12 Gates Brewing Nearing a Grand Opening!

Over the last several weeks 12 Gates Brewing has been making some much anticipated forward progress towards putting a delicious beer in your hands.  We haven’t officially announced a grand opening date, but we are hoping to open the doors this December.  Rest assured the 12 Gates Brewing team is working diligently at getting this brewery on the map officially as soon as possible.
While our six fermentors and bright tank, which is the tank the fermented beer finishes and carbonates in, were dropped off months ago over at 80 Earhart Dr., the brewhouse equipment didn’t show up until two weeks ago.  The brewhouse included the mash tun, kettle, hot liquor tank, where water is heated and kept at temperature, and the whirlpool vessel, along with the platform for the brewhouse.

Two weeks prior we were looking at a flatbed truck wondering how the riggers intended to squeeze these massive vessels through a 9-foot garage door, but low and behold they squeezed them through.  We may have had to get creative with our enormous mash tun, since it is 8’11.5” in diameter, but an 8” deep trench and a few mild headaches later for our GM Rob and the mash tun is sitting upright and in position – almost ready to go.

This week the install team from Criveller Group, who built our fermentors and brewhouse, is furiously working – welding, cutting, measuring, and fitting everything together so that we can get this system operational.  We have steamfitters, plumbers, electricians, and every other contractor in between putting up lights, drywall, building walls, running glycol  and installing the largest boiler I have seen to name a few.

The operations team, which includes myself, GM Rob, and Assistant Brewer Kevin, along with the Taproom Manager Kevin have been setting up the fermenters, installing piping, painting and stripping floors, and everything in between in a mad dash for the finish line.  By the beginning of next week we intend to begin the cleaning and sanitization procedures on all of our tanks and equipment, and you know what happens next … BREWING!

In the meantime, we have one more free public tasting next Wednesday, October 28 from 6-8 pm at Moor Pat in Williamsville, appropriately as Williamsville will be our new home very soon.  We will be bringing out all the stops for this tasting, including our Double IPA with juniper berries, another line from our Single Hop IPA series, Coffee Porter, and one more TBD selection.  We will see what oddball, funky, or one-off beer I have coming up to tease your senses.

Stay tuned for more updates on our official grand opening, and when you should be able to find our beer hitting the Buffalo/WNY bars and restaurants.

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

Shawn Kerr/ 12 Gates Brewing Co. Head Brewer, resident blogger, and 15th Century lighting expert.