The show goes on… Newest on the agenda is that we won’t need the lift station that was in the original blueprint and that saves us 15K but it also potentially costs us 1 – 3 weeks more time until permitting is taken care of.

            The zoning issue has become a debate that we are attempting to put to rest with blueprints for the entire complex of warehouses. They are considering us a 50 seat microbrewery and this means that the parking lot has to have adequate parking in order to facilitate this. Now, it is a matter of proving that we will have the adequate parking in order to obtain a change of usage. As an added note to this comment I want to clarify the things that we have experienced regarding the zoning issue. I met with our engineer today (9/10/08) and he told me that we would have to hire an architect to produce our blueprints for the tasting/retail room and that we would have to specify dry storage, hop storage, retail area, tasting area, number of seats in tasting area and so on. This means that we would have to enclose the retail and tasting area and insulate and A/C this area and this would cost a lot of money to implement in addition to the fees for the architect’s drawings. I met with a city employee today at the construction division and he told me that we could put our wet zoning on hold until we could afford the upgrades to pass review for occupancy. We also have to submit a detailed description providing what the intended usage is on the cover page of the existing blueprint. It will have to state that we are a production only facility and that we are putting our wet zoning on hold until further notice. We can’t submit the changes to the construction division until we get back the current blueprints that are going through the review process. This will cost us 7 – 10 days before the reviews come back. When they come back, we will submit the new blueprint with the project description on the cover and the removal of the lift station with the new drain line alterations. Bottom line is that we won’t have a tasting room or be able to have in house retail until we can afford to make the changes to the building that will allow us to  facilitate this.  

             Alan from Premier Stainless says that our brew house will most likely ship by the end of the week. There will be a 3-5 day transit prior to its arrival. Am I thrilled to have the brew house here? Of course, but at the same time there is a floor management issue that is becoming more apparent as we continue to receive additional equipment. In other words, THERE ISN’T ENOUGH SPACE. I have already moved everything around last week (with Madison…the former head brewer from Dunedin and McGuire’s…thanks tremendously, Madison) and it is already tight. The brew house arriving prior to the onset of floor construction will make it damn near impossible. We might have to work on sections in order to get it all to work out. At this point, I am at a play it as you see it phase with most of the construction details anyway and have become fairly desensitized to the permitting process. How many weeks did you say it is going to be? Yeah, right, in one ear and out the other. My feelings have changed a little regarding the desensitized thing. I am feeling much more confident now that I understand what has to take place to get the construction process started. I just wish that we had known that the wet zoning issue was going to lead to all the additional blueprints and hassle so that we could have addressed it earlier. If we had not had to face this dilemma we would have already been through with construction by now. Live and learn.  

            I  am meeting with our electrical engineer tomorrow (Tuesday). Since the lift station is being pulled, that means that his schematic has a 100% chance of being wrong. It will be a small detail and shouldn’t take any time to work out. In my opinion, I would be surprised if it took more than an hour to fix. I ended up canceling this meeting because it was pointless to meet with an engineer who didn’t have all the details. I called the engineer’s office and made him aware of the amendments to the schematic.  I am going to reschedule this meeting tomorrow and see if the schematic has been amended.

            Now I can move on to the more exciting things that happened over the weekend.

            The Beer Advocate tasting at Oldsmar Tap House was phenomenal. Cigar City brought our Capricho Oscuro (a blend of 5 different dark beers with our robust porter accounting for 45% of the blend…aged on virgin oak for 8 weeks) and our Patio Pils (a Pre-Prohibition Pilsner with a modern twist). Ben (Kingdom Liquors) was also kind enough to sacrifice his only bottle of 110K+OT (our Imperial Scotch Ale) to the tasting and let me say that Tony made the perfect call by pairing it with smoked gruyere and I would also like to add a big thank you to Ben for adding another one of our beers to the tasting ( I will do my best to reimburse you, Ben). The response to our beers was very positive and I deeply appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and support. One of the high points during the tasting of the CCB beers was the mass toast with Capricho Oscuro.

            I have to say thank you to some of the attendees and people responsible for the event coming together:

            Thanks Ryan for helping to put this thing together and making it work. It was an overwhelming experience for me (I must also add a thank you for your support as well).

            Thanks Tony for housing this event and being an incredible host.

            Thanks Ben, Dave, Greg (really wish you could have been there), John, Sebastien and Geiger for the unconditional support and the great beers that all of you contributed to the tasting. I have to say that my favorite of the afternoon was Dark Lord. It is the best commercial interpretation of an imperial stout that I have ever laid lip to.

            Thanks Tracy and Travis for showing up to represent Dunedin and the good beer related conversation. Travis, come by the brewery and I will make sure that you get a CCB hat (but you might have to wait in line…lol).

            Thanks Tyler for expressing interest in commercial production as a home brewer. I will definitely keep you in mind when we start production. I find that there is more automation and precision on the commercial scale but the curve shouldn’t outweigh your curiosity.

            Thanks Justin (of Florida Beverage) for the discussion on distribution and the overall companionship and discussion on contrasting Kate the Great, Darkness and Dark Lord. Bring that worthless Ron Raike with you next time there is an event and we have our beer there.

            If I have left anyone out, then I sincerely apologize. There was so much great beer at the event and so many knowledgeable people there that it was hard to fit every beer and every person into the afternoon.

On a final note, the barley wine is attenuated and is currently going through cold conditioning prior to packaging. If you enjoy English barley wines then this should be right down your alley. It was a pleasant surprise to see this one attenuate out. I had to coerce it every step of the way. We are considering called this pilot Brain Trussed. I will let Joe add a side note to explain the ideology behind the name. (Brain Trussed is just a play on the phrase Brain Trust. Trussed means bound or tied up. -Joey)

            Over and (st)out.

            Take care,

            Wayne Wambles         

            Head Brewer

            Cigar City Brewing