A first of Many. Or, many Firsts.

December 30, 2020

The last couple weeks were filled with many firsts. Coupled with the holidays, it was hard to be 100% focused on moving the brewery toward opening.

We did, however, get our POS training completed, as well as, set up the tablet and hardware. We are using software called Arryved. This is a pretty hearty platform designed for restaurants and breweries. We think it will fit nicely with the future brewpub, but in the mean time, it will certainly handle our small operation at the corner of Ferry Rd, and Route 2. We are excited for the app, and since it was created by many folks who worked and played in the brewing industry, we feel confident it will meet our needs.

We also took our first trailer load of liquid brewery waste to the farm. SO EXCITING! It was a rather eventful afternoon. We borrowed my brother's truck, picked up the trailer (a tanker trailer we had acquired in Plattsburgh many months prior), and tested out our new pump. The pump worked great, after we finally got it started. Needless to say, there was a few simple lessons to be learned when using a brand new motor out of the box. The tanker trailer holds 1000 gallons, and our inside waste tank holds 500 gallons. Ideally, we could fill the tank twice before taking it to the farm, but since its cold out, we will dump it with each 500 gallon iteration. We take it up to a farm literally 1000 feet from our brewery location. The dumping part is easy: back it up to the manure pit, add a 10 foot pipe length and open the valve. Gravity takes care of the rest. Fun times!

We also spent a little time resurrecting a small chiller we received with our really old Perlick Kegerator. This will act as our primary chiller until yours truly is done pluming and setting up the big Glycol System. It is not very powerful and it's in rough shape, but this little guy should be able to handle our 2 bbl fermentor.

Finally, we were able to brew our largest batch to date on the pilot system. We brewed our "Turtle Bay IPA" on Tuesday. We maxed out the volume of our kettle and had some issues with our mash being too thick. All good problems to has out now before we get into some more regular brewing. In the end, the we had great efficiency, and we added lots of hops!

We are looking for a relatively low key soft opening sometime in January. With Covid rules and limitations on indoor capacity, we don't feel it's necessary to have a big "grand opening." We can save a big celebration for a couple years from now, when we move into our final home at the Brew Pub.

Stay tuned!