There is hope in brick and stone

Today, we’ll offer a brief construction update on the brewery.  Things are going well!

We've had a few (unneeded) overhead doors removed; one of these was replaced with a smaller door, the other will be replaced by a window.  Other old and unused doorways have been permanently sealed off.  Uneven flooring has been blasted away and replaced with new concrete.  The final treatment on the floor needs to be completed and the floor will be sealed using an epoxy with a urethane finish. 

Concrete

Door out, window (soon to be) in

New overhead door

We've resized the incoming gas supply for our boiler.  We've ordered both our boiler and our chiller and are eagerly awaiting their arrival.  The concrete pad for the boiler has been laid in preparation.  The main steam header for the brewhouse has been fabricated, to be installed prior to the brewhouse install.  We've finalized all the components of our glycol loop, which is needed for chilling the fermenters during fermentation and for cold crashing to carbonation and serving temperatures.  We've finalized the components of our water treatment equipment as well – or didn’t you know that good water makes good beer!  (For the record, Buffalo has very good water for making beer, we’re just tweaking it a bit to make sure it stays that way.)

We’re getting ready to paint the interior of the brewhouse any day (like, it may be going on as you’re reading this).  The exterior will get a fresh coat as well.  Once the floor and paint are completed, the brewhouse goes in.  It’s looking like mid-May right now – only a few weeks away!  There will be several weeks of connecting utilities after that: steam, water, electrical, glycol, compressed air.  And, after that, we’ll be brewing.  Hurrah!

There is still a huge scope of construction remaining for the office area, bathrooms, lab space, and future kitchen and tap room.  The entire area, which included many long ago rendered useless offices and random meeting spaces, has been completely annihilated.  What’s left is a huge open gravel pit, and plans.  The office area, lab and bathrooms will go in first.  In fact, we plan on using the office area to serve samples and fill growlers in the first several months we’re open while the tap room is being built.  The tap room will go in several months later.

Not too distant future scope...

The upstairs of the building, which also housed many random offices as well as an open and completely unused space, had the ceiling cut out about a month ago.  This cutout will eventually be an overlook for viewing the lower half of the taproom from an upstairs terrace.  This upstairs space will serve as overflow from the taproom, or, a possible location for private parties and events. 

The best spot to view from the brewery though, is actually looking away from it.  From the brewery, you can clearly see the mighty Electric Tower, as well as the gold domed M&T Center building.  Walking down Huron street a bit you can see within the old Howard Shoes building, soon to be the site of Oshun, a raw bar owned by the current owners of Shango on Main Street.  Looking even further beyond, you get a sense of the rest of bustling downtown Buffalo.

A magical view

Looking up from Ellicott Street, in the far off distance, you can see change.  The medical campus is rapidly becoming its own city.   Construction and development are everywhere.

It’s the sound of progress that you hear as you walk the streets of downtown Buffalo.  We are so very happy to be in the middle of it.  We’ll have another update for you next month, as we expect to be much, much further along than we are now.