GRAAAIIIIINNNNSSSSSS!

Yes, the pallet of grains came in today.  It's pretty damn awesome.  Also- Hops.  And... other stuff.

You know what that means- Beer is Imminent!

Thank you to my good friends Christian Chandler and Jeremy Jones for helping out at the brewery today.

There really isn't much more for "handy" people to do now- electrical and a tiny bit of plumbing is all that remains!  Then it's Brew time!

My birthday is Sunday.  Is it possible?  Will I make it?  Only fate and the Health Department knows...

The Lesson of Proper Planning

Today, dear people, we are going to learn about planning.

Planning a restaurant/brewery takes a coordinated effort of many people working together and creating a realistic vision of the eventual product.

It takes a long-term vision to succeed.

The original plan for this location was to have 30 tapped kegs and all the food for a 300 seat restaurant in a single, 8x11 walk-in cooler.  Now, some of you might do MATH and say... golly!  In order to do that, you would... well... probably expect a complete and utter disaster!

Those people would be correct.

So we are now erecting an additional walk-in cooler, 3 months after we opened.  We had some equipment which wasn't working (yes, 3 months after we opened.  Actually, a month after we opened.  Sometimes buying used JUST doesn't pay...) and traded it for a walk-in cooler box and compressor.

In order to install the walk-in, it must be on a concrete "curb" or pad.  This means making a form, getting the concrete, finishing the concrete, and then allowing it to cure.  Generally this is a 3 day process.

Pouring the pad was done on Thursday, and here we are on Sunday.  The guys arrive at 7 AM to erect the walk-in box, and low and behold- the walk in is not 10x12 as the pad is poured to accommodate, rather it is 12x15 !

This means that we have to expand the pad.  So- go through the 3 day process again.  ON THE OTHER HAND, it is 50% larger than we had originally projected, so it will make life a WHOLE lot easier.

A little short term pain in delay, for a LOT of gain with the additional space.

Such is the continual and ongoing adventure of opening the brewery.  "ALMOST there!!!!..." If you are thinking about opening a brewery / restaurant combo, I would suggest that you would possibly work with a Project Manager.  Yes, that's an actual job title and some might even work for trade in kegs.

Getting Things Done

I have been pretty much the only person building the brewery up to this point.  When I call my electrician, he comes in and does his thing so that is nice.  When I call the plumber, he typically shows up 2 days later and does his thing.  Which is annoying.  When I call the GC for the restaurant project overall, he might show up a week later so if I want something done, I better do it myself.

This week my very good friend Jeremy has come in to help me.  The great thing about Jeremy is not only does he understand the brewing process, he had been in construction trade years ago and has skills and knowledge I do not.  I can give Jeremy a task, and I know it's going to get done right, without me having to answer 50 questions, disrupting what I'm working on.

Since we are only waiting for the Health Department approval now, I am messing with the brew system.  You know- heating water, pumping things here and there, timing heat cycles and chill cycles, things like that.

So what do I have to do for the health department?

One thing is that the hot water heater is undersized.  This is to serve the employee restroom, the hand sink in the brewhouse, and the triple sink in the brew house.  The water heater is 20 gallons.  To fill all 3 of the triple sinks, is 20 gallons.  However, each hand sink requires 5 gallons of capacity.  Which means we need a 30 gallon water heater.

We have to build a walk- in cooler for clean and full keg storage. I don't have a room for clean empty kegs as required by AZ law, so the plan is to store them in the cooler.  It's inefficient, but... oh well.  This cooler has to be built.  The contractor says he can't do it till Thursday.  The walk-in box guy is scheduled for the following Monday.  THEN we have to build a roof over it.  THEN we have to place the compressor on the roof. THEN we have to have the electrician wire the compressor.  THEN the refrigeration guy has to hook it all up.

Nothing moves fast.

Fly fans are mounted

The three compartment sink is in place but needs to be hooked up to water and the drain pipe (running across the floor) needs to be secured

I have to caulk all the seams in the FRP

The second sliding door is bolted shut

Soap and Towels and SELF CLOSING trashcans are in place at hand sinks.  SELF CLOSING.  It's a big deal, apparently.

Mini hot water heater in place at fermentation hand sink

All wood in the grain storage room is sealed

Cove base installed in grain storage

Insulation on transfer and glycol lines need to be wrapped in Gorilla tape and labeled

Window A/C's are installed

Ingredients arrive Tues or Wed.

"HOT" signs are ordered.  Everyone walks in to the brewery and instantly leans against the boil kettle to peer over and see what's in there.  HOT signs.  On the back, "DUMBASS" signs

Still need to repaint all 80 kegs and get them washed at San Tan

Mom is making curtains for the windows- afternoon sun in the grain room and fermentation would have been REALLY rough otherwise.

Here is a link to the Big List of Stuff to Do!

It's certainly not complete.  I deleted all the C of O stuff when we passed inspection.  In retrospect, should have kept it.

Putting lists in plain view, keeps people on task!

Hoses and the Magic Question

Hoses are essential for the brewing process.  They make it much easier for moving liquid, than it would be by using a pitcher, or, say, a cup :)

You would think that Phoenix, being the 6th  (or 5th) largest city in the Country, we could get pretty much anything.  Apparently food grade hoses are the exception to this.  Actually, there is ONE place in town (Hose Power on 29th Ave) which carries in-stock beverage/vintners hose.

Lessons to learn:
1) order enough hose so you don't have to do any panic buying.
2) have the hoses BANDED, do not use worm-drive hose clamps.  I'm not sure why, but every brewer I see says it.
3) GET A PRICE UP FRONT.  Hose is expensive.  $15 a foot for Goodyear Vintner.  I got a knock-off at $11.46 a foot.

I also wasted 2 hours at the hose store, plus an additional hour of drive time.

One of the counter guys said "Wow man, you've been here a long time.  I even went to lunch and came BACK!"

The problem is, I brought in a hose with simple, $12 barbed fittings.  The guy at the counter said "Do you want me to put the fittings on them for you?" I said "Wow, you have those in stock?  Cool, sure!"

Here is what WASN'T said: "We are going to custom fabricate pressure fit stainless steel hose fittings for you which cost $180 each"

After waiting 2 hours, he says to me "That will be $1028.79"

I LITERALLY laughed out loud thinking he was making a joke.  No, no he wasn't.

It was quite a scene at the counter when I had 4 guys working on how to reduce the price- which they really did try to do.  The sad part is, it wasted their time, it wasted my time, and now they have 2, 10' brewery hoses sitting on the shelf which will most likely never sell.  You see, the fittings are GLUED in place and are not able to be removed and re-used.  And they are $500, 10 foot hoses.  I am the only brewery in town who uses hoses that size.

I went in expecting to pay $500 for 2, 10' hoses with fittings and 1 additional piece to cut up back at the brewery.  There was no WAY I could float even one dollar over that number.  I mean come on.  That was crazy.

SO- as with everything- ASK the price first, kids.  Number one question- "How much does it cost?"

Plumbing Inspection

Our final inspection for our Certificate of Occupancy, which allows people other than construction crew to be IN the brewery area (also allowing ingredient storage), was yesterday.  It went well, only one thing to do.

The other day I woke up in a bit of a panic, thinking "We need an air gap for the water connection to the HLT!"

Seriously, these are the things that come to your head when waking up.

I relaxed, thinking to myself- "Oh, ppfew!  It's connected to the filters so there MUST be a backflow preventer before the filters."

Now, I am not sure if you subscribe to the though "Never Assume"...

So the plumber is installing the backflow preventer today.

My good buddies at Arizona Wilderness, just down the street, told me they had a similar experience, and that there also has to be a drain cup below the backflow preventer to catch any drips or, ahem, backflow!

Check them out- they are pretty bad ass.

http://www.azwbeer.com

And a recent article about them: Esquire Magazine

After C of O is acquired on Wednesday, I have a meeting (courtesy walk-through) with the Health Department, on Thursday.

Taxes

I took a couple of hours to navigate the paperwork jungle of brewing.

Essentially, "he with the most paperwork, wins"

Daily logs of brewing operations- ingredients received, brewing, moving from one tank to another, packaging, returns of beer, losses of beer, sale of beer, etc.

Monthly inventories

Bi-weekly tax filings

State tax filings

City tax filings

Don't forget any of them, or you'll be an unhappy brewer!

YESSSSS!

On April 11th, 2014 our application was ACCEPTED by the TTB.

That means we're IN!

For those of you keeping track, it was:
140 days from initial application, November 22nd
115 days since application was accepted as complete on December 17th
88 days since application was marked as complete by Triage on January 13th

So- where do we go from here?  Well, now I have a few construction things to take care of.  City Certificate of Occupancy and Health Department approval are the final two regulatory items to pass.  Since our local Health Authority is considered to be "very stringent" in their review of breweries, this is the next big hurdle.

The Director of the Department does all Brewery inspections.  His last name is Brewer.  He is also a member of a religion which stringently enforces a "No alcohol" policy among its members.  You know, the one based in Salt Lake.  That one. Is this really relevant, or am I being a religious bigot?  Well, I suppose that is up to individual consideration. Personally, I think it is relevant and is somewhat of a conflict of interest, but... clearly that's not up to me to decide.  It's up to me to get my brewery together and dialed in so he really has nothing to complain about.

Stainless transfer lines are installed.  EXPENSIVE ones.  80 feet total, and $6000 They are beautiful, to be sure!

Wood and concrete in the storage room are sealed. Shelves are assembled.

I have to connect the final hoses to the fermenters from the glycol system.

There is currently water in the HLT for leak detection- None detected! :)

This week we will go for the C of O Inspection and MAYBE if everything goes perfect, go for Health Department.  I also have to get grains! and Hops!  and Yeast!  And and and and