Our inspiration for Ish Brewing has been
long in coming. I've been a brewer for
about thirty years now. My partner's been
brewing for about ten. And we got
together and decided that this is
something that we really wanted to do.
Kind of fulfill a dream. And so we've
been working towards this goal for quite
some time. The name Ish Brewing for us it denotes,
kind of, outside the box thinking. There
are, you know, dozens of styles of beer.
And there are regulations and parameters
within that style. The way you brew a
lager is different from the way you brew
an alt is different from the way you
brew a stout. We're pushing the envelope.
We like to think of it as we're going
beyond a certain style. So it might be a
red beer-ish. Learned about the SBDC by
going to the Valley Small Business loan
group here in town. The loan application
process, it's involved and so we went to
SBDC. They helped us through the loan
process. Helped us filling out the
paperwork and answer questions. And kind
of basically be an advocate for us. We
wanted a venue that catered to everybody.
So we want to have games and that kind
of stuff that people can come and have a
beer and enjoy with their friends while
they're playing. We also want to have a
nice sitting area. And then of course we
have the brewery in the back. We have
purchased from local suppliers. It's
actually kind of amazing because when I
started looking at various venues that
we could go to to acquire what we need
to do the build, and that kind of stuff,
we were looking outside at various
entities. And then doing my research I
found that there's a lot of places here
in town that actually do have the
equipment that we need. It's very
specific equipment for brewing and they
actually had the stuff. So it was like, "oh
great!" I've never owned a business. I've
never operated a business. So it's a bit
of a daunting endeavor to go ahead and
try and open a business when you have no
prior business experience. So SBDC was
good as far as being able to go to them
and ask some questions, get help from
them. And then, like I said, as far as the
loan process, etc. really helped us a lot.
