Clay Robinson loves craft beer so much he was willing to drink Miller High Life for a month in order to stay on budget while writing the business plan for Sun King Brewing Co.

When Robinson cashed in his 401(k) and left his job as a brewer at The Ram’s downtown location in July of 2008, he said, “I had enough money to make it to the end of the year.” He spent October holed up in his house drafting the plan and trolling Probrewer.com’s classifieds for a particular used brewing system. Lining up investors wasn’t hard; Robinson raised half a million dollars from a consortium of “guys I know through drinking beer at the Ram.”

On Oct. 26, Robinson traveled to California to look for equipment, stopping over in Tucson on the way home to help pack his parents’ house for their move back to Indianapolis. His father, Omar, was the owner and President of Royal Food Producers in Indianapolis from 1969 to 1982 and served as president for two more years after selling the company. The elder Robinson then started two laser robotics machining companies before retiring. Sort of. “I sell guacamole,” Omar Robinson said. He represents food manufacturer’s lines at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations but opportunity to start a business with his son “was just too good to pass up.”

A month before his money ran out, Clay’s plans began to coalesce. Robinson found what he was looking for on Probrewer.com, a second-hand 15-barrel JV Northwest Brewing system, and after some initial hiccups, he scheduled a next-day flight to Portland, Maine where the Stone Coast Brewing Company had recently ceased operations. Robinson took three hours to “climb all over the equipment,” he said, and returned to his hotel room to call his investors. He finalized the purchase the day after Christmas.

New brewing systems cost several hundred thousand dollars but are built to specification, shipped, and assembled on site. Robinson purchased Stone Coast’s system for half what its new equivalent would cost but he said, “I’m now in charge of the logistics of dismantling” three trucks worth of equipment and “shipping it half way across the country.”

Robinson leaves for Maine on Feb. 16 and will be returning almost two weeks later with his new toy in tow. I will be at the future home of Sun King Brewing Co. when he returns and I will follow the brewery’s birth every step of the way until Robinson opens the doors in summer of 2009.

Robinson and his investors are convinced that Indianapolis can and will support another local craft brewery. What do you think?