Today is our last day at 5410 Hwy 55, Suite AF.
Artwork by Angie.
Honestly, I've been so caught up in getting things ready at our new location, I hadn't fully appreciated the fact that we would be leaving behind our home of the last three and a half years.
Sure, we're only moving to another suite in the same Greenwood Commons shopping center, but we have a lot of memories inside the 4 walls of Suite AF.
There was the day our can cooler arrived. It was delivered out back and it was about to thunderstorm, so we had to uncrate it and put it on furniture dollies to wheel it inside. Only...it was too tall to fit through the door when on the dollies. But, thanks to the help of a few great customers, we were able to muscle it in through the door a few inches at a time, before it started to rain. But, just in case, I did go to Ace Hardware and buy the only tarp that had...it's 100-feet long. So, if we ever need a giant tarp, I've got us covered.
There were the many snow storms (OK, not that many, we are still in NC) where most of the area was out of power, but our internet and power was up, making us a central hub and warm meeting place during the snow days. I'm sure that will continue in Suite V, but those first snow days will always be remembered.
We've seen our customers' lives grow and change over the last several years. There are kids that grew from just babies into real people snacking on chips and soda at The Glass Jug. Friends have been made, relationships have formed, people have moved away, new people have moved in. It's been a pleasure to watch, and we look forward to many more years as we continue to grow and change, as well.
While the atmosphere and the people will stay intact, things will be changing over at Suite V. No more checkered tile floors. No more lugging kegs from our too-small walk-in cooler into the keg boxes behind the bar. No more way over-sized bathrooms. No more janitor closet/office combo room. OK, so I guess there are some things we aren't going to miss about Suite AF.
Last week brought us a few steps closer to getting the doors open at Suite V.
First, we have the first coat of our final paint color on (almost all of) the walls! Most of the space will be navy, with a few exceptions for the brewery, office, and storage areas.
We also now have all of our lights hung. We've installed track lighting to accentuate all of the stainless steel brewing equipment. There are new pendant lights hanging above the bar and in the event space (which we're calling "The Atrium"), and all of the lights in the ceiling tile are LED so that they will not skunk any of the beers on the shelf with harmful UV rays.
I have finally finished installing the drops in our glycol system, delivering gylcol from the main loop down to our four fermentation tanks. That also included wiring up our solenoid valves and thermocouples, which will work in tandem to tell the system the temperature of the fermenting beer so that the right amount of glycol can be provided to maintain optimum fermentation temperature for the specific beer in the tank.
Fred and his team from Always Plumbing have just about wrapped up their work with our steam piping, which will provide the heating source for the brewhouse. He's finishing up an awesome orange paint job on our condensate return pipes to match our logo/brand colors!
Divinity Beer Systems also just started working on installing our draft system. Most of the components from our existing system will be moving over, but we do have a few fun new enhancements, like these awesome new manifolds that will pair with our growler fillers.
A few other items, such as some welding to adjust the piping of our brewhouse (Thanks, ABS-Commercial!), above ceiling inspections, and a new electric meter from Duke Energy all took place last week, and while there was a lot of work involved in each of those, the pictures aren't nearly as exciting. But, you should know that we have a great team working hard to get everything in place to pass our final inspections this week so that we can get our doors open as quickly as possible.
Right now, we are still targeting a soft opening next weekend. However, things can certainly shift, so keep an eye on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for updates and an announcement for when we get the doors open. And, come by today if you want one last visit to Sutie AF - all of our inventory is at least 15% off!
