Our Brewery Has Arrived!
A forest of beautiful stainless steel has sprouted over the past 3 days. It looks and feels incredible.
After reading and adjusting plans a thousand times over the past 12 months, it’s amazing to see it in the flesh, finally sitting in place. 26 Orchard Road now looks like a legit brewery and we’re all walking around with a spring in our step, knowing that they’ll be fired up the taps pouring within weeks.
It wasn’t easy. We very nearly dropped a couple as the tanks were unloaded and I actually thought I might have a heart attack at one point as these monsters wobbled up high on the forklift while Tony was trying to drag them over the driveway layback. The 40ft truck they arrived on wouldn’t fit in our loading bay, so we were forced to unload from the street, cars whizzing by… When the last one came off the truck we all breathed a big sigh of relief!
Then there was putting them in place. Our biggest tank was 23mm too high to fit under the roof truss. For a while we debated on whether to reconfigure the entire brewery to avoid the need to move under the truss, or lift the roof off… 23mm isn’t much. But it’s also a fucking lot. Eventually it took 6 able bodied men about 4 hours to gradually angle it underneath and into position.
We now have a few days of piecing all the pipe work together and getting the burners commissioned. The gas metre I ordered in September still hasn’t been installed, so we can’t brew until that’s in, but I’m promised it’ll be in by the end of January.
All things going well I reckon we’re on track for an opening in the next 3-4 weeks. Still a bit to do, but the finish line is in sight!