We missed it. Our goal was to get the doors open Spring 2019. It is now officially summer. We know you all want to know one thing: our opening date; but first, we have some clarifying to do.
We have not done a good job setting expectations. We’ve spoken with several people now who were under the impression we got all of our approvals months ago and can’t understand why we’re not open.
So to clarify, we got the approvals of our plan which enabled us to START work.
Our plans had to be reviewed & approved at the town, regional, state and federal levels (if you’re a details person, feel free to dig in below). Needless to say, that took a long time. We had some contractors lined up to do the work, but when the Federal step took a lot longer than expected (partially because of a government shutdown) those folks moved on to other jobs and we had to track down other contractors willing to take on our small project, usually using our job to fill in around other larger jobs.
This has proved challenging for two people with no commercial building experience. But the actual construction work is nearly complete. The wall is up, rough-plumbing is done and awaiting inspection. Most of our equipment has arrived and we are working hard to get that set up in hopes of doing some testing this weekend!
OK, you’ve waited patiently enough so here we go: barring any additional setbacks – we hope to have a soft open towards the end of August.
We’ve always had respect for those who’ve jumped through these hoops before us, but now it’s at a whole ‘nother level. We knew it would be a lot of work but didn’t fully understand just how much would be unlike other work we’ve done before. Many have done this while facing far greater hardships than us but that doesn’t mean our path was easy - we have spared you some gory details. We just want you to know there is a lot that goes into getting the doors open and even we didn’t fully comprehend it before we went through it ourselves.
Thank you for your patience and please believe us when we say, once we have an opening date we will broadcast it far and wide! For now, we will continue to push thru the contractors and inspectors phase. Soon, SOOON! we get to experience the joy of brewing our beer for you!
For those who are not deterred by long lists, lots or words and TL;DR warnings this is for you. Here’s an overview of generally what it takes to get a brewery going.
We are still in the “subcontractors doing work” phase and feeling pretty disappointed that we’re still not open. But when we look back at all the work, we can pause for a few seconds and observe: (a) we did a ton of stuff and (b) the folks who’ve started breweries while keeping their full time jobs are other-worldly!
Filed under #Progress
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