Things are absolutely marvelous here at 512 Braddock Avenue. Even though the normally gradual onset of joy-crushing grayness has decided to thrust itself upon Pittsburgh without warning this October, The Brew Gentlemen Beer Co. is thoroughly unfazed. And that, dear readers, is because we can finally say something we’ve been waiting since July to say: we now have brewing equipment.
If our whole start-a-brewery project were a movie, this would be the beginning of a very inspirational yet seriously abbreviated montage set to some form of 80s power ballad. In reality, however, we’ve just acquired a big pile of irregularly-shaped Tetris pieces that we must somehow guide into place as they careen downwards towards their eventual home at the bottom of the screen. And it’s most certainly not a plug-and-play type of deal; there are a huge number of parts that must line up perfectly in order for us to open, and the arrival of our equipment is merely the tip of the logistical iceberg. But it’s the lynchpin of the whole operation, and after four months of giddy anticipation, its arrival is certainly a milestone.
Standing between us and the maiden voyage of our newly acquired instruments is a formidable mountain of renovation work. And since we’re doing the majority of our buildout ourselves, we’ve had to learn a lot of requisite construction skills on the fly. Needless to say, we’ve done an obscene amount of Googling with the intent of becoming overnight experts (or at least overnight passable craftsmen) in a variety of fields that some people spend their entire professional careers perfecting. Somehow it’s all worked out exceptionally well so far, even though our building is old enough that our additions are sporadically rejected by their host. Bob Vila would be proud.
We’re doing our best to get everything together within a reasonable timeframe, but there are a variety of factors outside of our control (bureaucracy, permits, postseason Pirates baseball, you know the drill) that have pushed our opening back ever so slightly. In all likelihood, we’ll be brewing by the end of the year with the intention of opening sometime in the beginning of 2014. It’s a bummer to have to wait a bit longer than expected to get everything up and running, but we’d rather spend the time making sure everything is totally watertight vs. blitz through it with the intent of getting beer out the door as soon as possible. We’re playing for keeps.