This is not the update we were hoping to share, but it is an update to share nevertheless (don’t worry, we aren’t closing)
As many of you may already know by our recent enthusiasm, June newsletter and overall excitement: we completed all plumbing and electrical work over the last few weeks and have been awaiting inspection of our sprinkler system so we can proceed to final approval. We held cautious optimism that we were nearing the end of this project, and could actually see the finish line for the first time on the journey. We hoped to be able to announce a July opening, and were excited to bring on a great friend and colleague to help kick off this new chapter.
But then the damn birds got back in the cellar.
Figuratively speaking that is. But yeah, while we are on the subject some actual birds got back in the cellar quite literally as well (members of our Dead Sparrow Bottle Cult are familiar with the omen, and the significance of dead birds and other natural forces that shape and mark the crossroads through our own respective journeys). There were at least three birds that flew in:
One was caught and removed by a heroic brewer, co-owner and cellarman named Rick
One flew into a window and disappeared, hopefully performing some grand illusion and appearing outside the wall without ever colliding into it
The third went MIA.
To the best of my knowledge there may be one or two birds still indoors.
The next journey has not been chosen. Hell, the paths haven’t even been presented yet. Much like Schrödinger's cat, we do not yet know the fate of the birds that entered the cellar — now existing in a quantum state…
*YAWN*
You probably get where I’m going with this.
So by now you can probably tell that we are stuck in a position much more serious than a couple of birds that got inside. Those birds could be alive, they could have escaped, they could be dead. They could have developed a portal to another dimension and be controlling this narrative from an alternate reality. I honestly have no idea what happened, and won’t until I have the courage to go back down there and check it out myself, but hopefully you can see the significance of this week’s events. Beyond the walls of the cellar, back safely inside the taproom is where our crossroads are actually being formed.
I promised an update but so far have provided nothing more than veiled allegory and backstory.
Last week as temperatures soared across the region many places struggled to keep up with the heat. The high humidity coupled with sustained heat and relative quick onset sent many HVAC systems into various states of shock. The usual suspects were all around — arced wiring, overheating, freeze-ups, leaks, blown components, etc. — and many of our colleagues, neighbors, and retail partners dealt with a host of “extreme heat” related issues. Last Thursday I remarked, quite ignorantly I might add, that the AC felt great inside and it would be a good reprieve from the heat over the coming days, and went on about how great it was going to be to open indoors in a few weeks and finally be able to beat the Summer heat (and rain). Everything was great. We were closing in on completion. We were staffed up and feeling great.
On Tuesday, after four days of sweating out an unknown issue with our much needed and dearly beloved air conditioning system, our HVAC company was able to come out and take a look. The technician that day provided a near instant update in the form of a death certificate. Our HVAC system, quite obviously utterly distraught with the lack of true global progress toward reducing warming and the US’s retreat from the Paris Agreement, had taken its own life as some grand gesture of defiance. Our only solace is the protest wasn’t any form of immolation.
Shit. Ok. We can handle this. It’s no big deal, we can just get a new unit on the roof and hook it up, right? I’m sure there are plenty of units just waiting to be installed.
Our HVAC technician immediately cautioned my optimism. This isn’t going to be easy or simple, and there is no unit just waiting to be installed. A new system will need to be designed and built. We will need a new rooftop compressor, as well as an in unit air handler to move the refrigerated air. The new systems use an “accelerant” as the refrigerant. Apparently this is very efficient, but these new refrigerant gasses are harmful if breathed in, and apparently explosive/flammable, so they need mitigation systems built in for commercial use. A rooftop unit will require a crane to install, and the new air handler will require removing a wall and maybe creating a new space for it. They are also stupid expensive, aren’t really serviceable any more, the parts go to shit and you have to replace the whole system, but hey they last 15-18 years. I think I got it all.
Expensive.. Complicated.. Fuck, these are not words I like to hear. It’s ok though, we can just get right on all of that and still hope to be open in a few weeks right? Is it just money that will hold us back?
Again, the technician cautioned my optimism. We are one of dozens of accounts experiencing the same thing right now. The system engineer is booked out a number of weeks, and lead times on builds once designed and approved are 2-3 months if all goes smoothly. There is also the permitting and inspections. The review period. How does this affect our overall project allowance for code compliance? Is this emergency work for us, or for the building? How much is it going to cost? How long is it going to take? Will we have to rip out a bunch of new work? Will we be allowed to make the updates without affecting the project overall? More and more questions flooding my brain every moment.
The reality is they are still all unknowns. These are the feathers of the birds stuck in the cellar. In reality, I am overwhelmed, a bit distraught and utterly depressed. I need to take a few weeks, back up a few thousand feet and take a fresh look at the whole picture. We need to understand what it is now going to take for project completion from both a timing and cost standpoint. We also could use a few weeks without having to discuss the status or timing of the new space.
We have some very generous folks who have helped us get to this point, and we will need to confer with them. We have financial and obligatory debt from this project that needs to be repaid. We have ongoing expenses and significant carry costs related to an unfinished project that has been out of runway for 6+ months, and the additional challenges of lots of rainy weekends and little control of our outdoor environment outside of tents and umbrellas.
Writing this feels a bit reminiscent of October 2023, when we were writing of closing the beer garden for winter, and shuttering our doors for an unknown or perhaps in March of 2020, when we were hitting pause to figure out what this weird flu thing was going to present us with. These aren’t endings by any means, but rather junctures in our journey.
We are not closing.
But we also don’t know what is going to happen next. The beer garden will remain open as it has the past two years. We will still work to open the new taproom. We will still play obnoxious “acid rock” and troll the hell out of people who insist on trying to change our ways. We are stubborn. We are resolved. We are Amory’s Tomb. And we fucking appreciate every one of you who have been, and continue to stay on this journey with us.
