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The Chinese fabricator ‘Zhongde’ where we are getting our fermenting vessels built are finally ready to ship, so all being well the final payment will clear in the next day or two and they will ship on the 19th May…
Plenty of work still to do, though this week its trapped nerve stops play hopefully I’ll get back to fitness soon, I’ll have to plan how I’m going to get the fermenting vessels out of the shipping container when it arrives…

Basically I have two options, borrow the neighbour’s forklift and hire some fork extensions and hope the truck has the capacity to lift, or hire a big-ass forklift with fork extensions that will be more than capable… I’m thinking the latter, though a bit more expensive is the sensible choice.

Builder on site! The drains went in the other week and this coming week the concrete screed falls (sloping floor) will be created, then when the concrete has cured and dried the Ultrasyntec floor guys can come and lay the polyurethane screed and make us look all posh 🙂

We are still decorating walls and ceilings, still building block-work cold store walls and have a number of holes to patch up around the building along with completing the concrete plinth.

Soon we can start work on the chiller system once we get the chiller unit into its permanent location. The malt loft needs some TLC, the aforementioned holes to patch up in walls, cleaning, cladding, painting to do.

The Chinese still haven’t shipped, really need them to get a move on as once the posh floor goes down we need to get brewing asap!

The decorating and building of walls is still ongoing as are the electrics, we are hopefully getting the builders on site in the next week or two to start on the drains and sloping floors. The vessels from China have not yet shipped, when they ship I’d guess at 6-8 weeks on the sea followed by however long it takes to clear through customs at Liverpool Docks.

Still to do are things like ordering all the pipework and associated valves for plumbing up the glycol chiller system for cooling fermenting vessels and cold store before getting some guys on site to fill & commission the installation, not to mention a load of pipe insulation and brackets that needs fitting.

On Thursday we took delivery of our Copper, Mash Tun, Hot Liquor Tank, Underback, Malt Hopper / Hydrator and Cask washer. This is the kit that has been built over at PureWeld, built in Yorkshire. You can check out photos of how our microbrewery is coming along at Flickr.

The main brew kit is almost ready for delivery, below are photos of the Copper, Mash Tun, Cask Washer and a little of the Hot Liquor Tank & Underback. Exciting stuff!

Today I started cladding the walls with moisture resistant MDF which will then be clad in hygienic UPVC plastic. We now have banners for brewery & Bradford Beer Festival too.

Lots of cleaning and painting to do and Brick laying on Sunday.

Used for cooling the boiling wort on its way to the fermenting vessel.

A Stones throw away from our premises is ‘Brewery Street’ just off Dalton Lane. A member of the Keighley Local History Group posted this in reply to my asking:

The Cattle family were brewers in Pocklington and commenced a complimentary business in Keighley in the Old Brewery at Cook Lane during 1869. They subsequently built the premises & Atley House in Dalton Lane opening in Spring 1873. The adjoining street being named Brewery Street. The family opened a third brewery at Seacombe some time later. Brewing ceasing at Keighley during 1903. Their best known pub in Keighley was the Hope & Anchior Halifax Road sold to the existing tenant when the brewery closed.

Wouldn’t it be good to find some old recipes!

The units are currently undergoing a re-roof by the landlord so, as you’d expect with this weather, things are getting wetter the puddles are getting bigger and I’m a little scared that rain might stop play unless the roofers get cracked on and the walls start to dry out!

This weekend has been Emma giving the office a second coat of paint, then she set too on the flaking paint outside the office… its going to be a heck of a lot of scraping and brushing!
We had a family member helping too, Julian did a fine job of removing bits of old metal brackets and conduit from the steel-work on the ceiling it was surprising how much difference it made seeing the area with less dangling clutter.

We also removed a heating duct in preparation for where the vessels will go and I finally finished my water piping around to the brewing area, only a small leak to fix around the water meter I installed and that was just because I didn’t have my biggest spanner with me.

We have the hygienic wall cladding on site now too, with MDF/timber backing hopefully arriving next week, I’ll also hope to get all the blockwork, sand and cement to site soon too so we can start building our cold-store and a small plinth where I’ll stand a tank for extra water storage.

The weekend finished with our miss-directed post being delivered by our neighbour, we got someone touting for business, and invoice and… Our HMRC Registration of our Brewery!! Yeahhh!!!

It was dated the 15th Dec ’14 so had actually taken a matter of just a few weeks to be processed.

Last weekend we spent a good amount of time sorting out our 1st floor toilet block which had 9, yes 9 burst pipes. Emma spent the day giving our brewery office a really good clean so this its ready for a good lick of paint now. Meetings with builder, flooring contractor and electrician this week and all being well I should get some serious plumbing done this weekend to get water to where I’m going to want it for cask washer, cooling, sink, kettle (for making a cuppa) etc