Lee Chase

Had a great lunch meeting with Lee Chase today. What a wealth of knowledge this guy has. He gave us input, among other things, regarding our tasting area and cold storage. It makes sense for what he proposed of our operation. We are looking forward to his visit to our brewery and to give us further insight and direction.

Conditional Use Permit

WOO HOO!!!! We received approval for our conditional use permit from the Anaheim Planning Commission. Our tasting room, homebrew supply shop and special events are all a go! As nerve racking that processes like this could be, the city made it quite pleasant. Of course the outcome of the CUP is great.

After the hearing we had a great talk with Commissioner Todd Ament and immediately felt the welcome that we had hoped we would with the city.

Pre installed layout

We spent some time arranging, and then re-arranging our system layout. Tracy, our brewer, had great input to determine how and where to set it. We decided that our fermenters would be best served closest to our tasting area. This would allow any hot piping from the Mash and Kettle to be located on the opposite side of any public foot traffic. After arranging it this way, we realized that our glycol lines, boiler lines, and auger line would have a much shorter run, saving us some time and money. Our walk-in cooler will have the condenser located and supported directly above the cooler. Our high ceiling will allow for this to happen. This will also save us some time and money. Of course this is far from what our floor will look like after construction. We will follow a similar path in what The Bruery constructed, and put a curbed, urethane sealed floor for the brewing area.

We stopped by The Bruery on Tuesday and were amazed on their rapid growth. Congratulations to Patrick and the crew on their continued success.

ABC Posting

Our ABC Posting went up on Monday. We need to have this notice posted for 31 days. Our CUP hearing is this coming Monday and from what we hear, there has been no opposition to our proposed use which is supposed to be a good thing.

Plans

Working in plans for build-outs, should have a finalized set ready by early next week so we can submit to the City and Health Department.

Let's go Angels

Oktoberfest Ladera Ranch

Tasted a couple of future accounts with our Alpha Red...great reception for the beer. Heading out to set up a booth at the Ladera Ranch Oktoberfest today. The event had around 3,500 ppl there last year so, so exposure should be great!

Notarize

Well, thats a word that was needed today. Went to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and didn't have enough documents notarized. At least the girl that helped was extremely nice. Our next appointment is on the 19th. We will for sure have ALL paperwork in order to begin our application for our Type 23 license. We will also be acquiring a Type 17 license (Beer and Wine Wholesaler).

Submitting plans to the City of Anaheim tomorrow for the build-out of our curbing and drainage for our brewhouse/fermenter area.

Fermenters Arrived!!!

Our fermenters arrived this past Tuesday. We got 3-15bbl and 2-30bbl Liquid Assets Fermenters delivered after our trip back from the GABF. We also got our boiler, forklift and some more miscellaneous parts that we hadn't received yet. NOW it is time to get this place built out and ready for brewing. Can't wait to get this place up and running. We have our meeting with the ABC this Tuesday and am waiting for the initial contact call from the TTB (should be this week). Early January 2010 is our opening goal. Still lots of work ahead of us.
Karlfest was this Saturday, set up for Tustin Brewing Company and helped the great guys from TBC represent at the event. Poured their Gold Medal Winning Golden Spike Light Ale and Red Hill Red. Great event...the Double Barrel IPA from KS was great and one that we drank lots of. We truly believe that Orange County is ready to blow up in the Microbrew scene, so many talented brewers/brewpubs and breweries in our not-so-known beer county.