Yes, you heard right!  After passing our Health Department inspection last week, then scrambling around to get ingredients ordered, we managed to pull together our first brew session this past Saturday, the 14th of November.

Being our first batch on this system, we figured it would be a very long, hard day of work, and we were certainly right about that…From start to finish it took us 19 hours!  Somehow though, there seems to be just a little bit less stress knowing that we have beer in our fermenters.

Here’s a few photos of the day.  We were scrambling around so much for the first half of the day though, we didn’t manage to get any pictures of the mash-in.  Oh well, there’s always next time….

Here’s my dad setting up to do some transfers.  The pump he’s working on is receiving the mash run-off and transferring it into the kettle.  The pump in front of him is pumping the hot water into the mash tun for our sparge.

You’ll notice most of these pictures look a little hazy…We were surprised at just how humid it got in there throughout the day.  Downright tropical even.

And here’s part of the source of the humidity…our sparge arm (on the right).  For those who don’t know, sparge is a German word meaning “rinse”, so we’re basically just rinsing our mash with hot water.

Here’s a better shot of the sparge arm in place and in action.  I’m looking on, getting a nice steam bath…

Actually, I’m just watching the sparge level to make sure the grain bed isn’t getting too exposed and dry as the wort flows out of the mash tun and into the kettle…

Ah, the first wort flowing into the kettle…a beautiful sight!

Ting watches as the kettle fills…

…and then…

…the boil begins!

Here’s the spent grains in the mash tun, after all of the wort has been run-off.  I know it doesn’t look like much…but remember this is a mild, so you really don’t need a whole lot of malt…

Either way, you’ll notice there is no “grain shute” from which to eject the spent grains.  So in other words, climb in and start shovelling!

Okay, well, skip ahead a few steps (because we didn’t manage to get any pictures taken in-between) and here’s our yeast pitch, ready to add to our chilled wort as it flows into the fermenter.  Pretty cool to have a giant package of yeast with our name on it!  7.5 liters worth of yeast in fact.  The homebrewers out there will recognize the 1098 number on the yeast package too…

And finally, here’s a picture of our finished wort!  Yeast pitched and ready to begin fermenting.

And the exhausted brewteam, ready to call it a day!  Until next time…

Hello out there in blog land!  You’re probably wondering what on earth is going on over at Eagle Rock Brewery that they haven’t blogged in over a month.  Or maybe you’re not wondering at all…Either way, I know that everyone is getting very very thirsty, and probably a bit impatient.

Yes, it is true that we haven’t blogged in over a month, but suffice it to say that we’ve been extremely busy getting the brewhouse completely finished and ready for brewing.  In just the last 4 weeks, I’ve discovered new levels of pain and exhaustion, and a level of stress that I never knew existed.  Insanity was only the beginning.

Well, my friends, the waiting is finally almost over.  This morning I picked up our final license from the Health Department, which means that we are now officially and legally allowed to start making beer at Eagle Rock Brewery!

Today and tomorrow will be spent purchasing ingredients and planning our first brew session, and then the first brew will take place sometime before the end of the week.

Well, that’s all the energy I can muster for now.  More updates and pictures to come soon…Hang in there friends…we’re almost there!

Hey beer lovers!

We’ve been kicking it into high gear and working around the clock to get this brewery open, and we’re working out the final details.  By popular demand, we’ve decided that for Mug Club members who would like to keep their personal mugs at the brewery, they can! However, as there will be limited storage space, we will have to limit the number of memberships.

What does this mean? Mug club membership is on a first come, first serve basis. So for those of you who have been thinking of joining the club but haven’t done so, join soon! Once they’re sold out, there will be a waiting list to join.

We will be planning a pre-opening event at the brewery exclusively for our mug club members, where you will get to use your personalized mugs for the very first time. In order to ensure that you have your personalized mug at the pre-opening event, you’ll need to sign up for the Mug Club no later than Friday, October 16th. You can get more information and sign up at our online store: http://www.shop.eaglerockbrewery.com/.

We’re in the home stretch! We just have some finishing touches to do at the brewery and we’ll be ready to open our doors very soon, so stay tuned for more updates.

Cheers!
-The Eagle Rock Brewery Team

I know, I know…my posts are few and far between these days.  I do apologize for that, but what can I say?  This whole business of building a brewery is the sort of hard work that keeps you busy all day, every day, until it is done.

But we’re getting so close now…

Here’s a few pictures of what we’ve been up to.  Hopefully we’ll be able to invite everyone over very soon to see it for themselves.

The tasting room as seen from the front door. The painting in here is finished.

And a view into the brewhouse from the tasting room...

Here's a look at the unfinished bar. This should be finished with a front and top by the end of next week.

Behind the bar where the sinks and back-bar will soon be.

Our friend JT works on welding a support to hold the back-bar. Stop staring at the welding arc...You'll burn your eyes out!

And voila! The support is finished...

Here's a look into the women's restroom, with most of the tiling completed.

And the men's restroom, with some tile...but also indoor plumbing that works! Very exciting indeed!

Here's a nice look at the brewhouse, with most of the tanks finally in their permanent locations. Oh, and also floors that have already been sealed.

Getting our bottling tank upright was a little bit precarious...

...But we managed it. Woohoo! (anyone remember those Toyota commercials from the 80's?)

Now that all of our walls are up and most of the messy work is done, we’re finally able to install some of the fixtures and finishes (windows, doors, trim, etc.).  Also we’ve been able to spend a good deal of time putting primer and paint on the walls…but there’s still lots more to do.  Here’s a few pics of the latest progress…

The tasting bar with primed walls.

The window and doors into the brewhouse are installed.

Hallway to bathrooms, primed and ready for paint.

Women's bathroom, painted and ready for tile.

The warehouse, painted and with doors.

Warehouse wall, with FRP. Sinks for the brewhouse will be mounted here soon.

Brewhouse doorways. Fire-shutter is over the window (center); Air Curtain is over the loading-area door (left).

A corner of the brewhouse, painted and tiled, and ready for the floor to be sealed.

The loading area, primed and ready to be painted.

Catching up indeed!  We’ve been working at a fast and furious pace for the last couple weeks and it has been a real challenge to find the time to post.  Things are looking really great though and, as you’ll see below, it’s getting easier to visualize the finished space.

This picture of the framing around our vestibule was taken just a few days after my last post.  The one on the right was taken on the same day, but looking back toward the entry door from the seating area.

The next two pictures were also taken on the same day and show the completed framing around the bar area.  In some of these pictures you’ll see the occasional tank or two…Since everyone was working so quickly, we had to move the tanks around quite a bit to keep them out of the way of the scissor lifts and ladders.

It’s hard to believe that all of this framing happened in just a few days, but it just shows what a great construction team we have!  Actually, most of the guys on our team usually work on high-rise building projects, so our little brewery project must seem like a walk in the park for them…

The next picture is a view of our loading area, where we’ll bring pallets of raw materials in, and send pallets of beer out.  You’ll also notice that one side of the drywall has already been hung on these walls.  This helped to move things along quickly so that the grid for our drop-in ceiling could start to be hung on the other side of the drywall.

The picture below is a look into the brew house from the tasting room, showing the framing for our door and window.

Jumping ahead about a week (to sometime last week), we finished installing all of the electrical and plumbing work inside the walls pictured above, passed our rough inspections on those trades, insulated the walls, and finished hanging the drywall.  Yep…all in about one week. Pretty cool, huh?

Well, I guess I’ve spent enough time describing the above photos, so I’ll just post a bunch more below, and spare the descriptions…

Things are good.  The construction phase is still moving along at a lightning fast pace, and its amazing to watch our brewery space come into reality all around me on a daily basis.  Everyday seems to be busier than the last though, and yesterday was no exception…which means I didn’t even have time to post new pictures…doh!

Ok, I’ll just cut to it then, and post yesterday’s pics.  Maybe I’ll be able to catch up on today’s photos tomorrow…

The loading area gets framed up.  That doorway in the background will be our access for the forklift to bring pallets of malt, etc into the brewhouse.

The other side of the loading area wall (which would be the tasting room)

The high walls in the tasting room get framed.

More of the tasting room, with the framing for the ceiling soffit (above the bar).

And here we’re looking at the doorway to the warehouse (in the brewery area), where malt, etc will be stored.  We were also able to get drywall up on one side of some of the framed areas.

Brewgyver even stopped by to help install the new HVAC ducts in the brewhouse area.  Quite a multi-talented guy!

Almost finished.  This was at about 11:30 last night, which made for a very long day for both of us…

Ok, off to bed now…construction meeting at 6am tomorrow and another long, busy day after that.  But, that will bring us one day closer to our opening day, so it will all be worth it!

I know it probably won’t be long before the stress-induced headaches and beaucratic slow-downs resume, but for now, we’re moving along at a really good pace, and I have to say I’m enjoying the hell out of it!  It really feels great!!!

Here’s some pictures of today’s progress…which in my mind was pretty significant…

The first thing you might notice is that the trench in the parking lot is all filled up and ready for some new asphalt.   Awesome.

An early morning shot as the insulation starts to go up in the brewhouse area…

And a shot in the afternoon, after most of the insulation was intstalled.  Awesomer.

This is looking out toward the “loading area”, from the brewhouse, looking at the doorway between the two spaces.  All framed up and ready for drywall.

And here is the framed-up area that will become our “warehouse space” (or malt storage room).  The next shot was taken a few hours later, after all of the exterior surfaces of the room were skinned with drywall.  Yes indeed, I know it looks good!

Ok, so this is a shot is looking at the warehouse from the reverse angle (from the tasting room area).  You can see how the interior wall of the hallway has also been skinned with drywall.

And here we are looking down that same hallway that will lead to the restrooms and janitor closet.

Here is a shot of the guys working on the Cold Room early this morning…

And here it is in the afternoon.  Basically everything is complete structurally, but they still need to install the refrigeration unit do a few clean-up tweaks.

So that’s it for today.  Lots of progress, and hopefully lots more tomorrow…Cheers to that!!!!

Lots of things going up this week.  Today the Cold Room started to be assembled and some of the framing for our walls started to be installed too.  Things are finally starting to move quickly, and I have to say it feels pretty damn good!

So here’s a few shots of our progress today…

Three walls of the Cold Room….

Framing is completed on the wall that forms the hallway to the bathrooms.

Even Ting is going up…What can I say?  Not only do I have a fantastic and supportive wife (who also happens to be a very skilled beer judge), but she also knows how to drive a scissor lift!  I guess I’m a lucky guy…

That’s all for now…more progress tomorrow…

Yes!  Hell yes!  Today we poured the concrete for our brewhouse floor and covered up the trenches and new sewer lines.  I can’t tell you how good it feels to get this step out of the way.  In fact, it feels somehow symbolic…like we’re cementing this brewery into reality.

I wish I had more pictures of the process to share, but I was doing a lot of running around today, and could only snap a few shots as I was running in and out.  One other thing I should mention is that we also passed our rough water and gas-line inspections today, so we will be able to install our cold-room in front of those pipes on Monday, as scheduled.  One more thing to celebrate!

Here’s our hard working crew, getting the job done.

And here’s a shot of our almost-poured brewhouse floor, as we wait for the next truck to hook up to the pump.

And a bit later, after part of the form was removed from our curb.

Here’s a look at the final product as the guys remove the forms from the trench drain.

And lastly, here’s a nice shot of the tasting bar location.  Ahhh…the sounds of sweet, sweet progress.  I will definitely drink to that!  Who’s with me?