It’s a been a year since the Heier family broke ground for the construction of Half Hitch Brewery, and things are coming together.
“The process has been fairly good. When we broke ground we motored along for a bit,” said Chris Heier, president of Half Hitch Brewery. “Then in February, we slowed down a bit, as we were trying to close on additional financing. From that point, we got back rolling over the last couple of months.”
The original timeline has changed from August to sometime in November or December. Heier said the change was the result of a later closing date on additional finances on equipment.
But as of last week, the company has finished paying for their brew equipment. With the financial side taken care of, they’ve been working hard on the construction end.
That means finishing framing the 3,500-square foot basement so a protective polyurethane coating can be applied to the floor. The coating will guard against corrosive or hot liquids involved in the brewing process.
Applying the coating will take around 10 days and Heier said he would coordinate having the equipment arrive when the application is complete.
For the brewery’s building, much of the exterior framing is complete. The roof has not been built in order to allow the brewing vessels, 11 in total, to be lowered in. Essentially, most of the brew equipment has to be dropped in from the top due to their size, Heier said.
Six vessels are fermentors, three are conditioning tanks for carbonation and the remaining two are hot water and cold water tanks. Two additional vessels will be placed on the main floor.
Heier said the equipment costs around half a million dollars, excluding packaging equipment. That includes brew house, beer filtration, boiler and vessels.
The town has approved permits for the planned future restaurant, but Heier said at this point, they wouldn’t develop the restaurant until they’re able to get beer on the market.
“The more beer you buy from us, the sooner we can get the restaurant going.”
As for additional permits needed, Heier said they’ve already received conditional approval from the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.
Despite the change of timeline, Heier is optimistic that the end zone is well within sight.
“Now that we’re in the final stretch of things we’re going to get moving pretty quick on this.”
