TTB approved!

We received our TTB approval on March 21st! The process was actually pretty smooth and not as long as we thought it was going to be. We applied for our brewers permit through the TTB's new Online Permit website. So every single document was uploaded to them over the internet. It was a ton of paperwork! But the process was expedient, so it was worth it. We only had one interview and a few weeks later we were approved.

So, where are we now? We are now completely licensed by state and feds. However, we are still dealing with the city of Ontario building department. It's been very frustrating for us but things are moving forward. We were told we now need to add a cleanup drain in between our tasting counter and sink-this is something that is in addition to the floor sink. We also have to add a kithchen hood with ventilation out and air return back in for our brew system. It seems like overkill to me but who am I to argue with the building codes?

Our first batches are going to be brewing soon with the hopes we will open in May.

Next update coming soon

We are also on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Chino-Valley-Brewery/#!/pages/Chino-Valley-Brewery/197318420317519

We have our ABC License

First, let me say I’m sorry for such a long gap between updates. My partner and I both have regular jobs and have been busy; and don’t get me started on the bureaucratic paperwork that has really taken much longer than I anticipated.

A lot has transpired since October. We finally had our Conditional Use Permit (CUP) hearing and were approved! I can tell you I was a little nerve wracked when I got to Ontario city hall for the hearing. The hearing room seemed so big to me! I was prepared for all kinds of questions from our hours of operation to the methods of tracking our cleaning chemical waste. The hearing went so smoothly I was surprised as to how quick it went. We were the only business on the agenda for the day and most of the questioning was between the Zoning Administrator and the Planning Department rep that put our case file together. Our local ABC officer was also there to answer questions from the administrator. I was finally asked to stand up at the podium and speak at the end. The Zoning Administrator basically asked me when we would be open because he was eager to try our beer. Oh yea, he also suggested putting Ontario into our company name. A few days later we had our CUP in the mail.

The hearing room at city hall. It seemed ginormous!

ABC Notice on our door

We have also received our state ABC, Small Beer Manufacturer license. That process was paper work intensive but moved forward rather quickly. We currently are still waiting on our federal permit from the TTB. The TTB has a new permit application process that is done completely online for those who are computer literate. I submitted a TON of paperwork to the TTB all online. Most of the paperwork was supporting documentation that Ray and I had to provide regarding our finances. Lots of bank statements! We had our first interview with them 2 days ago. The interview went well and the TTB specialist was very helpful. According to the specialist, she was approving our application and sending it to her supervisor for final approval. We should be having another interview with her supervisor soon and she said we will probably have our federal license in about a month or so.

Our brewers license

And our main stumbling block at this point is the City of Ontario Building Department. After we received our CUP we had to submit more plans to the Building Dept. They had a 5 week turnaround for “first” comments. We just received the plans back today. I almost had a heart attack when I saw all the red marks on all 5 pages of our plans! I had to stop and have a beer with Ray while went over the comments to lower my blood pressure. There were some comments that I didn’t quite agree with, such as the handicap parking spots not having the blue unloading zone painted hash marks on the correct side of the car even though those parking spaces have been fine the way they are for years before we moved in. And there were a lot of little changes that have to be made to the plans themselves to show more detail such as exactly where on the top of our walk in cooler the compressor units are located ( I can deal with that). BUT what really exasperated me is all of the comments regarding plumbing, sinks, electrical, flooring and ceiling issues that are clearly for restaurant and food establishments. And on the first page in big red letters were the words “where is health department approval?” It looks like we are going to have to install at least one floor sink no matter what because of a plumbing code that is not related to health codes. I already had to go over why breweries are not food facilities during the CUP process and it looks like I’m going to have to try to explain it again during this process too.

Our "authentic" Bavarian highwy sign

Today, I called and spoke to the building inspector handling our file and made an appointment to meet him tomorrow to review his comments and explain how we are exempt from the health code regulations for food facilities. I briefly described our exemption to him over the phone and he seemed very surprised to hear about our exemption but he also seemed like he had an open mind. So hopefully our meeting with him will go well.

Our grain mill

On another note, I would like to say how good it is to be in a close knit, supportive community like that of the craft beer industry. I had the pleasure of being at the opening weekend of I&I brewery in Chino. The beer there is great and I have been back a few times since to talk business and to share some good beer with Chuck and Eric. I would recommend that you head over to Chino and look them up. Here is a link to their site http://www.iandibrewing.com/

New update coming soon!

Well, we've done a lot in the last month yet it seems like we have done hardly anything! We have been so busy with our regular jobs that we have not made as much progress as we would've liked with the brewery. However we are making a concerted effort to get the brewery to the point where we can start brewing our first batches in the next 30 days.

The brewery currently is a construction site in the works. We have working refrigeration units on our walk in cooler now! As of today, we had some 220 outlets installed so we can run the larger of our two cooling rooms.



Electricians installing 220 volt electricity



Under construction

We installed most of the plumbing, including installing a hot water heater and plumbing our 3 compartment sink. We had a few quotes from plumbers but we just decided to do it oursleves and save the money for other things (including the copper piping, which was not cheap).

We finally finished building our tasting room bar. We initially planned on putting a concrete counter top on it but in the end we decided to just keep it all wood (we had more than enough lumber laying around).

The making of a bar

Further along

almost there

Finally done!

One of my favorite moments of the last 30 days was picking up our kegs! We decided to get our kegs at Plastic Kegs America. Luckily, they're in the LA area so we didnt have to pay for freight delivery and just picked them up will call at the factory. There's nothing like seeing your brewery's name on a keg for the first time-so cool!

We are concentrating on paperwork right now and are waiting on our public hearing for our CUP. Hopefully we will make more progress in the coming month!

Minor (hopefully) obstacles for our small brewery

This post is a combination update/rant. Firstly we're having difficulty with the panels of our combination freezer/cooler fitting together. The company that sold it to us swore up and down that it was Ray and I not being able to put it together properly. Well, the head of the company sent an employee with experience to the brewery and discovered that we had indeed put together everything correctly and the panels were not correct. So, the seller has said he will do what is necessary to make it right. However, the modifications needed to be made just mean cutting a few panels (that's all the seller was going to do anyway) so Ray and I are going to be doing it ourselves. The cooler is 8 x 15 and we got a really good deal on it, so we can't complain too much. BTW-the company did reimburse us a $100 for the material we are going to have to buy (flashing, angle iron) to connect the modified panels.

The biggest headache we currently have is with our landlord. For whatever reason, he was surprised that we were going to have a taproom open  to the public. Prior to signing a lease I had discussed what we would be doing on the property in detail. In fact, I had spent a considerable amount of time explaining to him the difference between a nano-brewery and a bar. Well, today we had the same conversation all over again. It became an issue because in Ontario, the landlord has to sign Business License application. When I gave it to him to sign he said he had some reservations and wouldn't sign it the way it was. Basically, he wants me to add verbiage to our description that states the hours of the taproom will be based on mutual agreement between Chino Valley Brewery and landlord. I listened to his concerns and he is envisioning many drunken college kids in the parking lot and hordes of people clogging up the limited parking in our industrial complex. I spent the better part of an hour trying to explain the differences between a nano-brewery and a bar. I can tell he was somewhat relieved but still has concerns. Hence, his wanting me to stipulate that he has a say in taproom hours.

Finally, the DEH-arghh! I have been corresponding via email with the Department of Environmental Health. I explained to them that Governor Jerry Brown finally signed AB1014 exempting breweries from restaurant regulations. I also explained that DEH in San Diego has used their discretionary authority to not enforce the regulation on it's breweries. I was told that San Bernardino DEH was aware of San Diego's policy but that they did not agree. However, they were going to see what they could do for us in light of the fact that the law is going to take effect January 1, 2012. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Cooler, sink and new craft beer buddies

We had a great weekend drinking great beer! We paid a visit to Enegren Brewing in Moorpark. They had their grand opening this weekend and I had the pleasure of meeting Matt and Chris Enegren on Sunday. They had two beers on tap, Valkyrie-California Altbier and Protector-Imperial IPA. While I thought both beers were outstanding, the IPA was definitely was my favorite. Chris showed me around the brewery and pointed out the work that was done to satisfy the Department of Environmental Health and Matt graciously shared with us his keg collar template. Their brewery is really gorgeous looking. For anyone looking to try great craft beer, I can’t say enough about Enegren Brewing. Try the IPA-it’s the bomb!

My friends and I at Enegren. It's all of the back of our heads except for Tess on the left in the purple top.
Pic borrowed from Enegren Brewing blog.

Well, we picked up the walk in cooler on Monday. It’s actually a used freezer, cooler combo. We attempted to assemble it on Wednesday but ran into some problems about halfway through. We think we have a panel that doesn’t belong. We are working with the seller on this and it should be resolved by next week. We also picked up the sink and put it up in the brewery.

Our new sink

Ray hauling the cooler to the brewery

The cooler unloaded

We’ve picked an electrician to do work for us but we’re still taking bids from plumbers.  In fact we may put off plumbing until we find out if the DEH is going to hold us to their regulations or not. Governor Brown just signed AB 1014 on 8/1/11. This new law will exempt breweries with tap rooms from DEH regulations just as wineries with tasting rooms are already exempt.  BUT, the problem we have is that the new law does not become effective until January 1, 2012! So we will see how our DEH experience plays out.

Next week the plan is to have the cold room set up so we can install some refrigeration units on it. We also plan to order our kegs.

We have refigeration (kind of)!

This was a week of acquiring major appliances for us. We bought a new sink and a used walk in freezer/cooler combo unit. The cooler is used and in decent shape. It is being painted and patched up a little right now. It doesn’t have the cooling units so we will have to buy those next week sometime.

I made up a floor plan of the brewery to give the city this week. I put a few tables in the plans and we’ll see if the city allows them. I’m hoping they do but I know they probably won’t make it. I’ve attached a pic of the plan. I still may add a shelf along the back wall that is about 45” off the floor and about 8 feet long so people can stand and rest their beer on the shelf in case the tables are removed.

We pick up the sink tomorrow and the cooler on Friday, so updates will be coming later this week.

A nerve racking meeting with city officials!

We have had an eventful week. On Friday, Ray and I moved the brewery into our location. It is the first of many things we are doing there. We are already planning on buying a bigger system in the very near future but for now we are using a small 2/3 barrel system from Morebeer.

This is our location. It even has a large skylight-snazzy!

Me with the brewery

On Tuesday we had meeting at Ontario city hall with representatives from planning, economic development and ABC enforcement. The ABC enforcement officer is actually an Ontario PD officer who works for the ABC regional office which is in Riverside. Our main contact person was Chris Kennedy in economic development and he was great with returning phone calls and helping us find the proper location for the brewery. Prior to our meeting he did say that planning seemed to be ok with our business plan with the exception of selling growlers on site. He said it was a sticking point and we would have to make our case at the meeting (and then again later in the future at a hearing with the planning commission).

Well, after speaking to us the city people seemed happy with our plans. They seemed to be worried we were opening a bar rather than a brewery but after meeting us in person and learning our intentions and that we have a law enforcement background they seemed to have their fears alleviated. They seemed OK with the growlers too as long as we noted in our business plan that we would seal the growlers with wire or plastic ties once filled. So now we have to submit our business plan and a floor plan of the brewery and our application for a business license, seller’s permit and CUP (Conditional User Permit). We are also going to apply for our ABC type 23 license. The ABC officer recommended applying for all licenses at the same time, so that is the plan. Hopefully we can have everything together and submitted early next week.

I also modified one of the food grade plastic inductor tanks we are going to be using as fermenters. I was nervous about the modifications at first but it went very smoothly. I basically just followed the directions that the guys at Hess Brewing gave on their blog when they were setting up their tanks. The tank has been filled with water for the last two days with no leaks, so it seems to all be good. Next step is a mountain of paper work for permits and to get our refrigeration installed.

A fermenter filled with water to test for leaks at the fittings.