Department of Environmental Health

DEH!!!

We are resubmitting our Department of Environmental Health paperwork. Turning over a new leaf hopefully. Our initial submitted plan had us calling our brewing premise a "Wholesale Foods Processing Area" (Note: DO NOT DO THAT!) just call it the "Brewing Premise."

I've heard from a few sources that the DEH is the toughest hurdle in opening a new brewery, so though we can legally sell to bars, it might be a little while until we can legally serve you a pint on premise. Not that I'd sell you one illegally.

Department of Health Requirements:

1. UP TO CODE: There is a very long and complicated list of requirements that your establishment needs to meet in order to serve the public.

2. 11"x17" Copy of your floor plan / diagram / plat in triplicate.

3. Environmental Health Note: i.e. what is the impact of your facility / the construction of the facility.

4. Plumbing Layout: Exactly what it sounds like.

5. Equipment Schedule: Location, Manufacturer, Model #, Exterior Finish, Interior Finish, and Remarks. AND Equipment location (floor plan with numbered equipment layout corresponding to the equipment schedule)

6. Cut Sheets: Manufacturer cut sheets (diagrams) of equipment

7. HVAC Layout: Exactly what it sounds like.

8. Existing Finishes: Location, What the color, material, and description of: Walls, Floors, Ceiling, Casing, Baseboard, and Finish.

9. Site Plan: Everything around you, i.e. your street location, trash cans, storm drains, etc...

10. Various legal agreements if there are any with others around you.

11. $$$: Check for however much your local Department of Health deems necessary. Probably close to $1,000.00

Plus:
Operation Guide
Food Handlers Handbook
Employee Health & Hygiene Guidelines
Insider's Guide to Hand Washing
Saving Water Today; for a less thirsty future.

Cold Room Set-Up

We finally got around to putting the cold room together. We got a little side tracked after finding out that we are going to have to install two more sinks in our space. Do you think it is a coincidence that the acronym for the Department of Health is D'OH!? I find it highly suspicious. Highly.

Anyways, we have to install a floor sink, so we had about six plumbers come in last week to give us estimates on how much it is going to cost to install one and it looks like it's going to be in the $1,250 to $2,700 range. The deal with a floor sink is when serving any sort of food or beverage to citizens of San Diego we need to have an air gap between the plumbing and the sewer, that way we don't get sewage backing up back into our sinks. A little something called "Backflow Prevention."

The cold room was really easy to assemble, it was like a gigantic piece of IKEA furniture. Just needed a bit of elbow grease to lug the pieces around into the correct position and a little deductive reasoning to determine where the ceiling pieces and voilà! Instant* cold room.

Here are some semi-timelapsed photos from the build out:

*Instant being about 4 hours + a 14 hour round trip to Phoenix.

Home Sweet Home

WE MOVED INTO THE OUR WAREHOUSE!

This is the biggest move forward we have made to date, besides registering our fictitious business name.

I am excited to get this show on the road and actually having a space to call home will help push us in the right direction. Next up, dealing with the DEH to pass codes and whatnot. I hear that is going to be the toughest/most costly aspect of getting the business up and running.

I'll be sure to post more pictures once we actually have the place set-up. It might not look like much right now, but give us a couple months and you'll be surprised how great the beer this little place will be putting out.

Just remember, it's not the size of the brewery that counts. It how you use it.