With grace, reverence and moderation we invite our friends and neighbors to join us at the table of discovery, raising glasses in gratitude and merry celebration. Join us as we celebrate the grand opening of our brewery tasting room and tours.
Friday, October 11 | 5:30 - 7:30 Saturday October 12th | 4:00 - 6:00
Limited number of tickets available on sale now. Go to threetavernsbrewery.brownpapertickets.com for ticket purchase. Limited number available. Must be 21 and older.
This day begins thick with anticipation. The intense work of preparation is finished, allowing a settled calmness and reflection in the midst of such high emotion. I woke to find a moving and inspiring note from my wife, Susie, this morning titled, "the brewmaster of my heart". An actor who knows what it is like to pursue her art with passion, she is my inspiration, and this dream would have never become a reality without her. As I reflect on the many turns in my life that brought me to this moment, I'm especially grateful for the one that brought my partner and CFO, Chet Burge, a.k.a. Morpheus, into my life. His tested financial wisdom and oversight has been and continues to be one of the key reasons for our success thus far. There are so many people and events that have shaped my life and ushered me to this new doorway. I am humbled and grateful as I consider the inspiration of my favorite author, Frederick Buechner, when he says that finding a true calling in your vocation is "when your great happiness meets the worlds great need." I stand at a new doorway with my hand turning the knob. See you tonight as we enter together. Transcendo Mediocris
After a weekend of 17 hour days and a full court press to meet our schedule for kegging the first tank of Three Taverns beer by Saturday, Sunday provided a much needed day of rest and time with my
family. But as is the pattern these days, my eyes popped open at 4 a.m. this morning with a brain in overdrive and a tired body dragging itself to the French press for the morning caffeine ritual. The amount of critical tasks on tap for the week ahead is at the same time exhilarating and overwhelming. Our brand new DE beer filter, necessary for the cosmetic clarity of our beer, broke late Friday with the wrong replacement part arriving Saturday morning. So we will be at the wire now kegging our second of the two launch beers just in time to meet the scheduled keg pick up from our distributor partner on Thursday. Of course, in the midst of this most critical task we have contractors finishing the insulation of our glycol piping, sanitary welders adding stainless product piping to the brewhouse, a team completing the install of our cooling unit, not to mention our guest from Italy ready to start the installation of our bottling line scheduled for delivery today. But in the midst of this circus of activity, driving me forward, there is something growing, something tangible just within reach, something I've experienced again and again in center of my mind and can now just begin to see emerging from the shadows of imagination, the long awaited fruit of my labor that on this Friday night, surrounded by friends and neighbors, with glass held high and heart full of gratitude and merry celebration, at long blessed last, the first public toast and blissful drink of Three Taverns craft beer! Servo Alias.
The most freque
nt question and most challenging to answer over the past year has been, "when can I get your beer?" For all of you who have been asking, been wondering, been frustrated from waiting, I finally have the answer you and I have been waiting for, Three Tavens beers will be on tap Friday, July 19! We'll launch our two flagship beers, Single Intent, a Belgian-style single ale and A Night In Brussels IPA, a Belgian-style American IPA in kegs throughout Decatur and a few neighboring areas. We'll kick off the evening's celebration at at the Brick Store Pub, our official launch headquarters and home base. But the Three Taverns core team will venture out to other spots during the evening to raise a glass and celebrate with our friends and neighbors there as well. We'll soon expand to the broader Atlanta market with our beers, but it was over 10 years ago now that I stumbled into the hamlet of Decatur on a sunny weekday afternoon and first discovered the Brick Store Pub, where a surprising glass of Latrappe reawakened my memories and imaginations of Belgian beer from a trip to Europe and a night in Brussels years before. And it was my subsequent move to Decatur and the air we breath here that soon inspired me to dust off my stored away homebrew kit and brew my first batch of beer. So after years of walking the local sidewalks and eating and drinking at every possible local spot, it is most fitting that Three Taverns launches our maiden beer voyage from port Brick Store into the mysterious and delightful waters of Decatur, GA. The next 2 weeks are going to be all hands on deck as we finish our keg cooler and keg filler installation just in time to package our beers for the launch. Stay tuned for more news on our soon coming launch in bottles and the public opening of our tasting room. There will be much activity in the days and weeks ahead to keep you excited. We hope to see you out on the 19th and raise a glass together in gratitude and happy celebration! Thanks to all for your enthusiastic support of our vision. Cheers from the team at Three Taverns Craft Brewery!
Since my last post over a month ago now, the brewery has been in a full court press for 
a market launch soon to be announced. In the meantime, build-out continues, and with painters at work all week finishing the interior walls, the brewhouse area is near completion. In the midst of this continued construction, on June 6th, we brewed our maiden batch of A Night In Brussels IPA. As we continue to dial in our brew sessions, our Newlands 4 vessel brewhouse has proved state of art, delivering it's promised speed and efficiency. With beer in the fermenters, my attention turned to packaging with a required trip to Italy for a factory authorization of our new Comac bottling line. After our enthusiastic approval, the bottling line was packed up and is now on the water with a scheduled July 15th delivery. In the meantime, our keg filler arrived as scheduled and will soon be commissioned into operation as we fill our first kegs for launch into Decatur and the surrounding market. With focus now turning to the packaging area of the brewery, including the assembly and installation of our drive-in cold room next week, we were finally able to pull out our calendars and work with our distributor to plan for a market launch that has infused a new surge of energy at 121 New Street. Their continues to be sacrifice as I was forced to experience our annual family beach vacation through phone images of the kids from my wife. While the family was finding relief from the summer heat in the gulf ocean, I was trying to survive the sweltering heat in a brewhouse without AC. But all the hard work and sacrifice is about to pay off with the very long anticipated first pouring of our beer in Decatur just around the corner. Stay tuned and watch for an announced date in the next few days! Cheers.
It has been difficult to find the time and space to sit and write over these past several days. The intensity of the effort required to ready the brewhouse for our maiden brew session has been al
l consuming and leaves little time for much else. But this week saw great accomplishment as the remaining pieces for launching our brew system came together. We installed our auger system that will deliver grain from our mill room up to the stainless grist hopper. And while the construction team completing the walls and doors throughout the brewery were hard at work, a team of pipe fitters were installing with precision the glycol lines necessary for controlling our fermentation temperatures. But the most inspiring moment came when we fired up Bertha, our 6 ton boiler, and ran steam into our mash tun and brew kettle for the first time. After testing the controls and valves on our brewhouse and making slight corrections, we were able at long last to peel the white protective film off the 4 brewing vessels and reveal a brewhouse and tank farm now fully clothed in glorious stainless steel. For a long time now my energy has been intensely focused on the supervision of the brewery build-out leaving little room for creative thoughts of recipe formulation and brewing, the root of my passion for pursuing this vision. But with the arrival of our grain and hops this week, and with the steam rising from boiling water in our brew vessel for the first time, I was caught off guard with an experience of profound emotion as I suddenly saw in front of me the choicest fruit from years of planning and work ready for indulging. The time is finally here and we start brewing our launch beers next week! With the required time for fermentation and maturing, we expect to be in market and on tap at your favorite spots around town the first of July. Stay tuned for more updates and thanks for journeying with me on the road to Three Taverns. Cheers!
As beer enthusiasts celebrated American Craft Beer Week around town at various beer events and tastings this week, the crew at Three Taverns collaborated on the design and brew of a beer with our neighbors down the street at Twain's. Our system is dangerously close to being operational and managing these final days before the scheduled maiden brew date is filled with challenge and intensity. And yet when Twain's came calling with a collaboration proposal, the temptation to leave construction supervision for a moment and return to brewing for a day with friends proved too much to overcome. So time was split on Tuesday and Wednesday this week between mash in's and sparges at Twain's and gas meter upgrades and CO2 system installs at Three Taverns. The beer brewed at Twain's is a Rye Saison called Decatur Ryeson and will be available in the coming weeks, just prior to the official release and launch of our own beers into market.
There was much enthusiasm at Three Taverns today as our brewhouse roof was penetrated by 3 steam stacks bringing us ever closer to our maiden brew, now slated for the last 
week of May. Since we took delivery and assembly of our brewhouse several weeks ago, the stainless machine has been forced to sit idle amidst the surrounding work while waiting for the day we turn on the ignition and take it for a ride. As we hit the home stretch toward brewing our first batch of beer, the minutes pass ever slower and patience is wearing at Three Taverns, so a day when the iconic brewery symbol of stacks penetrating the roof was a welcome and energizing sight for construction weary eyes. The next two weeks will be a full court press to finish the install and fill the air around East Decatur with the smell of boiling wort and herbal hops. We're almost there!
This is an important morning at Three Taverns as we make our decision on both the supplier and the material for running the glycol lines necessary for chilling and controlling the temperatures in our fermenters and brite beer tanks. This has been an exhausting decision as we've looked at multiple piping options and various ways to run the lines, each with a different price tag and installation schedule. As the steam lines near completion and the final pieces are being put in place for activating our brew system, running the glycol lines will be the finishing stoke necessary for brewing the first batch of Three Taverns beer. And after months of managing a construction project, the team at Three Taverns has never been more ready than we are now.
With parents in town for my son's birthday followed by a friend's 40th birthday celebration last night, I was forced to take a reprieve this weekend from the brewery and find myself surprisingly relaxed and reflective this morning as I enjoy my first cup of coffee. Building this brewery is both the most intensely exhilarating and mentally exhausting project I've 
ever attempted. Rarely am I not thinking of some aspect of the build-out or some task that needs completing or has hit an obstacle that needs overcoming. I am so ready to exit this construction project and just start making and selling beer, but that moment of release is unavailable without the steady and unyielding effort to piece this brewery together, some days seemingly one brick at a time with little visible evidence of movement. But this morning as I reflect on the last few years, especially the last few months and weeks since beginning this quest, I am amazed at how very close I am to realizing this dream. And I'm reminded of the critical need for a clearly defined vision kept ever in the center of the minds eye as a guide and inspiration for turning big dreams to reality. This picture of the morning light bleeding into the brewhouse brings a quiet and calm beauty to the work site and captures my mood as I enjoy this moment of settled reflection. If you haven't yet seen, check out this wonderful article from Bob Towsend at the AJC for more affirming words on our brewery vision, http://tinyurl.com/c65fxw9