Brewery Progress Update, August 2014

As predicted, things have been extremely busy here at Ghostfish ever since we signed the lease on our space.  We have wasted no time at all in getting to work on building Seattle’s first dedicated gluten-free brewery!

First, we completed our TTB application and submitted it for approval.  The current forecast turn-around time for this is approximately 120 days, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that our good luck streak holds and we get a response sooner.  We’re now on to state and local permits…when other brewers told us to expect a mountain of paperwork, they really weren’t kidding!  Good to know our industry is thoroughly regulated.

Ghostfish Brewing TTB
Brian submitting the TTB app

Brewmaster Jason-Igliashon got busy right away turning the former kitchen space into a temporary R&D lab, a real “proper brew space” with a temperature-controlled fermentation chamber and plenty of professional-grade lab equipment to make the test brews as consistent and repeatable as possible.  After four back-to-back brew days testing out pale ale recipes, he can confirm that “this beats the heck out of brewing in a garage!”

 

The next order of business was clearing out the brewery space to prepare for the massive amounts of plumbing work.  Fortunately there was not a lot of demolition needed, but we did have to say goodbye to the ticket counter/DJ booth of the former Habana Sodo club.  Then the real fun began: cutting the concrete!  It was so dusty in the brewery that Jason started having flashbacks to Black Rock City.

After the concrete was pulled out, our intrepid Ops Director Randy got into the trenches with a jackhammer to cut room for the pipes for our floor drains.  With a little help from brew dog Kai, he even started putting in the drains before giving it a rest for the weekend.

 

On top of all this, we’ve been working with LeDoux Design (the same firm responsible for this lovely website) on the can art for our first three flagship ales.  So far we are thrilled at how they are looking, and we can’t wait to share them with you once they are complete.  Our beers are going to look as good as they taste!

We’ve still go a lot of work ahead of us, so keep your eyes on this blog for the next update!