Notch Brewing – Brewery Update 6/30

This is it, the last update until we open. That’s means 1) we are close, and 2) we are in the crunch time of opening a production brewery and tap room. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram will still be fed with updates as they happen. This will also be the end of this website format, as we retire it for something new and more appropriate. It’s served us well for six years, but we still have bottles in the left margin. New brewery = new web page.

Tank day number two happened last week, bringing in the fermentation and lagering tanks. So the cellar equipment install is almost complete, as we’ll test the glycol chiller this week. The tanks will be cleaned and passivated and ready for wort by next week.

Speaking of wort, we fired up the boiler yesterday and tested all steam piping (and received necessary approvals). It seems like a beast of a boiler for such a small brewery (over 1 million BTUs), but we have a mash mixer and mash kettle for decoction and that requires something a little larger for small lagers. The brewhouse is starting to go through some light testing of motors, pumps and plumbing, and we’ll do water brews next week to test the entire system. Our first brew day could be as early as July 11, but that will be subject to our occupancy approval. Any guesses on the first beer?

The Tap Room and Biergarten are in the home stretch. Our furniture will be complete by Friday (all of it built with 100 year old lumber reclaimed from our old ceiling), beer tap installation by the weekend, and then miscellaneous odd and ends (there a million odds and ends, they never end). The Biergarten final touches are also underway – fencing, furniture, lighting, and final gravel top coat.

So, “WHEN WILL YOU OPEN!?” is all anyone really cares about. That is something we don’t control, as we need final city approvals (final inspections for plumbing, electrical, health, building dept and fire dept) and then our approval to pour direct to the consumer from the ABCC. It should be soon, but we do not want to set a date and then need to push it out. I have said from day one, we have no specific opening date, as so much is out of our control. And the things that are in your control? I’ve had one MO in this project – be proud of the decisions we make, and not proud of some quick timeline to open. Speed requires compromise, great things require patience.

See you on the new website, and when you do, we’ll be open! Thanks for coming along for the ride.