The Soulmate Brewing Story 🍻

We want to bring something new to our home town of Morrisville, Vermont by showcasing the untapped potential of local brew-artists looking to express their creativity and passion for beer. With your help, we will make this community continue to thrive in a way that honors our country and veterans, while also looking forward to encouraging innovative growth in the craft beer industry.

Craft breweries are getting more popular.

While U.S. beer volume sales were down 1% in 2018, craft brewer sales continued to grow at a rate of 4% by volume, reaching 13.2% of the U.S. beer market by volume. Craft production grew the most for microbreweries.

Use of Funds

As for the use of funds, $240K will go towards brewing equipment. The balance is for operating capital, including brewing ingredients, utilities, insurance fees, advertising, staff and a cushion for any unknown expenses that could happen. For example, we may need an additional piece of equipment over time if we find that we achieve our goals ahead of schedule and have to contract brew for distribution. Since we already have over $500k of our own funds into this, our capital needs are quite low to open our doors.

The biggest predicted overhead for us will be water and fuel. Once we are in production and can open to the public, it will increase. That said, with an increased water bill, it also means an increase in demand for our product, so we will gladly take this as a sign of success. Our plan is to set aside all funds that aren’t initially going back into the operating system, and put them into the future operating account, so we are well-positioned to grow when the time is right. By considering how the brewery will conserve cash flow ahead of time, we will be able to enhance shareholder value. We are debt-free right now and do not pay retail rent, so we should be able to build up significant savings for expansion and remain a company that is debt-free.

Competitive Advantage

Because the founder already owns the building, there’s an average savings of $72,000 per year in rental fees. The seating capacity wastewater permit for the location is 91, which is a savings of $60,000 in permit fees. The overall cost to open is 75% below other brewing businesses as we have completed most of what we need to open the business.

Proud to Serve

Not only do we want to offer a place for brewers to experiment, but we also want to give back to those who sacrificed their lives. For our active, retired, honorably discharged and disabled veterans we offer a 10% discount on beverages and 15% on merchandise.

We will also open our tasting room to our community veteran groups who can host spaghetti dinners. We will donate a portion of the proceeds from beer sales during their dinner to support the services they offer for Veterans and their families.

In addition, the founder of the brewing company, Jonathan Mogor, also plans on supporting Veterans, families of fallen or injured military members, as well as Police and Fire Fighters who also suffered the same life-changing experience in the line of duty. More details will be revealed once we open, however, we can say that the program we are building will be supported from the beer sold in the name of Jonathan’s best friend, Scott McHugh, who was killed in Iraq. We will have an appreciation Irish Stout made in his honor and for all those who serve and served where we can support survivors of those who made the ultimate sacrifice or who have returned

home and need support.

Our building

We have a seating capacity for the building of 91 seats. The main tasting room can seat around 55 people and we have an overflow area we can accommodate more. Outside we also have enough seats for 40 people during the Spring, Summer and Fall before we have to close the outside due to winter. The building has street parking in front and a town parking lot on the opposite side of the building. There’s other overflow areas available in the evening and weekends when offices are vacant during those times.

A well-preserved 2-story clapboard commercial block with rectangular false front and Italianate style bracketed cornice, built c.1875 “to house the store of Heman H. Elmore, a dealer in “groceries, provisions, and flour.” Facade detail includes large and small cornice brackets, matchstick frieze, decorative eaves covers, four evenly-spaced two-over-two sash over the main southerly storefront, and paired two-over-two sash over a narrow secondary storefront to the north. Storefronts retain original form and bracketed cornice, but have otherwise been altered over the years. In the rear is a short wing, south ell, and triangular shed with sliding freight door set inside the ell. The building is one of the oldest and best-preserved of Portland Street’s commercial blocks, and its rectangular false front is one of six which gives the street its most distinctive architectural forms.

Causes

Veterans

Soulmates don’t just have to be husband and wife, husband and husband or wife and wife. My best friend Scott R McHugh was my male soulmate. We met in High School when I moved from NJ to FL. There was only one open seat in the class when I arrived and it was next to Scott. As the teacher wrote my information down Scott introduced himself to me welcoming me to Florida. It felt as if we were twins born from the same mother. We both served in the US Navy after graduation at different duty stations and Scott stayed in the reserves after active duty. His reserve unit was sent to Iraq and ten days later we were notified he was killed along with other members in his unit. It was the largest casualty the US navy had since Vietnam. His unit was NMCB 14. Scott was a paramedic who loved his family, friends, animals and went into a career to help people.

Another gentle soul was Jeff Thorson who served in the US navy with me in Sardinia Italy. Jeff was a journalist on our ship who found himself years later with full army gear in action on patrols. Jeff, like Scott, stayed on in the reserves and was called to Afghanistan. Physically Jeff could handle the task but it took a toll on him emotionally. Ours was a friendship that lasted until Jeff had an allergic reaction between PTSD medication and an over the counter cold medicine.

My tribute to my brothers who are gone but never forgotten is to help Veterans who are injured, families who lost a service member in action or to PTSD, Police officers and firefighters who were injured or the families of these brave men and women who didn’t come home at the end of a shift. We have proceeds from our patriot tribute line of drinks and clothing going to support these wonderful people and their loved ones.

Animals

We mentioned pets. In addition to our love for each other we absolutely love animals, rescue animals and the people who rescue, foster, and adopt rescue animals. Soulmate brewing supports animal rescues. Proceeds from our pet-themed beer line help with the costs associated with rescuing animals from kill shelters. This includes medication, vet bills, food, and transportation.

Join us!