Construction, Promotion, and Legislation

Things have been pretty busy here at Westbrook Brewing since I last posted. In 1 month, the brewery site has been transformed from a patch of pine trees into a cleared, graded, formed, plumbed, and rebar-ed brewery-to-be. Provided that the weather cooperates, the first 2 pours of concrete for the slab should happen later this week, and then next week the steel beams for the building structure (which were delivered this morning) will start going up. A few pics below, but you'll have to go to our Facebook page to check out the full album.

View from Ridge Road

The building pad

Steel!

Unloading truck 1 of 4

In other news, this past Friday was the public (sort of) debut of some Westbrook Brewing test batches! Morgan and I served up 6 different beers at an event on Daniel Island, and the response was fantastic. As I expected, the ginger/lemongrass Belgian white was the most popular, but our double dry-hopped West coast style IPA was also a big hit. The coolest part of the night was seeing people who told us "I'm not a beer drinker" or some variation of that statement try a taste and then come back a few minutes later for a full glass.

Morgan and I bracing for the onslaught of thirsty people

(sorry for the blurry pic)

Last but definitely not least, the SC Microbrewery Tasting bill, H. 3693, has passed the House with a unanimous "yea" vote and is now scheduled for a Senate subcommittee hearing this Thursday, May 6. All the SC brewers will be there to testify, but we need your support! Read this Support Your Local Brewery action alert to find out how to help. There is exactly one month remaining in the 2010 legislative session and there is a real danger that the bill may not pass simply due to running out of time!! That's why we need you to contact the senators listed at the link above before Thursday and urge them to get behind this bill and move it quickly through the Senate. We're so close!

Microbrewery Tasting Bill Update

From a post by Coast Brewing on Beeradvocate:

Our bill,  H. 3693 is up for Full Judiciary on March 9 (please note the amendment was approved last meeting but I still don't see the new language on the statehouse site)- so now we need your support on this committee- Phone Calls work the best but we'll take your emails as well.

Statehouse site:  http://www.scstatehouse.gov/html-pages/housecommlst.html#jud  (look for Judiciary Committee) we need to contact each member on that Committee (all 25 of em)

Again- we so appreciate the support from each one of you!

Beer Bill Progress!

Great news today - the microbrewery tasting bill was successfully amended and left the Judiciary subcommittee with a favorable report! This means that the bill could be on the floor of the House by the middle of next week. We still need your support for H. 3693 so keep an eye on the SC Brewers Association site for updates. Read the news article on H. 3693 here.

Another beer-related bill, H. 4572, also passed out of the subcommittee today. This bill will allow retail stores like The Charleston Beer Exchange to finally conduct beer tastings. This bill is long overdue and will go a long way towards educating people about good beer. Again, be sure to check out the SC Brewers Association site to find out how you can help.

SC Microbrewery Tasting Bill

H. 3693 is on the agenda for the Judiciary General Laws Subcommittee meeting tomorrow, 2/17. This bill is really important for the future of SC's microbreweries!

For more info on how to help check out the South Carolina Brewers Association site.