You may say I'm a dreamer

I've been dreaming a lot recently. I'm not exactly sure why, I do know that I dream more when I'm hot, and I have a tendency to sweat a lot when I sleep, so I am hot. (You can have hallucinations when you have a fever, and dreams are pretty much hallucinations).

Recently, my dreams have been pretty much two things.

1, I can fly.

Well, it's not really flying, it's more like hovering, I just don't put my feet down. I'll be walking and then just sort of stop walking and not come down. I recently dreamed that I won a gold medal in the olympics in the long jump due to my hovering ability. Is that cheating? In my dream I pondered the ethics of my flying/hovering/floating ability and participating in an athletic endeavor like the long jump. Is hovering cheating?

2. I've opened/am opening/ am running a brewery.

This is actually something I'd love to do. (OK, I'd love to fly too) This is actually kind of possible too. OK, so I have no experience running a business; and I have no experience being a brewer for a real live actual brewery. But it's still something I want to do.

Last night, I dreamed that I opened a brewery in my home town of Chenoa, Illinois, population 1,800; 25 miles north of Bloomington on I-55, we used to have a Dairy Queen. I graduated from highschool with 35 of my closest friends (that's my spiel when people ask where I'm from).

I was in town for the birthday of Kim Spoolstra, (she's on facebook, and Kridz and I ran into her at the House of Blues for the Revolting Cocks show recently). The birthday party thing (cookout kinda) seemed to be held at the church over by the funeral home (the road that the Ciulla's and Hetman's lived on, I think). Although it might have been on the back side (toward the park) of the first baptist church; the old two story building, not the new prefab one. I was sitting there, and my old buddy Fernando Carranza comes up and sits by me. We start talking, and I look over and notice he's wearing a necklace made out of a hops bine; and it has fresh hops on it, and they are huge flowers too. I pluck one off to suck on it as there was no beer at the party. And wind up eating it. Apparently, they were growing in town, and being used at a brewery, in town. But the brewery was going under because the brewmaster left; and they needed someone to take it over.

How did I not know there was a brewery in town?

Well, the brewery was located in uptown, in the building that used to be the pizza place (when Sam Ryan worked there) currently behind the gazebo. It took up the entirety of the building. There were more windows put in, and the old cooking area was where the brewhouse was. The fermentation and bright tanks were on the second floor... kinda, they were actually positioned above the bar, but not quite on the second floor, or they were on a glass floor. There were several (a dozen maybe) positioned around the outside edge of the bar. It was a clean setup, more like Wedge Brewing Company, than any other.

So, who wants to open a brewery in Chenoa with me?

Some things about this dream...

1. Fernando's brother Javier (Harvey) (and another brother) own the Brown Jug, a bar in town.

2. The nearest brewery is 25 miles away in Bloomington.

3. Chenoa Fourth of July would make an excellent beer release day. Additionally, there are some other significant days in the town, all the street dances, as well as some other things.

4. I had also thought that the train station might make a good place for a brewery, however, it's in horrible condition (probably not even salvageable); and next to the water treatment plant, and that area stinks... real bad (it used to be on my paper route; I'd go from smelling the tar of Union Roofing to the processed water for the town; and it was a stinky morning).

5. I also thought it'd be nice to have a good restaurant behind the brewery/pub (not necessarily part of it)... if only I knew a chef in Chenoa...



Yeah, that'd be cool to fix up, but I want to start a brewery, not completely renovate the town. Also, it's not that convenient for the town to get to. Everyone is in main uptown for events, and the train station is a whole 2 block walk away. Now if a groomed walkway could be made from uptown to it, that'd be ok.

In other dream news. I recently spoke with Evan about a dream where we were going to be moving in together. We were going to be renting a farmhouse from an old lady (or something) and the place we were renting just so happened to have all the brewing equipment that we would need.

Evan called me last night to inform me that he was offered a farmhouse with a huge machine-shed barn, that he thought would be good for converting into a brewery. It's located in/near Mahomet, off a creek of the Sangamon (I believe). It would be on well water, which to me, is a great selling point. Most breweries now are in towns and use tap water. Old breweries were located at a place where they could get water; modern breweries aren't limited by that, but they have huge water bills. Reducing or even removing the cost for the water would lower the overall costs for a brewery. Granted treating the water and ensuring it's safe for consumption might be more expensive than just being connected to the towns tap. Anyway... the place is on 75 acres, and Evan said he'd open a bakery, and I'd open the brewery.

I guess I'm looking for business partners to start a brewery. If it's in Champaign/Urbana, then the demand is there. Blind Pig Brewery runs out of beer in 2 days. I'm not sure their capacity, but just on that alone, you can tell there's a demand. *ninja* (I also didn't think their first batches of beer were that great, and it still sold out). /*ninja*

I would need to research more on Illinois brewing laws, and probably need to get ahold of a business lawyer; and I should probably read Brewing up a Business by Sam. But I think this is something I want to do. Heck, I've had more dreams about opening a brewery, than pretty much any other thing in my life.

So, lets get this thing rolling.

V