Building a Brewery: August 1, 2017

It was shaping up to be a VERY hot weekend, so we decided to sacrifice a few sleep-in hours Saturday morning to get busy building this dang brewery while it was still relatively cool. We put out a small flyer on Facebook last week, and some brave and generous souls answered the call to arms (well...power tools).

I want to acknowledge and thank our amazing volunteers that came out this past weekend to help us with renovations on the building. Jeff Knussman, Jim Kunkle, Gerry Cooper, and Jim & Brenda Case, you guys are all rockstars! I don't know about y'all, but I'm still sore from ripping the old, rotten deck boards off the backyard deck and painting the interior room. Your hard work and support are the most important part of building this brewery, and we are forever grateful.

We were hoping to be able to reuse the deck boards for various crafts and improvements, but they are largely rotten and unusable. Sadly, we're going to have to find a trailer and haul the stripped lumber off to the dump. The good news is that all of the joists under the deck are in pretty good condition and won't need to be replaced. All we'll have to do is replace the decking with some treated lumber, and we've got a brand new-ish deck for the back yard!

While us poor saps were outside sweating to the hits of the 80's, Amanda and Brenda were inside painting what will become the conversation room. This is the interior of the smaller free-standing building inside our main space. When we get up and running, we envision this space will provide a quieter, more intimate setting to toss back a pint and catch up with friends and family. It's amazing what a fresh coat of paint will do to a room.

Amanda and I must be gluttons for punishment, because we returned Sunday afternoon for a little more painting in the building. Now that the interior of the small building was looking good, we decided to get rid of as much orange as possible on the exterior. As many of you know, our name comes from a family story wherein two brothers got into hijinks at Texas A&M University. We decided to pay them further tribute by painting over the orange with a nice fresh coat of maroon. WHOOP! 

The next big renovation items looming on the horizon include assembling the cold room we purchased a few weeks ago, building the bar, furnishing the taproom area, resurfacing the deck out back, building a sign out front, and probably a million other things we haven't thought up yet. We'll organize another work party soon so y'all can come in and help us get this show on the road as well as getting a sneak peek of the taproom before we get open. 

Many of y'all are asking, "When will you be open?" The only answer I can give you with 100% accuracy is "Not soon enough!" However, we do have some milestones coming up that you can help us with to make our opening come sooner! We posted a few weeks ago about submitting our paperwork for our Specific Use Permit with the Town of Pantego, and we are pleased to announce that the Planning and Zoning Commission will be hearing our case at 7pm, Monday, August 7th at the Town Council Chambers on Bowen Rd. 

We would greatly appreciate it if any of our Pantego-resident fans could come and show us some support as we describe our goals and visions for New Main Brewing. If everything goes well with the P&Z meeting, our case will go before the Town Council the following Monday evening, August 14th, also at 7pm for final review (and hopefully approval). Both of these meetings are very important in terms of eventually getting open and becoming your neighborhood gathering place. We hope to see y'all there! Cheers!