We've Been Busy...

Sorry we haven't updated anything in a while. Between the new job and the brewery I've been awfully busy. We have been doing a great many things, including working on our draft system and a number of test batches, we just didn't have much to post about. Should have some more updates within a short while.

In the meantime have a Happy Halloween and be safe out there.

Here is a little project Jacqui made for us.

Cold Room Is Up

After waiting for the heat to die down a bit, we finally got the cold room together.

 

Since it was used, it had developed quite a bit of rust on the outside of the floor panels. We used a rust converting primer and painted it black on the bottom.

 Here it is with the "office" in place.

We still have to get the electrical and cooling for the cold room and fermenting room together but we should have plenty of room for beer soon.

We Received Some Great News!

On my way out to meeting up with Eric to go to the OC Brew Ha Ha this past weekend I stopped by the brewery for a few minutes to take care of some things. When I checked the mail I came across a white envelope from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.


We have ABC approval!!!


Now we just have to work out some stuff with the California State Board of Equalization and  wait for the federal government TTB approval while we add a bit more stuff to the brewery.


Hooray!!! 


*Note: the OC Brew Ha Ha was a fantastic event. For those of you from Southern California, it took place at Hidden Valley park which is part of the old Lion Country Safari grounds - a very nice venue with lots of shade trees. Also, one of my very favorite bands, Seedless played at the event so all the better. Thanks go out to the event organizers and to the OC Firefighters' volunteers. 

TTB Interview

So we had our TTB phone interview this morning. A few minor corrections but nothing significant. The usual questions of course:


New brewery or existing;   business experience;   building construction and security;   building owner and local governments aware;   excise taxes;   etc....


The only other thing pending is ABC and TTB approval.




On another note, yesterday we purchased our walk-in cooler: We will pick it up and install it next Monday. Here are the pics of it (not our site).

It is a small cooler, only 10' x 6'. A perfect size for us and will allow for ~9' of taps behind the bar.

Baby Dolls

So we received our ladies' T's (or baby dolls as most refer to them). We went ahead and brought in some color to our monochrome world and got pink, aqua, red, and blue in addition to black and grey. We currently have small, medium and large. All have light grey artwork.

In contrast with the men's T's, it was unanimously suggested that they not get a left chest and rear artwork but instead get a centered chest artwork.

Pint Glasses

Our pint glasses got delivered today. For those purists out there, we are aware that it is not a true pint and is technically called a "mixing glass" but it is the glass we like.

We couldn't decide on whether to do the artwork in black or white so we went ahead and got glasses with each.

As you can see the front is our logo and the back is phrasing and location.

Disclaimer: no beer was wasted for the purpose of this photography. I have a hard time dumping good (any) beer so I had to drink the pale ale and black ipa (twice) after shooting the pics.

The sacrifices we make... 

Fermenting Chamber

Since we are brewing small batches, we have decided to use food grade plastic conical fermenters. Instead of controlling the temperature of each individually, we will be placing them in a climate controlled room for fermenting. This will room will be for primary and secondary fermentation as well as naturally conditioning and carbonating beer. Its previous life was spent as a floral cooler. FYI it is approximately 14'L x 5'D x 8'H. The HVAC is not installed and the doors are not on yet but here ya go.

Before the header and ceiling panels:

Note my "office" to the right:

After all the panels, but still no doors:

We will be blacking out the glass to prevent light through since the plastic conicals are translucent.

I almost neglected to mention: Eric and John and I went down to Murrietta on July 21 to pick this up - what a nightmare. We were told to bring a 4' x 8' trailer which it did not fit on so we had all these panels and the cooler hanging off and strapped to a little trailer towed behind a Honda Pilot with the large glass doors and the compressor crammed in the back with John while Eric was driving 55 in the slow lane of the 15 fwy... 

It was all rather scary-funny if you know what I mean.