Change of Plans

Ok, so there's a slight change in plans with the Brewery.  The holidays have been madness and my work in the Brewery has come to a screeching halt.  After last weekend's party, however, I've found time for a resurgence in work.  And I've changed location slightly.  The Brewery was originally supposed to be in the basement of the building, but now it's in a back room.  I'll have slightly less space, but it'll be on the ground floor and I won't have to deal with as many building regulation issues.  Meaning, mainly, that I won't have to somehow get kegs up one floor.

I'll post pics of the new space.  I have to repaint, but I'll suffer.  It'll be better in the end.

Faucets!

Got two of my faucets installed.  Also finished painting this week (pictures to follow).  Now I just gotta deal with the floors before I start in on the bar.

Layout

It has occurred to me that I have not posted anything as to the layout of the rooms I will start the brewery.  I have plenty of basement space to expand as needed, but I want to keep it small until I build up a strong customer base.

The layout:

This is not to scale

Painting Begins

Whew.  It's been a long couple of weeks.  Despite a long vacation with the family, I have made serious progress on the brewery.  Cleaning the floors, and getting them ready for new paint, has taken a lot longer than I anticipated, but it's nearing completion.  Despite not having completed the floor, I decided that the maroon walls might drive me to madness before I finished the floors.  Needless to say, I started painting tonight and finished the first step tonight (painted three walls, sans trim):

Entrance to the main room, stairwell to the left

In other news, I've ordered the kegging equipment this week and will be getting my first brews in kegs first of next week.  I'm converting my new chest freezer to a temporary kegerator and will post pictures of that process soon.

History & A Fun Find

As you may or may not know, the brewery will be in the basement of my parent's building.  I'll eventually post pictures of the entire building, but here is what you know need to know.  The building has contained numerous businesses over the years.  It was built in the 1930s as a United States Post Office.  During the late 1970s, the building was "decommissioned"as a post office and sold to a private individual.  Over the next ten years, the building was a campaign office for a local election, then became a dance studio.  Finally, in the 1980s the building came into my family.  My parents used it as a restaurant and a weekend teen club for a number of years.  Eventually, the restaurant and teen club were closed and the building was partially converted to my father's office, while reverting briefly into a teen club again for a couple years.  The building now houses my father's office on half of the main floor, and two offices on the upper floor.  The back half of the building and the entire basement was purely storage until recent months, when I started the cleaning out and deconstruction.

I was tearing down one of the walls during the deconstruction and I ran across an artifact from the teen club days:

The sign says at the bottom that smoking is only allowed in designated places.

The teen club was for high schoolers on Friday nights and middle schoolers on Saturday nights.

Labels

"Designed" the labels for my Amber Ale and my Summer Ale.  They'll of course need revising, but they help me keep track of the beer right now.

Amber Ale

Summer Ale

Needless to say, the names are still up in the air, and I certainly welcome suggestions, but they will also likely be changed before finalizing everything.

More Legal Paperwork & Lagers

Technically, I'm not registered yet.  There was an issue with the Secretary of State with my Articles of Organization - I forgot to include the check (D'oh!).  However, I did apply for and receive my EIN (Employer Identification Number) today, which will be used for tax purposes and will assist me in opening my bank account.  So far the small payments here and there for supplies haven't been bad, but I'm growing weary of having to keep track of them and to keep them separate from my personal expenses.  Having a separate bank account, however, will make that much easier.  That's my next step - an ATM card and a checkbook.

In non-related news, I purchased a used chest freezer today, which will assist me in making lagers.  Lagers require much lower fermentation and aging temperatures than ales, so "room temperature" doesn't work for those.  I'll modify the chest freezer for my lagers with a replacement thermostat to reach optimal temperature (around 50 degrees).  The chest freezer will tide me over until I get my refrigerated fermentation tanks.  Mmmm... lagers...

Last night was a grueling beer evening (work, not drunkenness): 1) I made a wheat beer, 2) I bottled my summer ale, and 3) I transfered the pale ale from primary fermentation to secondary fermentation (with the help of my able quasi-voluntary assistants).  All in all, it was exhausting, but fun.