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Construction Update: 11/29/09

Submitted by josh on Mon, 11/30/2009 - 00:53

Here's the view as you walk in our new front doors:

The front bar (that seats 30) has been installed and is covered in plastic so we can paint the tin ceiling a metallic pewter shade.  All of the drywall work is complete on the first floor and painting should be complete by the end of this coming week.  The glass wall looking in the brewery is in and we are starting to put up the finish woodwork around the dinning room, which is going to take a few weeks.  The old maple floors still need to be refinished along with that structural column you see next to the bar.  The kitchen is semi functional with the gas flowing to all of the equipment. 

In the brewery we finally fired up our steam boiler last Friday and after using the process of elimination to complete the wiring we heated up some water for the first time.  Jim has replaced all of the gaskets through the system, which is just good practice when you buy used equipment.  We're still waiting for the glycol installation to be complete (the installer has the flu) but hopefully we'll brew this week.  I think we're going to brew a Workingman Mild for the first brew.  It's our favorite all-round drinker but at the same time it isn't too complicated a brew to kick things off when we are just getting to know the system.

By Christmas

Submitted by josh on Sun, 11/15/2009 - 21:11

As we look at a pic of chef Jason standing by the stained glass windows that probably came from a church, let's pray that we are open by Christmas.  That's our ideal timeframe, and while hardly anything has been ideal up to this point, we've got a lot of reasons to be positive these days.

The kitchen, brewery and bathrooms are just about all tiled and ready for the finishing touches.  Our new glycol cooling system for the brewery is on the roof and it will piped to the tanks this week.  We got our gas meter last week so we can fire up the boiler and plug in our kitchen appliances.  Yesterday on Saturday there were about 10 guys working on various tasks and Bogdan, the hardest worker on the site was making rooftop connections today as many of you enjoyed brunch. 

The installation of the bar is underway as we replace the old floor where it will sit and lay quarry tile.  The beer lines are half run in the serving cooler and will pop up through the floor to the new bar in about two weeks.  The long awaited storefront will also start appearing in the next two weeks.

On the operations side, we are pretty settled on the food menu and are starting to order, glasses, mugs, plates and growlers.  Our point-of-sale system is about half programmed and all the network and A/V cabling has been pulled through the walls.  We'll start posting for jobs later this week on the main page. 

 

The Bar

Submitted by josh on Fri, 11/06/2009 - 01:05

I know it has been a few weeks since the last update, but feel better when I tell you that I've been too busy to sit down and type one in.  Since we've last talked, the kitchen has finished walls, the fermentation cellar has a new 20' tall tile wall, the beer lines are starting to go in and we've completed putting the old tin ceiling back up. 

We've hired a great general manager, Michelle Foik who took a trip with me today to see the bar under construction.  It's a 'walk-around' island bar in the shape of a parallelogram and this was the first time I actually saw the shape of the bar in firsthand.  In my mind I've second guessed this game plan the last few months as it chews up a lot of floor space, but seeing it convinced me to set aside the doubts for good.  Aaron and the guys have done a great job so far on the front bar which you can see here.  The first pieces will start arriving next week and we should have everything in place in a few weeks time.

The Making of the Fist

Submitted by josh on Sun, 10/11/2009 - 22:39

I previously blogged about our new tap handle, but got to actually see one being made last week.  Here's a sped up video of one  being cut on the CNC machine:

 

Construction Update: 10/11/09

Submitted by josh on Sun, 10/11/2009 - 22:35

New roof is being installed this weekend.  Last weekend they craned the new HVAC units up there along with lots of fresh air fans and cooling compressors for the walk-in coolers.   I'd love to get a green roof going up there eventually, but for the time being, priority #1 is keeping that rain out of the building.  What used to be a few drops that were catchable with a few buckets has gotten a lot worse during construction.  And now that we are starting to drywall it was time to put the fix on for good.  With all the masonry costs of rebuilding three hundred feet of coping walls, we're spending $50K to make this problem go away.  An investment in the future I keep telling myself.

Inside the tin ceiling went back up at the hands of Stanley the carpenter with a big belly laugh.  Should be finished and painted by the end of this week.  Wednesday will be our last rough inspection (HVAC) with the city, which has been holding back our finish work.  I've been busy plundering Craigslist for gently used kitchen equipment, which seems abundant in these times of uncertain economies.  Compared to what everything costs new, we've saved quite a bundle, though not as much as that roof costs.

The steam piping from the boiler to the brewhouse is complete and Peoples Gas delivered our new four inch gas line last week.  We're still waiting on the meter, but this week I expect to be "cooking wih gas".  There's a good chance that we might hit the trifecta of gas, water and electricity in the brewery this week, although we are still waiting for some tile work to really get down to business.

The bar is being built up in Wilmette and is scheduled to start showing up in pieces in two weeks.  The beer taps have been ordered and we are starting to pick out glassware.  Thinking about imperial pints for mug club members.  Todd thinks we should go metric, since the English standard system is just so....imperial.  Brad wants dimpled mugs. Any suggestions from the peanut gallery?

The current Vegas over/under date for opening:

Brew on Halloween, open after Thanksgiving

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