In my last blog post I shared my frustration with one of our local news stations and the one-sided report they did on the recent changes to the Kansas liquor laws, changes that would allow grocery and convenient stores to stock “full-strength” beer while also allowing liquor stores to sell items other than alcohol.
Again, it’s been a while since I’ve had time to sit down and update our blog. A lot has happened since November. The last time I posted, we had been open a mere three weeks. Sadly, we are still dealing with some lingering issues from that post that I wish had passed—for example our custom made, bi-fold door is still not complete. Despite some amazing effort from Studium design/build on the custom door, we are opting for a more traditional overhead model. Should be installed in June.
We have expanded from six to ten of our beers on-tap in the tasting room, plus some house made cocktails. Though we didn’t get our beers out to liquor stores by 1 November, due to some tragic yeast problems, we ARE distributing. Our beers are available in over 90 liquor stores and 40 bars and restaurants. Speaking of liquor stores, I wanted to address a piece KSN did on us.
So our tasting room has been open for nearly three weeks. I have to say I’m humbled and excited by the reception we’ve received thus far. We’ve met so many awesome people, and it’s even more encouraging when we see those people coming back a second and third time.
We finally received our city license last Wednesday, Oct 12th. We can legally sell our beers now.
We hosted friends and family on Saturday for a “soft opening. It started out being for just “friends and family” but word got around and we quickly realized that many of the “best friends” are the new ones you make.
Hey everyone.
We are coming down to the wire on our construction efforts. We have a series of inspections scheduled this week, but it looks like the final inspection is going to get pushed into next week.
Sorry…
We are still waiting on state and city licensing too. Without those, we can’t open our doors anyway.
In the meantime, we still have things we can do. As we wait…frustrated for certain, I have to pause to look back on what we’ve really accomplished and be grateful.
Sorry I missed posting the last two weeks. I really want to share something each week. There is certainly enough going on.
We brewed our first batch of beer on 1 September, then brewed the next four days to get all of our fermentation tanks filled. Beers brewed included–
Welcome to Aero Plains Brewing–or at least welcome to our new website.
The purpose of the APB blog is to update you on things going on at APB, to allow me to personally channel some thoughts and idea, and along the way, hopefully you’ll come to appreciate the great thing we are building.
Aero Plains Brewing is a crazy “solution” to the personal challenge I faced retiring from the Marine Corps.