EVANS MILLS — Paul Kilgore started home brewing beer in 1994. More than 20 years later, he’s working to open his own brewery. Kilgore is the owner and head brewer of WAORGANY Brewing, LLC, (pronounced WAR-guh-nee). He plans to start operations in Evans Mills (northeast of Watertown) later this year. “It’s quite a long process,” […]
EVANS MILLS — Paul Kilgore started home brewing beer in 1994. More than 20 years later, he’s working to open his own brewery.
Kilgore is the owner and head brewer of WAORGANY Brewing, LLC, (pronounced WAR-guh-nee). He plans to start operations in Evans Mills (northeast of Watertown) later this year.
“It’s quite a long process,” says Kilgore, who spoke with CNYBJ on Feb. 25.
WAORGANY Brewing, LLC is a farm brewery, according to its website. The name WAORGANY includes the abbreviations for Washington, Oregon, Georgia, and New York, places where Kilgore has either lived or served in the military.
Kilgore, a veteran of the U.S. Army, cannot conduct commercial brewing activities until the federal TTB and New York grant him a license. TTB is the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, which is part of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. He’ll need to secure the TTB brewer’s permit before he can apply for the New York farm brewery license.
Kilgore is taking the steps necessary to secure the TTB license, he says. That process includes securing a location with all the proper equipment.
“Once you have all your equipment in place, then you can apply for your license to brew,” he says.
The application process takes between three and six months to get approval, he adds.
His most immediate objective is finding a location.
“I’m in the process of looking at a few properties right now,” says Kilgore.
He plans to buy an existing structure and modify it to meet the needs of a brewery.
“We’ll probably be doing most of the work that we can ourselves,” he says, noting he’s aware of a contractor he’ll work with once he determines what work needs to be done.
Future operations
WAORGANY Brewing will begin as a manufacturing operation, producing all its beers and ales “in-house.”
“We’re going to be licensed as a New York State farm brewery, so we’ll be able to actually serve our beers directly from a tap room at our facility,” says Kilgore.
With a New York State farm brewery license, he will eventually think about self-distributing the products, he notes.
WAORGANY will be what Kilgore refers to as a nano brewery, meaning it will produce its beer and ales using a three-barrel brew system.
“All the other breweries are five-barrel breweries or bigger,” says Kilgore, referring to all other breweries in Jefferson County.
Project financing
Financing the project is his “biggest” concern as the project moves forward, he notes.
Kilgore estimates it will cost between $300,000 and $500,000 to launch WAORGANY Brewing.
He’ll use some of his own cash. A “long- time friend” might partner with Kilgore. “We’re still trying to work out the details on that,” he says.
Figuring he’ll still need more money, Kilgore plans to seek an angel investor or another partner or pursue additional financing through the U.S. Small Business Administration.
Kilgore figures he’s accumulated about 20 percent of the financing he needs for the project as of late February.
His business plan for the company was among the top finishers in a recent competition for veterans.
The Jefferson County veteran won $20,000 as the 2nd place finisher in the 2016 D’Aniello Family Foundation Business Plan Competition in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Kilgore’s plan for WAORGANY Brewing was part of the competition that Syracuse University’s Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) organized.
The prize money will be “big help,” Kilgore says, noting he will probably use it to get a new computer and software for the brewery.
“The rest of the money will be used for working capital and whatever kind of equipment we need to get,” says Kilgore.
EBV program
Kilgore served in the U.S. Army for 21 years, including two stints at Fort Drum and a deployment for service in Iraq during 2005 and 2006. He retired from service in 2007.
Kilgore got involved with the IVMF’s entrepreneurship bootcamp for veterans with disabilities (EBV) through Cornell University in late 2014 because “it was still taking applications.”
The instruction included online work and an on-campus residency that lasted nine days, he says.
Kilgore compares it taking a two-year MBA degree program and “cramming it into a little over six weeks.”
“It was pretty extensive,” he says.