Difference of two Counties

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

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

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