024 - Reflections on Season I

11/21/23 • 46 min

What did you think of Start A Brewery Podcast Season I? In reflecting on the very first (23) episodes, Candace L. Moon & Laura Lodge, hosts of the podcast & Founders of Start A Brewery, ask that very question! They encourage listeners to share both their likes & their constructive suggestions for Season II. Episode 024 is a fun visit to different episodes in Season I, with shout outs, testimonials, storytelling, industry insight, and a look behind the scenes with these two never-ever podcasters who know an awful lot about beer.

Candace L. Moon is a San Diego-based attorney who has spent the last eleven years dedicating her law practice to the craft beer industry. She has worked with more than 450 craft breweries and craft breweries-in-planning nationwide, handling many different legal areas including alcoholic beverage law, contract review and trademark law. Candace is the co-author of Brew Law 101 – A Legal Guide to Opening a Brewery (CA version).

The co-founder of the Big Beers, Belgians & Barleywines Festival, Laura Lodge has been engaged in the craft beer industry since 1997. She’s the Owner of Customized Craft Beer Programs, designing events, resort retail programs, and educational programs based on craft beer, and is also the author of Distribution Insight for the Craft Brewer.

As veterans of the craft beer industry, both Moon and Lodge have taken on education roles within the industry over time, including formal higher education. Candace teaches brewing business courses classes at San Diego State University & UC San Diego, while Laura has been a regular guest at Metro State University Beer Industry Program classes in Denver, speaking about events and distribution.

Likewise, both have been tapped to educate as featured speakers in their areas of expertise at numerous industry conferences, occasionally presenting together. Such conferences include the Craft Brewers Conference, the Craft Beverage Expo, the California Craft Brewers Conferences, the New England Brew Summit, the Rocky Mountain Brewing Symposium, the Mid America Beverage Exposition & Conference, the Craft Beer Professionals Conferences, NanoCon, and the Pink Boots 10th Anniversary Conference among others.

Start A Brewery pulls together in a more formal way the networking connections and educational material that Moon & Lodge both have grown and championed for years in the beer industry.

The Craft Beer Attorney has long had an established Preferred Provider Network, built to offer all clients a full complement of knowledgeable, competent professionals for their start up and growing breweries. In addition, Candace has built informally & then more specifically a network of attorneys nationwide that are knowledgeable about craft beer and can refer each other when inquiries come in that are outside of their licensed jurisdiction or they simply don’t have the bandwidth to handle additional clients.

Customized Craft Beer Programs has always emphasized education, whether it be facilitating education by industry leaders or Laura teaching herself. When developing craft beer programs at destination resorts, education took on the form of developing food and beer pairings with the staff, encouraging Cicerone Beer Server Certification, and offering opportunities for resort guests to taste and learn from staff and brewery personnel. Recruiting savvy professionals as educators to present at the Big Beers Festival, at the Rocky Mountain Brewers Symposium, for specialty Brewmasters Weekends at resorts, and for other events has long been a focus.

Over the past five years, both Lodge and Moon have pooled industry connections to facilitate and participate, respectively, with the creation of the Craft Beer & Brewing New Brewery Accelerator Workshop. In addition, an informal group of industry professionals has gathered together at CBC and GABF for the past few years to be social with the additional outreach of inviting brewers with questions to come by for complimentary advice and referrals from the group. Nicknamed “The Resource Group”, this core group of friends provided insight, support, and the first educational contributions for the Start A Brewery website.

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 doo...

Start A Brewery pulls together in a more formal way the networking connections and educational material that Moon & Lodge both have grown and championed for years in the beer industry.

About StartABrewery

Previous Episode

023 - Your Business Plan & Financing: How Much Does it Matter?

If there was ever an insider’s look at brewery financing, this is it. Rick Wehner of Brewery Finance and Scott Birkner of Dogwood State Bank hail from lending organizations that are very different in their approaches. Their opinion about business plans, however, has a lot of common ground. For a good hard look at credit, partnerships, different kinds of financing, working with businesses in trouble, and a whole bunch of valuable commentary – take a listen.

Rick Wehner, Founder, Brewery Finance

Rick started his leasing career shortly after college when he went to work for his father’s equipment leasing company, learning the leasing business from the ground up, starting in the file room and slowly working his way through most of the different departments.

Rick eventually went on to start his own equipment finance company along with his brother, and he quickly married his passion for craft beer and his experience with equipment finance by forming Brewery Finance. He’ll be the first to tell you that he is more of a “beer guy that works in finance,” than a “finance guy that works with breweries.”

Scott Birkner, SBA Lending Specialist, Dogwood State Bank

Scott Birkner began his finance career immediately following college, where he worked for Unity Bank and held several progressive positions, from a loan underwriter to a Regional Sales Manager, and then commercial lender. Following this, he became a SBA Business Development Officer, where his portfolio projects ranged from $500,000 - $15,000,000.

Scott comes to Dogwood State Bank with over 20 years of SBA Lending, having served as a Senior Business Development Officer for HVC Bank, United Western Bank, Fifth Third Bank, Bank of North Carolina (now Pinnacle), Yadkin Bank (now First National Bank), and United Community Bank. Scott specializes in financing business acquisitions, start-ups, expansions, refinances, partner buyouts and commercial real estate on a nationwide platform. He is passionate about forming relationships with his clients and anticipating their needs throughout the duration of the loan process.

Scott is a member of the CVBBA (Carolinas Virginia Business Brokers Association) Brewers Association, America Craft Distillers Association, American Distilling Institute and many State Guilds. He is a frequent speaker, panelist and moderator at business broker events, commercial real estate events, lending conferences, seminars and SBA industry training.

About StartABrewery

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Positive Fat Bass Intro Loop by WinnieTheMoog
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025 - Purchasing an Existing Brewery: Legal Guidance

Welcome back to Season II of the Start A Brewery podcast! We begin with a requested topic: Purchasing an Existing Brewery. This covers several episodes, starting with a strategic overview of legal issues and general strategies for this approach. Candace, Brook Bristow, and Jeff O’Brien offer the perfect storm of stories, best practices, situations to avoid, plus stuff that attorneys wrangle often....but the potential purchaser is usually navigating for the first time. Dive in to set yourself a solid foundation for this new podcast season!

Guests

Jeff O’Brien, Chestnut Cambronne, PA

Jeff O’Brien is a partner with Chestnut Cambronne and serves as outside general counsel to a wide variety of small and closely held businesses as well as real estate investors and developers. He has significant experience working with craft breweries, distilleries, and a variety of other liquor and hospitality focused businesses on an array of issues including entity formation, financing, real estate matters, intellectual property protection, operational issues, securities law, and distribution contracts. Jeff also advises clients in the industrial hemp and cannabis industries and is a member of the Minnesota Industrial Hemp Association’s Board of Directors.

Jeff’s practice is regional and national in scope. In addition to Minnesota, Mr. O’Brien is admitted to practice in the States of Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, and before the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, the District of South Dakota and the Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Wisconsin’s Non-Resident Lawyers Division (NRLD), and he regularly assists businesses across the United States on matters pertaining to Federal securities law, with an emphasis on exempt offerings under Regulation D and Regulation CF.

A frequent lecturer and writer, Jeff has presented and written articles on a variety of business and real estate topics. He has a blog site, Jeffrey O’Brien Today, and a craft beverage law website which contains his articles, podcasts and other resources pertinent to craft beverage law.

Jeff has been listed as a Minnesota Super Lawyer eight times, including 2023. Previously he had been named a “Rising Star” by Minnesota Super Lawyers every year from 2008-12, a designation reserved for only 2.5% of all attorneys in Minnesota. He was named as one of the “40 Under Forty” in 2014 by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal and a Minnesota Monthly Top Lawyer for 2023.

Jeff regularly appears as the “Lawyer Extraordinaire” on Jon Justice in the Morning (NewsTalk 1130 AM) and The BS Show podcast with Bob Sansevere.

Brook Bristow, Bristow Beverage Law

Founder and Managing Attorney Brook Bristow has practiced law since 2007 in both transactional and litigation roles. Representing hundreds of clients from start-ups to national brands, Brook counsels members of the food and beverage industry. He regularly advises on federal and state regulatory compliance, licensing, contracts, intellectual property, and federal label and formula approvals, among other topics.

He has some street cred, having served as co-founder of Greenville Craft Beer Week, president of the Craft Beer Attorney Coalition, president of the Upstate Brewtopians homebrew club, and as the inaugural Executive Director of the South Carolina Brewers Guild. He is also Cicerone Program Certified Beer Server. Brook holds a B.A. in Advertising from the University of South Carolina, and a J.D. from Mercer University, where he served on the Mercer Law Review. He is licensed in the state of South Carolina. He enjoys Central Coast Zinfandel, Aged Rum, and can brew a passable IPA.

About StartABrewery

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Positive Fat Bass Intro Loop b...