Hello! Mike here checking in with an update. While people have been fairly laughing at our projected timeline for opening, we still haven't had any major setbacks... yet. I am sure there will be some. We recently got approval from Planning and Zoning as well as a thumbs up from the Health Inspector for our site plan. Everyone from the health district and city of New London has been extremely helpful, reasonable, and diligent.
Trenches for the strip drain and plumbing, and Brian manhandling that pickaxe.
We are in the thick of construction and our American-made tanks are already in the production plans with our supplier out in Colorado. We spent the weekend digging up the floors where plumbing and our strip drain will be. When we set out on this venture, we had no idea what challenges would lie ahead, and what skills we would develop in the process. These now include jack-hammering and cutting concrete with a wet saw. We are trying to do everything we can ourselves. With the help of VERY generous family and friends, this has been become a reality and is keeping us on track. We have an appointment to finalize our funding this week and are getting ready to jump into the full swing of the federal and state permitting processes. This will be a big hurdle and a clearer indicator of when we can start brewing and open our doors.
2nd Annual SEF Brewfest.
While a struggle at times, we have been staying focused on the most important part of it all... products and our long term vision for them. We have never been producing as much beer as we have been recently. On top of that, we have never been more inspired to design new recipes and improve existing ones as we have been lately. Dayne, Jon, and I chat and text all day every day, bouncing ideas off each other, asking each other questions, sharing best practices, and planning two or three steps ahead. The three of us, along with Lily and Corey, spent Saturday night pouring at a fundraiser Brewfest in Somers, CT to benefit the Somers Education Foundation. We were met with overwhelming support and a lot of positive feedback. We enjoyed meeting and sharing our products with everyone in attendance, including the folks from Back East, Powder Hollow, Cold Creek, and Stafford Cidery. We look forward to our next event on April 28, which will benefit Integrated Day Charter School in Norwich, CT.
Pat's Redesign of our Skull/Gas Mask logo.
We are excited to make another announcement. We have teamed up a with a few local artists to really hone in our long-overdue plan for logos, imagery, tap room decor, and themes. We went to High School with Charlie Cunningham (@charliecunninghamart and charliecunninghamart.com), Dayne even played in a band with him for a while. He is an extremely talented sculptor and instructor at Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts. Charlie has agreed to work with us on some decor, themes, and design some bad-ass tap handles! Also, when Erica Moser at the New London Day wrote an article about our plans, local Illustrator, Motion Graphic Designer, and lifelong New London resident Pat Regan (@pat123xyz and pat123xyz.com) reached out to us with a piqued curiosity and an interest in getting involved. His theme and style fit really well with our vision and we are happy to be working with him on some logos and digital artwork. While probably not our main logo going forward, we will definitely keep the skull and gas mask theme around in some capacity, check out his revamp!