9 head Comac bottling line
Brewer's office, looking to brewery below
Soon-to-be Tap Room
We're so psyched to have this fine piece of bottling equipment- ready to fill 2000 bottles per hour, we'll be putting it to the test very soon with some sweet Mother Earth Brewing product.
The big move from our temporary offices into our eco friendly shell is about ready to happen. Working from our very own space will make this all seem incredibly real: can't wait.
Everyone's Question Answered Here...
The question everyone wants answered: Can you drink our beer at the brewery? I'm excited to announce that plans for a "tap room" are in order. It will be located right next to the brewery, and will include a bar, up to 12 beers on tap, and a lounge type area for you to get together with friends for a well deserved brew. Much more to come...
Till then-
Peace, Love and Beer.........................................TM
Mother Earth brewing sign
The lovely Mother Earth logo went up this week- proudly displayed on the beautiful exterior brick walls, she's telling all there's a brewery in town. With the night lights, she almost appears to come to life. Bottom line: our signs exceed expectations. Everyone I run into these days tells me how we've helped to renew an interest in downtown, and given the corner a successful face-lift. This was a goal from day 1, so thanks again for your thoughts and unending support. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, and we're looking forward to it all.
George Fisher Piping in Place
Inside the brewery, things continue to move along. Working through blistering heat (seriously, it was intense) everyone has pulled together to keep on schedule and make it happen. Here is a pic of just some of the piping required. The amount of fittings, pipe and connectors is mind blowing. The next (and final) big project: arrival and installation of the bottling line.
one barrel, experimental system
Here is a shot of our 1 barrel fermenters for our pilot system, which we'll use to make "test batches" of recipes we contrive. We're really keyed up about it, and plan to use it habitually.
Till next time
Peace, Love and Beer.........................................TM
What does it take to build a brewery? Two guys, a lot of stainless steal, and a heck of a lot of sweat in the Carolina heat. This week Robert Soltys (owner) and Alan Sheppard of Premier Stainless (builders of our brewery) landed at Mother Earth Brewing and pulled some sobering late-night shifts. Even the local PD stopped in at 2am to check out the evolution of this cool old building... quickly blooming into a killer brewery. Here is a shot of the "cat walk" being pinched through the garage door, and two of the cat walk set in its final resting place. We were pleasantly amazed at the cool copper colored water jet cut Mother Earth Brewing logo on the two control panels- if you look closely in the pics you can see them. Nice work Sheppard.
Cat Walk from second floor offices- looking at brewhouse
Brew-house from 2nd floor- chk out the exposed old brick
Here is a prototype of our tap handle... ready to quickly take control of a bar near you.
Tap Handle, ready to work
We are again proud (and relieved) to receive government approval for yet another label- here we offer you an insiders look at Weeping Willow Wit.
Weeping Willow Wit Label
Thanks for catching up with us. We have a lot of action at the brewery this week, and we are thrilled to be closing in on setting all our tanks. Take a look at whats been happening- a good variety of updates here to read about.
Peace, Love and Beer..................................... TM
Rolling in the tanks: It took some fancy fork lift work, but our fermentors, and hot and cold liqour tanks are now set in place. Seeing these massive stainless steel tanks through the extra large windows has everyone on the street excited. Pretty cool stuff.
Hot Liqour Tank Moves In
Here is a shot of one of our many varieties of hops... and ya, they are growing right here in Eastern North Carolina. The cones are really amazing, and have far exceeded our expectations. What a beautiful sight.
The Sight of Sweet Hops, Eastern North Carolina
Our Dark Cloud Munich Dunkel label has been approved. This label is just one example of our four approved labels. Each label brings out a unique aspect of life in Eastern North Carolina. Dark Cloud takes you right out to the country.
Our 4,000 pound Pro Refrigeration, Pro Chiller, getting installed on roof. This is a top of the line, energy efficient model that will cool our 40 barrel fermentation tanks by use of glycol. In fact, this machine is so dynamic we opted to use it to cool our 20×40x16 walk in cooler - a move that's as green as it gets.
Blue jean Insulation: Yep, you read that right, we're using denim insulation. The product is called UltraTouch, by Bonded Logic (cool name by the way.) Basically, it is made with post-industrial denim and cotton fibers. The product contains over 85% recycled denim and cotton fibers, and does not contain any harmful chemicals or irritants and does not pose any VOC or off-gassing concerns. Bonus! Some of the cotton used is grown right here in the good ol' US of A.
Epoxy: Brew house and bottling room floors are finished- in a non-slip epoxy that will seal the concrete.
Killer Kegs: Bring it On! The project gets "real" when a huge 40' truck filled with 200 kegs appears at Mother Earth Brewing. We now have 100 half barrel kegs (each keg contains roughly 120 pints) and 100 1/6 of a barrel kegs (roughly 40 pints in each.) They're brand new, ready for some sweet brew, and ME logo embossed.
Next week, I'll share a preview of our amazing beer labels and exceptional tap handles. Stay Tuned.
Peace,Love and Beer..................................TM
We have a lot of new construction updates. Floors are now finished (minus epoxy),plumbing and electrical are about 60% completed. Interior paint is about 80% done and our 20×40 walk-in cooler is up. We received 6 brewing tanks last week and the brewhouse tanks arrive around the 9th of July. Here is a sneak peek of our Premier Stainless System brewhouse being built out in Southern California. Caught a picture of trent today taking advantage of our new floors on his gravity board.
Besides construction we have received approval for two labels from the feds and are working on correcting the issues they had with the other two labels. Our packing design is almost complete and looking completely awesome, look for a sneak peek of labels and packaging in coming posts. Cheers Josh
Did someone say organic hops?? Mother Earth did, and we are currently in the process of growing our own hops right here, in good old Eastern North Carolina.
We planted Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, and Galena hop rhizomes and they are really taking over. We know it will be a long growing process but we expect them to grow approximatley 20 feet within the 1st year and even more than that in years 2 and 3. We are crossing our fingers on all the hops and are really giving them the tender, love, and care they need. Hopefully, in a couple of years we will be able to use our locally grown organic hops in one of the future Mother Earth brews that are yet to come.
As far as construction goes............ THE WALLS ARE OUT!!!!!!!!!!! The last remaining wall has come down and we will have our windows installed within the next couple of weeks!!!!!
Mother Earth continues to make progress and all our contractors continue to amaze me with their dedication, optimism, and prompt timing. As I have said in some previous post all our corporate offices will be located on the 2nd floor and overlook the brewing area. We have insulated the entire ceiling with soy based insulation. Soy based insulation will give our ceiling a better seal making it more energy efficient and more comfortable than traditional insulation. Soy insulation is also water and soy based which makes it more environmentally friendly.
To take it a step further we are insulating our interior walls with recycled denim/blue jean insulation. Our interior insulation will be composed of recycled blue jeans making it 100% post recycled natural fiber and LEED certified.
Helping the environment is a major interest of Mother Earth and we are working really hard to incorporate new, unused, and undiscovered eco friendly materials and concepts.
We also have wonderful brick masons that have done a great job. Thanks to Marty West and his great crew we have been able to salvage all the bricks that were originally in our building and re-use them. We have really focused hard on salvaging anything original and using it in our remodel. We have bricked around the upstairs windows and they have recently been installed!! We still have many more windows to go but that is a good start!
As you can see a lot has happened since my last blog! We have also installed all our trench drains and run plumbing to them as well. The City of Kinston has been great to work with and has really done so much to make the construction of Mother Earth as smooth as possible. The city installed a 2 inch water line for us that will give us more than enough water pressure to make our great brews. Joe and Ernie got the trench drains set a couple of weeks ago and our plumber, Buck, has hooked to the new 2 inch line and run all the underground plumbing.
We have been working really hard getting all the plumping in place and making sure everything has been completed before we pour all the concrete. We really wanted to "Dot our I's and Cross our T's" b/c once the 12 inch concrete, is poured there is no turning back.
Everything has been completed, the ground has been prepped, and the concrete is ready to go down.
THE CONCRETE WAS POURED TODAY!!!!!!!!
We have really been excited about getting the concrete poured. Getting this massive slab of concrete is a huge step for Mother Earth. We have all our contractors ready to go and everything should start to come together very quickly. We will have windows going in the downstairs within the next week. We will also begin framing our downstairs bathroom, workroom, lab, and boiler room within the next week as well. HVAC is getting ready to start in the next couple of days and the painting started today as well! Electricians have been working diligently for a couple of weeks and we are starting to see a lot of progress in all our electrical work. Thanks Triple R for providing great service in addition to great work!!! We are constantly working in all aspects and will be seeing drastic changes in the building within the next three weeks.
We are also scraping the walls and washing all the brick on the interior of the brewery to bring the original look back to reality. We are really excited about all the things we have done to preserve this historic downtown building, not to mention the environment.
Mother Earth continues to work hard every day to make sure each and every one of you will have some unbelievable brews to drink within the next couple of months. I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and that makes me extremely happy! We are constantly thinking of new ways to preserve the environment and provide all of Mother Earth's friends awesome brews that will give every one the passion and love for Mother Earth that all the members of the Mother Earth Team share. I will be blogging again soon with all the exciting updates that will be going on in the next several weeks.
Peace, Love, and Beer..............................TM
The last couple of weeks at Mother Earth have been action packed and fun filled. We have really progressed quite rapidly and everything is moving along as planned.
Last week Josh and I spent the day at Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery in Farmville, NC getting to know Paul and his crew and I have to say they are a first class operation with a crew of first class guys. They were so nice to welcome our new venture to Eastern North Carolina and invited us to their facility with open arms.
Josh and I are always eager to go see other breweries and get to know the people behind them. The brewing community is very friendly and we all have the same goal, to see the craft beer industry thrive! Having said that, we all support one another with great enthusiasm and support. Paul Philippon, founder of Duck Rabbit Craft Brewery, showed Josh and I a detailed tour of his facility along with letting us sample some fresh Amber Ale, Milk Stout, Brown Ale, and Porter. I think Paul makes excellent beer and I can't wait to have a long relationship with Paul.
Cheers to Paul and the Duck Rabbit Crew!
As far as the construction goes everything is still rolling right along. We have filled the massive hole, which would have been under the brew house, and have all the steel in place to fully finish the demolition.
We have gotten the cut-through done between the brewing facility and bottling line. This was a big part of the renovation and was a little challenging structurally. We got everything structurally sound and are happy to say this is behind us. This crucial cut - through will give us forklift access from the main brewery to the bottling line, cold room, and storage rooms. This was a big part of making "the flow" of our brewery operation a reality.
Along with getting all the holes covered up and cut-through for the forklifts we are in the process of removing half of the second story floor. Taking out half the second floor will kill two birds with one stone: 1.It will allow us to have a huge amount of height to house our 40 BBL fermenting vessels and Uni tanks. 2. The remaining part of the floor will house Mother Earth's corporate offices. The second floor offices will overlook the brewing facility through a glass wall allowing everyone to feel as if they are a part of the brewing process. It is sure to be a great and fun environment at Mother Earth Brewery.
Besides meeting with Duck Rabbit and continuing the construction we are tackling all kinds of other things that are keeping us really busy. We are heading to Raleigh on Thursday to see the premier of Beer Wars with our friends at Lone Rider Brewery in Raleigh, not to mention a few Shotgun Betty's' and Dead Eye Jacks' before the movie!!!. It is sure to be a great time and I can't wait to see the movie I have been waiting so long for. I am so excited about Beer Wars you would think it was a sequel to North Shore, Rad, or Big Wednesday??? (Ha-That was for everyone that knows me.)
The Mother Earth team is chugging right along and getting closer to production everyday! We leave next week for Boston and will be attending The Craft Brewers Conference for a week so I am sure we will have lots to talk about when we get back. As for now, thanks for all the support and for actually following this blog. For me, along with everyone at Mother Earth, we can't wait to provide some wonderful handcrafted ales and lagers to each and every one of you very soon.
Peace, Love, and Beer..............................TM
Mother Earth Brewing was one of the many major sponsors of the 4th Annual Run for the River road race in downtown Kinston. I have always loved our local river and what it brings to the community and I had so much fun running in the race.
It was a hot and humid Saturday morning and I was ecstatic to be running in the Kinston 8K. I have run this race three years prior and was so excited to be running and representing Mother Earth Brewing. It is funny how the weather works in Eastern North Carolina but it seems to be different every year for the Kinston 8K. It has been windy, cold, very cold, and this past Saturday really muggy and hot. We recently got our first run of Mother Earth T shirts and I was so excited to be wearing one. I decided on race day that Mother Earth was sponsoring so I was wearing my Mother Earth T shirt. Needless to say a tan 100 % cotton T shirt on a hot and muggy day gets really wet and heavy. However, I made it to the finish line probably weighing and extra 10 pounds but I showed my support for Mother Earth. It just so happens that the finish line was one block from the brewery and you can see the future brewery in the background of the picture below.
We have had a lot of fun designing our logo, labels, tap handles, and everything else that goes along with starting and designing a brewery. As I said earlier, we are so excited to have our first run of t shirts and all our friends seem to be having fun wearing them. It is great when my friends wear their shirts at the same time, or is it???
Anyway, enough with all that. We are steadily working on the building and are really starting to make some headway. We had an unbelievable amount of steel delivered last week and they are putting a lot of that in right now. We had some structural things that we needed to take care of and the more creative we get the more steel we need. Hopefully, all the steel will be in by the end of the week and we can start cutting floors, walls, windows, outside walls, and pretty much anything you can cut.
My man Joe has been a blessing. He and my good friend Ernie Everett have helped us out a lot and have showed me that they can do about anything. They really seem to be excited about our project and I consider myself very lucky to be able to work with skilled and great people like Ernie, Joe, and all the crew at Ernie Everett Site Prep. Joe told me he could do anything, even operate a crane and he was right! He drove that crane a lot better than I can drive my car???
The building and construction are going along as planned and we are seeing progress every day. We are still hoping to be sitting back in the summer/fall and drinking some of Josh's great beer! The Kolsch that we brewed was really awesome and I can't wait for everyone to be able to share my excitement about this beer. We have a lot going on this week and I will definitely be blogging about all the fun, progress, and enjoyment we are having at Mother Earth Brewing.
Peace, Love, and Beer.....................TM
Well, we have been working on this project for quite some time now and it is finally turning into a reality. The construction seems to be going pretty good, just a couple of snags here and there. We have been working hard on designing the interior of the brewery so it will function with ease and we are still going back and forth with the architects. It is amazing how many details are located in the interior design of a production brewery.
On January 16, 2009 Josh and I made the official announcement of Mother Earth Bewing. It was a cold and windy day but the turn out was great and everyone seems to be really excited about our project. It is such a pleasure to be able to fulfill a life long dream.
The building we bought was originally the first drive -thru pharmacy in the state and has since then been several other business including a discount grocery store. We knew we were going to have a big renovation but it is amazing how many things pop up when restoring an old building. Just last week I was drilling through the floor in the main brew house to check the thickness of the concrete. To my surprise the drill went all the way through the floor and a hidden secret basement was discovered. HOLY CRAP! This could be a great hidden room?? It was only about 10 X 20 feet but still, WOW! Needless to say we will need to fill that up b/c it will take a lot of concrete to support all that stainless steel. So there goes my hidden room.
We are very close to having all the kinks out and hopefully things will start to move pretty quickly now! We are expecting our equipment to arrive in early May so that will be an exciting day when all that gets here!
Besides doing construction work and making all the crucial decisions that are involved with starting a brewery we are having so much fun and are truly enjoying all the things that go along with the start up. I can't think of a better profession to be in these days.
We also recently brewed our first batch of Kolsch that we will be selling. Josh and I used our recipe and brewed 10 gallons on Josh's high tech home brew system. I must say it is delicious and I can wait for everyone to try it! For those of you that don't know a Kolsch is a a clean, crisp, light drinking, beer that offers a very slight fruity flavor and aroma.
Appearing light gold in color with a delicate head, this light bodied beer is easy to take pleasure in and appeals to nearly everyone who samples it. Expect to enjoy a slight tang in the finish.
We are going to continue to work hard and keep all our friends updated and can't wait for everyone to taste and see the finished product!
Peace, Love, and Beer......................TM
