And not just because the burner for our brew kettle arrived! We also got news that our equipment was finished early, so we may even have it by the end of October. The bathrooms are almost finished, they’ve done a bunch of work on the wood paneling and trim, electrical work has been progressing, and there’s even a rumor that Xcel Energy finally processed our applications and that we might have an electrical meter in the next few days!
They were working on the bathroom partitions when I was there at lunch yesterday, so I should have final bathroom photos by the end of the week, as well as some updates of the back bar area that is now covered in stainless steel–pretty spiffy looking, I think!
9/18/15 – View from front entrance: Electrical work being done above the grid, and you can see some of the millwork parts and equipment.9/8/15 – View from the brewhouse: You can see the millwork around the entrance windows and along the front and left sides.9/8/15 – Brewery: Not much new, waiting for the FRP for the brewery walls.9/8/15 – Women’s Restroom: All done except for the partitions9/8/15 – Men’s Restrooms: Everything but the partitions
So the landlord work is “finished.” I use quotes, but only because we’re all waiting on Xcel Energy to finish up their work and install the new gas and electrical meters. Once those are installed and the electrical panels are hooked back up, then we’ll have power to the unit and really be finished with the landlord work.
The bathrooms are also almost finished–even the electrical is done, and the bathroom partitions should be finished by the end of the week.
As you can see below, the ceiling tiles are just about all tied into the space, and they’ve even begun some of the major painting. There’s still some flooring work to be done, FRP in the brewing area, still some woodwork remaining, and the bar work, but I think we’re now on the downhill side of all of the construction work.
9/8/15 – View from front entrance: Painting has begun!9/8/15 – View from the brewhouse: Ceiling grid is tied in (but needs tiles replaced) and the entrance is almost finished (just needs the windows).9/8/15 – Brewery: Drain looks good, and they’ve started the painting in back, too!9/8/15 – Women’s Bathroom: Faucets are in, and the electrical is set up. Just needs partitions!9/8/15 – Men’s Bathroom: Just like the women’s room, we’re all done but for the partitions.
We’ve been making a lot of progress! Honestly, we’re once again in the “wait” part of the “hurry up and wait” process. The buildout is progressing nicely (and I’ll have pictures tomorrow), but we’re waiting on Xcel Energy to put in the electrical meter. We’re also waiting on signage quotes so that we can get that process started. The TTB application has been accepted, but we’re waiting for someone to review it. And we have started ordering merch, but we’re waiting for it all to get here.
But even though we’re in the doldrums of the process right now, we’re hoping that you can help us break out of it! We’ve put together an Indiegogo campaign, and we could really use your help!
We have some fabulous perks that come your way for helping us share our love of beer with the world: T-shirts, pint glasses, growlers, and even tickets to the Great American Beer Festival!
Thank you all so much for helping us to build our dream of sharing our beer with all of you (and everyone else)!
Well, the landlord work is almost complete. Really, everything is done except for the last parts of the two bathrooms (sinks, countertops, patritions and lights). Oh, yeah, and we’re waiting for Xcel Energy to put in the new electric meter so that we actually have electricity in the unit.
But as you can see below, we’re already starting our part of the buildout. Demolition of the old stuff is now complete–even the built-in tables are gone. All of the new framing is just about done: the new entranceway, the half wall around the brewing area, the soffits, and the separator for the “cozy area” / stage (along with its raised platform). The floor drain is in the brewing area, but still needs to be concreted in.
We also now have insurance and a bank loan (actually two). We’re working on a lot of marketing stuff, as well: we now have business cards, stickers have arrived, and we’re working on t-shirts and coins for our Indigogo crowdfunding campaign that I hope to have up this weekend!
8/26/15 – View from front entrance: As you can see, the tables are gone, and the back half wall and soffits have been framed in.8/26/15 – Entranceway: The raised platform / stage has been built, and the entranceway has been framed in with nice big windows to make it feel a lot more open than before. You can also see the soffits above the indoor beergarden.8/26/15 – View from the brewhouse: All the tables are gone, and you can see the layout of the whole space, with the cozy area to the left of the entranceway, and the indoor beergarden to the right.8/26/15 – Brewery: You can just see the new soffit that helps divide the brewery from the taproom, as well as the half wall that separates the brewery itself from the back hallway (which will also be our art gallery). The whitish wall will be our production chalkboard. While you con’t really see it well behind the lift truck, the floor drain is also in.8/26/15 – Women’s Bathroom: The’ve already painted the area above the tile, and we’re all ready for countertops, sinks, partitions and lights.8/26/15 – Men’s Bathroom: The tile is now completely finished in here as well, and we’re ready for the finishing touches!
I know we’ve been a little lax in updating the site, but it’s not because there isn’t anything going on! In fact, all of the recent work has had us running around a lot trying to catch up!
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (aka the TTB) accepted our application on Tuesday! This is only the very first step, though, in getting our federal Brewer’s Notice. Currently they average about 120 days to process an application from the time you initially file it (which, for us was on 7/12), so that would have us getting our Notice in the middle of November. We hope it doesn’t take that long, but we’re still very optimistic about serving beer in this calendar year!
We’ve been working with our architect (Arrow B Architecture) and our contractor (Far North Construction) to finalize the plan for the space. The City had a few minor things that they wanted changed, but we should be pretty close to approval there, too. In fact, they’ve even started the demolition work on our side to prep for construction. The landlord work is almost complete, too…tile should be finished by the end of the week, and then we just need the fixtures and partitions. Finally, we’re almost done with our SBA loan, which will also be a major milestone for us!
We’re also working on a lot of marketing stuff like business cards and stickers, as well as things like shirts (and hopefully a few other surprises) in preparation for an IndieGoGo campaign.
Here are a few pictures as of lunchtime today:
8/12 Front of House – Not a lot of change here in this view8/12 Front of House looking back at Entrance – You can see that they’ve started the demolition of the overhead portions (soffits) by the windows, and also that side of the entryway.8/12 Back of House – Not a lot of change here either, except that the carpet has been pulled up.8/12 Women’s Bathroom – Tile is fully up, just needs grout!8/12 Men’s Bathroom – They ran out of tile, so there’s still one more row they need on top, but they’re already filling in the grout.
Far North Construction has been making a lot of progress on the landlord work for the space! The dividing wall between our space and the other half is finished, the bathrooms have framed walls, plumbing, sewer and electrical. They’re currently estimating 2 more weeks to get all of the finish work done in the bathrooms…tile, toilets & partitions, sinks and countertops.
And then we take possession, and start all of our finishing work!
7/14
7/14 Front of House – Not much new in front7/14 Back of House – Framing for the bathrooms has started!
7/16
7/16 Front of House – Drywall is up on our side.7/10 Back of House – Drywall is up and the sewer lines are extended to where the sinks will be
7/17
7/17 Front of House – No major changes7/17 Back of House – Water lines are in, as is electrical7/17 Women’s Bathroom – Plumbing, water lines & electrical7/10 Men’s Bathroom – Plumbing, water lines & electrical
7/22
7/22 Front of House – Drywall seams have been sanded. Looks ready for painting!7/22 Back of House – Drywall on the dividing wall is smooth and the back wall is drywalled, too!7/22 Women’s Bathroom – Starting to get the drywall up7/22 Men’s Bathroom – Ducting and sprinklers look to be finished, as well. Looks ready for drywall in here, too!
Some photos of the work in progress. I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to really get a feel for how the space is going to turn out.
6/22
6/22 Front of House – Demo still progressing, the plastic sheeting is down and their cleaning up the ceiling tiles and wiring and such.6/22 Back of House – Demo of the back area that’s going to become the bathroom is pretty much done. They’re starting to get down to the supports in the walls.
6/28
6/28 Front of House – Supports are now all stripped down, and the framing is up for the dividing wall!6/28 Back of House – Bathroom door has been cut, and the first slab cuts have been done. You can see one square area of the floor is up.
7/1
7/1 Front of House – Not much new work done here7/1 Back of House – All of the flooring has been cut, and the trenching is all dug. You can’t see it much, but the piping for the sewer lines is just about complete in the trenches.
7/10
7/10 Front of House – Drywall is up on the far side.7/10 Back of House – The sewer and water lines are done, and the concrete has been poured to fill the trenches in.
I’ve been lax about keeping everyone updated, but it’s been a very busy week!
Last Thursday, we signed the contract for our 10BBL brewhouse: mash tun, brew kettle, fermenters, brite tanks, keg washers/fillers, and all the rest of it. That should take about 60 days to get built, and another 30 to get shipped. So we’re expecting it around the end of September/beginning of October.
On Tuesday, we got our Notification of Allowance from the Patent and Trademark Office! That should mean that we’ll avoid anything like the recent conflicts around trade names that seem to be on the increase across the craft brewing, winery, distillery industries.
Later that evening we met with our architect, general contractor, and mechanical and electrical engineers at the new space. The landlord work is progressing well, and I’ll get pictures up tomorrow. They currently have a target date of July 24th, which should put our construction finishing up in early September. We ironed out a bunch of details, and we’re pretty pleased with how the design is progressing.
On Wednesday we finally got the official address from the City of Centennial. We’re officially 5150 E. Arapahoe Rd, Unit D1-B, Centennial, CO, 80122. That means that we can finally get our TTB application in this weekend, and begin the process for getting our Brewers Notice. Unfortunately they have been averaging around 120 days to process, so that would put us sometime around the middle of November. Hopefully it won’t take that long!
So we’re back into “hurry up” mode after a lot of “wait!”
Well, it took a little longer than anticipated, but the landlord’s work started this week. They’ve made quite a bit of progress as you can see in the pictures below. They’ve pretty much gutted the other side of the space, removed the doors between the front and back of our side, and gotten rid of the two existing rooms on our side that will then become the bathrooms.
Monday
Front door view: 6/15 – Landlord work just starting (you can just see the plastic sheeting behind the lights on the left)
Wednesday
Front door view 6/17 – Walls are already down!Other side 6/19 – mostly cleared out, with some of the wall and soffit remainingDividing wall 6/19 – Demo underway, wall partly removed
Friday
Front door view 6/19 – Other side mostly cleaned out, and they are working on the doors in backBack of house 6/19 – Already demoed the area that will become the bathroomsOther side 6/19 – Cleared out!
As many other brewers have told us, the entire process of getting open is very much all about “hurry up and wait.” We’ve been waiting for the past three months, but our landlord is scheduled to start their work (splitting the unit in two, splitting the utilities, and adding bathrooms to our half) on Monday! We’re expecting that to take about 6 weeks, and then our buildout can start, which should take about 8 weeks. That still puts us in the middle of September if everything goes according to plan (which it won’t).
We’ve also been working with our architect to figure out what the space will look like. Chris and I were out a few nights ago to tape out where all of the walls, doors, brewing equipment and such will be. We really like how everything is turning out with three different “virtual spaces” within the taproom. We still have some details to work through, obviously, but we’re very excited and can start to visualize how it will all wind up.
Hopefully you can start to get a sense of it, too, from the pictures below!
The current drawing of our space and a 3d renderingLooking from the entrance to the brewhouse back towards the main entrance. The right hand area will be the “patio” with folding windows (or a garage door), and the left area will be a “comfy” area with couches. The far right line will be the wall separating our half of the space. We’re planning to project on that wall (about where the pillar currently is) for sporting events and movies!From roughly the same place but a little more left, now including the bar. The built-in tables will all go away. The closet doors past the bar will be where the serving tanks will go.Looking from the “patio” back towards the brewhouse. That area will all be open with a railing separating the brewhouse from the taproom.Looking from the “patio” towards the growler fill area of the bar and the “comfy” space with couches. The rectangle in the center will be the serving vessels.Looking from down the hall that leads from the taproom to the bathrooms, with the brewhouse on the right. The box is the kettle and mash tun, and the circles are the first two fermenters.A better view of the brewhouse. The closest line will be the wall separating our half of the space, which we’re planning on using as an art gallery to feature local artists!
