Philadelphia Brewing Co. picking up the pace

This was a big week for us.

I hadn't posted for some time since starting this blog - there wasn't a whole lot to talk about - we were just waiting to move back in. We hit the ground running.

We put the final coat of shiny new epoxy on the brewhouse floor today. Earlier in the week we prepped the floor with a diamond grinder removing the old floor completely. Two weeks ago we knocked the cinder block out of six of the big old original windows. The walls have also been coated with a brilliant white industrial epoxy/urethane. With the fresh paint and plenty of natural light the brewery has taken on a whole new ambiance. That's right, I said a brewery with ambiance. Some of us have likened the new brewhouse to an operating room. We've retained all that familiar pre-prohibition flavor and added a progressively modern brewery taste. For everyone familiar with the old look, I think you'll really be impressed.

If the smell of fresh paint doesn't get you going like it does for me, how about the smell of fresh hops? This week we received our first shipment of hops! In the new world of hop and malt shortages where prices have gone up 2 and 4 times respectively, when demand is growing, and supply is shrinking, even when you have established contacts it is easy to loose sleep. But we worked very hard and here they are! Northern Brewer, Glacier, Sterling, Perle, Willamette ... just to name a few. Very good hops. I'll save a few names just to keep the suspense.

Yesterday we filled our silo with a high quality 2 row Canadian malt. This should be an excellent base malt for the easy drinkin' full flavored beers we intend to make. Its a very light golden color, promises good extract, and has an acceptable protein content. At first taste I get a pleasant grainy sweetness - subtle but solid as a Kensington deadbolt. Is there anything those Canadians can't do? All our specialty malts came earlier in the week - the best quality German barley,wheat, oats, & rye one can buy. Things are really getting exciting.

Things like this have been routine in the past but with a new name and new brands the same people are working harder than ever. I'm continually impressed. For the sake of brevity I haven't mentioned the many other projects and upgrades we are working on here (more on those later). Everybody is working - it doesn't matter if you brew the beer, deliver it, bottle it, package it, or sell it. And we're doing it all ourselves. I feel lucky to be a part of it.

With that said, as much as I love to epoxy floors and move big tanks around I am itching to get back on that brewhouse platform and turn some grain and hops into delicious Philadelphia beer.

Its almost time ...

Here is a web album of the reconstruction so far ... breaking down and building up.

Phila BC reconstruction