Hello everyone,

 I want to share with you all, by way of this blog, the building of my backyard brewery. The name of it is "Stumptown Craft Brewing", after the old unofficial name of Matthews, NC, and will be a 20gal electric system. This is going to be a very picture intensive blog with lots of details and information. Some of the pictures may be a bit blurry as I take them with my cell phone and I don't always have the most steadiest of hands so please bare with me.

First I would like to take this moment to thank all of my family and friends and many of the brewers of the various local brewery's here in the Charlotte, NC area as well as a great gentleman by the name of Mr. Muth for all the support and help that they all have given me as I now begin my build. 

Back in the Spring of this year, 2012, my wife and I was hitting and kicking around the idea of starting a Craft Brewery and so we began to dig into it and the more we dug the more appealing it was becoming. Here in the Charlotte, NC area, as well as just about everywhere else across the country, there has been a boom of Craft Beer Breweries popping up all over the place. But one thing we noticed was the fact that a commercial Craft Brewery which sold on and off premise was lacking in the Matthews, NC area. So we brainstormed one evening after a few pints of one of our locally favored double rye IPA's and came up with "Stumptown Craft Brewing Company". We like the name so much and thought it would have a lot of local appeal so we went as far as filing the paperwork and making it a LLC. Who knows, one of these days when those at the North Carolina Educational Lottery feel that we are worthy enough to win then we will be able to establish SCBC (Stumptown Craft Brewing Company) as a real commercial Craft Beer Brewery and possible Pub. Nice to have dreams but until such we are strapped to our backyard adventure. ;-)

I am in the very beginning stages of this build as I am having a 12' x 16' building built in the backyard of my house which will be solely for the purpose of "Stumptown Craft Brewing". This building was purchased from Home Depot in Matthews, NC as they have models of various buildings there and the one we chose was one called the "Sierra". It looks somewhat similar to this picture.......

It differs in that the door will be on the side where the window is which will be facing the house. 

One thing that one will need to know if they live in North Carolina is that if you build a building on your property that is more than 12' x 12' then you are suppose to get a building permit from the county in which you live. Being that I also live within the city limits I also had to purchase a permit from the city.

My house has a standard 240v, Single Phase, 200a Residential Electrical Service which I will tap off of and run power to a 100a sub-panel in the building. I will then use a 60a Spa Panel to feed my Control Panel.

One thing also to remember that when getting your building permit, also add who will be doing the electrical and plumbing at that time or you will have to pay more later if you have to have it done as it will take a permit to do both. If you add it to the building permit when you get it, it won't cost any extra.

More later.......