Noble Ale Works

Getting close

2010-10-19T11:04:00.001-07:00

We have been quite busy with our buildout. Our underground plumbing was a very tough hurdle for us to conquer. The existing plumbing in the building was not up to current California Building Code. The main sewer line that runs underground is a 3" pipe and it has a fall (slope) of 1/8" per foot. Current code requires any 3" pipe to fall 1/4" per foot and any 4" pipe could fall at 1/8" per foot.

Our inspector had asked us to follow the existing 3" pipe to the furthest point to where we would tie into it. There was a 4" pipe coming off the bathrooms that appeared to connect with the 3" pipe that we were following. We dug up a portion of the parking lot to where we believed the pipe connection would take place, but found that both the 4" and 3" pipes ran parallel further down the parking lot. We had told the inspector that we were not about to chase the 3" line further beyond where we needed to dig. He agreed to "grandfather" the existing 3" pipe (with the 1/8" per foot fall), but required us to install any connecting plumbing to current code. This made things difficult because the existing pluming line was not as deep underground as we needed to conform to our approved plans. We had to make a few adjustments that took more time and money than we first had planned. After over a week of some more floor demo, dirt moving and additional plumbing supply purchases we finally passed our inspection to allow us to pour concrete. This past Saturday we had a morning schedule of 2 concrete trucks carrying a total of 15 yards of concrete and 2 concrete finishers to get the brewery solid again (at least with regard to the floor). A 12" reinforced slab was poured just outside of our building. This slab will support our grain silo, boiler and glycol chiller. The concrete that was poured inside was to set our plumbing of 3 separate trench drain assemblies, 2 floor sinks, 1 mop sink and the venting that is required to all drains. We finally were able to take a day off (the first since returning from GABF) on Sunday, except for getting materials purchased and ready for a Monday crew of drywall tapers.

Let the work commence

2010-09-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

So we had to pick the hottest week of the year to begin/continue our buildout. This week we are concentrating on making our tasting room a rated room. Basically, since our tasting room is a separate room from our brewery, the room needs to have a one hour fire rating from any production area (brewery). One of the items that needs to happen to achieve this rating is that we need to install 5/8" drywall 4 feet away from the room on the ceiling as seen in the picture.

Our plumbing needs is the first priority for our buildout because the entire brewery is cut up and waiting for concrete to be poured so we can be mobile again in the building. The biggest obstacle that we are encountering is that of our plumbing/waste line. The existing cast iron drain line is 3" with a 1/8" per foot fall (slope). A 4" drain pipe can fall at 1/8" per foot. We have been instructed that any new plumbing installed will have to meet code which would mean that if we are to install 3" pipe, we would have to have a fall of 1/4" per foot. This is virtually impossible to achieve unless we were cut up the entire parking lot and follow the 3" pipe until it connect to a 4" pipe. We have a meeting with inspectors in the morning to see if there is some feasible solution to this.

We are still on track to have our tasting room open by the end of October. Our plans are to get the tasting room open, continue to contract brew our beers at Dale Bros Brewery in Upland while we work on getting our production brewery in operation, which we hope will be by the end of this year.

We keep our fingers crossed that there will not be too many obstacles along the way.

Health Department

2010-09-19T15:23:00.001-07:00

We finally received Health Department this past Thursday. We tried to post this sooner, but were quite busy with all of the brew events at the Great American Beer Festival in Denver.
This is/was the last step in getting our permits from the city of Anaheim to begin/continue our buildout. The approved plans will be picked up this week from the health department and delivered to the city so that they can issue a permit for buildout.
We met with the city inspectors a week ago for a pre-construction discussion at the brewery. The information that they presented will help with various stages of the buildout inspections and should save us some time.

Health Department

2010-09-07T22:57:00.000-07:00

We know, those are two words that scare a lot of business owners. (including us)

It is much more difficult to get through the health department in Orange County than it is in San Diego County.

We are getting very close to have this approval. We just had to clean up the finish schedule...flooring, walls, base cove, ceiling etc., figure a way to enclose our roll up door and explain our operation (mainly the tasting room). Let's just cross our fingers and hope that this latest design along with our next finish schedule submittal will work.

Finally

2010-09-01T08:21:00.001-07:00

We are getting our approved permit for the buildout by the city today at noon! Prior to issuance, we still need to submit an approved health dept permit which we should have within a week. The requests from the health department aren't too far off and can be taken care of during a scheduled meeting that we have just after the holiday weekend.
This has been a trying process, but now can finally get cracking on getting the brewery and tasting room together.
We have had many inquiries with regard to our tasting room opening, and have remained fairly confident that it should be ready within 30 days after we obtain our building permit.
We will do a much better job posting to this blog as we progress thru our buildout.
Cheers

Almost there

2010-07-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

Our thoughts of having our tasting room opened for the All-Star Week seems to have vanished. We picked up our plan re-submittal from the city and had full approval from Planning, Structural, Plumbing and Mechanical. We did not receive approval for Electrical and Fire.

The fire corrections aren't too much to correct with most of the corrections for remarks of various approved practices noted on to the plans as well as fire extinguisher locations.

The electrical corrections, however, are much more in depth. We had to obtain Title 24 energy calculations from a certified energy analyst. Power and lighting need to separated on the plans so that they are reflected on individual plan sheets. We included our equipment cut sheets, which includes wiring diagrams, as a separate attachment to the plans. It was noted that the wiring schematics need to be incorporated onto the plans. A single line wiring diagram will be needed for utility service and panels feeding our entire suite, it needs to include voltage, ampere rating, circuiting, phasing, AIC information, total electrical load etc. Needless to say these items consume both time and money. This will all need to have an electrical engineer or contractor certified stamp onto the plans.

We are now hoping to get the plan corrections back to the city within the next week or two, with hopes that we will not have any more corrections returned to us. If this happens in a timely manner, we can begin to pull permits to get construction of our brewery and tasting room in motion. For those who have been lucky enough to taste our product (which we are currently brewing on Dale Bros Brewing's system), thank you for your support and patience. With any luck, we can have the brewery up and running by mid-August...Cheers

Resubmittal

2010-06-20T12:20:00.001-07:00

After some delays, we finally re-submitted our plans to the city this past Thursday. We still need to submit/attach a few needed items, but wanted to get them back into the system to get things rolling again. This set of plans was over twice as heavy as the previous set. Let's keep our fingers crossed for a quick approval.

Brew Event

2010-06-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

We will be showcasing our brews at an upcoming brew event at Cabo Taco Baja Grill in La Mirada on the 26th of June from 6-11pm.

The lineup of brews for the event looks awesome, so make sure to get your tickets before they sell out.

Check out the link:
http://cabotacobajagrill.food.officelive.com/default.aspx

PLANS!!!

2010-06-13T22:16:00.001-07:00

We have received out revised plans from the architect. Next it is on to deliver the revisions to both the City and to the Health Department. Our demo and buildout has been on hold until we get approval/direction from the city. We will keep you further posted on the progress of these plans.

Our first restaurant beer tasting

2010-04-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

We met with the folks at Monkey House Cafe in Huntington Beach today to discuss our upcoming beer tasting night. The event will take place Wednesday, May 26th. We have had many people inquire about how and where to get our brews. This is a great opportunity to sample our brews and purchase some bottles to take with you. Once we receive more info on the event, we will be sure to post the info.

Linoleum Tiles

2010-04-07T08:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, just a quick note regarding linoleum tiles. They are very difficult to remove from a concrete floor. Spent about 6 hours yesterday chipping, heating and scraping the tiles to get to the concrete floor. After fatigued arms and blisters on both hands, they are all almost up. The next step will be to clean the glue off of the floor (most likely an acid wash) then seal the floor in the area of the cold storage set up.

Demo day

2010-04-04T22:42:00.001-07:00

GeoTagged, [N33.64333, E117.91672]

We spent a large part of Saturday tearing down walls, drop ceilings, lights, a/c vents and a window to make more room for our brewing operation. We still need to take up the linoleum tiles (which will not be fun). This type of demolition is not all that fun and doesn't really look all that great because of the pile of drywall, insulation, scrap metal and other items that need to be disposed of. Next up for demolition are the warehouse flooring (for our trench drain installation) and warehouse bathrooms. We need to get the bathrooms up to ADA compliance.

Gettin Dirty

2010-04-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we began demolition of a portion of the warehouse to make room for our cold storage and expanded brewing area. We only had a chance to knock down one wall (and all of the suspended ceiling, lighting and A/C ducts), and still have 3 more wall remaining. Our new design moves the cold storage back a bit to account for our tasting room. This design and move requires that we get rid of our "old" brewery office. We will still maintain plenty of office space in the remainder of the building, which is where we will move the brewery office. We are going to need to install a two hour rated wall between the brewery and offices (per building code). This new design will allow for a more feasible and seamless anticipated growth. We will try to post more details as we move along.

Moving along

2010-03-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

We finally have a working forklift! When we purchased our system a forklift was included but was inoperable. We had a forklift repair company inspect it for repair. We then decided that the cost to repair it compared to the price of a used electric forklift (previously used by IKEA) was not worth the money, time or future headaches that it would present. We got a very good deal on the electric forklift and are quite happy with it. Upon delivery of the lift, the delivery company was unloading it off of the flatbed when the cable snapped and released the forklift rapidly off of the trailer. It kept going until it hit then jumped a curb. This was quite exciting for our new neighbors as there were a few folks taking pictures and telling us that they would be posting this experience on their personal blog. The forklift was then taken back to the shop to be reinspected. They found no damage and like "another day at the brewery story" we finally have something to help with the heavy lifting.

Our architect spent a few hours detailing our brewery and the building this past Saturday. While he was here we had to go up on the roof to check out how everything looked on top. WE took a couple of pictures to show how close we are to both the Honda Center and Angels Stadium. It is pretty cool to see these venues from this vantage point. We are set to meet with the city again this week to discuss our progress and plans. It looks like we will have another re-design which will produce a new look. It's amazing what one learns while going through a process of opening a brewery in Orange County. We are quite excited to be moving along with our architect and the professionalism he brings to the design. With any luck we will be able to start knocking this place into shape soon.

2010-03-12T15:38:00.000-08:00

We have purchased our cold storage and a table bottler today. Both are shipping from back east, so we should be seeing them at the brewery sometime very soon.

We received a quote for the missing process piping which wasn't as bad as expected. The quote that we received was for only material for the process piping. We have contacted a local clean welder and are quite comfortable with the work that they will be providing.

Gil at JT Schmid's has been a great help in our initial process of rebuilding our system. He brews on a 15bbl Liquid Assets system and has allowed us to visit his location often to take pictures and videos of his system. I can only imagine how much more difficult the re-assemble process would be if we didn't have his system to explore. I am sure that we will be in his brewery again soon.

ABC License Approval

2010-02-25T08:52:00.000-08:00

Wow, finally after many phone call and meetings, we finally have our active ABC license. We acquired two license types: type 23: small beer manufacture, and type 17: beer and wine wholesaler. We decided to acquire the type 17 because of many discussions with various brewpubs (which have a type 75 license) that want to try to get their brews outside of their establishments. The type 23 license is needed to brew and sell the beer that you brew. What a great way to start the day today!

Health Department meeting

2010-02-22T23:26:00.001-08:00

Today we met with the Health Department. The meeting went better than expected. It was basically a consultation meeting with only a few changes that needed to be implemented onto our plans and into the brewery. I guess the phrase of the meeting was "washable surfaces". Our base coving will have to change from the standard rubber cove to a topset ceramic cove throughout the tasting room, mill room and janitor closet. In our brewhouse area, the Dur-a-Flex flooring, which will be installed by our friends at Lennova, will take care of all the necessary coving in the area. The health department initially wanted us to enclose our brewhouse area completely, with wall that extended to the ceiling (or drop down ceiling). This would have been a huge investment. We settled on maintaining our current 10 foot wall but we will have to have a washable surface adhered to the ceiling above the brewhouse area. We will be installing tile floors and ceramic tile coving in the restrooms and our storage/supply room. We will also have to replace the ceiling tiles in the storage/supply room to washable ceiling tiles. We are headed to San Diego tomorrow so that our Architect can look at all of the comments that the city has made on our initial submitted plans. With any luck we can have the revised plans back to the city by the week's end so we can get this construction going.

Silo

2010-02-03T09:29:00.000-08:00

We picked up a silo from Mark at Craftsman Brewing Company yesterday. We decided that we could rent a Budget truck for the pickup and delivery of the silo. When we arrived (the truck rental was in the same storage yard as the silo...great luck) at the rental yard, the only 0ne-way truck they had available was a 16' truck. We thought this would work if we would just not close the rollup door and have a portion of the silo hanging out the back. Though this sounded kind of scary, we decided to try it. After getting all of the paperwork signed and keys to the truck, we did a quick measurement of the box and realized that the silo would not fit. Thankfully the guy at the rental company found a 24' truck available in Glendale. He called to have it delivered, which took an hour, then off to loading the silo we went. The 24' foot truck worked perfectly for the load and delivery of our new (well actually used) silo.

We had talked to Mark who gave us some history on the silo. It had originally belonged to Vinnie Cilurzo when he was running operations in Temecula with Bling Pig Brewery, which to us is pretty cool, not only for nostalgia reasons, but because of the awesome brews that Vinnie and his group puts out.

Build-Out Plans

2010-01-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

We submitted our plans to the city last Thursday. The timeline for the plans to be back in our possession is 10 days from submittal. We are hoping that there is not going to be too many changes needed to the plans. Since this is a new venture into the city, things could get tricky. The many changes and details that were made to the plans prior to submittal should help with the process. The timing of the build-out plans, Health Department plans and ABC license seems to be on a collision course. They should all be approved within two weeks of each other. It is funny that even though I read various blogs and talked to many brewers, the timeline for the opening seems to be what everybody mentioned. "Take your projected opening date and add five to six months to that". Our initial opening date was sometime in September 2009. It looks like we are in-line to open in the month of March 2010. With much luck, it will be worth the wait.

ABC paperwork

2010-01-26T16:50:00.001-08:00

OK, I believe that the Alcohol Beverage Control finally has all of our paperwork in order. The next step is for the paperwork to be reviewed by a supervising agent. If the paperwork is still in order after that step then it is sent up to Sacramento for one last review and approval of the license...two in our case. Even though the process was tedious and lengthy, the agent that we worked with was quite pleasant and insightful. She put up with all of our questions (which were many), responded quickly to our inquiries and kept the communication lanes open throughout. We can only hope that all of the paperwork will pass seamlessly through the next step.

2010-01-13T00:03:00.000-08:00

We put the final touches on our build-out plans this morning then took them for reproduction copies, dropped 3 sets off to our engineer with hopes that we can get them stamped soon. With any luck we will be able to get the plans to the city by the end of the week. In the meantime, we will be heading to the Health Department Wednesday morning to submit 3 copies for their assessment and hopeful approval. Spent all night arranging cut sheets for all of the equipment that will be installed and or placed into the brewery. The Health Department wanted a list, model and description of the items, so we thought we would go a bit further and give them some more paperwork to look at.

Brewer's Notice

2010-01-06T23:40:00.000-08:00

We received our Brewer's Notice yesterday! It was not as painful as we thought it would be. We have heard the stories of needing to have your brewing system up and in place so that the TTB could come out and inspect it prior to receiving the Notice. During the TTB interview, I mentioned that I thought that they would have to inspect, like I had previously heard. The woman stated that they no longer operate like that. The interview was basically just a reiteration of what we had filled out on the packet, it lasted about 30 minutes. We then discussed our layout, which was not the current layout we had designed. I immediately emailed her the current layout without the partitioned walls. We had proposed only a curb around the brewing area, much like Patrick has at The Bruery. She then stated that they are requiring new breweries to partition the operation from the public. With that discussion along with a somewhat similar discussion with the Health Department, we decided to do away with the curb and construct a 10' wall with the top 6' being of a plexiglass material so the public can still see into the brewing area.

Next up approval and receipt of our ABC license, which we hope happens soon!

2010-01-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

Today was spent between the Health Department and re-designing our plans. As we have already decided to (plexiglass) wall the production area, there is always more things that the HD would like to see. We noted that we are planning this "walling" of the brew area, which is something we have not seen much of in the Southern California area. They want to see our walls extend up to the ceiling of the warehouse. We have it designed to be a ten foot wall with the upper six feet being designated as a plexiglass material for viewing. There truly wasn't too much that needed changed regarding our last proposed layout, which was quite nice.

We will need to install an air curtain over one of our roll-up doors, while not being able to utilize the other, unless we install an air curtain for that one as well. Our standard door will only need to have a closing arm installed which would alleviate the need for it to have an air curtain as well. I asked if we could have all of the doors open at the "off brewing" times since we will not be in production at those times. I was told that we could not as we would be serving the public. I then mentioned that I don't understand how Costco can get away with serving food with no air curtains operating on any of their rollup doors. I was told that they have walls for their food preparation areas (which is true). I then stated that it was not the prep areas that I was concerned about. I mentioned that I am more concerned about the nifty little sample carts that are scattered throughout the warehouse, which I am sure that all of us Costco members enjoy...some more than others. The response I received was a chuckle with no explanation of how Costco can do that or how they can get away with it. I hope that I didn't stop the cart service as I enjoy them while shopping there. Anyway, I feel that the conversations went quite well and am confident that we can get through what we are proposing fairly quick.

Tough Holidays Schedule

2009-12-30T10:12:00.000-08:00

The month of December began with a case of strep throat that knocked me out for almost 8 days (from the 10th til the 18th). As I finally got back on my feet, the holiday season began to kick in full force, making arrangement of meetings and discussions tough.

I contacted the TTB and the Health Department on the 18th, with discussions of both agencies stating that we needed to separate the production area from the tasting area.

So...onto our 7th re-layout of the brewery.

We have decided to rid the brewery of the curbing and install a half solid, half plexiglass enclosure for the brewhouse/fermenter area. This will allow us to easily incorporate the keg washing, bottling and other areas of the production in a controlled area. In the beginning we were quite reluctant to this change, but as we discussed it and arranged the tanks in the area and design that was proposed, we began to not only accept, but embraced this "new" design.

Back to the holiday schedule...we have our plans ready to be stamped by our engineer, but we are on hold until after the first of the year (actually the 4th), as our engineer's office is closed until that time. We have sent initial plans to both the Health Department and the TTB. We have left follow up messages and are still awaiting a response from both. This makes me think that both agencies are on hold until after the first of the year as well. So, with any luck, we will be able to get all plans stamped submitted and approved within the first two weeks of the new year.

Engineer

2009-12-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

We received a very favorable quote from a Civil Engineer. He stated that he should have the engineering plans ready by this Friday. This would be great, as would then be able to submit our plans to both the city and health department early next week. The plans include securing the fermenter tanks to the floor, foundation plans to support a boiler and it's vent stack, glycol chiller and a grain silo. It will also include anchoring the posts for the swing gate that will be attached to the above mentioned foundation. A portion of the plan accounts for the walk-in cooler that we are going to install. It has dimensions of 27'L X 16'W X 12'H. The city requires any structure over ten feet high to have an engineering stamp on it. I guess this is because they don't want the walk-in to cave in on itself? With our relocation of the walk-in cooler, we will be able to secure to a foundation wall which will be nice.

Difference of two Counties

2009-11-23T10:53:00.000-08:00

We attended Green Flash's 7th Anniversary a couple of weeks ago and took a tour in the brewery. It is funny how different the counties are between San Diego and Orange. We noticed that not one of their tanks was securely bolted to the floor.

In our case, this is something that has been directed, by the city, to make sure we have an engineer. We have heard that this had been brought about by the Northridge earthquake in 1994. This is just another step that we have to complete before our plans can be approved.

We want to send a big thanks to Patrick at The Bruery for sharing some of his information regarding his process with engineering.

We decided to flip-flop our cold storage so that it opens up our tasting room a bit and makes the traffic flow to the bathrooms with more ease and keep brewing operations contained away from the public during any tasting hours. We will be utilizing one of our roll-up doors as the main entrance and exit to the brewery. We have to get approval from our landlord to take 3 of the existing parking spaces and convert them to 2 handicap spaces. Our retail and supply shop will be relocated to where the brewery office was with the office moving to the old home of the R&S shop.

Tracy recently finished brewing our second contract brew "Hopgasm IPA", it should be ready by very early December. All things considered, at least this doesn't feel like the nightmare that Eagle Rock Brewery had to go thru to get their doors open.

Permits and Licensing

2009-11-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, this part is taking a lot longer to get rolling. Not only do the permits need to be pulled, but the need for an engineering stamp is needed as well. Though everyone at the city has been great so far, the anticipation to get started is killing us.

Tracy just brewed an IPA at Dale Brothers Brewery yesterday, which should be ready in the very early part of December. Our ABC license is in process, fingerprinting has been performed and with any luck, we will have both our 23 and 17 license in hand in a decent timeframe.

We are heading to Green Flash tomorrow for their anniversary celebration, cannot wait to taste some of the stuff we haven't had in a while.

Because of the used system that we purchased, there are a lot of pieces missing. Every stainless footing (except for 1) for the tanks and over 1/2 of the process piping is missing. Gaskets, doors, arms etc are all missing as well. These are items that will take time to either order or have custom made.

Who said this would be easy?

Lee Chase

2009-10-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-10T08:24:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2009-10-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

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.

Gonna have to wait

2009-09-22T21:42:00.001-07:00

Well, the rest of our system is set to be delivered to our Brewery in Anaheim but it is just going to have to wait until Monday when we return. We will all be in Denver, Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival!

Bump in the Road

2009-09-17T20:13:00.001-07:00

Just heard today that there is a couple day delay for the delivery of our Fermenters, Silo and Boiler. The landlord at the restaurant that houses the Silo and Boiler is giving the system seller a hard time. Need to get this straightened out soon as the Fermenters are already loaded and ready to be shipped.

Met with Aaron from Bootlegger's today, always great to see him. He is always so helpful with information and pretty much just a really cool guy. He showed my his new warehouse that they just acquired, it is going to open up a lot of stuff for Bootlegger's.

GABF next week!!!!

Tanks are on the Way

2009-09-09T17:29:00.000-07:00

It's been a hectic week. Met with the city to get our business plan going. We have approval for the brewery, but have to wait until Conditional Use Permit approval to be able to begin our Tasting Hours. Basically you can operate a brewery without a CUP if all you are going to do is brew beer on premise and ship (or deliver) it to the end customer. It is when you want to let the public into your building and produce on-site sales that you must adhere to what the city permits. Our comment letter from the city regarding our CUP application is set to be in our hands on the 15th of this month.
So we have a Business License for the City of Anaheim, but now are awaiting our TTB inspection, as well as, ABC approval for the type 23 Small Beer Manufacture License.
We transferred utilities this week (lots of deposit...not cheap). Met with our General Contractor to further discuss the layout of the brewery. Our system is beginning to ship tomorrow. The picture above shows our Mash Tun, Brew Kettle, 4-15bbl Bright Tanks, Mill and 12oz Bottling line. The rest of the package will be in Anaheim either Friday or Saturday. We are excited to finally see the system leave a warehouse in Roseville and head it's way down to it's new home very close the Angel's Stadium and the Honda Center.

Meeting with the Planners

2009-09-05T12:07:00.001-07:00

Had a great meeting with the Planning Department in Anaheim yesterday. Great direction and guidance. We will be reviewing our comment letter, due to get to us on the 15th. First thing to take care of in the building is our floor drains and curb installation for the brew area (much like Patrick did at the Bruery). Contain the water!

Got It!!!

2009-09-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

Met with the landlords and our leasing agent today. Picked up the keys and our welcome packet. Spent almost 3 hours after that going over dimensions and layout of the brewery. Lots of work ahead of us, need to get the brew system d0wn and into the building soon. Went to lunch at JT Schmids to see if Gil was there...typical brewer, he was gone by the time we got there at 1:00pm haha. Had a great lunch with Steve and Gary Curtiss (our General Contractor). Later on we settled on a logo design while at Peet's at the District.

Another great Brewery coming to OC

2009-08-29T09:40:00.001-07:00

A little history of how this whole thing started.
Noble Ale Works is the brainchild of Steve Miles and Jerry Kolbly.
I (Jerry) use to run the Newport Beach Brewing Company for many years and had an outstanding brewmaster "Kirk Roberts" there with me. We always felt that Kirk's beers were good enough to stand up to the growing market of craft beers. Our type 75 license didn't allow us to produce and distribute the way a type 23 license does.
A few years back NBBC went through a laborious legal issue with the city of Newport Beach (too much to talk about on this blog but if your real interested in it I can talk about it over a beer). But the good thing that happened is that I hired one of the brightest and most fair attorneys to assist with the NB issue...Steve Miles. Not only is he a great attorney, his passion for some of the finer things in life is sometimes staggering. He has homebrewed some great beers, has a collection of fine wine of over 500 bottles and added on to his house to include a homebrew area.
OK back to NAW birth...So, along with my partner (the actual brains in the group), Steve, we decided to explore which avenue we could take to get Kirk's beers out into the world. The more we thought about it, the more we thought about breaking away from the (very) expensive real estate of Newport Beach and look at commercial properties which would welcome a brewery. We started casually looking at various areas in and around Orange County back in December 2008...Silverado Canyon, Santa Ana, Inland Empire, San Juan Capistrano, Orange, Fullerton. As time went on Kirk became uneasy with the idea of our goal. He decided to stay at NBBC to continue to make his awesome brews at the brewpub there. We knew we had to find another brewer and heard that Tracy Simmons had just left Omaha Jack's in Rancho Cucamonga. I have always liked Tracy's brews and his detail, organization and contacts in the industry are amazing.
In March of this year (2009) we had a meeting with the Mayor of Anaheim, Curt Pringle (who happens to be one hell of a guy). He asked us if we had time to cruise around and check out some properties with him. He proceeded to drive us around the city for over 2 hours, looking at various locations. He took us to the Platinum Triangle area and into the Stadium Plaza Business Park. We liked what he had seen around the area so Mayor Pringle got us in touch with CBRE who listened to what we needed and showed us our (now) new home...1621 S. Sinclair St. Ste B. The process of obtaining the lease was a chore in itself but we feel that it is well worth it. It took us from the beginning of April until the end of August to get the keys to the building.
While we were looking at buildings and dealing with the lease, we had heard that Sacramento Brewing Company was selling a system. We headed up to Sacramento in late February to check it out.
We liked what we saw, 15bbl Liquid Assets brewhouse, 3-15bbl fermenters, 2-30bbl fermenters, 6-15bbl single wall brite tanks (we'll keep those in our walk-in), a 12 oz bottling line, 16K pound silo, boiler, glycol chiller, DE filter. It also had 2-60bbl fermenters in the initial sale but Rogue bought those, so the price came down. After getting George a deposit check, he was so kind to hold the system in storage (which it already was) until we could get our building. The system is set to ship down this coming week (the 1st of September).
We are now in the TTB, ABC, City of Anaheim CUP, BOE, OCHA etc process...wow lots of letters.
Anyways it has been lots of work but so exciting. Our building and location are unbelievable (we can walk to Anaheim Stadium...go Angels).
Stay tuned for more posts here, on our twitter page: twitter/noblebrew, our facebook page, and our website (well soon there).