our tasters were asked which of our beers they liked best there was not one that was not someone’s favorite. We are looking forward to the Savannah Brew Festival, which is only a month away. We are still looking for investors to keep moving our product out the door and into a bar, restaurant, or store near you. Become a member of the Dockside Brewery family and take a chance on us, we won’t disappoint.

Cheers,
Bill Maestretti
CEO – Dockside Brewery Inc.
813-751-6788
www.docksidebrewery.com

Throughout our journey of entrepreneurship an interesting issue keeps coming up. We understand investors want to make a profit. Of course, that’s why they invest in businesses. However seldom have we had investors that are interested in the quality of our beers. Most are only concerned with the bottom line, how much they will make and when they will see their profit. This is not always the case, but it is in a lot of cases. We understand that investors want to make sure the product will make money but some investors don’t even want to try our beer. Other investors of course are all about the quality (which is of course the best you will ever drink).

So what is your experience? Is it the bottom line, quality, or both? What really matters to you as an investor?

More and more often we here at Dockside have been getting asked the same question, “Why aren’t there any light craft beers?” Of course to me the answer is obvious. Craft beer is about complexity and full flavor. But is that an answer or simply a copout? The question is weighing on my mind and I find myself wondering. Can we craft a great light beer?

There are a few light beers put out by larger craft brewers, however you never see them at your local watering hole. Why is that? Is this simply a case of supply and demand? Is there not enough demand for light craft beers? Or is it simply an impossible dream to have a light craft beer with great taste? Can you balance malty goodness with a hoppy aroma and bitterness to create a lighter flavor, lower calorie beer?

Your Thoughts?

Summertime, hot weather and outside activities leave you longing for a cold refreshing beer. But what to choose? Do you enjoy a citrusy hefeweizen, a cool refreshing cerveza, a fruity summer ale or a light lager? With so much to choose from on the market these days, it can be hard to decide. Most craft breweries offer a specialty summer selection. Do you choose a unique craft or just something lighter?

At Dockside, we have a wonderful traditional Hefeweizen (Hazy Days) brewed with extra lemon peel. This may be our flagship considering the light citrusy summer flavor in the hot Savannah summer. We also brew a great Mexican Jalapeno Cerveza (Anal Probe). One may think a pepper beer might not be refreshing, but this one of a kind beer is cool on the front end and doesn’t get hot till it reaches the back of your throat. Which beer sounds good to you?

We always love to hear from our followers. You inspire to make great beer and keep us striving to come up with unique creations.

As we begin the celebration of Craft Beer Week, emotions are running high in the craft beer industry. This is largely influenced by one of the most common questions asked. “What got you into craft brewing?” Or, “How did you get interested in craft beer?” Speaking for myself I got the craft beer bug back in college. I was a member of a fraternity and a few of my brothers had jobs working at a brew pub (yes I know, best college job ever). As an impoverished student, they would bring samples back to the Frat House and there were times when I could scrape together enough money to go and sample a few at the bar. These unique brews provided so much more than the rot gut beer we swilled on a nightly basis (this was 20+ years ago, where every brewery slapped the name “ICE” on their beer and we bought it by the case). I was hooked. I craved more unique beer. It was amazing to see that beers in this country could be individual and tailored by the brewers and had me wanting more. I had only experienced this in Europe while in the military (yes I was in the military before I went to college). This led me to believe that a local craft beer, or individual brew pubs were something uniquely European and did not exist in the US. In my defense it was the early 90’s and I was in my early 20’s.

Now that I have shared the story of how I was introduced to the “pints of pleasure”, what is your story? How did you come to be fan of craft beer? Help us celebrate “Craft Beer Week” by telling the world what brought you to the craft beer movement?

We are discussing this here, as well as linkedin, facebook, and google+.  Please share your experiences with us while celebrating craft beer week and enjoying a nice cold craft beer.

We are opening a craft brewery that will be located in Savannah Georgia. The Dow Jones dropped almost 200 points last week. This presents an opportunity for Dockside Brewery to penetrate the private investment market with our hand crafted beers. Our beer is of extremely high quality to ensure customer satisfaction, supported by impeccable service to our customers. Initial plans are to produce six main hand crafted ales and five seasonal ales. For further details, watch our Investment Presentation video and request a copy of our Business Plan on our investors information page.

Cheers,
Bill Maestretti
CEO – Dockside Brewery Inc.

In the business world, when it comes to investors, I have always heard no one wants to be first. This of course makes sense, people are more comfortable investing once someone else has gone through the due diligence process and feels comfortable handing over their money. Well I guess the proof is in the pudding or in this case the beer. It may be coincidence or we may just be lucky but after receiving our first outside funding, Dockside Brewery Inc., has a full dance card, filled with events and investor meetings.

We have a number of private investors that we are speaking to and will hopefully close more money in the next few weeks. We have also been working with a couple of Venture Capital firms that are speaking with us about substantial investments. Our hard work is finally paying off with debt/equity transactions. Of course we are not going to rest on our laurels. If we take our eye off the prize, even momentarily, all the traction and headway could be lost. I don’t usually toot my own horn, but as the CEO of a small startup it feels good when you win out and I feel the need to crow about it!

From Roman Shuster on Linkedin, in response to our recent post: “Remember when bitter beer face was bad?”. We truly appreciate this post and that you took the time to provide such a thought provoking response. We were so overwhelmed with this response that we wanted to share it with our readers.

I echo your concerns about the hopification of America’s craft brewers. While I lack the brewery operation experience like yourself, I have spent 5 years analyzing the US beer industry for Euromonitor International, and have remained active in the craft beer scene as a co-founder of the UCLA Anderson Microbrew Club. Please allow me to offer my semi-educated opinion on the questions your raise.

1) When did US craft brewers decide to measure their manhood by how many hops they can cram in a beer bottle?

A: Great question! Per the Brewers association there is almost 1000 micro and regional breweries in the US. There is 1000 more brewpubs. With so many different brands available, it is simply too difficult for consumers to chose. Think of your recent trip to a beer specialist. How many brands did you see? I am sure that given your background you had a lot of knowledge about the brands available and could make a very educated decision about your purchase.

Unfortunately most consumers just don’t have the same level of involvement with the industry as you, and are in general less educated about the brands that they buy. As a result, consumers model their beer purchase decisions on the opinions of a very select and very educated minority of ‘dedicated craft beer drinkers’. These are beer bloggers, bartenders, and general beer snobs. Any self respecting opinion maker strives to find new and exciting products that the rest of the population is not aware off. For this minority ‘big’ and ‘hoppy’ beers are preferred because they are different and unique.

A successful craft beer brand must have that big powerful beer in their arsenal to get the beer geeks excited. The best marketers will be able to turn that excitement into a preference for other varieties from that same brand.

2) When did people feel the need to start tasting beer from a wine glass, swirling it around and commenting on it like a fine wine (for the love of all that is holy, it is a $7.00 beer not a 100 year old, $300 bottle of wine)?

A: I believe that this is actually great news for beer. If you are very selective individual who only wants the finest things in life beer is a very attractive product to buy. One can spend at the most $25 for an extremely exclusive bottle of beer. If one wanted to buy an extremely expensive bottle of wine they will have to commit $100s if not $1000s of dollars. It is much cheaper to be a beer snob, than a wine or whiskey snob. Brewers are beginning to take advantage of this.

3) A smooth balanced beer is a thing of beauty. So what is the obsession? Where will it end? Or is there no hope for American beer drinkers ruining their taste buds with hops overload?

A. Couldn’t agree with you more here. I love a good refreshing beer and find that more of my personal drinking occasions call for a simple lager, rather than an unfiltered Tripel. I think there is hope. If you think about the best selling craft beers (and I am using the term ‘craft’ from the point of the consumer so brands like Blue Moon are included) you will find Sam Adams Boston Lager, Blue Moon, Fat Tire, Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, Shock Top at the top. These aren’t ‘exciting’ beers and they don’t get a lot of coverage from ‘beer snobs’. However, they are very drinkable and are the kind of beer the consumers want. At its core beer is meant to be a refreshing beverage. While ‘big’ beers are gaining, it is from a such small base that I don’t believe that ‘big’ beers will over take ‘small’ beers.

Happy to talk more, but I feel like I have taken up a lot of your time already, so I will stop here.

It was only five or six years ago, that keystone light arguably had one of the best marketing campaigns of the year “Say no to bitter beer face”. Great imagery and a catchy tagline caused a lot of people to talk. Too bad the beer advertised was such swill. Yet here we are not a decade later and bitter beer is being considered a good thing? With constant chatter about craft beers today, I am amazed to hear how many people advocate bitter beer, “more hoppy the better”. My god, to watch at a craft beer bar these days, you flash back to the old Keystone light commercials. You would think that nothing is more refreshing than having your taste buds pulled out by the stem.

What is the current fascination in the US with bitter beer? When did US craft brewers decide to measure their manhood by how many hops they can cram in a beer bottle? More importantly, how did they convince US beer drinks to buy into this madness?

There are a lot of things I do not understand about the US beer industry and it’s consumers. Things like, how can Boston Brewing Company (Sam Adams) produce more than 2 million barrels of beer a year (that’s more than 62,000,000 gallons of beer) and still be considered a craft brewery? Additionally, why do respected international beer competitions feel the need to include categories such as “Best American Style Light Lager”, which has been won repeatedly by beers such as, Lite by Miller Brewing Co. and Old Milwaukee Lite (Really, Beast Lite? God help us all!)? When did people feel the need to start tasting beer from a wine glass, swirling it around and commenting on it like a fine wine (for the love of all that is holy, it is a $7.00 beer not a 100 year old, $300 bottle of wine)? When did IBU (International Bittering Units), the scale for measuring the perceived bitterness of a beer, become a common rating method for beer even at the most meager dive bars (we know this because we have been asked the IBU of our beers at many a dive bar)?

So help out a simple, small brewery owner, what is America’s great fascination with bitter beers? Don’t get me wrong, I do love hops but in the proper proportion. There is nothing like the wonderful aroma from a good hop, balanced with malty undertones. A smooth balanced beer is a thing of beauty. So what is the obsession? Where will it end? Or is there no hope for American beer drinkers ruining their taste buds with hops overload?

We here at Dockside Brewery believe in well-balanced beers. We believe in making refreshing, easily drinkable beers with a unique taste. I guess it should go without saying, at Dockside Brewery, we don’t appreciate bitter beer face.

While we understand and agree that any investor is going to crawl up your butt with a microscope, we do have a quandary? When sending information to investors, how do you balance enough and the evils of overkill? We have heard multiple schools of thought on this subject. Do you send the obligatory executive summary? We have heard, if they are asking they are beyond the executive summary then send a business plan. We have also heard that we should send everything, PowerPoints, business plan, executive summary & financial documents.

What ever happened to leaving them wanting more? Speaking with sales people, I have always heard “Give them just enough to leave them wanting more”. This of course is the standard idea of the teaser. The premise is the same as with movies, we have all sat through the trailers to see the new blockbusters, just enough to keep you wanting more. However in speaking with other businesses and companies seeking investment this is not the case.

Most business owners or CEO’s give their investors everything up front. We agree in full disclosure and we have provided everything we have to potential or existing investors. While working with potential investors what is enough to keep the conversation moving? What do we initially provide? We feel we have done enough as an organization, but we want to be better. We want to build the proverbial mousetrap. How much do we hand over? What keeps the investors interested yet gives them the information they want? Do you make them want to hear more or do you give them everything and wait to see if what they read intrigues them to move forward with due diligence?

Is salesmanship a lost art when dealing with investors or is it based upon the type of investor? Is it a personal judgment? Do the traditional ideas of sales just not apply when it comes to investors? The CEO’s first job is to sell the company. The CEO, as figurehead, is the public face of the company. Whether dealing with board members, the media, or potential investors the CEO takes a sales role. Why not let him sell, but with what tools? How much does he/she give?

We are Dockside Brewery, we want you to open your wallets, either as a customer or investor or both. What will it take to get investors to open up? What will it take to keep investors engaged?

Please view our investment pitches and leave comments or suggestions. It would be greatly appreciated.