Muddy Creek Brewing Co. Brewery Build- Start to Finish Thread

[Teromous]

When you guys brew your first beer, would you be able to do a price breakdown on how much it cost to do a 7bbl batch?

 

[MuddyCreek]

I will,

However - We decided to upgrade to a 10 bbl system with a more traditional footprint. We're going with a BK, MLT, single HLT and a Whirlpool kettle.

We're planning on doing 300 gallon batches in a brew session. I will provide you with average breakdowns of our costs from cleaning to brewing - packaging - serving and distributing. Basically an average product run lifecycle.

 

[MuddyCreek]

New News!

This weekend we finished breaking out the brewery drain system trenches. I have to get all the concrete out yet. That is next weekend's job. We also removed all the ceiling from the tasting room so I can get the insulation sprayed up into the roof rafters. After that we finish the floor in the tasting room and start on the walls.

Meanwhile after the concrete is removed from the trenches the plumber will lay the trough drains and the pipes while the electricians are wiring the brewery. I'm ordering the brewhaus this week, the license apps have been submitted and I'm just sitting around drinking beer. (ya. sure I am. Jackhammers are HEAVY!)

I'll get some pictures up. check us out and please friend us at https://www.facebook.com/muddycreekbrewery

 

[jiMithing83]

New News!

This weekend we finished breaking out the brewery drain system trenches. I have to get all the concrete out yet. That is next weekend's job. We also removed all the ceiling from the tasting room so I can get the insulation sprayed up into the roof rafters. After that we finish the floor in the tasting room and start on the walls.

Meanwhile after the concrete is removed from the trenches the plumber will lay the trough drains and the pipes while the electricians are wiring the brewery. I'm ordering the brewhaus this week, the license apps have been submitted and I'm just sitting around drinking beer. (ya. sure I am. Jackhammers are HEAVY!)

I'll get some pictures up. check us out and please friend us at https://www.facebook.com/muddycreekbrewery

Were you using pneumatic or electric breakers? 60 or 90#? How much of the construction are you doing yourself, and do you have any experience in the field or just doing the demo by the seat of your pants and paying someone to construct?

So jealous of your journey, I've been talking with a buddy about starting a brewpub for about 10 years now but I've only just started brewing... it will probably be another 10 before we make any serious plans.

Liked your page, keep the updates coming.

 

[MuddyCreek]

I was using a 60# electric breaker. My GC is coming in this weekend and the framing will start Monday. As for the demo, our plumber mapped out the trenches and I cut them with some volunteer help. That was a job but not as tough as breaking up the concrete which was a walk in the park compared to this weekend's task of moving the concrete out of the trenches and digging them down to a foot deep for the plumber to put in the trough drains and the pipes. The electricians will start work as soon as the framing starts going up.

I'm ordering our mill this week along with our brewhaus equipment. We're going with Apollo Machines out of Canada for the mill and Glacier Tanks out of Portland for the Brewing equipment.

This week also includes tasting room cleaning and preparation for insulation spraying in the roof rafters. After that it's floor finishing and wall scraping and painting. So much fun you'll never want you leave!

 

[MuddyCreek]

Well, it turns out concrete removal isn't really all that relaxing. It's more like a full contact sport. I expect to finish it today after work. I had a few volunteers lined up to help but as we all know stuff happens and when the choice between fun activities like skiing and sledding or hauling concrete comes up it turns out hauling concrete loses.

I had to do the concrete removal by myself which made the job a bit lengthier than I'd hoped but as I said tonight ought to be the last of it for my part. I'm hoping to get the plumber in next Monday or Tuesday to start laying in the trough drains and the rest of the plumbing for the drain system. Also Electrical lines and outlets can be run next week. I'd have pictures to post but there was nobody to take them unfortunately. I'll put them up when I got em.

Till then, Thanks for those who liked us at https://www.facebook.com/muddycreekbrewery Your likes and shares are very much appreciated. Folks are enjoying our trivia, history, and what's in a name segments. We appreciate any homebrew tips and input you guys would like to contribute as well. Have a great day!

 

[MuddyCreek]

9 days later and much has happened. The plumber was much delayed but Muddy Creek Brewery's motto is "Go With the Flow" so we just started framing in the fermenting and lagering/cold-crash rooms. After that was done we had the electricians come in and start running the wiring and putting in the boxes. All that will be finished by noon today. Conveniently the plumber showed up about an hour ago and started measuring out the trenches for the trough drains. He's determined that we've apparently overshot the length he planned for. (I don't agree. We gave him the floor plan with the same measurements we used, but - he's got the materials to start working so the plumber material cost negotiating is about to commence.)

I know you are clamoring for photos. The reason I can't really provide any is because we are building the brewery in the basement of our building and the lighting is nonexistent which makes photo opportunities pretty minimal. But I'll take a couple of phone shots today at lunch since we have some temporary lights up from the electricians from yesterday. Till now it's been halogen lights on stands blinding us every time we look up from the ground.

I must say things are getting very exciting. Our federal application has moved to the next stage of acceptance, our brewhaus is being manufactured and our fermenters are also in production. Our mill will be delivered in a month or so after we build our milling room and we'll have our tasting room roof insulated in a couple of weeks so we can have our hardwood floor finished, and tiling the "muddy creek" part of the floor. After that it's building the bar, installing the gas fireplace and overhead heater, and bringing in the furnishings.

I can't keep up. All you guys who are dreaming of starting your own micro, be prepared for the multi-tasking nightmare (and happiest feeling) of your life.

 

[JohnSand]

Thanks for the update. Wishing you success.

 

[Travestian]

Read through every page. Keeps getting more interesting. Good Luck!

 

[rogerepd]

Good luck man! I drive through Butte once a year to visit my family in Whitefish...Let me know when you are up and running so I can visit!

 

[MuddyCreek]

Alright. You guys have been very patient. You've asked for some time for some photos and I have finally taken the time to drag out my phone and take a few picks of the basement. We are placing the brewery in the basement of the Butte Daily Post. The Daily Post was built in 1922 and served as the Butte newspaper for many years. The following pictures help show why it is important to support your local brewery as yours truly was the guy who along with my partners operated the concrete saw and the breaker and lugged out the concrete by hand and then dug out the trenches. Our plumber is currently installing the trough drains and within just a week we'll have the fermenting and lagering rooms walled in.

Hopefully our tanks and fermenters are only about 6 or 8 weeks out and the aging room and milling room will be complete as well as the brewhaus hood and venting system and the entire brewery side will be complete. I will look over my other photos and start posting my tasting room "before" photos so you can see the before side of the world there too. You will be able to enjoy the epic transformation with me. it's all very exciting and almost makes up for all the back-breaking labor. Well - almost. Anyway. I hope you enjoy all the photos and I know you will appreciate the journey it represents from the before to the after.

 

[rlmiller10]

Best of luck. It will be interesting to see how it goes in a very much blue collar, Budweiser environment like Butte. I wish you had been open a few years ago when I was on a project up there. Not many places to get good beer at that time, although McKenzie River Pizza had a few good ones.

 

[jiMithing83]

Hooray pictures! Keep 'em coming when you have time, really enjoying watching this process.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[MuddyCreek]

How stuff gets done... (Featuring Devin Sherman, the oldest son of one of the partners and Tina my lovely wife of 22 years on July 4th this year.)

 

[MuddyCreek]

What still needs to be done, featuring the "to-be" tasting room and our skylight with its glass needing replacement which we'll be doing in the next couple of weeks. We are leaving the rafters open, sanding and finishing the floors, obviously repainting the walls hanging ceiling fans and lights and going for a rustic look. We are very excited and I'll continue to post pictures as we progress.

This weekend we start clearing out the brewery area to build the milling room and expand the keg aging room. (Don't have the long green for the brite tanks yet.) The plumber has promised to have the drain system done by tomorrow so he'll be finished by the end of the month. ; - )

Next week we'll start on the milling room framing. I'll try to keep the photos updated as we're starting on the construction phase in earnest now. Have a good weekend. I know I will. I'm brewing some Muddy Creek Chocolate Stout in all my spare time.

Oh, and as an added bonus I'm adding an extra inside sneak peek into the inside world of complex brewery planning. I'm going to show you the detailed specifications our plumber started with a couple months ago when he first began designing our drainage system before he drew up the scale version. now you'll see just how complicated this whole process is.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Oh, I also wanted to put up another update. I'm putting together a Kickstarter or IndieGogo campaign to help raise funds for the Taproom and we did a Taste-test on St. Patty's day in Butte. (It's kind of a big deal in Butte.) Anyway I had the film company who's doing our kickstarter production capture the taste test and of the 40 or 50 people we ran the test on we got a 75% win rate over a couple of major breweries in our Northwestern area, Big Sky and Kettlehouse. It was a huge victory and we got it on tape for the production so I was feeling pretty damn good about it.

 

[Punity]

Progress looks great. we designed our tap handles on a used coaster just a few weeks ago during our Mardi gras party. Its amazing how low tech everything gets when it comes down to brass tacks.

 

[MuddyCreek]

We passed our first inspection. We are now cleared to bury our brewery drain lines over and cement them in. Don't worry. I'll get a picture first. We would have had our fermenting and lagering/cold crash room wiring inspection passed too but the electricians apparently didn't submit the permits.

Anyway our milling room is going to be framed in this week and possibly our aging room too. Our fermenter may arrive in the next couple of weeks as well. If our Federal licensing comes through by May we may just make our mid-June opening date. I'll take some pictures of the drain lines this afternoon and try to post tonight.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Our brewery drain trenches are being cemented in today and our taproom ceilings are getting the first layer of insulation sprayed in as well. As soon as the second layer of insulation is sprayed in we can paint the taproom walls in and finish the floors. After that we'll build the bar and our tables and chairs. (We know just how we want to do them. I'll post a picture in just a minute.)

As soon as the drains are cemented in I'll take a picture and post that too. I think we may just have our brewery open by July in time for festival season. If anyone wants to see Evel Knievel days in Butte in July and try some Muddy Creek Chocolate Stout or some No Paddle Amber ale come on over to Butte America. We're dying to see you!

By the way, that's one of my partners and his son in the photo next to my wife and my two daughters.

 

[MuddyCreek]

We have a friend at the local power company who's saving these up for us. This is just the rustic look we're going for. We'll be sanding, lacquering the tables and padding the seats and placing these all around the taproom. The corner will feature a beautiful fireplace and we'll have some great live music on the weekends for our dance enthusiasts.

I'm getting more excited by the minute. My concrete guy called and he's getting close to finishing up. Hope to be able to post a few photos of the finished drains soon. I may have to drink a few pint of No Paddle this evening and I definitely plan on brewing some Dirty Blonde this weekend!

 

[skogarr]

I will have to come check it out next time I'm in Montana, My girlfriend and I are planning a brewery tour this summer around the Inland Northwest, and West/Central Montana is small brewery Mecca. Looking forward to having a brew with you.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Thar be cement!

 

[MuddyCreek]

In addition to having the drains cemented in Monday, the taproom had the first layer of insulation begun to be sprayed yesterday as well. That continued today and I am told the process will be completed on Friday. Assuming the insulation is finished drying over the weekend, we will spend the week scraping and preparing for painting and next weekend the taproom painting will begin. I assume that will take us a week or so and presumably we should have the taproom painted by mid April.

We'll keep you abridged with photos. We're hoping to launch a Kickstarter or Indiegogo but we're having so much fun it's hard to find time to put together the campaign video what with all the work kicking our asses.

 

[MuddyCreek]

Had our TTB Taproom inspection today. Apparently our partner answered all the questions correctly because he was told we were being put on the fast track to the next stage of Fed licensing and that we would be licensed by the end of the month (for the Feds. Hopefully by the state too.)

 

[jiMithing83]

Awesome, congrats on getting the license!

 

[levtbeas]

So excited to follow your journey!! Building looks good so far, and those tables and stools are awesome. I didn't see anything about the sprinkler system, so I'm assuming you worked that out? Seems like everything is going pretty smoothly. Congrats on the progress. I sincerely wish you the best of luck! I'll be following closely

Cheers!

 

[Owly055]

I made a "beer tour" through Oregon last summer.....not the stated purpose of my trip... I come from Montana (#3 beweries per-capita), and Oregon is #2 (Vermont #1). I couldn't avoid "drinking my way through Oregon".

I ran into breweries of all scales, from industrial scale (Deschutes), down to a bar in Astoria that had 3 of their own beers on tap........ The owner was in the process of preparing to do a mash....... He was brewing in 6 gallon brew buckets!! And had 3 on tap. That's quite impressive. It shows that you CAN start small. I don't know anything about Oregon law, except that it is authoritarian......... the only place in the free world where people are doing time for being "politically incorrect"...... but apparently they must be liberal where brewing is concerned.

How big do you want to start? An existing business might be the place to start........

H.W.

I am officially throwing my hat in the ring.

Our building is leased, our contractors have had their fun sodomizing me, our LLC and EIN numbers are filed and our applications for a brewing license are en-route.

Muddy Creek Brewing Co. is on it's way.

I will try to keep a running thread about the journey. Having read ALL the threads about other guys who have started (or attempted to start) their own breweries I feel as though I am about 1/4 aware of all the crap that's about to be thrown in my way.

First thing... I have made every effort humanly possible to keep costs down, including arranging for a ludicrously beneficial lease agreement and this thing is STILL going to cost my partners and I a TON of money. I cannot find an inexpensive way to start a brewery. (And believe me, I have researched every possible method.)

I'll post photos and a running documentary on the process.

Have a heart, wish me luck!

 

[day_trippr]

Gotta say, considering the content, "Worst Thread Title Ever".

I mean, if the effort had gone tits up, then the title would be dead nuts on. But for a start-up effort?

Cheers!

 

[levtbeas]

Gotta say, considering the content, "Worst Thread Title Ever".

I mean, if the effort had gone tits up, then the title would be dead nuts on. But for a start-up effort?

Cheers!

Agreed haha. I was expecting to read about how his brewhaus failed :/

Hey OP, are you planning on having some sort of celebrational opening night?

 

[MuddyCreek]

Ya. Just yesterday I tried looking into how to change the thread title. I originally meant the title to mean something along the lines of "another home-brewer dives in to the dream pool" But it obviously didn't come across that way at all. Perhaps a mod can change the title to something slightly more appropriate.

Regarding the sprinkler question. The answer is $12,975 I believe. That's before the fire-line we need to have stubbed in from the city water main coming in off of main street. I expect that to run around another $6000 or so. The sprinklers are being installed sometime next week. The skylight panes are being replaced this week. The taproom floor is going to be started on tomorrow. The framing of the beer aging room will be finished tomorrow and the electricians come tomorrow to finish all the brewery wiring so we can have the final inspection for all of the brewery wiring done Monday except for the brewhaus control panel which still needs to be designed and built.

The sheetrock crew will come in on Tues or Weds next week and by Friday the 18th we should have the brewery pretty much ready for the fermenters and brewhaus equipment.

I'm ordering my mill, our 120 kegs and our transfer pump today and I'll decide whether we'll just buy our keg cleaning and filling station or build our own. It will depend on what our money situation is at. So far we've saved ourselves much more than we've expected. Mostly because we've used my father (a professional contractor) as our G.C. We also still need to get our gas mixing equipment to prepare our CO2/Nitrogen setup but we think we will be able to hit our festival goal.

(Butte Montana hosts several festivals over the summer months including the Montana Folk Festival hosting several thousand guests, the 4th of July Celebration, Evel Knievel Days hosting in excess of 50,000 visitors, and An Ri Ra, our Irish Folk Festival in August)