Trout Design

New York based multi-disciplinary Industrial and Interaction design firm currently working on a proposal for how to utilize the old OWD Factory in Tupper Lake, NY. We want to meet the needs of the community and help to revitalize the economy. Follow founders @wyarmas, @katyjeremko, & @sabrinahardof.

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Our Growler

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Senior Reviews: Our Pin Board

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Background on the Tupper Tap Brand

Our brand is not only beautiful, it holds purpose. Our branding story is founded on the story in Tupper Lake, and what we hope to bring to the table (or bar). Read on to find out more about our strategy. 

1. Tupper Lake is known as the "Crossroads of the Adirondacks".

2. There is a juxtaposition of unique history and future potential at the Oval Wood Dish factory.

3. We are crossing ideas with the collaborative home brewer's sandbox.

4. We are creating a destination in Tupper Lake.

5. We are tapping into Tupper Lake's natural resources for our goods.

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Come down to see our design solutions from a semester's long work! 

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The mission statement of Tupper Tap Brewing Co. is to tap into the natural resources, the NY brew network, your curiosity, and your craving for adventure, through sustainable design.

Tupper Tap Brewing Co.

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We Brewed Beer!

To explore and learn more about brewing, we took matters into our own hands with a home brewer's kit, courtesy of Northern Brewer (Homebrew Supply).

In order to understand the full process of brewing, we decided that home brewing ourselves would help us understand the experience more personally. With our kit, we were given brew kit materials, brew kit hardware, and an instructional DVD. After watching the video a few times and talking it over, we started. 

The parts of the kit include : 

Malt

Hops

Sugar Cubes

Extract

What we learned from this experience is that brewing is not so much a science as it is an art. We could have added however much material we desired to the batch, going beyond the kit constraints. However, the one essential part about a good brew is sanitation. The pieces all had to be properly washed before use - this was a simple part of the process.

We used some old bottles with a bottle cap applier supplied in the brew kit. We tasted it after allowing fermentation for 2 weeks.The result : yummy American Ale beer.

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full-circle

term of the day

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Tupper Tap Logo Variations

Surprise, surprise!

For all of you who have sat on the edge of your seats in anticipation, we'd like to show you something new. We've decided on a name for our Brewery! (drum-roll-please)..

"Tupper Tap"

As designers would, we've also made a set of logos and have fine tuned our favorite. Check them out, and please provide us any feedback.

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OWD Top View Building Layout

The layout of the OWD factory pictured below is out rough outline for the specs we'll be figuring out in the next few days! Stay tuned.

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The Middle Ages Tasting Room

One of our group trips was to Middle Ages Brewing Company. We found our way to the entrance by smell which was pungent, yet whole - a sure smell of beer in the air. We opened a heavy metal door to the tasting room, which consists of a bar and merchandise running along the walls. We did not know at all what to expect upon our arrival, but the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed. We started off by tasting a few of the beers and talking to some of the regulars. Our conversations were centered around our project, but we found that they became real dialogues between people who are interested in beer-making. One of the coolest parts about the brewery is it's ability to catalyze relationships. It's an industry which precedes passion. 

We spoke with one of the bartenders, who found an appreciation for beer through working for the brewery, and since then has collected a lot of "beer knowledge".

A valuable element of the experience was finding out about how Middle Ages sources it's material. By bringing in hops from europe, the brewery is joining American and British flavors together. We discovered that while Middle Ages would love to source it's material locally, New York seems to have a tarnished hops reputation - from a hops fungus that erupted in the 70's. While this would set them back, sourcing their material from England actually encourages their brand. 

On the outside of the brewery, we found a steaming heap of spent grain sitting in the sun. Middle Ages allows local farmers to collect the spent grain freely to feed to livestock, which not only supports local agriculture, but it does something useful with the waste.

The natural materials in the beer process make it a perfect candidate for the Tupper community - we're excited to bring something that can be a tasting room, a tour, a family trip, and overall tasty experience. 

PS - Plain grains are really delicious to snack on. Thanks Middle Ages!

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Inspiration for Beer Branding

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Collaboration between Whitman & Industrial Design Students

In an effort to hash out a proper business plan, the Trout team has enlisted help outside of design. As a group of well rounded individuals, we pride ourselves on our ability to pick up a skill on a dime. Syracuse University's Whitman School of Management Capstone course specializes in building businesses for a living. We sought out Peter Scott, the professor for the course and were matched with a team. Once we actually had the opportunity to sit down and lay down definitives about our design direction, we were able to make decisions that we would have otherwise post-poned. Here are a few of the gold nuggets we picked up from our session with the Whitman students.

1. Know exactly what makes you different from your competitors - and have that written in about 1-2 sentences at the outset of your meeting.

2. Collect about as much marketing information you can about the industry of your choice, and lay it out as clearly as possible.

3. Have a front man for each aspect of the idea, but a leader that your business associates can turn to easily.

4. "BP" is short for business plan - try to jot down the jargon and use it.

5. Your confidence in the brand means your business person's confidence in the idea.

6. Send emails - check on progress regularly.

From meeting with this group, we're now speaking to another source who is going to walk us through writing our own plan. Design is not only beauty, it's function. To have something that can translate to the Tupper community is our goal - and we're sticking to it.

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Brownlie Design Mentoring

To consult about our design direction, we decided to get help from industrial design firm Brownlie Design located in Skaneateles, NY. Brownlie's been following the class project per our Professor, Don Carr. The designers that we had the pleasure to sit down with provided us a unique perspective. Most of them have visited Tupper Lake, so they have some context to our project. We laid out our concept in a few words: "Brewery with a hands-on experience, an immersive tour, and a incubator to draw in creative brewers from anywhere". They loved the fact that it would be a place to learn and become a proficient brewer without emptying personal pockets for equipment. While the designers at Brownie thought that this idea was unique, special, and smart - the designers also pressed us to find a story in Tupper Lake to design from. With a great story, our beer and philosophy are described.

All of the designers from Brownlie had different talents and attributes that helped us to focus and narrow down our direction. They also really loved beer, which was a huge bonus.

Thank You Brownlie Firm for your time and help.

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Visiting Saranac's Matt Brewing Co.

One of our big inspirations is Matt Brewing Co. We recently had the chance to visit their amazing factory and take a tour of their brewing process. Matt Brewing Co. is the second oldest family operated brewing company in the United States, next to Yuengling. The brewery was started by F.X. Matt and is currently run by Nick Matt. Their most prominent beer is named Saranac, an Iriquois name for a cluster of stars. Their brewery is conveniently located in Utica, NY, 45 minutes from our university, with tours twice a day. For five dollars, a tour guide takes you through their massive factory, and explains everything from what type of grain is uses to how the beer is bottled, as well as highlights of the company's history. It survived the prohibition era (1920-1933) not only by making soft drinks but also by running a speakeasy in their factory. 

Matt Brewing started out as a commercial brewing company just like Anheuser-Busch, but during the 80s, saw their stocks falling and profits declining.  They made a huge gamble to switch over from a commercial brewery to a craft brewery.

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Being a craft brewery meant that they had to invest more money in their products, but they would brew higher quality beer that had more value. The gambled paid off very well for them, and they are now one of the top ten craft breweries in America.

They also do a lot of contract brewing, which means that smaller breweries contract with Matt Brewing Co. to produce their beer - usually because their plants are inadequate due to size.  Contract brewing contributes thirty percent of company's profit.

Most of the interior of the brewing company is in a beautiful Victorian building, and is separate from the current factory. The tours started off with the rooms that were previously speakeasies and showed off the history of the company. Rooms were full of raw ingredients - different types of grains and hops - that filled air with rich natural aromas; we were able to touch and smell the raw materials. Then we walked over to the current factory where the rooms are filled with large machines that mash the grain into wort and push it to copper kettles for brewing. The brewing process with fermentation and aging, first in tanks and then bottled. Matt Brewing calls their aging process Krausening and their extended aging process RUH storage. 25 different kinds of grain are used, and hops are sourced from all over the world.

Matt Brewing is trying to be as green a facility as possible, reducing, reusing and  recycling wherever they can. Two examples were pointed out: Matt Brewing uses the carbonation from fermenting beer to carbonate their soft drinks. Every piece of brewery equipment needs to be cleaned after every use because one of the most important part of brewing is sanitation. Matt Brewing's anaerobic digester converts 150,000 lbs of waste water to methane gas, which powers 40% of the factory. 

We had a great time, and at the end of the tour, there was a tasting room with a bar and we got to try pretty much all of their beers. The tour really helped us experience beer as more than just a drink. We want to create an experience that brings back value to the Oval Wood Dish Factory, through a unique tour experience and personal brewing experience.