It's still July, Right? Yes? Good.

The days are flying by so quickly.  I barely have time to enjoy the fact that we've made it this far. I have to take a deep breath every day and reflect on the experience we've had building this brewery.

With every waking hour, we are getting closer to making craft beer in downtown Santa Ana. How exciting! The last really substantive blog post covered the initial phases of construction - mostly demolition. That was May, and this is July. Construction always takes longer than you anticipate, especially on a project like this, but rest assured we are pushing forward at a rate we know will produce a divine finished product.  So, I guess you're curious about what we've been up to...

We poured a new concrete slab near the end of May.  It takes 4 weeks for concrete to cure (dry out) even though it's hard as a rock the next day.  Oh the thrill of seeing water flow down the slightly sloped concrete floor towards custom formed trench drains.  It's the little things that are exciting in a process like this - the visual cues that offer insight into how the drawings in a plan set will take form in the physical realm.

Rebar and trench drain forms prior to pouring the new concrete slab

Starting to pour the new concrete slab

Concrete finishers slope the slab before the concrete dries

The slab is finished off and left to cure

With the concrete slab in place, we set the plumbers loose on water and vent piping.  The natural gas service was another story. At least I was aware that the natural gas would be a hurdle from the beginning. But, I never could have anticipated the roller coaster of events that ensued. Our building has not had gas service since the 1980's, so we had to install a new gas meter and house line. The gas meter would be installed in a meter vault embedded within the sidewalk in front of our building, just as the gas company told me time and time again for almost two years leading up to this past June.  In May I reinitiated contact with the gas company. The gas company sent out a project planner that was assigned to my project - he told me the same thing I had heard for two years, gas service would be initiated from a meter vault in front of the building.

Weeks went by and I heard nothing.  (Oh, the frustration of waiting for others!) I started badgering the gas company again to move this process forward - after all, it didn't make sense for us to install the internal "house line" without knowing where the gas service would be initiated. Finally, after weeks of no response, I was able to get a regional planner to return my call and we set up a second meeting on site.  This was when they delivered the shocking news: gas service would not be provided via an underground meter vault originating in the sidewalk. Instead gas would be conveyed from an above ground and existing point of service on the North East corner of an adjacent building.  The challenge I was faced with was that the existing gas meter, which serves a restaurant around the corner from us, would require our house line to traverse two different basements under different ownership and require review of a revised house line layout by the City. Each basement is already packed full of water, gas, electrical and mechanical systems servicing the buildings above, presenting physical routing challenges.

In a mad rush, I had our engineers, plumbers, and my contractor on site to review the proposal. We walked through the basements to see if it could be done, identifying obstacles along the way.  Within days, the engineers had redrawn the plans. During that time, I had several meetings with the owners and tenants of the buildings to explain our proposed plans and construction clean-up procedures. With revised plans, I had several sets printed and scheduled an appointment with the plumbing plan checker at the City. The City was very diligent about making sure our review was quick and painless. After all, we were merely requesting a change in house line alignment and meter location, and delays in review could cost time and money in the long run.  Within weeks of finding out that the world had been turned upside down, we were fully staged to install the house line, and over the course of a weekend (because the gas line would traverse multiple properties and tenant spaces) the new gas line was installed.

Concrete cores 3-inches wide were drilled between each basement for our gas line

Since then, construction has been relatively straight forward. We installed roof supports for a glycol chiller and, after the framing inspection, dropped the glycol chiller on the roof with a crane. We installed polyurethane floors on top of the new concrete slab - an industrial product that is both extremely durable and slip-resistant. The electricians have been on site for the last couple weeks, installing a new breaker panel, outlets and disconnects. We passed our most recent plumbing inspection - house gas line, hot/cold water and air vents.

A crew prepares the concrete for polyurethane

Installation of the first coat of polyurethane

Lifting the glycol chiller to its final resting place, the roof

The glycol chiller awaits the opportunity to control fermentation temperatures 

On the equipment side, our heat exchanger was delivered, although, they sent the wrong model (we requested a two stage water/glycol heat exchanger, and they sent a single stage water heat exchanger). They are going to be shipping out a replacement soon. The glycol plumbing is going to be delivered tomorrow and installed over the weekend. David, my brother Bryce, and I drove to Buellton about a month ago in a big Penske truck to pick up a load of used red wine French oak barrels. In retrospect, we should have waited to get the barrels closer to our anticipated fill date, but it was too good a deal to pass up. We ordered a bunch of clamps, gaskets, hoses, process pipes, fittings, and valves, among other brewery gadgets. Some of the tasting room accommodations have been made - chairs and tables are en route. Railings around the brewing area are also expected to be installed relatively soon.

We are quickly approaching a final inspection... Stay tuned.