Open at Last @hawksbillbrew

When we first sat out on David's front porch in September 2015, even though we were there to discuss a business plan for a brewery, I'd be hard pressed to say whether I ever thought we'd get there.  But we stayed the course and on May 12, 2017, we finally opened Hawksbill Brewing Company.

After taking the last six weeks off from blogging, I am going to work on getting caught up on everything that we did during that time to finish the project and open to the public - right up until current, with a few weeks of operations under our belts.

Meanwhile, the link below will take you to the WHSV coverage of our opening night, May 12.  It was well attended, as you will see in the story, and we sold a lot of beer.  In fact, we're still selling a lot of beer - we have great support from the community, and we hope that we can have a positive impact to the town!

http://www.whsv.com/content/news/Hawksbill-Brewing-Company-the-first-brewery-to-open-in-Luray-422152613.html

Grown Here - Brewed Here @hawksbillbrew

We've made a commitment at the brewery to try and source locally whenever we can.  To begin with, it means we'll use the hops we grow at Hawksbill Hop Yards as often as we can, and we'll supplement those with hops from other Shenandoah Valley and Virginia growers - inevitably we'll need to source some from hops brokers though.  And we'd like to find sources for other local ingredients, especially the barley base malt we're going to use.

For now, the pursuit of local ingredients is a goal, but it is a key part of who we are and what we want to do at the brewery.

Meanwhile, we've figured out some other things we can do to have a good local impact.  We decided to source some of our opening day furniture locally, and reached out to Luray High School to see if we couldn't have some picnic tables made - and they delivered!

We have these four foot tables inside the brewery, and then larger 8-footers outside in the beer garden.  The gray bar stools are repurposed from an Alexandria restaurant that closed last year.

The weather in Luray, for those who don't know, is really great for three-season outdoor living.  Sure there are thunderstorms and rainy days, but we're sure these are going to get plenty of use.  I can't wait to have a seat and an IPA out there myself!

Volunteer Day @hawksbillbrew

Where did March go?

Since my last post on the blog we've been keeping busy getting Hawksbill Brewing ready to open.  I'll spend the next few posts catching up on March before writing up April.  But a quick sidebar:  the grand opening date for the brewery is set for May 12!

A highlight last month was the volunteer day we had in the middle of the month.

Finally all of the major construction was done, so we made a call for help to help us with a scrubbing down.  We were very blessed to have about 10 folks show up to help out with polishing the brew kitchen, cleaning up brick dust from where the new A/C system punched through the wall, and other odds and ends that just needed some time an energy.

We put in about 6 hours that day.  Lots of polishing the stainless.  I think we are familiar enough with the mop and bucket that we are going to name them.

But at the end of it all, the place was spic and span.  We've got a few weeks left before we open, and brewing is underway, but for now, everything looks great!

First Official Brew Day @hawksbillbrew

(Don't forget our Kickstarter - we're just about half way through.  We sure appreciate your support!)


At Hawksbill Brewing, we've received our license, and we have our equipment commissioning scheduled.  Until we've completed those final inspections we're not doing full 5-barrel batches just yet.

But on Thursday, David decided to fire up the 1/2-barrel pilot system to do a batch of the Chocolate Milk Stout.  This recipe has been fine-tuned with a couple of trials, and we think it's almost ready for prime time.  This final batch should do it!

We're also having a volunteer day at the brewery this Saturday, 3/11, starting at 9am to do some final cleanup before commissioning.  We can start brewing as early as next week, so the volunteer time (not to mention the Kickstarter) will help us stay on track!

Kickstarter Progress @hawksbillbrew

A quick post today, mainly to give an update on our Kickstarter.  We're ten days into the campaign, and have raised about a third of our goal - so we're pretty much on track!  Here's a link!

Go to our Kickstarter project.


Meanwhile, the work on the new air conditioning system - the reason for the Kickstarter - is moving along nicely!  Here is an update photo of the new duct work.

Over the weekend the team worked on painting the floors, and now that is done.  Next up is the punch lists, a final inspection, and then we'll get started with commissioning the brew kitchen!

We certainly appreciate our Kickstarter supporters - thanks so much!

Our @kickstarter at @hawksbillbrew

Now that our licenses are in order, and our equipment is installed - we have a commissioning date and will start brewing soon - we've had a couple of building inspections to finalize before we open.  One of the situations we realized was that we are going to need an upgrade to the HVAC/Mechanical system to accommodate our occupancy and brewing system.

It's not surprising we'd need to do this, I suppose, since the building was built in 1911 and it's been 5 years since anyone went in there with the intention of using all the space, as we do.  The cost of our upgrade is in the low 5-figures, and we have half of the money, so we're trying to raise about $7,500 with our Kickstarter.

Speaking of Kickstarter - here's a link to our project.  The header video to this page will also take you there.

I've got a couple of highlight photos, too - the top right is the big unit outside the brewery, and there are two shots inside showing some of the ductwork that we had to do.

We could use the support, anything you can give will be much appreciated!

Equipment To-Dos @hawksbillbrew

While the licensing was a key hurdle for Hawksbill Brewing Company, it certainly wasn't the only big rock we had to move in order to complete our journey.  So last Saturday, when I came out to the brewery, I met up with David and Kevin, who were in the middle of some key preparation.

The next big milestone for us is commissioning the brew house - our system from Alpha Brewing Operations - and we are working to schedule that for mid-March.  To have a successful commissioning, we still have a few critical items to go, for example:

• grain milling and handling
• fabricating the connecting houses
• final painting and clean up
• new egress door and hardware on loading dock

These are just related to the brewhouse.  We've got to start hiring, start brewing, start reporting, and all of those key details!

In any case, the team has home-brewed a last two pilot batches for recipe testing, and they had got together to use our keg washer so that those batches can be moved into kegs.  Now that the license is in, we've moved the pilot system to the brewery and can brew professionally now on location, and that is our plan.

The other thing they were working on was fabricating the connectors so that we are one step closer to being ready for commissioning.  He're a photo of a couple of the longer hoses that they made on Saturday, along with a money shot of three of the fermenters.

We also took a look around the building and grounds while David reported back some of the details from the ABC inspection - and town building inspection.  These are some not-small hurdles, but they're falling into place.  I'll be posting on them as we continue to make progress towards opening.  

...We're almost ready to announce a date!

Kind of a Big Deal @hawksbillbrew

Probably the most anxiety-inducing aspect of the whole brewery development story is licensing.  It's also the most important step, so maybe the stress it brings on is appropriate.  Fortunately for us at Hawksbill Brewing, the waiting is over, and our licensing process s complete as of last week!

There is a story I like to tell about this journey we are on - it starts in 2013, when I first started doing research about how to grow hops.  Back then, the business plan centered on purchasing some land here in Page County and setting up the operation there - eventually including a farm brewery as part of the destination.

That's not how our plan rolled out, but what I learned as part of the research then was that there were 25 breweries in the state of Virginia at the end of 2013.  It is a population that has grown steadily since then.

In fact, our business partner "ABC Kevin" - he has led us through the licensing process - told us that there were 200 breweries in operation at the end of 2016, and that we were one of 37 that had our license in progress!

Now that we have the key administrative detail taken care of - this is the start of a whole new ball game as far as reporting and regulations go - we have a last few work flow items to take care of before we open.  I'll have another post later this week to write about a few of those.

Hawksbill Brewing - Construction Odds and Ends

At Hawksbill Brewing, we're at this stage of construction now where there are tons of loose ends to nail down.  At times it looks like a real mess inside the building, but things are really starting to come together in there, and we know we are on the way to creating a great experience for our patrons.

One of the items that we had identified during our preliminary building inspection was the need for new doors that met occupancy code.  With so much of the big stuff done, this was an item hanging out there to get taken care of - and now we have the new door installed, swinging out as it should, and with a panic bar in case it's needed for emergencies.

We're working on retrofitting the rear door with similar equipment.  That door will serve as our loading dock as well, but it will be part of the emergency egress plan and has to be outfitted the same way.

Another feature of the upgrades we've installed to the old building are two accessible restrooms.  The first photo here shows the little hallway where they are on the left and right.  The door to the rear is a small supply closet.

For decor, we continued with the barn siding theme in this area along with the board and batten paneling.

When this building first went up in the 19-teens, there weren't requirements anywhere near a strict as this, of course.  So making the upgrades was absolutely essential to being able to open.  It's great to be so close to finished with them all!

A final shot of the day - a look inside one of the new restrooms!  They're perfectly serviceable, I guess that's the point - not that they're luxurious and you would want to spend anymore time in there than necessary.  We did put a bright accent color in there on one of the walls, and added some vanity lighting to the mirror to add to the functionality.

So there you are.  At the same time as this final bit of construction, activity on our license has picked up - we have the federal license in hand now, and will likely receive the state license by the time this posts.  We're getting close to a grand opening announcement - keep an ear peeled for that over the next week or so!

David's Georgia Breweries Field Trip

A few weeks back, David mentioned that he and Heather had a road trip to Atlanta coming up.  Then he said he had reached out to a couple of breweries to see if he could visit.  They were receptive, so off he went - and then last week we got some photo updates.

His first stop was Red Brick Brewing, which was one of the first craft breweries in Georgia.  Here's a photo of him standing with the 100-barrel brite tanks.  For comparison, we have a 10-barrel brite at Hawksbill Brewing!

Among the other lessons learned from this first visit was that the serving laws for breweries in Georgia are very different from what we have here in Virginia.  Our law is much more favorable for entrepreneurs who want to start these businesses.  I understand that there are changes on the horizon in Georgia though.

Two other breweries he visited were Dry County and Southern Sky, where he worked on a brew day for a 7-barrel batch.  He says he learned a lot from the experience, and he's already shared some of that insight.  Between he and Kevin, they've already got some adjustments to the workflow in mind.

At Dry County, he had the chance to have a look at a 5-barrel brewing system made by Alpha Brewing Operations, who built ours.  Plenty of good insights from that visit, too.

A key takeaway from all this?  Hawksbill Brewing Company has joined a community of people who are very welcoming and always ready to share insights about craft brewing.  It's part of what makes the adventure fun - and eventually, profitable.  Every step forward is important to us at this critical stage!

Hawksbill Brewing - January Construction Update

Thanks to David and Kevin, a ton of work got done at Hawksbill Brewing in January.  I've got a photo of them here while they were working on hooking up all the shiny new equipment. I'd be remiss if I didn't add that their wives, Heather and Elisa, jumped in to help out too - we're where we are today because of them!

The trades kept at it during the month and the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing is nearly done.  We have a fairly big air conditioning project still to come, that will start early this month, but we've made substantial progress towards being ready to open.  We even have toilets and sinks in the new bathrooms!

After the brew kitchen arrived and December, and the sanding, painting, and other work was complete, David and Kevin moved the equipment into place and began hooking it up.  Then the electrical came in, plumbing, and glycol hook-ups - we got the new chiller installed on the pad out back,  It's pretty amazing to see all of the progress.

David toured me through everything on Saturday to check it out.  He explained the work flows and processes while showing were the controls were for each step - and even pointed out some equipment that I wasn't familiar with.  All of that will make the brewing process easier.

Now it's a matter of tying down a bunch of loose ends while the gang puts final touches on opening day recipes.  It won't be long now, and we'll have an opening day announcement soon!

@hawksbillbrew - Final Construction Update for 2016

For one final brewery post this year, I'll offer a couple of behind the scenes photos to round out the story.  About 40 percent of our construction budget has been allocated to mechanical, plumbing, and air conditioning improvements.  The work goes on in parallel to construction and it's sometimes hard to recognize how significant it is - so I'll do a quick write-up about it today.

Because we need fairly precise temperature controls for fermentation, we're putting in a glycol cooling system that will allow us to manage what is happening at any given time in all those shiny tanks.

We also need a cold room to store ingredients - not to mention finished beer.  On the blog I've showed a few photos of the exterior of that space (here and here, for example), but now the insulation has been installed, and the interior is complete.  They just hung our chiller for it, as shown in the photo.

So the glycol and the cold room are two of the upgrades we're working on.  The other is an upgrade of the air conditioning system.  That's a work in progress and there is not a lot to show just yet.

However, there is the second photo today, showing the new pad we've constructed out back.  This is where our the exterior part of our glycol system will be installed, and it's big enough to accommodate the new air conditioning unit that we'll put in over the next month to six weeks.  So I'll have a few more updates to come on this part of the construction project.

So this is it for 2016 - we saw a lot of progress on the brewery, which we hope to open in spring of 2017.  So in the coming year we'll have a few more posts on the topic of HBC Construction.  But there will also be plenty of them on the topic of operating the brewery!

Our New Bar Top @hawksbillbrew

Some things just come off better than you could ever expect, and that's definitely the case now that we are seeing the final finishes come together at Hawksbill Brewery.

We chose some fairly practical approaches for the big picture - the "board and batten style interior framed walls, for example, and a color palette that featured grays that would play off of the natural wood finishes.

Then we came across the old barn siding that we were able to repurpose - thanks again to Kevin for the find, and to David for rescuing it.  These finishes really have made Hawksbill Brewing Company a place, with a memorable style.

The last item for the bar was delivered this week - the bar top.  We had spec'd white oak, but I hadn't been carefully tracking what we would get once Marathon Millwork in Luray had fabricated it.  I knew it wasn't going to be a single slab though, it's a rare tree that could produce a board that large, and who knows how long it would take to season and then custom cut it to fit.

What we have is a lovely top that was pieced together from white oak planks.  There's lovely variation and character in every square foot of the thing.  The photo here was taken just after the first finish coat was applied, so it's shiny because it's still wet - that will be the first of four coats.

There's still plenty to do, and we are focused on completing everything within the next two months - when we hope that our license will be granted.  That's the long pole for us right now.

Brewhouse Installation @hawksbillbrew

Work in the brewhouse continues - there is just a ton of stuff that has to be done to complete construction, install and commission the equipment, and get the licensing in order before our planned opening, which we hope will be in March.  David shared some photos over the weekend of the equipment getting set into place - I thought I might put them up on the blog today.

Besides the equipment, there is a bit of a story to tell about this development - a few weeks back I wrote about the demo day we had, and then the floor prep.  Actually since then there have been a couple of days of painting, including not just the brewhouse floor, which looks pretty spectacular in these shots, but also the walls, and especially the plaster repairs that had to be done around the new window and that column in the corner.

So now the shiny stuff is all in place, pretty much in the final layout.  Not shown is an additional fermenter and the brite tank, but they're in place too.  And we have some room for expansion, if we are so fortunate as to need to do that!

There's more to do, including the balance of construction and painting the rest of the interior.

But this is a good checkpoint - everything is marching on!

New Windows @hawksbillbrew

One of the updates we needed to make to the building was to replace a couple of windows - I first wrote about this when we were having some demo done (link here).  Last week the new windows arrive and were installed, so I wanted to put up some photos of them.

First up in the new plate window back in the brewhouse area.  This had been one of those industrial glass pane and putty jobs back in the day.  It's in an awkward spot for maintenance though, and once the equipment installed it will be even more difficult to get to it.

The photo also brings to mind some of the wall preparation that is going on so that we can eventually paint the place.  In the right hand corner there is a major fresh patch that Kevin had just completed when I took the photo, and here and there we have some spackled areas from last week.  The window will be framed in soon and we can finish up with the plaster work - then we'll be ready to paint.

The other big window job was up in the front of the building, near where our main entry will be.  This window was old glass block, but there were quite a few broken, and the masonry needed work, so we decided a replacement would be most efficient.  We salvaged the glass block and are looking to put them to use somewhere, but in the meantime, I think this will add to the customer experience once we're open!

That area up front is also going through a lot of prep.  We're scraping off old paint and there is already a ton of spackling.  There's a bit of concrete patching to be done here too, but eventually we'll get through it all and can start the painting.

Those Floors @hawksbillbrew

We've written about the building Hawksbill Brewing Company will occupy a couple of times: how it was built in approximately 1911, operated as an ice storage facility for the railroad at first, then was a creamery, and eventually a string of retail establishments before we took the lease.  There's a trace of all those operations here and there throughout (some are great to find, some not so much - the graffiti left behind in one of the restrooms comes to mind!), but just like all of those before us, we need to update the building for our use - and that's going to be an ongoing blog topic for the next few months as we approach our opening.

Last weekend we set out to get the floors in shape for operation.  We had planned to simply paint them in a shade of gray, just like they had been in the past.  Once we got into the details of it, however, we discovered this wasn't going to be a simple case of painting over what was already there for consistency.

The advice we'd gotten was that while the old paint (and who knows who put it down or when, by the way) was holding, it was hard to predict what would happen to it once we got started brewing in there.  If the old paint finally failed and starting wearing away, the new paint on top of it would too...meaning future repairs and maintenance.  The prospect of taking care of issues like this would be pretty costly and complex once the whole brewhouse was in place.
So after further research, we decided to sand off as much of the old paint and then treat the concrete so that we could paint it.  David made arrangements with one of the hardware stores to rent the sander and buy a grinding wheel that we could use for the process, and set to work on it all.

It is a dusty and exhausting job - Kevin snapped this photo of him in action.  This area is about 600 square feet, and he worked at it for around 12 hours - I feebly worked on this for two or three hours so he could take a break.

Next steps with the floor in that area are to treat it so that we can paint it - that's all work we'll take care of this month, and hopefully complete before Christmas.  We'll paint the walls in January, when we'll also be installing and hooking up the brewery system.

Plenty of work to come!

The Hot Liquor Tank Challenge @hawksbillbrew

In yesterday's post I wrote about the appearance of our shiny new tanks and vessels, fresh from Alpha Brewing Operations.  It was a day we had been looking forward to for a few months, and at last it had arrived!  David had the logistics in place to ensure a smooth operation, and we completed unloading the container earlier, well within the window of time we had been allotted by the shipping company.

First off the truck was our 10-barrel hot liquor tank, or HLT.  Now, the term "hot liquor tank" suggests that this vessel has an association with alcohol, but it doesn't.  It has an important role in the brewing process, but its work is actually done well before any fermentation begins.  

Simply put, the HLT is a water heater, used to get water up to temperature for a couple of key early steps in the brewing process, namely striking and sparging.  These steps are part of the process for extracting the fermentable sugars from the grain - that may be a topic for a future post, but today I'm writing about how we got such a big piece of equipment into the building.  Seriously, we were worried that we might have to demo out the loading door a bit to make it fit! 

We'd measured that door a few times and had compared it to the specs we'd rec'd from Alpha, and knew we had the clearances we needed.  Now with the situation at hand, it was clear that this was going to take some complex maneuvering - while we were very comfortable with the tank's diameter , it was actually an inch or two too tall to make it through the door while standing upright, especially riding the forklift.

The brain trust assembled to contemplate the task at hand.  Since we knew the diameter of the tank wasn't a problem, we concluded that the HLT needed to lay on its side to make it through, but how were we to get 700 pounds of shiny stainless down and back up again?

The answer lay in all those strong arms and backs.  Surprisingly, after all the discussion and planning, the team made quick and easy work of it.  And now that the HLT is inside, we'll move it into it's final spot soon as we have the general construction done in that area.  

After an exciting and fun day with all of our new shiny stuff, it was time to get back to work on construction progress.

The Shiny Stuff Arrives @hawksbillbrew

We'd gotten a call the day before Thanksgiving that the container with much of our brewhouse equipment had arrived in Baltimore, and that we should prepare for delivery on Monday morning.  I decided to take a day of leave from my day job and join David and the construction crew for this event - he'd made arrangements for a fork lift and plenty of strong arms and backs to see the day through.  

The truck actually arrived the night before, the driver told us - he didn't share where he'd parked for the evening, but we guessed that he had plenty of creature comforts in the cab.  In any case, at last we had everything in place and cut the customs lock off of the container, unveiling all of our shiny new tanks pretty much in place, just like they were in the photos we were sent when they loaded the container (link here)!

First off was the hot liquor tank - there's a story in itself, and I'll post a bit more about it next time - followed by the brite tank, and four fermentation vessels.  It was amazing to see how tightly everything was packed into that container, and to consider the journey it had all made without any damage.  Things were mounted onto steel frames and then bolted to the container floor, and then strapped into place so they would stay upright with very little shifting or movement.

When the shipping company first contacted us for delivery, they told us we had two hours to land everything.  Thanks to David's logistical coordination, with all the help we had on hand, we finished within that window - in fact, we were 20 minutes early!

At last, with everything offloaded and staged, we signed the delivery papers and sent the driver on his way.  Our next step would be to move all of the tanks inside the building - that's where I'll pick up the story in tomorrow's post.

Some News Coverage for @hawksbillbrew

As construction and equipment delivery continue, we've had a decent social media week for the brewery, culminating in local TV news coverage on Wednesday.  Reporter Katie Caler from WHSV came out for the story - she last visited us in February (link here).  WHSV also covered the Hop Yard in 2015 (link here).

I'll have some photos of the equipment deliveries next week, but in the meantime, here is a link to this week's WHSV story:

http://www.whsv.com/content/news/Page-Countys-first-brewery-nears-completion--403868876.html

Chores Day @hawksbillbrew

What with all the progress over the last two weeks, we've had a streak of good news.  That continued on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, when we got news that our fermentation vessels would arrive bright and early Monday morning.

That put us in a little bit of a bind, notice-wise - but in a good way, since it means that Alpha, our equipment vendor, is about two weeks ahead of schedule for us.  While we have made some great headway on construction, we are still in the middle of it, so we needed to get in there to do some preliminary cleaning and rearranging stuff so that the we could unload and store the equipment until we are ready to install it.




We have been trying to organize a larger scale volunteer day to get some of this done, but it just hasn't worked out yet due to the holiday.  Mary and I had kind of resigned ourselves to a couple of tough days, but then our friends Leslie and Jon said they'd come out to help.

To get everything done, we got started at around 10am on Saturday.  There was a bunch of leftover stuff from the previous tenants that had to be demo'd out and then hauled off to the landfill.

Also, there had been a number of old shelving units, which in addition to being demo'd had been mounted with screws to the walls.  Lots of spackling was needed to help prepare for the eventual painting that we will do!  Leslie and Mary went to work on that, and they also moved a bunch of stuff out of the way - then they spent a couple of hours on sweeping and general clean up.

Meanwhile, after all of the demo, in which Jon proved himself incredibly adept with a pry bar, he and I, and David for the first trip, took two loads of remodeling trash up to the landfill in David's dump truck.  I drove the first time, shown in the photo, and Jon drove the second trip.

The place looked spiffy at the end of the day - all ready for the arrival of the tanks on Monday.  I'll update on that next!