Today’s meeting with Mark, Brandon, and Craig was very productive. We found some ways in which we can realize some significant savings. We are spending WAAAY more money than anticipated. I realize that some of the things below may not make sense since you do not have a set of plans in front of you, but you can still try and follow along and it may make sense when you come and visit and take a tour.
Cost reduction solutions were:
We decided to keep the entire wall and hallway. There will be significant savings but it also means incurring some more expenses including adding a fire proof door and window in the conference room to meet code. Bottom line, net savings. The nook in the existing brewery plans where the stair well is will remain enclosed (not open to the brewery) and some special things will need to be done to accommodate the enclosed area including modifying HVAC
slightly so that it no longer cools that part, lighting, and a door needs to be added to separate it from the hallway (keeps the cool air where it belongs). To accommodate this we will need to scoot our tanks over a few feet which is doable. It does, however, make it impossible to drive a forklift by that corner. Craig and I can live with that if it means saving tens of thousands of dollars.
We are going to defer sealing the concrete on the Drive-in cooler side of the warehouse. To start off with Craig and I will be washing kegs on the tank farm side of the warehouse and it doesn’t need to be done right away
We are creating a curb barrier around the silo rather than doing the bollards. For those who don’t know, a bollard is basically a thick metal post stuck into the ground to protect certain areas. I was shocked at how much bollards cost.
We eliminated the JT Racking system (for securing CO2 tanks). The racking was overkill for our needs and was the result of a misunderstanding of our needs by Mark, our architect. We can go with a simpler cheaper option through Grainger or our CO2 vendor.
We also had a decision to make with regards to how we were going to access the mill, which sits on a platform above the tap room. We decided to go with a metal ships ladder our architect Mark found, rather than some prefabbed galvanized stairs. The ships ladder will be steep, but is still better than our old vertical ladder at Schooner’s plus this time around will be able to forklift up our grains to the milling platform. Wood stairs won’t work since we are keeping the nook enclosed at this point and would be too long/take over to large a footprint.