That’s right, folks. That delicious aroma rising from south-eastern Fremont and settling over the neighborhood on this gorgeous, windless day is not the transfer station. Finally, after a brutal week of tank-cleaning (man, those kettles were foul – c’mon, Red Lodge, ya could’ve cleaned the system after that last run!), final hook-ups, testing, fixing of leaks and jerry-rigging of equipment – FINALLY Fremont Brewing Company is, in fact, BREWING!!
I feel like a woman in her 43rd week of pregnancy on her way to the hospital. It’s taken a lot of blood, time, and sweat to get here. Matt hasn’t seen the kids awake in 4 days. He’s cut up (minor brushes with sharp things this time, his severed tendon is healing well), under-slept, and suffering terrible pain in his behind (not me; his sciatica) caused by climbing all over they brew house. Kemp had to take a welding class (!) to learn how to build the grain platform. Pumps have broken and pumps have been loaned (thanks Mike!). The pilot light on the water heater mysteriously went out yesterday afternoon. We would’ve been SOL at 4:30 on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend were it not for the grace of the owner of Ballard Natural Gas who came to the rescue and spent 4 hours here taking the thing apart and putting it back together again. And Rick’s been commuting across the lake from his real, paying job to stay until midnight helping out. Mike from Georgetown Brewery was here last night and again today, contributing some professional street-smarts.
This is but a sampling of the awe-inspiring goodwill that has made today possible. A future blog post will be devoted to acknowledging another fundamental piece of this enterprise: the generosity of our investors. So, today if you’re close by, take a deep whiff and smile that the dream is coming true.
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