A radio tour of Flora Hall
Radio might not seem the ideal medium to tour a new building, but it’s very effective when done right. CBC Ottawa’s Jessa Runciman did an excellent job when she popped in to hang out with Dave the boss! Click on the link below to hear Jessa’s tour.
Let the canning begin!
Like many new and smaller breweries, Flora Hall Brewing uses a mobile canning service, which comes in every couple of weeks (thereby leaving that valuable space free for other uses the rest of the time). We were excited on the day of the canners’ first visit. (BTW, cans are available in our fridge to take home from 11 am to 11 pm, seven days a week!)
A thousand (or more) tiny welds
Bob Trinh spent hundreds of hours in Flora Hall Brewing, building those stairways that are as beautiful as they are sturdy. Bob welded every single joint of the “banker mesh” that gives a distinctive surface to our railings — which Bob also built! He’s also a bit camera shy . . .
Rocker modern making tables
Ian Manhire has been a fixture on the Ottawa indie rock scene for more than a decade, but when he’s not on stage he’s in the woodworking shop. Ian made all of our tables, including the large communal tables and benches on our ground floor. He’s at home with band, and band saw!
The leather maker
Out in the woods, near Chelsea on the Quebec side of the river, there’s a rustic workshop overseen by James Michael Brooks. Inside, with his staff (one of them is, in his free time, a 78 RPM DJ), Brooks made the leather holders for our menus, and he makes a lot of beautiful bags, wallets and other fine leather goods!
The beer tanks arrive with the sun!
The early morning sun broke over Centretown, and out of the dawn drove several large, flatbed trucks, loaded with shiny, silver brew tanks. It was a beautiful site to behold, as was the organization of the crew that had to get those giant tanks off of those trucks and into the brewery, which was still under construction. It was like choreography on an industrial scale, and it was the first day when we felt like a real brewery!
Putting the floor in Flora Hall!
Oh, what a happy day it was when the crew poured our new floor, for without a floor we had nothing to, er, stand upon. The pourers poured and the buffers buffed, and soon we had a finely polished concrete base for the further renovations to come.
