We Are Doing It!

Its been awhile.  Things are finally starting to normalize and equalize around brewLAB...kinda, sorta.  We have finished all of the construction, and the building inspector came and did his final inspection.  We fired up the walk-in refrigerator, hooked up the draft lines, got the interior light fixtures dialed, uncovered the bar, brought in some tables and chairs, cleaned up all of the debris left over from construction, set up a POS system, and..........we have officially started selling beer!  We had our first soft opening two weeks ago on September 26th.  We were open Friday and Sunday of that weekend, and that Saturday we poured beer at the SOL Food Festival.  The following weekend we were also open for two days - Friday and Saturday.  We are now getting ready to open up for two more days this weekend - Friday (10/10) form 5:00p-9:00p and Sunday (10/11) from 3:00p-8:00p.  Our hours are very select, and likely will be until around Thanksgiving; we will have different hours each week that will be based on current inventory, and each week we will be posting our hours on Facebook.  We are brewing a lot, but we are still only brewing on our ten gallon pilot system, as we have been waiting for a piece of equipment to be custom made for our larger, 1.2 bbl system.  That piece just arrived and next week we should be completing the build out of that system, and then hopefully the following week we will be brewing our first batch of beer on that system.  We've purchased 100 brand new 1/6 bbl sanke kegs, and 6 brand new 55 gallon conical fermentors from Stout Tanks in Portland.  We also ordered all of the hardware to build our own keg washer, including a big ol' 3/4 hp pump - which will also be used for our Clean In Place system for our kettles and fermentors.  The pump just arrived a couple days ago, as did our first order of cleaning chemicals from Shepard Bros down in Los Angeles.  We were recommended to Shepard Bros by Rincon Brewery as well as Telegraph Brewing Co.  We have planned out a rough brewing schedule for the next 5 weeks, and we should be receiving our first bulk order of grain and hops from Country Malt Group at any moment.  We do have a few sour projects aging, although it will be awhile before those get released.  Once we get the larger system going, we will be starting many more aging projects.  On that note, I should also mention that we acquired 5 more wine barrels, all white wine.  We now have 6 wine barrels - 3 Trousseau Gris, 2 Savignon Blanc, and 1 Cabernet Savignon.  We recently brewed a Berliner Weiss - sour wheat ale - to which we added a little bit of Lemon Verbena and Wild Chamomile (also known as Pineapple Weed).  After 6 days in the fermentor it is already tasting nice and tart.  That beer should be released in the not so distant future.  brewLAB is looking for artists who are interested in hanging their work on our [mostly] bare white walls, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please have them email their work to brewlabcraft@gmail.com.  It feels great to finally be at this point, but there is still so much work to do all the time.  To stay updated on hour tasting room hours check our Facebook page: facebook.com/brewlabcraft.

Cheers!

-Rob

brewLAB Schwag For Sale

No, we aren't talking about that stuff you found in your dad's sock drawer when you were 15.  We got our first batch of brewLAB t-shirts made, and we are selling them to help promote the brewery and to help us with some of the costs of purchasing more fermenters.  The shirts are 100% organic cotton from American Apparel and are available in black, white, and cinder.  The shirts are unisex and we are selling them for $20 each.  Tax is included and shipping is a flat rate of $5.00.  Local pickup is also an option.  We also are also making bottle openers out of railroad spikes - our logo will be laser engraved on the openers by our neighbors Laser Chops (http://laser-chops.myshopify.com).  They are still being made, but they can be pre-ordered for $16, tax included and $5.00 flat rate for shipping.  Local pick up will also be available.

To order your brewLAB schwag, go to our website at brewlabcraft.com.

Cheers!

-Rob
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Ducks In A Line

We have been approved by the TTB.  We have been approved by the ABC, pending a final inspection.  We are still working on building the space out, and once construction is done, that inspection will happen.  We have built our bar, and we have started building our walk-in cooler.  We still have our plumbing and electrical work to do - both of which should not take more than a week of actual work...but, we are still working out the details of each.  Our specific plans for plumbing and electrical have changed a couple times over the last couple months,  and we have run into a couple issues with our original design.  Nothing seems to have gone according to plan, but we are rolling with it and celebrating every bit of progress.  We are still not going to claim any opening date, but it won't be long now before we are making beer in our space.


Here is the tasting room side of the bar (made almost entirely with salvaged materials):

Here is a little time lapse showing the bar coming to life:

https://vimeo.com/93077753


Cheers!

-Rob

Waiting...

A quick update on our progress.  We are waiting for approval from the ABC and TTB.  We've been told by our licensing agent at the ABC that the TTB is still pretty backed up due to the government shutdown back in October, and due to the high volume of new breweries popping up across the country.  We are also very close to having our building permit.  We submitted our application to the city on the 10th, and a week later the building inspector gave us our plans back with the needed corrections.  We will re-submit the plans on Monday, and we should have our permit by mid-week.  We are pretty stoked to finally be able to start construction on the brewery.  Our space is pretty small, and we don't have anything too major on our hands as far as construction, so it shouldn't take too long to get everything done.

We still don't know when we will be opening, but we will keep you updated with any breakthroughs in the process.

We are also really stoked that Rincon Brewery is on their way.  2014 is going to be an awesome year!

Cheers!

-Rob