June 18th, 2010
Things are rolling right along here at Westbrook Brewing. Since I last posted some cool stuff has happened:
- The governor signed the beer tasting bill into law! This was a big relief for us since we’ve been working really hard for several months on designing a very cool tasting room for the brewery. It would have been pretty lame if we weren’t allowed to use it! We don’t expect the tasting room and tour hours to start until sometime in October, but if you live in Charleston and you just can’t wait that long to go buy beer from a brewery, check out COAST’s blog for info on their tour/tasting hours.
- Our brewing tanks are just about ready to ship from the factory. With this equipment, we’ll be able to brew about 30 barrels (equal to 930 gallons, 60 kegs, or 413 cases) of beer per brew session and ferment up to 300 barrels at once. We’re also on the lookout for a few smaller used fermentation/aging tanks, in the 10-30 bbl range. Our plan is to use these for yeast propagation and small batch/experimental beers. Unfortunately, the supply of used tanks in this size range seems to be just about dried up. For example, I tried to buy some 15bbl fermenters yesterday but was apparently 20-30 minutes too late, since they were gone within 2 hours of being put up for sale. Frustrating. If anyone has any leads please let us know!
- All of the concrete on the interior of the brewery has been poured, the cinderblock walls are going up, and the steel crew is almost finished with the roof. So far we are still on schedule for a mid-September completion and “first brew” date.
That’s about it for now. Cheers!
Posted in Beer Legislation, News |
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May 26th, 2010
Just a few minutes ago the House, by a vote of 79-1, approved the Senate’s amendments on H. 4572 , which means that SC will finally (once the governor signs the bill) have legal beer tasting in retail stores, at breweries, and direct sales of 1 case (or 4 growlers) per day from breweries.
The vote
Cheers to Jaime and David from Coast Brewing for all their hard work getting this bill through the Statehouse!
Oh, in other news – our street address is no longer 301 Ridge Road. The correct address is 510 Ridge Road.
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May 3rd, 2010
Things have been pretty busy here at Westbrook Brewing since I last posted. In 1 month, the brewery site has been transformed from a patch of pine trees into a cleared, graded, formed, plumbed, and rebar-ed brewery-to-be. Provided that the weather cooperates, the first 2 pours of concrete for the slab should happen later this week, and then next week the steel beams for the building structure (which were delivered this morning) will start going up. A few pics below, but you’ll have to go to our Facebook page to check out the full album.
View from Ridge Road
The building pad
Steel!
Unloading truck 1 of 4
In other news, this past Friday was the public (sort of) debut of some Westbrook Brewing test batches! Morgan and I served up 6 different beers at an event on Daniel Island, and the response was fantastic. As I expected, the ginger/lemongrass Belgian white was the most popular, but our double dry-hopped West coast style IPA was also a big hit. The coolest part of the night was seeing people who told us “I’m not a beer drinker” or some variation of that statement try a taste and then come back a few minutes later for a full glass.
Morgan and I bracing for the onslaught of thirsty people
(sorry for the blurry pic)
Last but definitely not least, the SC Microbrewery Tasting bill, H. 3693, has passed the House with a unanimous “yea” vote and is now scheduled for a Senate subcommittee hearing this Thursday, May 6. All the SC brewers will be there to testify, but we need your support! Read this Support Your Local Brewery action alert to find out how to help. There is exactly one month remaining in the 2010 legislative session and there is a real danger that the bill may not pass simply due to running out of time!! That’s why we need you to contact the senators listed at the link above before Thursday and urge them to get behind this bill and move it quickly through the Senate. We’re so close!
Posted in 510 Ridge, Beer Legislation, Construction, Events |
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March 5th, 2010
From a post by Coast Brewing on Beeradvocate:
Our bill, H. 3693 is up for Full Judiciary on March 9 (please note the amendment was approved last meeting but I still don’t see the new language on the statehouse site)- so now we need your support on this committee- Phone Calls work the best but we’ll take your emails as well.
Statehouse site: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/housecommlst.html#jud (look for Judiciary Committee) we need to contact each member on that Committee (all 25 of em)
Again- we so appreciate the support from each one of you!
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February 24th, 2010
Great news today – the microbrewery tasting bill was successfully amended and left the Judiciary subcommittee with a favorable report! This means that the bill could be on the floor of the House by the middle of next week. We still need your support for H. 3693 so keep an eye on the SC Brewers Association site for updates. Read the news article on H. 3693 here.
Another beer-related bill, H. 4572, also passed out of the subcommittee today. This bill will allow retail stores like The Charleston Beer Exchange to finally conduct beer tastings. This bill is long overdue and will go a long way towards educating people about good beer. Again, be sure to check out the SC Brewers Association site to find out how you can help.
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February 16th, 2010
H. 3693 is on the agenda for the Judiciary General Laws Subcommittee meeting tomorrow, 2/17. This bill is really important for the future of SC’s microbreweries!
For more info on how to help check out the South Carolina Brewers Association site.
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