Proof of Life in Stainless Steel

JVNW (OR, USA) sent us some photos today of our tanks being finished up. Too bad we didn’t get more photos of the brew house tanks, somewhere here you can see a part of one of them… some shots of the fermentation vessels, 10 barrel and 20 barrel tanks.

A Few Progress Photos...

Wednesday the 20th, the crane helping with the shear walls.

Today, Mark and Peter checking out the trench drain placement in the main brew house area. The windows are coming later this week.

Cold Beer

Today I went to visit and pay for our new walk-in, glass front cooler. It arrived to the supplier’s warehouse without any damage to the panels and doors. Can’t wait until Mark assembles it in place, beautiful with all its cooling and beer friendly lighting. What a sight to see, when it is finally filled with wonderful beer, cold “heavy” Epic beer.

2010 Starting Out Right

So… the City decided to give me a birthday present and it was a good one. We received approval for our building permit on December 30th! Our pal and GC, Mark, wasted no time getting busy. I took this picture on January 5th, and sorry to all those hoping that Epic could deliver Utah’s first drive thru, it just couldn’t happen for so many reasons…

The front of the building was lopped off so we can make an extension to the west and increase the ceiling height to allow for the brand spanking new brew house and some of the fermentation tanks right up front. The storefront glass that graced the front previously will not be taking up space in a landfill since it will be reused in another local business.

TTB [Alcohol & Tobbaco Tax & Trade Bureau] Gives Epic the Go!

We received the email below today and it made us happy.


“Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 8:56 AM
To: Peter Erickson
Subject: Your Brewery has been approved and is in the mail!


[our contact], TTB Specialist”


This is the Federal approval of our brewery application. If we have some luck, we might finally get our building permit in the coming days. Nothing is easy, so we just have to keep pushing.

Cheers!

14 Concepts

14 different concept brews in two different cellars! We have been working hard on brews, building issues, equipment layouts, labels and loans.

Kevin and I are off to Carlsbad, CA on Friday for some R&D with many others from Utah. It is going to be a great time tasting strong ales and hanging out in the old SDSU stomping grounds.

Wheat Beer at Sunset

More concept brews with the small pilot system underway at about one a week. The Stout got going last week and is looking good. This week we hope to do a very special barrel aged Belgian style strong ale. If the flavors work out, all I can say is look out, it is going to be a treat. We will be shooting for about 10% ABV with this one and if the concept is proven to be tasty, ask to see the full size cask once we get underway at the brewery.

We have been at the City a lot these days. Support for the project is very encouraging and we hope to have the building permit in three weeks or, hopefully less. Next week we have our first visit from JVNW to discuss the install of our brew house with our contractors. Things are moving but never fast enough.

Something special that just says spring beer to you? Since our projected opening date is early spring, it would be great to have some comments as to what readers here might enjoy brew wise in the springtime.