Design and construction update

Although we obviously had a break over Christmas, design and construction is moving forward.  Roof repairs (which I tweeted about two weeks ago) continue, though I think that some wet weather has slowed them down.

The last few meetings with the architects & engineer have been dedicated to all the final details before bidding and construction starts in earnest. I have never built or renovated a building before and the number of decisions to make is excruciating. Fortunately, the team at Powell is well organized and extremely helpful in working through everything.

I spent three hours last Thursday going over the final layout and finish details, which is everything from placing the fermentation tanks down to how wide I want the counter-tops to be. (In the northwest corner & 30 inches, please.) One thing that we discussed at length was the design of the tap room, how to finish the ceiling and walls, and how to handle lighting.

The picture below is a rendering of one proposed design, looking from the brewery/street entrance to the bar. This might be a little heavy on wood, but it has the feel that I'm going for. Forgive the picture quality and water stain on the right, this is a scan of a printout that I took with me.

I'm also excited to post an architectural drawing of the brewery below. Main Street is to the right and 9th Street is at the top of this drawing. One of the recent changes that I think is pretty exciting is the addition of tables & bar-top seating open to the actual brewery.

We have another review scheduled this week, hopefully to nail down the remaining details and get the heavy construction started.

Third tasting was a success

The new logo...slick!

Per yesterday's tweet, I was pouring beers at Fat Bottom's third public offering (the first two were parties hosted by friends). The event was an open house hosted by the architect & contractor working on the brewery, Powell Design Studio.

Around 50 people showed up over the course of the evening and it was fun to meet folks, talk up the brewery and hear what they thought of the beer. I also got to unveil the final black-and-white version of the new logo, delivered just a day earlier. The designers are working on the color version now.

On tap were test batches of wheat ale, a sweet stout and a coffee porter. (I do need to figure out some better names for these brews.) Most people had the wheat, as the lightest beer, but architect and east-sider Manley was going nuts over the porter and making sure everyone tried it. The beer got lots of compliments and nobody spit it out, so that's good.

Thank you to Steve Powell and everyone at PDS for hosting and letting me share the beery love!

Starting the TTB Process

As you might imagine, alcohol production is a highly regulated industry in the United States. Breweries must go through a multi-month process with the Feds before beginning operations including background checks, inspections and a variety of tax registrations.

I started that process today, using the new Permits Online website provided by the Tax and Trade Bureau. "Sweet," I thought, imagining how easy it would be to use this brand new web application and thinking how much faster the process would be over filling out paper forms.

Yeah, right.

I don't doubt that they spent millions creating a clunky and pretty basic site that would embarrass most web developers. And only the Federal Government, in this day and age, would create a web application that only works on Internet Explorer. (Ever heard of JQuery? Scriptaculous? MooTools? They make cross-browser development easy and they're all free!)

My least favorite "feature": When you resume an application (which actually is a nice feature...start now, finish later), you must resubmit every page that you've completed so far, without any ability to navigate forward or back in the process. And the applications are long...some are 10 pages or more.

</rant>

To their credit, it does appear that the submissions work once you get past the browser issues and I'm sure the site will streamline the existing application & registration process. I guess we will confirm that once I am (or am not) brewing next spring.

PS- Dear TTB, please don't hold up my application for beer-making and tax-paying. I still love you, even if your web app is busted.