Three Years

(Our first GABF)

Every December, not only do I add on a year to my age (I was born December 28^th), I add one on to my years here at The Bruery. Three years ago I started working here while finishing my Communications degree at California State University Fullerton. Three years ago to this date Patrick and I just finished placing the brew-house equipment in its current place. It's kind of fitting that exactly three years later I am now getting ready to move some of that equipment to make room for more tanks. For those of you who have been to our brewery, you will notice some big changes coming in the new year. Our 30 barrel bright tank will be moving almost up against the tasting room bar along with a new 60 barrel bright tank right next to it. In its place we plan on installing one 30 barrel fermentor with another new 30 barrel fermentor not too far away from it. On top of all of that, we plan on placing a new 45 barrel fermentor in there as well! To help make room for the bright tanks and our new 45 barrel hot liquor tank, the whirlpool vessel that so many of you lean on during tasting room hours will be moving between the mash/lauter tun and boil kettle. We should be getting these tanks in early January so you’ll probably see me in the brewery looking more like a contractor than a brewer in the next month or so. As I am writing this I am just thinking about all the stuff that has to be done in the next thirty days and I can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed and scared, but this is what I love doing, I get the chance to redo parts of the brewery and make it so much easier for the brewers to do their jobs.

It's kind of weird that I was doing the same thing three years ago. I didn’t have the knowledge back then that I do now but I'll probably say the same exact thing three years from now. Three years ago I was worrying about setting up our brew-house procedures and placing equipment so it couldn't limit us in anyway (I guess I didn't do that good of a job!). Now I’m looking at charts, graphs and layouts worrying about pipe capacities in gallons per minute, effectively heating our HL tank without a boiler, shutting down production to modify our current glycol piping and hiring two new people to help us package our beer once these new tanks are up and running. So if you see me stressed out at The Bruery, it’s because I am! The sooner I can get these tanks up and running, the sooner we can make more beer!