December 12th, 2016 will always go down as our earliest Christmas on record. Equipment delivery day!

All of our brewing equipment is made by Specific Mechanical of Victoria, and 4 semi’s loaded with our fermenters, brewhouse, liquor tank, mill, keg washer, and other great goodies were all set to arrive! Of course, if you remember, this was right smack in the middle of one of the worst snow winters in Parksville’s recent memory – great! Snow is not great for running a forklift over! Thankfully, the snow dissipated and the skies cleared for the deliveries. Unloading and standing up each vessel in the brewery one-by-one we went from an empty shell building in the AM to what actually looked like a full-fledged brewery in the PM! Pics below!

With the brewing equipment now in place it was time for our trades to get to work. Plumbers, Electricians, Steam Fitters, Refrigerant Experts, Insulators. A whirlwind tour of trades all trying to figure out the best way to hook all this shiny equipment up! Our trades definitely put in the hours, long nights, and plenty of planning to make the beautiful brewery we have today so we cannot thank them enough.

With me and Dan now leaving the backside of the brewery to the trades we could re-focus our efforts on the front-of-house tasting room. We wanted to make a room that was unique, welcoming, and interesting. And I think we have succeeded. Our tasting room is meant to be a social gathering place to discover some truly great beer, discuss the brewing process, and create a unique destination in PQB.

There is so much that goes into building a brewery that I most certainly cannot put it all into 3 simple blog posts – but the end result is something we are truly proud of. We couldn’t have done this without the support of our family and friends – and now together, we open the doors to our newest exciting adventure – Welcome to Mount Arrowsmith Brewing Company.