One of the reasons we love Braddock is its abundance of old-fashioned, hand-painted signs. Most of these murals around town were done by the incredibly talented Tony Purcell, whose uncanny hand-lettering ability can be seen at a number of Pittsburgh businesses including Harvard & Highland, Up Modern Kitchen, Franktuary, and our old location at 800 Braddock Avenue. Now we’re working with Tony on a much more ambitious project: the entire side of our building. So for the next couple weeks, we’ll be out in the sun putting an old-timey twist on our facility. We’ll be periodically taking photos in order to put together a time-lapse once it’s finished, so follow along on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook to see the progress. No, we’re not showing you the final design – you’ll have to wait and see.
In addition to getting some company imagery emblazoned our façade, we’ve also finally restored our vehicle to it’s former glory. The magnetic signage that previously adorned Rutherford, my 2001 Ford Ranger that’s become the war horse of The Brew Gentlemen Beer Co., was stolen by some drunken jagoff back in April. Today, with the generous help of my father, we were able to give Rutherford a set of professional vinyl decals.
Meanwhile, on the brewing front, things are picking up. We’ve officially ordered our brewing equipment, a 3.5 barrel system from Portland Kettle Works. We’re looking at a shipping date some time in late September or early October. Until then, Matt and Zach are hard at work, tweaking some existing recipes and developing the first three yet-to-be-named beers in our Rapid Prototype Factory series.
- Business Casual, our session red ale, is nearing its final iterations. We’ll most likely be making this one a taproom-only year-rounder. We’ll be posting some concept art and taphandle mockups for this one soon.
- First in the Rapid Prototype Factory series is a strong and hoppy Belgian golden ale, bordering on Belgian IPA territory. We wanted to make it a heavier hitter to complement it’s cousin, General Braddock’s IPA.
- Second up in the series is a sweet and creamy wheat stout. We loaded this bad boy up with white and chocolate wheat malt, and it smells better in the mash tun than any other beer we’ve made. We’re excited for this one.
- The third Rapid Prototype Factory beer is a fairly unusual one: a wood sorrel saison. The easily forageable three-leaf clover can be found growing in the cracks of sidewalks, and it offers a unique tartness that’s slightly bolder than that of lemongrass.
Alright, that’s enough new things for now. I’m off to find an industrial box fan and a morphine drip so I can ride out this horrific sunburn.