013 - Equipment and Infrastructure Part II

The Start A Brewery Podcast

Episode 013 continues the discussion with Chris Leach of Wild Goose Filling, Alex Smith of ABS Commercial, and Brian Mollohan of Ruby Street Brewing about all things equipment. Where 012 was more shopping information and considerations, 013 takes us further into customized equipment, the entirety of costs associated with brewing equipment, and all things cans….including growlers vs. crowlers. Listening to both episodes will give you confidence in both shaping your vision and searching for the right vendors to work with to get you there.

Episode 013 is sponsored by ABS Commercial.

Brian Mollohan, Owner, Ruby Street Brewing

Brian Mollohan founded Ruby Street Brewing after years of homebrewing and building custom brewing systems for friends. Ruby Street is a family owned manufacturing business that specializes in building small scale nano and pilot brewing equipment. Ruby Street is unique in that all equipment is built to order with flexible designs, customizable options, competitive pricing and unrivaled customer support.

Alex Smith, Midwest Sales Consultant, ABS Commercial

Alex’s first foray in to fermentation was actually at a wine growers internship through the University of Georgia Sustainable Ag program. Realizing he had neither the patience of palate for wine, he soon pivoted to beer and never looked back. Since then he has worked in almost every aspect of the beer industry from retail to production and everything in between. Over 5 years ago, he helped open our sister company, Raleigh Brewing Company, where he served as yeast manager, head brewer and productions manager. Now with ABS commercial he wears just as many hats, covering sales, technical consulting and on-site brewing support. Alex resides in Denver, CO and heads up the Colorado wing for ABS Commercial. When not in the office or on the brewhouse, Alex can be found roaming the mountains with his wife, Natalie and their two dogs, Gracie and Wren. He also enjoys wrenching on and riding bikes, fermenting foods and tinkering with whatever needs tinkering.

Favorite Beers: A roasty schwarzbier, a juicy IPA or Schlenkerla Urbock

Chris Leach, Regional Sales Manager, Wild Goose Filling

Chris Leach is the East Coast Sales Manager for Wild Goose Filling. He comes from a background in the hospitality industry, attending the Culinary Institute of American and working in all facets of the restaurant industry. Chris shifted course in 2006 to the beer industry brewing at Keegan Ales in upstate NY before moving into consultative sales. His sales experience includes off-premise retail, distribution, cidery/distillery representative and packaging equipment. Chris has been working with breweries to design, configure and implement over 300 packaging lines over the past 5.5 years.

About StartABrewery

StartABrewery is a collaboration amongst a fun group of craft beer industry veterans who are often invited to speak at beer business / brewing education programs. Each has offered to share their knowledge and experience to support the craft beer community as a whole by helping fledgling breweries in planning.

Conceived and coordinated by Candace L. Moon, The Craft Beer Attorney, and Laura Lodge of Customized Craft Beer Programs, StartABrewery is provided as an educational resource for those dreaming of opening a brewery, those who are taking steps to make their dream a reality, and those who are opening their brewery doors and living it.

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Positive Fat Bass Intro Loop by WinnieTheMoog
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/6093-positive-fat-bass-intro-loop
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license