The Continuing Story of an ABC License.

Today we visited the San Marcos branch of The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. Twice.

Twice because we forgot to bring our corporate paperwork (secretary of state filing number, stock issuance, etc...) so we had to go back down to our offices to get them. Luckily they were not busy today and we were able to schedule an appointment for after lunch.

Once back we talked to Vicky, the friendly ABC worker, for about twenty minute. After updating some information, correcting a few details here and there, we were done. Just had to wait for them to enter the info into the computer.

While we waited we headed downstairs to talk to the Board of Equalization (in soviet russia-board equalize you) to talk to them about getting a seller's permit and whether we need to obtain a surety bond or not. Turns out they have no idea...

Headed back upstairs and they presented us with this pretty little piece of paper we need to post for 30 days. Overall a productive day.

This Storefront (is a figment of my imagination)

Imaginary Store Front.

This is my vision for a storefront in the near future. Since we are not on the street we are going to have to have a good amount of signage so people can actually find us in this industrial park. Once we finalize our logo and brand direction we can get a sign up there. I don't know whether I should make it by hand or outsource it to a professional... or have one of my art student friends make it? Too many decisions.

Today it got pretty darn hot in this joint, up to 135 degrees on the bay door. I need to figure out a way to harness all of that power.

We had the guy from Culligan's Water come in today to with our water test results and to talk about what kind of filtration system we are going to go with. Luckily our water is pretty good quality, not too hard and not too soft. It is a little bit salty though, which is odd but easy to correct.

We have a meeting with the Alcoholic Beverage Control on Monday. Hopefully all of our paperwork is in order and we can get licensed. After that only a couple more governmental agencies to work with and we can start brewing!

The Equipment Is Getting Setup

We moved the equipment in on Wednesday and are working on setting it up at the moment. Lots of cleaning to do. Lots of plumbing & electrical work to be done as well. Contacted the planning department since we will need permits to change plumbing lines and add more drains. We are good to go since we are in a IL 2-1 zone.

We are in the process of acquiring some larger fermentors and brew kettles, looking at a couple different vendors: PBST Beer, Bitter Creek, Stromberg Tanks, and a few more.

It will not be too long before we can start to brew. We finished the Alcoholic Beverage Control paperwork today, and we will be setting up an appointment to meet with them next week. Now onto the TTB & DEH paperwork!

Label Design

We are beginning to talk about branding and direction our brewery is going to take once we are up and running.

Today our good friend and excellent graphic designer got us five drafts for our label concepts. Unfortunately I cannot show you the designs quite yet, since I would have to kill you, you see? I can say that they are going to be great.

As with any alcoholic beverage we will need to eventually get the designs approved by the FDA/"The Man" before anything is final. This involves showing the alcohol content by volume, recycling info, net fl.oz, that no animals were harmed during the making of, etc...

Once we are more sure of the direction this place is going to be headed I will be sure to share it with you. Until then... CLASSIFIED.

The Blueprint

Today was a busy day. I got the electricity, WiFi, and telephones up and running. Once all of that was set up I was able to begin working on drafting a blue print to comply with the DEH, TTB, and ABC.

Today I was just worried about getting the scaling right on all of the objects that are going to be in the warehouse. After that I can begin to focus on how they are going to be arranged. Also, we are not 100% sure of the size/capacity of the brewing equipment quite yet.

I'm just not sure how the ABC is going to feel about a pool table and shuffleboard being in the space with us.