The summer has brought us a student, Kyle, who is in his second year at Queens Engineering. We put Kyle to work cleaning the still before assembling it. It took Kyle almost two weeks of polishing but the copper look like new.

Whoever said "the devil is in the details" had it right. A whole building can be erected in the same amount of time it takes to do the trim. For example, Omark spent days installing the aluminium trim around the building. Not easy work especially when working 40 feet up on a boom lift. When setting up the steam boiler, I found out that I need a chimney to vent it. A nice last minute surprise. Luckily, Paul at Friendly Fires in Carlton Place was able to quickly get me the chimney pieces and was able to use the boom lift to install it.  I had installed the chimney at my house so it didn't take me long to get it up at the distillery. Omark had the difficult job of getting the chimney through the roof on a very windy day.  

Today is a big day. Our still and fermenters are moving out of my garage and into the distillery. The moment my wife has been waiting for. Neal arrived at my place with a giant Penske truck and using the lift gate we muscled in most of the equipment. The drive to Almonte was uneventful but Neal grazed Simon's van on the final approach to the distillery. Not easy handling such a massive truck. I was certainly relieved when all the equipment was unloaded.

After doing a lot of research about how to cover the concrete in the production area, I decided that polyurethane is the way to go. It's impervious to harsh chemicals and can withstand heavy tools being dropped on it. I asked Duron who they recommend and they referred me to Bob Gordon at Concrete Fusion. Bob's first quote was out of my budget but he came back with a supplier from Montreal called Ureco who had better prices. Despite the still high cost, I signed Bob up to apply polyurethane in the production area and to polish the concrete in the retail/office area. I realized the floor is serious business when three pallets of supplies showed up. One feature I liked about the system is that the polyurethane can be run up the "baseboards" to essentially create a water proof bathtub. To do so, they firt installed a "cove" where the floor meets the wall using a cementitious polyurethane. I was surprised that they didn't cover the cement board (which I put in to cover the ICF) but Zach told me that the top coat would be painted on later. This turned out to be a mistake that would haunt us later. After the coves were in place, came the fun part. The polyurethane is a two part product mixed on site then spread over the floor using a trowel. They then sprinkled silica dust over the polyurethane to give it some grip. Zach came back the next day to apply the polyurethane topcoat. That's when he realized the cement board covering the ICF foundation wall was to rough to paint. It should have been covered with the cementitious polyurethane used to make the cove. Ironically, the Ureco product video showed this detail being done. Zach tried to solve the problem by sanding the cement board but that didn't turn out. His brother Adam came up with the idea to apply a stucco like product to the cement board to make the surface more even. I was happy with the look so they went with it. Then, the moment I've been waiting for. Zach and his team rolled on the top coat. Boy did it shine!

One of the highlights of the build has been getting to know Omark who has been roofing for over 20 years and is a master of his craft. Omark likes to work alone which I thought would be impossible on this job given the corrugated metal roof panels are over 50' long. But he managed to pull them onto the roof and sides using an ingenious system of pulleys.  I'm glad Sean caught it on video since it's pretty unbelievable.

The family and I drove down to Stowe, Vermont for March break. Any worry of there not being enough snow for skiing was buried by a massive snow storm that dumped 2 feet in less than 24 hours. When we were not snow plowing on the slopes, we toured the local breweries and distilleries. Beer tourism is a thing in Vermont with dozens of breweries dotting the country side. We stopped by Green Mountain Distillers who make spirits using organic corn. I was surprised that they were able to make decent product using a stainless steel still. Down the street from our timeshare, we found The Alchemist brewery. Their brewery is housed in a gorgeous new modern building where they make some very hoppy beer. I was especially impressed with their fermenters that were decorated to look like their beer cans. I also liked the huge fan they had and sent a picture of it to Sean so he can order one for us. A 10 minute drive from Stowe is Waterbury which must be the craft beer capital of the US. I found a store dedicated to selling local craft beer and cider. The choice was endless. I wish we could have similar stores in Ontario focused on local beer, wine and spirits.

I was lucky to reconnect with Ivan, who did the drywall at my house. He assembled a team of pros that got to work as the last glass panel was being installed. I was worried that the boarders would complain about hanging the drywall on the SIPs using the scissor lift. But Max's team had no problem with it and the ceiling dry walled in two days. I often found myself watching them work. It was amazing how they could get a screw from their pouch into the panel in less than 5 seconds. Next up was Mark, the tapper and mudder. Mark liked starting early so I had to be on site at 530 to make sure the heater was working (it was on its last legs and had to be restarted constantly). Mark didn't talk much but he did a lot of taping. By the time I left for March break, Ivan's team had the entire place boarded, tapped and mudded.  

When I started planning, I found inspiration in the recently built Dalmunach distillery in Scotland. I loved the window wall and wanted to my "modern barn" to have one. Paul told me that I needed to find a curtain wall supplier so I starting calling around. I came across a company called Albion Glass and made an appointment for Paul and I to discuss the project with them. We were greeted by Tony, a gregarious Italian who owned the company. It wasn't long until Tony was serving us his home made grappa and showing us the figs growing in his office. Despite the curtain wall being really expensive, I put down a deposit with Tony without hesitation. I had originally planned that the curtain wall be installed in December but production delays pushed things back. I was thrilled when I got the call from Albion that the steel mullions and glass were ready for delivery. Tony's son, Brandon, came out to survey the site. He said the hardest part will be getting the distillery curtain wall mullions up since they weight a ton. Brandon and his crew started installing the frames in the retail area and office. I was amazed how quickly that went together. Things got bogged down when installing the mullions for the main wall. They had to make sure each one was perfectly aligned or the giant glass panels wouldn't fit. It took them over a week to install the mullions. But the wait was worth it. With the mullions in place, all the glass went up in a day. The result was better than I could imagine.   [gallery ids="412,413,414" type="rectangular"]

Neal and I took the insulation from the temporary wall and started filling the 2X6 walls with Roxul bat insulation. I'm happy I went with Roxul stone wool insulation. Not only is it fireproof, it doesn't itch when you touch it. It literal took a mountain of insulation to fill all the walls. To insulate the flat ceiling of the office/retail space, I went with spray foam insulation. I decided to go with 6 inces of insulation to match the R36 insulation value of the SIPs in the distillery space. The spray foam team arrived in a truck filled with vats of insulation that looked like something from Breaking Bad. One hotly debated issue was how to vapor barrier the SIPs. Normally, a sheet of plastic is put on the warm side of the roof to prevent moisture from getting into the insulation cavity. But SIPs are made up of a sandwich of OSB (oriented strand board) and rigid insulation. Since OSB is a vapor barrier, Paul worried that putting plastic over it could trap moisture between the two vapor barriers. I asked my building inspector, Michael, for his opinion. He agreed that OSB can be a vapor barrier provided that the joints are properly sealed. He suggested I use a high performance European tape to seal the joints and gave me the name of a supplier who might have some. Paul agreed with Michael's suggestion, so I sent Neal to Herrmann Timberframe to get some. I wish I got to make the trip because Neal said that it was quite the place. Andreas, the owner, immigrated from Switzerland in the 1990s and started building timber frame homes in Ontario. He saw an opportunity to bring Swiss and German construction products to Canada. Neal purchased his SIGA tape to seal the SIP joints of the distillery roof. It took Neal and I a whole weekend to tape all the joints but I feel the effort is worth it. The only time SIP panels have failed is when vapor entered the joints and condensed causing the OSB to rot. By sealing all the joints, I won't have this problem.

After buying our still, my dad started looking for a transformer to provide American 3-phase power to its control panel. He found an electrician selling one on Kijiji and told him about the distillery project. Sean told my dad to get in touch when we were ready for an electrician and we did just that. Sean took Ian's electrical plan, made a few adjustments and got to work. His son, Ryan, who is doing his apprenticeship with Sean joined him on the project. I wanted to keep the electrical wires concealed so Sean ran conduits from the mechanical room to different locations in the distillery before the slab was poured. After the pour, Sean returned to install the myriad of electrical boxes for the 3-phase and standard circuits. While Sean was working inside, Merv and his crew were digging a trench to the new electrical pole Jody and his team installed a few weeks ago (the old pole couldn't accommodate the weight of 3-phase power cables). Merv's huge digger had no problem getting through the earth and he had the trench dug in two days. The road cut was more challenging since the frost had penetrated down to the bedrock but after a day of hoe ramming, the path was clear. Since I had the road open, Merv recommended I install some extra conduits. So he ended up putting in four 3" conduits for electrical and two 4" conduits for Bell. The conduits across the road had to be encased in concrete to prevent the wires from being damaged by frost. Sean connected Merv's conduit to his pipe going to the mechanical room. I now have a pipe from my new electrical pole to the building.

Despite his religious aversion to alcohol, my friend Todd agreed to roof the distillery (he also did the roof at my house 12 years ago). Todd is such a good roofer that he was able to retire early and now mostly manages projects. Paul specified corrugated metal for the distillery. I like the modern look of corrugated and wanted to run it horizontally on the roof. Todd had never done it that way but didn't see any problems doing so. He was able to order panels that can span the length of the roof in two sheets. This reduces the number of seams and gives a cleaner look. It took a special flatbed truck to deliver the extra long panels. Todd's partner, Omark, who he calls "God's gift to roofing", was assigned to my roof. Omark is a mercurial character who's very picky with whom he works with. This pickiness resulted in him setting out to put the panels on the roof by himself. A seemingly impossible task but he slowly chipped away at it. Using an ingenious pulley system, he started putting the panels in to place The Rube Goldberg of roofing. Omark did have occasionally have a helper. His name was Brian and he wore a toque that I thought made him look like a gnome. After his second day helping Omark, Todd called me to say that Brian passed away in a car crash. While driving to work that day, I heard a CBC report about Brian on the radio. He was a renown sculpture who was responsible for many of the beautiful snow sculptures at Winterlude. I wish I got to spend more time with such a talented and kind person. You can read more about Brian in this CBC report. While Omark was putting up panels, we discovered Almonte is one of the windiest places in Ontario. The wind was so strong, that it lifted the 50' corrugated panels waiting to be installed. I got a call from my neighbor Matt telling me that panels were blowing into his yard. A couple of Merv's team were on site and they tried to stand on the panels to keep them down but were blown right off. Omark quickly arrived on site and secured the panels with large straps. Seven panels were damaged and had to be replaced. A lesson learned. The wind in Almonte is strong.

Despite the cold, the team pushed on to get ready to pour the slab. I originally wanted polished concrete floors at my house but ended up hiring a bunch of clowns that did such a bad job, I had to cover the concrete with slate. I didn't want to repeat that mistake so I hired Duron, the best in the business. Andreas, the project manager responsible for my slab, gave us the following tips for a winter pour: We had to build heated canopies at the front entrance and garage door to prevent the concrete from freezing. Neal did an amazing job tenting the area with our thermal blankets. We had to rent an indirect fired heater rather than the salamanders that are usually used for construction heat. Apparently, CO2 will interact with the surface of the curing concrete and make it brittle. We put 2 inches of rigid insulation down to insulate the slab. Rob attached his hydronic heating tubes to the insulation with staples. The ICF and rigid insulation creates a bathtub of insulation that will retain the slab's heat. Andreas insisted that we brace the rebar with bricks rather than the usual plastic chairs. For the distillery slab, Jason specified two layers of 10mm rebar in a grid pattern at 16-inch spacing. A crazy amount of rebar for an 8-inch slab. I can park an Abrams tank on it! I had to make several trips to the Home Depot to dig out bricks from their frozen yard. Perry completed the spill containment tank by pouring its floor and putting in temporary framing to support the slab above the tank. Once cured, the slab will become the ceiling of the tank. Merv was concerned that the frost in the compacted gravel will crack the slab as it thaws. I called my geotech engineer, Dan Morey, and he said that the volume of compacted gravel barely changes when frozen. So I'm good to poor. Pour day fell on Sonya's birthday. I had to leave the house at 5AM so I didn't get to wish her happy birthday. When I got to the site, I cranked up the heater and waited for the crew to arrive. And did they ever arrive! By 8AM there were 15 guys with Andreas preparing for the concrete trucks to arrive. Andreas complained about the amount of light in the building. I got some construction lights from Levi's but they still weren't happy. So I went to Home Depot and got some massive LED lights on stands. No more complaints after I lit those up. The pumper setup and the concrete trucks started to roll in. Each member of the team knew their role and the pour proceeded like clockwork. By noon all 75 meters of concrete was placed. The original crew was replaced by the concrete finishers who worked till midnight troweling the concrete. Before they left, they cut relief joints to prevent uncontrolled cracking. I finished the day at the Heirloom cafe for Sonya's birthday dinner. Who could ask for a better birthday present than a concrete slab.