Yet another week has come and gone as we trudge on towards making our corner of this old industrial park something worthy of our fine fermentables (or, barring that, something habitable). The march of progress is evidenced in both the steady stream of paperwork to process as well as in the ebb and flow of the trash pile in our parking lot. 

That's right: there's nothing big going on this week. Renovations are rollin' along, but even by our admittedly-low standards, none of it qualifies as "news" per se. The leaky roof is almost fixed, which will allow the tile to be finished, which will allow us* to bring in a jack, which will allow us to take that big stupid metal thing off the ceiling, which will allow us to finish installing our gas lines, which will allow us to install our brewhouse, which will allow us to put in a hood, which will allow us to get our gas inspection, which will allow us to get our occupancy permit, which will allow us to brew some friggin' beer already.** So yeah, business as usual. 

But what's this? More progress on our label designs from the art department? Indeed! Jimbo spent the substantial bulk of the past week digamatizing the sketch for Key Lime White.*** She insisted that it wasn't done yet (turns out it's a lot of work to digitize and pretty up a hand-drawn sketch with ten million little details. Who woulda thunk), but we're about as excitable as a cork flying off a bottle when it comes to these here labels so we managed to get the artwork from her, completed and shiny or not (we had to bait a snare with a pint of Extra Naked before we could pry it from her hands). Isn't this going to be ever so lovely starting back at you from the shelves of your local bottle shop? (Yes!)

Howdy, howdy, howdy! I know you're all dying to hear our breathlessly-excited recap about plumbing and electricians and, I don't know, valves or something, but we figure there's a certain number* of times that we can give you in-depth real-time construction updates before you start getting bored. Suffice to say, things are coming along. Slowly, but they're coming along. 

And when we're not squealing with delight about drywall or pumps or whatever, we're busy battling the Bureaucratic Hydra - for every permit we acquire, we learn about two previously-unheard-of permits that we need to get. For example: we recently received our Farmer Brewery Permit from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which in theory allows us to produce and sell alcoholic malt beverages.** But! We need to get a separate set of permits - one for each of us - that will allow us to actually sell said alcohol.*** And there's another set of permits that will allow us to transport it. What fun! At least we're keeping the local notary busy.

But wait! There's more! Remember them proof-of-concept, work-in-progress label design sketches that we've been posting for the past couple weeks? Well, Jimbo went and started experimentin' with various color palettes to smooth out her True Artistic Vision.**** With all the crazy doodles going on in the art itself, we're trying to go with a simpler color scheme. It's worth mentioning that absolutely none of this is set in stone, but we thought you might like to see our "creative process" (we're definitely not just putting up a bunch of pretty pictures to distract you from the fact that we put up basically the same "news" every week). Anyway, they look damn good! Check 'em out, and let us know if you have a favorite! 

Hops be praised! This is the first week in a while that I don't have to find a new way to say "not much has happened on the construction front." 

Because! Stuff! Is! Happening!

Admittedly, it's only a handful of little things happening in yips and squiggles, so it's not anything to get too worked up about. But still! We've got tile laid for the area behind the bar, most of the wiring is done, and - hold on to your hats - our door has a handle now.* What's more, our big projects are (supposedly) underway: the roof is being fixed as we speak, the new gas main (the one we just found out we needed) is getting installed, and maybe - just maybe, if we're extra nice - they'll install the latch for our door. 

Almost as exciting,** Jimbo and Jared decided to spruce up the place a bit. Gone are the largish piles of vaguely construction-themed detritus - the boards with nails hammered into them seemingly at random,*** the unused lighting, the pile of studs that for some reason didn't make it into the walls, even the mysterious full set of household windows. As Jimbo so eloquently declared: it sure does look a lot better without all the trash in there. 

And! Breaking news! 

Last week, DigBoston called Jared to talk about the brewery for their Craft Beer Issue. We figured we'd get a quick mention off to the side in their "up and coming" section, but no. That was not the case. That was very not the case - they printed a dang ol' full-column half-page interview! Daaaaaamn! This must be what Mick Jagger feels like all the time. So if you're in the Boston area, grab this week's Dig and flip to page 14! 

(What's that? You've already read it? And... why yes, as a matter of fact that was his first ever time being interviewed. You could tell? Well, that's fair)

Hey there, cats and kittens! We've just about calmed down after our big week last week, so now it's time for us to knuckle down and kick things into high gear by doubling the effort we're putting in to waiting around for renovations to finish. We've got all sorts of exciting stuff on the agenda for the near future: why, just a little while ago we found out that we need to install a whole new gas line!* Whee! 

And since we've been promising you pictures of wood for weeks without delivering the goods, check out some pictures of our bartop-in-progress (we got to see it in person! It looks so cool!):

Lastly but far from leastly, our art department (Jimbo) cooked up a label concept drawing for the fourth of our planned year-round beers: Shut Up Kelly Robust Porter. Who knows what next week will bring? I sure don't! I inquired as to what the future might hold vis-à-vis more label designs and she started talking about "vectors" until I left the room (she might still be talking about vectors for all I know). Anyway, check out this label art!

Big news! Big news! Things are happening! Like, real actual things! The mood around the office* is positively jubilant!

That's right. We got our Massachusetts Brewers Permit from the ABCC. And after only three months, no less! As coincidence would have it, the permit was issued at roughly the same time that we put up our blog post last week (which, if you'll remember was chock full o' zingers about how our permit would wither away in Bureaucracy Limbo). But we've got it! We got the OK from The State to produce beer! Now we can... um... continue waiting on renovations. Yay. 

But seriously, this is a major milestone. We still aren't allowed to actually brew anything - that needs town approval, which needs inspections, which need completed renovations, which we don't quite have. But we're closer than we were last week! 

In other news, Jimbo cooked up another test label for you, this time for Extra Naked Premium Cream Ale. Check it out! (Sorry, I know I promised you some pictures of wood and/or dirt last week, but those will just have to wait until next week).