Historically accurate!

Last week I said that the next big step would be yesterday’s zoning board meeting. It’s the one where they decide if we can brew beer at the awesome location we have. We were optimistic, and had our ducks in a row, as well as a few extra rows of ducks, all spaced evenly and accounted for in a ledger, just to be sure.

Even so, we had our doubts. We thought it would go through eventually, but that there might be an issue or two we hadn’t covered, something to make them say ‘fix this and come back next month.’ Cautious optimism would be an appropriate way to describe our feelings. I couldn’t go, but those who could said that it went well and that we would find out the next day.

An hour or two later my email buzzed, with Google Alerts notifying me of the Buffalo News announcing the variance had been granted.

We did it. The building is ours. Well, after closing, but that’s just a waiting game. Our march towards pouring beer continues unabated, progressing steadily, inexorably. It is our destiny.

What now? We may have been in the News three times in the past week and a half (!), and so we have quite a few peoples’ attention. Despite that, and despite the inevitability and excitement of the above paragraph, it will still be quite a while before a glass of CBW is in your hands. Before that happens we need to file with the State Liquor Authority, and before that with the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB).

Once we file with the TTB, though, we can’t brew on-site, and so we’d like to get in a test run or two before we’re legally forbidden from doing so. As such, all of those are farther off than anyone would like, but the time will not be spend twiddling thumbs. It is, as they say, on. Some people have asked about shirts. We’ll be performing the magic of brewing in public. All of these will have details come to light as they’re finalized, and even as we speak our equipment is being hammered into being in a hot dwarven forge. Or, y’know, Oregon.

It’s an exciting time to be here, let me tell you, and please accept our sincere thanks. We do not doubt that the ZBA’s quick approval of our appeal was due in large part to the hearty cheers of the community standing behind us, and we’re doing everything we can to live up to and surpass what’s expected of us.

And also, to make you all some beer!