As we approach being open for one year at our new location, our Christmas and New Year’s break gave us time to reflect on the past year and what we want to focus on in 2016. As we sat at the brewery one cold morning, trying to keep warm, the first of many resolutions for the new year came to us easily.
Tasting Room Heater
First up on 2016 improvements is to install a heating system in the brewery tasting room. The rudimentary heating device (aka fire) we first conceived almost burnt the brewery down, so we contacted an HVAC company who can install a brand new heater in the tasting room to help keep everyone warm and the building un-burned down.
At EBC we promise a beer in every glass, a fire on every table
Pilot Brew System
Cuteness overload
So in 2016, we plan to finally get our home-brewery back up and running. We just purchased a new glycol-jacketed 10-gallon stainless steel frementor and will get our home-brewery back in action over the next few months.
Sell off Old Fermentors
While we’ll be sad to see them go, we’ve started to sell off our old 6- and 7-barrel fermentors to replace them with three 15-barrel fermentors. Not only will this cut down on the amount of work we need to do on 15-barrel brews, but it will also reduce the tank-footprint in our brewery giving us more space.
Expand Tasting Room
With the additional room from selling off our old fermentors, we’ll be able to rope off space on the brewery floor to add additional seating capacity when not brewing. As we see it, there’s no better place to enjoy a beer than with friends next to the stainless steel machinery that brewed it!
Expand Barrel Aging Program
2015 was focused on getting our new brewery up and running smoothly and staring to expand distribution. While we will continue to focus on that in 2016, we also plan to focus more energy on expanding our barrel program. This will allow us to start releasing more barrel aged beers – both on tap and in bottles.
A beer in a barrel is worth two in a fermentor
Expand Bottle Program
2015 saw the launch of Valkyrie and Foliage in 22oz bottles – which you can now buy in local shops and restaurants. In 2016 we plan to greatly expand our bottle offerings. This will include bottling our other year round beers, Protector and Lunch Pale, plus each of our seasonals – starting with Golden Spur in the spring. We’ll also begin to bottle special release beers as they become available.
So there you have it – our 2016 New Year’s Resolutions for the brewery. We’re ready for another amazing year!
